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Dating the Thera (Santorini) eruption: archaeological and scientific evidence supporting a high chronology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2015

Sturt W. Manning ,
Felix Höflmayer ,
Nadine Moeller ,
Michael W. Dee ,
Christopher Bronk Ramsey ,
Dominik Fleitmann ,
Thomas Higham ,
Walter Kutschera  and
Eva Maria Wild
Sturt W. Manning
Affiliation:
Department of Classics and Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, Cornell University, Goldwin Smith Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-3201, USA (Email: sm456@cornell.edu)
Felix Höflmayer
Affiliation:
The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 1155 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Nadine Moeller
Affiliation:
The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 1155 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Michael W. Dee
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
Dominik Fleitmann
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 227, Reading RG6 6AB, UK
Thomas Higham
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
Walter Kutschera
Affiliation:
Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) Laboratory, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Währinger Strasse 17, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
Eva Maria Wild
Affiliation:
Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) Laboratory, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Währinger Strasse 17, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
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Abstract

The date of the Late Bronze Age Minoan eruption of the Thera volcano has provoked much debate among archaeologists, not least in a recent issue of Antiquity (‘Bronze Age catastrophe and modern controversy: dating the Santorini eruption’, March 2014). Here, the authors respond to those recent contributions, citing evidence that closes the gap between the conclusions offered by previous typological, stratigraphic and radiometric dating techniques. They reject the need to choose between alternative approaches to the problem and make a case for the synchronisation of eastern Mediterranean and Egyptian chronologies with agreement on a ‘high’ date in the late seventeenth century BC for the Thera eruption.

Keywords

SantoriniTheraLate Bronze AgeMinoan eruptionradiocarbon datingchronology
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 342 , December 2014 , pp. 1164 - 1179
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014

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