{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T04:34:50Z","timestamp":1790138090821,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"National Academy of Sciences","issue":"36","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788393600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001742","name":"United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2022139"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022139"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001742","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"NSFGEO-NERC","award":["2245628"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2245628"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.pnas.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Museums and public collections often contain archaeological clay artifacts of unknown origin. Such artifacts, if proven to be authentic, may contribute significantly to our understanding of ancient societies. However, the authenticity of these artifacts is usually highly debated, resulting in their being disregarded in historical interpretations. Several laboratory methods have been developed in order to authenticate such objects but none have been proven infallible. Here we present a method for distinguishing between authentic and fake clay artifacts by considering the Viscous Remanent Magnetization (VRM) acquired by the artifacts. Clay objects tend to acquire a strong magnetic signal termed Thermal Remanent Magnetization (TRM) upon heating and cooling in kilns during their manufacturing process. After being removed from the orientation in which their TRM was acquired, these objects were exposed to an ambient geomagnetic field in a different direction. Over archaeological time scales, this results in the acquisition of a significant VRM. We propose a laboratory protocol for identifying this ancient VRM. We validated the protocol using micromagnetic modeling of single domain particles and by laboratory experiments carried out on 19 ancient and 26 modern objects, made from different types of clay and fired using different firing techniques. Both the experiments and the simulations indicate that the existence of a significant VRM component removed at temperatures higher than a cutoff temperature of\n                    <jats:inline-formula>\n                      <mml:math xmlns:mml=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\" display=\"inline\" overflow=\"scroll\">\n                        <mml:mrow>\n                          <mml:mn>112<\/mml:mn>\n                          <mml:msup>\n                            <mml:mspace width=\"3.33333pt\"\/>\n                            <mml:mo>\u00b0<\/mml:mo>\n                          <\/mml:msup>\n                        <\/mml:mrow>\n                      <\/mml:math>\n                    <\/jats:inline-formula>\n                    C is indicative of ancient objects while its removal at lower temperatures is indicative of modern objects. We successfully applied this method to objects of debated authenticity.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2620397123","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T17:36:55Z","timestamp":1788457015000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Viscous remanent magnetization authentication method for archaeological artifacts"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"123","author":[{"given":"Yoav","family":"Vaknin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/0168r3w48","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Geosciences Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego","place":["La Jolla"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Brendan","family":"Cych","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04xs57h96","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool","place":["Liverpool, United Kingdom"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jeffrey S.","family":"Gee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/0168r3w48","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Geosciences Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego","place":["La Jolla"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4837-8200","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lisa","family":"Tauxe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/0168r3w48","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Geosciences Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego","place":["La Jolla"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"341","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_4_1_2","first-page":"147","article-title":"Dating by thermoluminescence","volume":"13","author":"Kennedy G. C.","year":"1960","unstructured":"G. C. Kennedy, Dating by thermoluminescence. Archaeology 13, 147\u2013148 (1960).","journal-title":"Archaeology"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_2_2","unstructured":"M. J. Aitken Thermoluminescence Dating\/M. J. Aitken (Studies in archaeological science Academic Press London 1985)."},{"key":"e_1_3_4_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00107514.2010.495250"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/cryst15060503"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0003598X00058208"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_6_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0003598X00103485"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_7_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0003598X00070290"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_8_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5615\/bullamerschoorie.372.0147"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_9_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/03344355.2023.2246817"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_10_2","unstructured":"R. Deutsch A. Lemaire G. Barkay P. Gert van der Veen D. Itzhak \u201cThe bulla of \u201cShema servant of Jeroboam\u201d an embarassing forgery\u201d in Gabriel Tell This Man the Meaning of His Vision (Daniel 8:16): Studies in Archaeology Epigraphy Iconography and the Biblical World in Honor of Gabriel Barkay on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday (22 June 2024) R. Deutsch A. Lemaire Eds. (Archaeological Center Publications 2024) pp. 136\u2013149."},{"key":"e_1_3_4_11_2","unstructured":"State of Israel v. Oded Golan and Robert Deutsch Criminal Case 482\/04 Delivered by Judge Aharon Farkash in the Jerusalem District Court on March 14 2012."},{"key":"e_1_3_4_12_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/gji\/ggaf149"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_13_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/gji\/ggag090"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_14_2","first-page":"5","article-title":"Sur le variations seculaires de l\u2019inclinaison magnetique dans antiquite","volume":"8","author":"Folgerhaiter G.","year":"1899","unstructured":"G. Folgerhaiter, Sur le variations seculaires de l\u2019inclinaison magnetique dans antiquite. J. Phys. 8, 5\u201316 (1899).","journal-title":"J. Phys."},{"key":"e_1_3_4_15_2","first-page":"99","article-title":"Th\u00e9orie du tra\u00eenage magn\u00e9tique des ferromagn\u00e9tiques en grains fins avec applications aux terres cuites","volume":"5","author":"N\u00e9el L.","year":"1949","unstructured":"L. N\u00e9el, Th\u00e9orie du tra\u00eenage magn\u00e9tique des ferromagn\u00e9tiques en grains fins avec applications aux terres cuites. Ann. Geophys. 5, 99\u2013136 (1949).","journal-title":"Ann. Geophys."},{"key":"e_1_3_4_16_2","first-page":"664","article-title":"Influence des fluctuations thermiques sur l\u2019aimantation de grains ferromagn\u00e9tiques tr\u00e8s fins","volume":"228","author":"N\u00e9el L.","year":"1949","unstructured":"L. N\u00e9el, Influence des fluctuations thermiques sur l\u2019aimantation de grains ferromagn\u00e9tiques tr\u00e8s fins. Compt. R. Hebd. Seances Acad. 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Demagnetization of Rocks: Analysis of Results, Methods in Paleomagnetism (Chapman and Hall, 1967)."},{"key":"e_1_3_4_47_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2209117119"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_48_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1130\/G35366.1"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_49_2","unstructured":"Y. Vaknin B. Cych J. S. Gee L. Tauxe Viscous remanent magnetization (VRM) authentication method for archaeological artifacts. Magnetics Information Consortium (MaGIC). https:\/\/earthref.org\/MagIC\/20694. Deposited 27 July 2026."},{"key":"e_1_3_4_50_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/2016GC006307"}],"container-title":["Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/pnas.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1073\/pnas.2620397123","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T17:37:08Z","timestamp":1788457028000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2620397123"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]]},"references-count":50,"journal-issue":{"issue":"36","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1073\/pnas.2620397123"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2620397123","relation":{},"ISSN":["0027-8424","1091-6490"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0027-8424","type":"print"},{"value":"1091-6490","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2026-06-18","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2026-07-31","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2026-09-03","order":3,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}],"article-number":"e2620397123"}}