Why is establishing the date of the Theran eruption so important for the chronology and archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age?
GRACE CANELLE-DANCE
Why is establishing the date of the Theran eruption so important for the chronology and archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age?
IN YOUR ANSWER YOU COULD CONSIDER:
- Traditional methods of dating
- Scientific methods of dating
- How these methods affect estimates of the eruption
- Why establishing the correct date is crucial.
(45 marks)
The Bronze Age eruption of Thera near mainland Greece would have devastated ancient civilisations in the region. Ash would likely have plunged much of the Mediterranean into darkness, and tsunami would have wrecked local ports. The tsunami was so colossal that it also devastated the north coast of Crete which was 68 miles away of Thera (modern day Santorini). A survey around what is now the island arc of Thera shows volcanic pumice to a depth of 80m covering the ocean floor for 20-30km in all directions.
However, there is much dispute to when the eruption actually happened due to the two dating systems
Although it would seem easy to maintain that the radiocarbon results are derived from "hard science," and thus should take precedence over all the protests of the archaeologists, it remains a matter of practical observation that virtually no one has been able to apply this principle to the history of the ancient Near East. To illustrate this, it is only necessary to examine the dates given to Egypt's New Kingdom (Dynasties 18 through 20) in any current reference work, either book-bound or in one of the online encyclopaedias. Here there is no question: the approximately 150 year adjustment required by the physicists is usually not even mentioned; the conventional archaeological dates hold complete sway. Although it might be tempting to try to move Tuthmosis III 150 years earlier, so that his dates coincided with the Theran eruption (as demonstrated above), to move this one pharaoh that amount of time would require moving both his predecessor and successor by the same amount of time. The ripple effect would go on throughout Egyptian history. No one has been able to make such a move and at the same time construct a coherent history of Egypt and its surrounding nations, including the disruptions this would cause in the later links between Egypt and Assyria. So the failure of any encyclopedia to include the adjustment required by the physicists is itself a testimony in favor of the Egyptologists' position and against the proposition that Egyptian chronology must be moved back in time, for the New Kingdom, by some 150 years.