The intensity of Earth's magnetic field varies over timescales ranging from years to millennia. A precise reconstruction of ancient field intensity (paleointensity) variations is critical for understanding the geodynamo mechanism in Earth's core, investigating the influence of the geomagnetic field on atmospheric electrical property and cosmogenic isotopes production, and advancing archaeomagnetic dating techniques. For most of the Holocene, well-dated archaeological pottery is one of the most important paleointensity source materials. However, the reliability of paleointensity methods is sometimes questioned due to a lack of standardization in laboratory protocols, selection criteria, and metrics for evaluating measurement errors. These lead to discrepancies in data interpretation and pose challenges for experiment validation.
Here, we present a study that tests the reliability, accuracy, and precision of the paleointensity method on pottery. We produced 30 pottery vessels using traditional techniques with six geological clay sources collected from various locations across Israel. The vessels were fired in two custom-built kilns after measuring the ambient magnetic field within them. Our paleointensity measurements revealed strong agreement with predicted field intensity values, with 28 samples falling within the expected error margins. While the averaged pre-experimental geomagnetic field intensity was 44.4 ± 0.1 μT, the experimental results yielded a mean of 44.4 ± 2.4 μT for all pottery samples. These findings confirm the accuracy and reliability of the measurement method and support the validity of the archaeomagnetic experimental approach. We demonstrate the application of the paleointensity method for constructing a new geomagnetic field intensity curve for the Levant during the Holocene.