This is something I have hinted at to people for a while now, but couldnt go into too much detail at the time. So a couple of days ago, a paper publishing data that I had seen presented last year at a radiocarbon workshop was finally published (after a gruelling peer review session).

Free access to the paper in html and pdf here [advances.sciencemag.org]

The synopsis of the paper is this. New single year radiocarbon measurements on bristlecone pine and irish oak tree rings between around 1660 and 1500 BC suggest that there is an error in the current radiocarbon calibration curves. The error is such that the curves radiocarbon ages are too young by around 30-40 years between 1660-1500 BC. What this effectively means is that when one calibrates a radiocarbon date for this portion of the curve, one will obtain a calendar date that is too old. If the new measurements are correct, and the error is real, then any current published dates using this portion of teh curve will need to move to younger ages.

This has a direct implication for the dating of Thera, which has been previously been radiocarbon dated to the late 17th century BC, which is at odds with the mid 16th century BC date preferred by the archaeological community based.

This also aligns well with our recent paper (McAneney and Baillie, currently in press in the journal Antiquity), in which we have redated Greenland ice cores back to 2000 BC (based upon synchronisms between volcanic horizons in ice cores and proxies in tree ring chronologies), in which we find weak corroborating evidence that Thera erupted within the late 17th century BC radiocarbon dates. Indeed, we effectively show that the environmental and climatic event observed in tree ring chronologies beginning around 1628/27 BC, which has been associated with Thera since 1984, is likely due to another volcano altogether. More on this of course when our paper hits the press.

Exciting times for bronze age research.

Jonny

The path to good scholarship is paved with imagined patterns. - David M Raup



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2018 07:51AM by JonnyMcA.