Thus, radiocarbon dates need to be calibrated against independent measurements, primarily from chunks of ancient wood. A second revolution came when scientists realized atmospheric carbon 14 levels vary over time as the result of fluctuations in solar activity-and, more recently, atomic bombs and fossil-fuel burning. Discovered in the late 1940s, radiocarbon dating transformed the study of prehistory and became the gold standard for establishing chronologies in archaeology. This means that shells, bone, charcoal and other organic materials that archaeologists find contain a chemical timestamp. “A lot of people are excited about this new curve because it is going to give us the opportunity to sharpen our chronologies and understand more about the way the earth works and the way the earth has changed through time.”Īll living things absorb carbon 14, a radioactive carbon isotope that decays at a regular rate over time. “It's a really massive increase in the data set, and with each revision our ability to confidently date the past improves,” says Thomas Higham, a radiocarbon-dating specialist at the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the calibration effort. Called IntCal20, it draws from nearly twice the data of the previous curve, from 2013-and may prompt scientists to reevaluate the age of sites, artifacts and events around the world. This much anticipated new calibration curve, a set of data points used to convert radiocarbon-dating results into calendar years, is highlighted in a special August issue of Radiocarbon. It is also a major area of controversy in archaeology researchers have argued for decades over the date of this cataclysm.Īlthough it does not settle the debate, a recent adjustment to the radiocarbon-dating process narrows down the possibilities.
The eruption was one of the most powerful volcanic explosions of the past 10,000 years and a crucial time point of the Mediterranean Bronze Age. In the 1960s archaeologists on Santorini uncovered a Minoan settlement frozen in time, with vibrant wall frescoes decorating multistory houses, all buried by volcanic debris. Ash and pumice rained across the Mediterranean, and tsunami waves rolled onto faraway shores in Crete.
More than 3,500 years ago a catastrophic volcanic eruption struck ancient Thera, known today as the Greek island of Santorini.
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