Pottery is cool.
"Even when, during the respective Thera Conferences, individual scientists had pointed out that the magnitude and significance of the Thera eruption must be estimated as less than previously thought, the conferences acted to strengthen the original hypothesis. The individual experts believed that the arguments advanced by their colleagues were sound, and that the facts of a natural catastrophe were not in doubt... All three factors reflect a fantasy world rather than cool detachment, which is why it so difficult to refute the theory with rational arguments." -- Eberhard Zangger, "The Future of the Past: Archaeology in the 21st Century", pp 49-50.
Pottery is cool.
Side note. Interestingly enough they just found out the date of the eruption of Vesuvius is incorrect, only by the month though.
Hoping to sail there one day.
I’ll send pictures.
Interesting.
The article doesn’t state what the dating method was. The usual dating methods are estimates and not precise. I’m not sure they have the resolution to change the estimated date by the relatively small amount of several decades.
I’ve been to Santorini 3 times and it’s truly worth the visit. One can read Charle’s Pellegrino’s “Unearthing Atlantis” to get more background on Santorini and the volcanic explosion.
Assuming the dating of the olive tree fragment on the top of a hill above the caldera is correct, all it proves is that the tree may have survived beyond the generally accepted date of the eruption. By the way, the generally accepted date are supported by more than one artifact.
we know that olive trees are exceptionally hardy and live for a long time. Now if this artifact proved itself to antedate the accepted timeline via testing, that would perhaps move the date of the eruption back a few decades or more, but relying on one artifact for anything is unreliable in my opinion.