Interestingly enough, Manning cites Lesson 17: Akrotiri on Thera which, while it toes the line regarding the current dating fictions, also notes that:Bronze Age Myths?A first rule of statistics is that the existence of a correlation does not itself prove a causal connection... This paper examines some of the available evidence for these two Bronze Age 'catastrophes', the one real and in need of a calendar date, the other hypothesized on archaeological grounds and dated by a tenuous link through tree rings to an Icelandic volcano... Despite several cautionary comments from both archaeologists (Manning 1988; Warren 1988) and geologists (Pyle 1989; 1990), the 1628 BC date, or one close to it, continues to be accepted (e.g. Michael and Betancourt 1988), without questioning why the effects of the Santorini eruption should be especially recognizable in the ice-core and tree-ring sequences. Large-scale explosive volcanic activity is common on a global scale (Zielinski et al. 1996), and so before accepting the possibility that the Santorini eruption can be recognized by unusual perturbations in the regional records of ice-cores or tree-rings, the case for its distinctive character must be proved.
Volcanic Activity and Human Response
in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic Region
Paul C. Buckland
Andrew J. Dugmore
Kevin J. Edwards
Antiquity Vol. 71 (1997), pp. 581-593.The Thera (Santorini) Volcanic Eruption and...It is argued that the key Late Minoan IA period, the high point of the Minoan civilisation, was not, as conventionally held, contemporary (even in part) with the New Kingdom (18th Dynasty) of Egypt, nor the Late Bronze 1 phase of the Levant. Instead, the Late Minoan IA period in the Aegean is linked with the late Middle Bronze Age of Syria-Palestine, the Second Intermediate (Hyksos) Period of Egypt, and the Late Cypriot IA period of Cyprus. This is an important realignment of cultural synchronisations. The high point of Crete should be considered in terms of the dominant Canaanite trading system of the late Middle Bronze Age, and not New Kingdom Egypt...
the Absolute Chronology of the Aegean Bronze Age
by Sturt W. Manning
Appendix 2: Why the standard chronologies are approximately correct, and why radical re-datings are therefore incorrect.
"More recently, the vulcanologists have claimed that the Santorini caldera formed quite gradually and that a tidal wave, if indeed there was one at all, would not have been on anything like the scale envisaged by Marinatos and other proponents of the link between the Theran volcano and the sudden decline of Neopalatial Crete."Gotta go for now.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Santorini caldera formed quite gradually and that a tidal wave, if indeed there was one at all, would not have been on anything like the scale envisaged by Marinatos and other proponents of the link between the Theran volcano and the sudden decline of Neopalatial Crete."
Really? That is going to send us all back to the drawing board.
[b-hebrew] Ark of the Covenant...according to Sturt Manning, an expert on the matter, personal information to me, the Tel ed Daba pumice proves chemicaly not to be of Theran provenance, so it has no sense lowering the date of the Theran eruption.
Michael Banyai Banyai
Fri Aug 20 15:04:00 EDT 2004
The Theran eruption remains thus still cca. 1618 BC, and has nothing to do with the 18th dynasty.
The pumice came from the Kos volcano. Imagine that. Doesn't it seem likely that someone would have got that right in the first place, if they hadn't been saddling on every little thing as proof of a mega-eruption?The Thera (Santorini) Volcanic EruptionPumice at Tell el-Dab'a. Some pumice from the Minoan eruption of the Thera volcano has been found in an early New Kingdom (18th Dynasty) at Tell el-Dab'a, and not before. Thus Warren suggests (as has been suggested in several publications by Bietak and Warren from 1994-1998) that the eruption probably occurred about the same time... The pumice could either have been lying on the seashore for a long time before collection, or could come from post-eruption collection of pumice in the Aegean and subsequent trade to Egypt. It is certainly not necessary to regard the pumice as at all contemporary with the eruption... This scenario of potentially significantly later, post-eruption, use of the Theran pumice at Tell el-Dab'a finds some support in a recent scientific examination by Max Bichler et al. They report on the analysis of three pumice samples from Tell el-Dab'a. They found that only two of the three pumice samples analysed from Tell el-Dab'a came from the Minoan eruption of Thera. The third sample, in contrast, comes from another eruption. This third sample (Tell el-Dab'a3) is very similar to pumice found at Antalya, Turkey, and on the Greek island of Chios... This finding thus challenges the a priori assumption of special, contemporaneous, and unique use of Thera pumice and the idea that its use at Tell el-Dab'a can be seen as a chronological marker... Second, if one looks for another suitable, roughly contemporary, and chemically consistent, volcanic source, then one might speculate that a likely source of the pumice in the Tell el-Dab'a3, Antalya, and Chios, samples in the study of Bichler et al. could well be the Yiali (Nissyros) volcano in the east Aegean... POSTSCRIPT JANUARY 2000. The Tell el-Dab'a3 samples have now been identified as related to the Kos volcano (Peltz et al. 1999). The general argument about use of differing pumices of differing ages remains valid, nonetheless.
and the Absolute Chronology
of the Aegean Bronze Age
by Sturt Manning
Bietak, Manfred (2004),
"Review: Sturt W. Manning--A Test of Time (Oxbow, 1999)",
Bibliotheca Orientalis 61: 199-222.
http://www.informath.org/BiOr04i.pdf
saw this at:
http://www.glyphdoctors.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=662