Abstract

Red colored paintings contain small amount of antiferromagnetic hematite grains. When the red pigment is applied to the wall, these grains are free to move and they align their magnetic moment with the Earth’s magnetic field. The resulted magnetization is called pictorial remanence. Here, we evaluate the usefulness of natural remanent magnetization carried by mural paintings in archaeomagnetism in order to try to estimate whether it may be used as a reliable dating tool. Moreover, we report a first ever attempt to analize samples of cave paintngs.