Oriented samples have been collected from several fired structures, mostly kilns, in southern Italy. Ages, where they are known, range from 550 BC to 520 AD. The intent is to extend the well-known British and French declination and inclination curves which cover the last two millennia. Most of the kilns yield high-quality magnetic data, though two cremation sites possess scattered directions of remanence. The acceptable results define a secular variation curve which has the same form as that obtained from British lake sediments but with an extremum that is more westerly and occurs some three centuries earlier. The authors argue that the lake time scale needs appropriate revision. The magnetic data allow some constraints to be placed on previously undated features, but with mixed success.