Another Suite of Confusing Radiocarbon Dates for the Destruction of Akrotiri -- An extensive series of radiocarbon dates obtained on seeds from the West House in Akrotiri has not provided a definitive age for the last occupation of this site. Seventy separate AMS determinations on forty seeds show the same wide scatter as did the original measurements, and various interpretations are possible.
The Chronology of the LM I Destruction Horizons in Thera and Crete -- Recent attempts to separate the Thera eruption from the LM IB destructions in Crete by as much as 50 years encounter two major difficulties: (1) Pottery and frescoes from Akrotiri show some LM IB features; (2) The presence of Theran tephra in buildings in Crete indicates a causal connection with the eruption.
The Earliest History of Akrotiri: The Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Phases -- After recent thorough investigation of the copious amounts of pottery sherds from the Akrotiri excavation, the indications of human activity at the site since at least the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, or even the very beginning of the Early Cycladic II period, occasionally mentioned by the excavators Marinatos and Doumas and by other scholars, have turned out to be a considerable and indisputable body of evidence proving the continuous occupation of the site not only throughout the Early Bronze Age of the Cyclades but even earlier, from the Aegean Late Neolithic period, that is around the middle of the 5th millennium BC, and thus extending the life of Akrotiri more than a millennium backwards.
The Eruption of Thera: Date and Implications -- A number of recent archaeological and scientific papers have proposed a 'high', 17th century BC date for the eruption of Thera, and hence for the beginning of the Aegean Late Bronze Age.
Theoretical Radiocarbon Discrepancies -- An attempt will be made to reconcile the calibrated radiocarbon dates from Akrotiri with the traditional archaeological chronology of the Aegean Bronze Age, supporting the archaeological date of c. 1550-1500 BC for the LM IA period.
High Chronology or Low Chronology: The Archaeological Evidence -- Three independent methodologies - radiocarbon, an analysis of frost - damaged tree rings, and a determination of acidity layers in polar ice - have argued with varying degrees of conviction for a Theran eruption in the second half of the 17th century BC.
Improbability of a Theran Collapse During the New Kingdom, 1503 - 1447 B.C. -- Two generally accepted collateral hypotheses are keys to the chronology of when the island of Thera collapsed into a caldera: 1. That the tsunamis(seismic sea waves) generated struck most of the Eastern Mediterranean littoral and the islands; 2. The area wide destruction wrought was of such a magnitudethat the catastrophe resulted in wide devastation both seismic and water borne.
On the Late Helladic I of Akrotiri, Thera -- This paper is a brief comment on the imported LH I style pottery that has come to light at the Late Cycladic I settlement of Akrotiri on Thera.
Overview and Assessment of the Evidence for the Date of the Eruption of Thera -- What I propose to do is to survey some of the heterogeneous evidence for the dating of the eruption of Thera and, where possible, give my subjective assessment of the validity of each bit of evidence, both individually and collectively.
Pottery Styles and Chronology -- I wonder whether I can make some contribution to the question of the proposed high date for the explosion of Thera on a quite unscientific level - in fact a very subjective approach. It consists in judging, from many years of studying Late Minoan pottery, how many generations of potters might be responsible for the vases in each stylistic phase.
The Precision of Ice-Core Dating -- A strong volcanic acid signal was found in the ice-core annual layer 1645 BC in the South Greenland deep ice core at Dye 3. The volcanic marking of the ice has been ascribed to the eruption of Thera (Hammer et al. 1987).
Problems of Interpretation of the Akrotiri Radiocarbon Dates -- The recent publication of a new series of radiocarbon dates from the LM IA destruction of Akrotiri, Thera, has focused attention on this time period because of the early nature of the series.
Radiocarbon Dates from the Akrotiri Excavations -- During the last Santorini Congress 'Thera and the Aegean World' in 1978, geologists and archaeologists disagreed with respect to the date of the catastrophic eruption of the volcano of Thera which destroyed the Minoan village of Akrotiri.
Radiocarbon Dates from the Site of Akrotiri, Thera, 1967-1977 -- Discrepancies in the radiocarbon dates from Akrotiri are partly due to the small size of many of the samples, but also perhaps to the effects of gaseous emanations from the volcano. Careful study is needed to resolve the questions.
Radiocarbon Dating by AMS of the Destruction of Akrotiri -- Recently there has been much discussion and argument over the absolute dating of the Aegean Late Bronze Age. The controversy centres round whether the 'traditional' time range (c. 1600-1500 BC) for LM IA should be accepted, or whether the period should be assigned to an earlier age range (c. 1700-1610BC).
A Storm in Egypt during the Reign of Ahmose -- In view of the current controversies that surround the question of the absolute date of the Santorinieruption, Aegean specialists may wish to consider some evidence from Egypt that could bear on thequestion.
Stratified Pumice from Bronze Age Knossos -- Archaeological situation: Whatever the size or impact of the 'Minoan' eruption of Thera, the object of historical enquiry must be to relate this event as closely as possible in time to the course of the Minoan civilization centred on Crete.
The Stratigraphy of Akrotiri -- The stratigraphic evidence shows that Akrotiri was inhabited without a break from the middle of the Early Bronze until its end. In the Late Bronze Age the city was destroyed, probably by earthquakes, and afterwards extensively rebuilt.
Theran Ash in Minoan Crete: New Excavations on Mochlos -- During the summer of 1989 excavations were resumed on the island of Mochlos in eastern Crete under the direction of Costis Davaras of the Archaeological Institute of Crete and Jeffrey S. Soles of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Time for Vulcanologists, Time for Archaeologists -- I am not quite sure it is very convenient to print and circulate the paper I had prepared for the Thera congress, as now it will take a long time before meeting our Colleagues and discussing the points with them. So I feel it is more appropriate just to list the main questions I intended to put forward, and to let these interrogations find their way into the opinion of scientists.
4 posted on 11/01/2009 8:25:58 AM PST by SunkenCiv
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