Science may hold the clue to an ancient riddle

The combination of an international project to enhance carbon dating from archaeological samples, and the remains of an olive tree, may hold part of the clue to resolving an age-old archaeological controversy stemming from the times of ancient Greece.

This new research could answer the argument amongst experts about the age of Bronze Age cultures in the Aegean region – when a major volcanic eruption occurred. For archaeologists, this eruption is a key marker for assessing the civilisations of ancient Greece, Egypt and Cyprus, but has been the subject of debate for decades.

A team headed by Professor Sturt Manning of Cornell University, who is also visiting professor at Reading University, along with colleagues Christopher Bronk Ramsey and Thomas Higham from Oxford University, have used funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to date the period.

Their findings, published in the journal Science today, suggest that the dates of the Aegean cultures may be earlier than previously thought.

Archaeologists have previously used similarities amongst artefacts to date the civilisations, but uncertainty about radiocarbon dating was enough to leave experts debating the dates.

Professor Manning’s team have created one of largest sets of focused radiocarbon data ever. With analysis spanning a 300 year period, it has been possible to suggest new chronology for the Aegean late Bronze Age 1700-1400 BC.

By analysing 127 samples taken from sites in Santorini, Crete, Rhodes and Turkey, they have pointed to the Aegean culture being older than previously suggested – with links to previous Egyptian civilisations – over whose chronology there is less uncertainty.

In an attempt to address some of the questions over radio carbon dating calibration, such as contamination, location, and atmospheric factors, the team used a sophisticated statistical analysis and far wider sample base. The project also used more than one laboratory to further limit the risks of error in setting the carbon dates.

As an example, the team can define the age of charcoal from a very small segment of an oak chair that was buried for more than 3,600 years, to within a date range of 27 years with 95 per cent confidence.

By coincidence a separate investigation by a Danish and German team, headed by Walter Fredrich from the University of Aarhus, also studied the Aegean period. They radio carbon dated the remains of an olive tree excavated from volcanic soil on the island of Santorini. The results strongly corroborate the British team’s work.

The two sets of findings mean a shift of the dates for the Aegean civilisation and its cultures – such as the buried town of Akrotiri on Santorini, the ‘Pompeii’ of the Aegean – by about 100 years earlier.

Professor Manning said: “Our findings also imply that some previously hypothesized dates and associations for the Santorini eruption around 1650 or 1645 BC are now not so likely, and new efforts need to be directed at the ice-core and tree-ring records if a specific date is to be achieved. Together the two studies offer a very solid basis to a re-dating of this period. This has major ramifications for the archaeology, art-history and other records for the region.”

“If the findings are accepted, then the earlier chronology would frame a different context, and a longer era, for the very genesis of Western civilisation. The seventeenth century BC may become a very important period,” he added.

Source: Natural Environment Research Council

Related stories:

DNA reveals sister power in Ancient Greece
University of Manchester researchers have revealed how women, as well as men, held positions of power in ancient Greece by right of birth.
Team IDs ancient cargo from DNA
For the first time, researchers have identified DNA from inside ceramic containers in an ancient shipwreck on the seafloor, making it possible to determine what the ship's cargo was even though there was no visible trace of it.
University of Delaware scientists take underwater robot on Black Sea expedition
Using a novel underwater robot, University of Delaware marine scientists will help reveal the mysteries of the Black Sea's geology and maritime history, including ages-old shipwrecks, during an international expedition that is now underway.
New Evidence Suggests Need to Rewrite Bronze Age History
Separated in history by 100 years, the seafaring Minoans of Crete and the mercantile Canaanites of northern Egypt and the Levant (a large area of the Middle East) at the eastern end of the Mediterranean were never considered trading partners at the start of the Late Bronze Age. Until now.
FSU classics professor exploring a 'lost' city of the Mycenaeans
Along an isolated, rocky stretch of Greek shoreline, a Florida State University researcher and his students are unlocking the secrets of a partially submerged, “lost” harbor town believed to have been built by the ancient Mycenaeans nearly 3,500 years ago.
Food and drink, and what it says about us
What did the Vikings eat for supper? How good were the grocers in Roman Pompeii? What was it like feasting with the Greeks in the second millennium BC? How can this tell us why we like TV dinners today?
Fitness has fallen since the days of Ancient Greece
We may not be as fit as the people of ancient Athens, despite all that modern diet and training can provide, according to research by University of Leeds (UK) exercise physiologist, Dr Harry Rossiter.
Deep-sea robot photographs ancient Greek shipwreck
Sometime in the fourth century B.C., a Greek merchant ship sank off Chios and the Oinoussai islands in the eastern Aegean Sea. The wooden vessel may have succumbed to a storm or a fire, or maybe rough weather caused the cargo of 400 ceramic jars filled with wine and olive oil to shift without warning. The ship went down in 60 meters (about 200 feet) of water, where it remained unnoticed for centuries.

News discussion:

General Science news