Posted on 04/27/2006 4:59:30 PM PDT by Lessismore
During the Late Bronze Age, the Aegean volcanic island of Thera erupted violently, spreading pumice and ash across the eastern Mediterranean and triggering frosts as far away as what is now California. The Theran town of Akrotiri was completely buried. Tsunamis up to 12 meters high crashed onto the shores of Crete, 110 kilometers to the south, and the cataclysm may ultimately have sped the demise of Crete's famed Minoan civilization. For nearly 30 years, archaeologists have fought over when the eruption took place. Those who rely on dates from pottery styles and Egyptian inscriptions put the event at roughly 1500 B.C.E., whereas radiocarbon experts have consistently dated it between 100 and 150 years earlier.
Now, two new radiocarbon studies on pages 548 and 565 claim to provide strong support for the earlier dates. The studies "convincingly solve the problem of the dating of the Thera eruption," says archaeologist Colin Renfrew of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the work. If correct, the earlier dates would have "major consequences" for the relationships between Egypt, Minoan Crete, and Mycenaean Greece, says archaeologist Jeremy Rutter of Dartmouth College: "The issue of which direction artistic and other cultural influences was traveling may change significantly."
But many archaeologists who have long defended the later dates are unmoved. "I am not impressed," says Egyptologist Manfred Bietak of the University of Vienna in Austria, who prefers to rely on detailed Egyptian records for the same period. Archaeologists on both sides agree on one thing: The pottery found at Akrotiri since Greek archaeologists began excavating there during the 1960s has a distinctive style featuring spirals and floral motifs, known as Late Minoan IA (LM IA). The LM IA period also corresponds to what archaeologists consider the height of Minoan civilization. Because pottery was widely traded across the Mediterranean, sites that have pottery styles later than LM IA--such as Late Minoan IB, which features depictions of dolphins, octopi, and other sea creatures--must postdate the eruption. This makes it possible to construct relative chronologies for the region despite the debates over absolute dating.
One team, led by archaeologist Sturt Manning of Cornell University, dated 127 radiocarbon samples from Akrotiri and other Aegean sites thought--based on relative chronologies--to span a period from about 1700 to 1400 B.C.E. Manning and colleagues used a new radiocarbon calibration curve (described last year in the journal Radiocarbon) as well as sophisticated statistical models and cross-checked some samples among three different dating labs. They dated the eruption to between 1660 and 1613 B.C.E., within 95% confidence intervals.
That's a fairly close match to the findings of a second team, led by geologist Walter Friedrich of the University of Aarhus in Denmark. In 2002, Friedrich's graduate student Tom Pfeiffer found an olive branch, complete with remnants of leaves and twigs, that had been buried alive in pumice from the eruption. Radiocarbon dating fixed the death of the branch's outermost ring, and thus the eruption of Thera, between 1627 and 1600 B.C.E., again at 95% confidence levels. The authors of both papers argue that these earlier dates rule out the "conventional" chronology of about 1500 B.C.E.
"That is great news about the olive tree," says dendrochronologist Peter Kuniholm of Cornell, although he cautions that it is more difficult to assign specific years to the rings of a slender olive branch than to more commonly used trees such as conifers and oaks. Archaeologist Gerald Cadogan of the University of Reading, U.K., adds that the dates given by the two papers are "pretty consistent" and that their validity is bolstered because they are "put in context by other dates from before and after from elsewhere in the Aegean."
Manning and colleagues say the early dates suggest that the conventional linkage between Minoan and Egyptian chronologies, which puts the apex of Minoan civilization contemporaneous with Egypt's 16th century B.C.E. New Kingdom, is wrong. The New Kingdom, especially during the rule of Pharaoh Ahmose, was the high point of Egyptian power. Rather, the Minoans would have reached their own heights during the earlier Hyksos period, when the Nile delta was ruled by kings whose ancestors came from the Levant. Rutter says Egyptologists have tended to discount the importance of the Hyksos, whom Ahmose eventually chased out of Egypt: "The Hyksos have gotten lousy press."
This chronological realignment would also mean that the famous gold-laden Mycenaean Shaft Graves--excavated by German entrepreneur Heinrich Schliemann in the late 1800s and known to correlate with the LM IA period as well as the beginnings of Mycenaean power in the Aegean--would also be contemporaneous with the Hyksos. Some archaeologists had speculated that the Mycenaeans owed their rise to a strategic alliance with the New Kingdom; the new radiocarbon dates would instead raise the possibility that they were allied with the Hyksos, Rutter says. At the very least, Manning says, "it would make the Hyksos world much more important and interesting." Manning adds that the earlier chronology would create "a different context for the genesis of Western civilization."
But many proponents of the later chronology are sticking to their guns. The radiocarbon dates create "an offshoot from the historical Egyptian chronology of 120 to 150 years," says Bietak. "Until the reasons for this offshoot are solved, we are chewing away at the same old cud."
Bietak and others have argued that radiocarbon dating is not infallible and that the earlier date for the Thera eruption is contradicted by excavations in Egypt and on Thera itself. He and other archaeologists have found LM IA pottery in stratigraphic layers that Egyptian records date to later periods, and at Akrotiri they have unearthed a style of Cypriot pottery that apparently does not show up until the 16th century B.C.E. in Egypt. "There are no current grounds for thinking that the Egyptian historical chronology could be out by more than a few years," says archaeologist Peter Warren of the University of Bristol, U.K. "This chronology has been constructed by hundreds of expert Egyptologists over many decades."
Nevertheless, Rutter says, the Science authors "have done what they can to overcome" the objections by advocates of a later date for Thera. And both sides agree that there is a lot at stake in the debate. Until it is resolved, Warren says, at least for the Late Bronze Age, "we would have to forget about serious study of the past and relationships between peoples."
I read the implications of the title a little differently. I figured boyfriend Helen could get was a charcoal briquette, hence "New carbon dates."
Time to get more coffee.
I wonder how accurate radiocarbon dating is in a situation involving a volcanic eruption. Perhaps the percentage of radioactive material spewed out impacts the readings in some way, although one would think more radioactive material would result in a younger date.
How does this Hyksos dating correspond to the reconstructed dating by Velikovsky?
Just curious.
Illegal aliens.
I was not suggesting that there was any surface magma event. If there was such a phenomenon it would have been hundreds or perhaps thousands of feet beneath the surface of the earth. The bulge at the Japanese volcano I mentioned raised the earth several hundred feet, and you could still see the trees and the roads in the pictures that accompanied the article. As I said before, I think it was Usu, try looking for it. "Natural" phonemenon do not diminish God, they glorify Him.
Archeological reports that I have encountered several times indicate there was earthquake/volcanic disturbance of a less serious nature than the final cataclysm, which nevertheless was sufficient to encourage the populace of Santorini/Thera to move away before the big one, and occurred about 20 years earlier. I can't remember the specific sources, as I became interested in this subject 6 years ago, and a lot of material has passed before my eyes since then.
Sure they do. Any thing that can explain God out of the picture glorifies him. Right. And I suppose Giving Clinton Credit for Reagan's job would glorify Reagan?
Drug references will get you banned.
Depends on whether the Exodus is attributed to the supposed eruption. Even in that case, it would depend on each claim/author. :')
"Archeological reports that I have encountered several times indicate there was earthquake/volcanic disturbance of a less serious nature than the final cataclysm, which nevertheless was sufficient to encourage the populace of Santorini/Thera to move away before the big one, and occurred about 20 years earlier."I've never heard of that (other than in your posts). The island was apparently abandoned prior to an eruption, as no human remains were found, and (if true) that's likely to have been the result of rumbling and steam and gases in the caldera (which is prehistoric, formed 22,000 years ago, not in the13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, or 17th c BC). In Italy, the Bay of Naples, there was a severe earthquake 17 years prior to the eruption of Vesuvius, the repairs for which were still going on when the famous eruption took place in 79 AD, so perhaps you're thinking of that.
Addenda and Corrections to "The Exodus Chronicles"Recently, in relation to his ongoing excavation at Tell el Daba, which he believes to be the site of ancient Avaris, Manfred Bietak has rescinded his former assertion that the stratum in which Minoan artifacts, decorations and volcanic pumice were discovered belongs to the time of the pharaoh, Ahmose I. Bietak now concludes this stratum can be assigned to the reign of Thutmose III, instead. Bietak also dates the eruption of Thera to ca. 1500 BCE, in light of his new theory, and takes issue with those who place the cataclysmic event to about 130 years earlier. In brief, Bietak now wishes to eliminate any chronological problems connected with his newer theory. Even if he is correct and there was no volcanic blast in the Aegean at the time of King Ahmose, there still remains the unaccountably bad weather and flooding during his reign, as recorded by himself.
by Marianne Luban
And then there is the interesting premise of the Thera volcano devastation while a "Tethmosis" was pharaoh, two disasters having then occurred within a half century--or less.Helmi, EzbetFormerly called Tell el-Qirqafa. Amsterdam University survey of 1984 noted the presence of a quartzite block in the village, measuring 100 x (75+) x 17cm, pierced by a central square shaft. This site was probably the location of the Djadu of the 12th dynasty, found by Labib Habachi. Now the site is the focus of a major excavation by the Austrian Institute, working under cultivated fields some 800 metres west of their excavations at Tell ed-Daba. Major discoveries include Minoan wall paintings, an Eighteenth Dynasty palace, a Hyksos palace and water-supply system.
A volcanic eruption produces very, very little C14, it is enriched in C12 compared with living sources; so the volcano skews dates older, even in living things (or formerly living things, such as the old olive tree found buried by an eruption, but formerly growing in volcanic soil).
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1622847/posts?page=26#26
So this could have skewered the readings in this case?
to which you answered: Drug references will get you banned
Since you didn't "smile", I assume you are serious. Geezum - Sorry - I'm a great-grandmother - and a 'cokaholic" like in Coca Cola - so I don't think in your vernacular.
Want one of my "chill pills?" - Made from "weed"? That would Valerian - grows in the fields - stinks like gym socks, but is a natural antidepressant.
Will that also get me banned?
My guess - Mesozoic.
divine intervention or not, some of us are interested in the nuts and bolts of HOW things get done rather than simply stopping all thought as soon as divine intervention is claimed. WHY did the red sea part - did god alter gravity locally to move water or was there a geological event (divine or not) which caused the area to drain?
if humans were created by divinity then you would assume if we weren't supposed to use our heads and wonder about these things the programmer would have not included this ability, unless of course it was expected that some of his minions on earth would actively work to suppress such tendencies in others.
Yes, and not just in this case. :')
I just love revised history. It's the best kind.
"The eruption took place long after Herodotus wrote about the island."
Actually, concerning the date proposed for the eruption as 1628 BC +-, and the life of Herodotus being 450 BC +-, this would mean that the eruption took place long BEFORE Herodotus wrote about the island. In fact almost 1,200 years before, which means Herodotus might not even have been aware of the event it was so much earlier than his time. There is much interesting information, photos and artwork shown at serches for Akrotiri/Santorini/Thera, that covers some of the controversy, as well as the many beautiful traces that were buried by the earthquake, and later eruption.
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