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Maczkowski A, Pearson C, Francuz J, Giagkoulis T, Szidat S, Wacker L, Bolliger M, Kotsakis K, Hafner A. Absolute dating of the European Neolithic using the 5259 BC rapid 14C excursion. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4263. [PMID: 38769301 PMCID: PMC11106086 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48402-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2023] [Accepted: 04/30/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Abrupt radiocarbon (14C) excursions, or Miyake events, in sequences of radiocarbon measurements from calendar-dated tree-rings provide opportunities to assign absolute calendar dates to undated wood samples from contexts across history and prehistory. Here, we report a tree-ring and 14C-dating study of the Neolithic site of Dispilio, Northern Greece, a waterlogged archaeological site on Lake Kastoria. Findings secure an absolute, calendar-dated time using the 5259 BC Miyake event, with the final ring of the 303-year-long juniper tree-ring chronology dating to 5140 BC. While other sites have been absolutely dated to a calendar year through 14C-signature Miyake events, Dispilio is the first European Neolithic site of these and it provides a fixed, calendar-year anchor point for regional chronologies of the Neolithic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrej Maczkowski
- Institute of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
| | - Charlotte Pearson
- Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
| | - John Francuz
- Institute of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Tryfon Giagkoulis
- School of History and Archaeology, University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Sönke Szidat
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Lukas Wacker
- Laboratory for Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Matthias Bolliger
- Institute of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Laboratory for Dendrochronology, Archaeological Service of Canton of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Kostas Kotsakis
- School of History and Archaeology, University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Albert Hafner
- Institute of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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Severe multi-year drought coincident with Hittite collapse around 1198-1196 BC. Nature 2023; 614:719-724. [PMID: 36755095 PMCID: PMC9946833 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05693-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 12/30/2022] [Indexed: 02/10/2023]
Abstract
The potential of climate change to substantially alter human history is a pressing concern, but the specific effects of different types of climate change remain unknown. This question can be addressed using palaeoclimatic and archaeological data. For instance, a 300-year, low-frequency shift to drier, cooler climate conditions around 1200 BC is frequently associated with the collapse of several ancient civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East1-4. However, the precise details of synchronized climate and human-history-scale associations are lacking. The archaeological-historical record contains multiple instances of human societies successfully adapting to low-frequency climate change5-7. It is likely that consecutive multi-year occurrences of rare, unexpected extreme climatic events may push a population beyond adaptation and centuries-old resilience practices5,7-10. Here we examine the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1200 BC. The Hittites were one of the great powers in the ancient world across five centuries11-14, with an empire centred in a semi-arid region in Anatolia with political and socioeconomic interconnections throughout the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean, which for a long time proved resilient despite facing regular and intersecting sociopolitical, economic and environmental challenges. Examination of ring width and stable isotope records obtained from contemporary juniper trees in central Anatolia provides a high-resolution dryness record. This analysis identifies an unusually severe continuous dry period from around 1198 to 1196 (±3) BC, potentially indicating a tipping point, and signals the type of episode that can overwhelm contemporary risk-buffering practices.
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Second Intermediate Period date for the Thera (Santorini) eruption and historical implications. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0274835. [PMID: 36126026 PMCID: PMC9488803 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2022] [Accepted: 09/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The historical relevance of the Thera (Santorini) volcanic eruption is unclear because of major dating uncertainty. Long placed ~1500 BCE and during the Egyptian New Kingdom (starts ~1565–1540 BCE) by archaeologists, 14C pointed to dates ≥50–100 years earlier during the preceding Second Intermediate Period. Several decades of debate have followed with no clear resolution of the problem—despite wide recognition that this uncertainty undermines an ability to synchronize the civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean in the mid-second millennium BCE and write wider history. Recent work permits substantial progress. Volcanic CO2 was often blamed for the discrepancy. However, comparison of 14C dates directly associated with the eruption from contemporary Aegean contexts—both on and remote from Thera—can now remove this caveat. In turn, using Bayesian analysis, a revised and substantially refined date range for the Thera eruption can be determined, both through the integration of the large 14C dataset relevant to the Thera eruption with the local stratigraphic sequence on Thera immediately prior to the eruption, and in conjunction with the wider stratigraphically-defined Aegean archaeological sequence from before to after the eruption. This enables a robust high-resolution dating for the eruption ~1606–1589 BCE (68.3% probability), ~1609–1560 BCE (95.4% probability). This dating clarifies long-disputed synchronizations between Aegean and East Mediterranean cultures, placing the eruption during the earlier and very different Second Intermediate Period with its Canaanite-Levantine dominated world-system. This gives an importantly altered cultural and historical context for the New Palace Period on Crete and the contemporary Shaft Grave era in southern Greece. In addition, the revised dating, and a current absence of southern Aegean chronological data placed soon afterwards, highlights a period of likely devastating regional eruption impact in the earlier-mid 16th century BCE southern Aegean.
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Abstract
Despite the vast evidence on the short-run effects of adverse climate shocks on the economy, our understanding of their long-run impact on institutions is limited. To tackle such a key issue, a vast body of research has focused on ancient societies because of the limited complexity of their economies and their unparalleled experience with environmental and institutional change. Notably, the "collapse archaeology" literature has reported countless correlations consistent with the mantra that severe droughts are bound to trigger institutional crises. This conclusion, however, has been recently challenged by a stream of papers that, building on more detailed data on Bronze Age Mesopotamia and a more credible theory-based empirical strategy, have yielded the following two results. First, severe droughts pushed the elites to grant strong political and property rights to the nonelites to convince them that a sufficient part of the returns on joint investments would be shared via public good provision and, thus, to cooperate and accumulate a culture of cooperation. Second, a more favorable climate allowed the elites to elicit cooperation under less inclusive political regimes as well as a weaker culture of cooperation and, possibly, incomplete property rights. These patterns emphasize the importance of considering the asymmetric effect of droughts and, more generally, combining natural and social sciences for the evaluation of climate-related policies.
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Manning SW, Lorentzen B, Welton L, Batiuk S, Harrison TP. Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0240799. [PMID: 33119717 PMCID: PMC7595433 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240799] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2020] [Accepted: 10/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
There has been considerable focus on the main, expansionary, and inter-regionally linked or 'globalising' periods in Old World pre- and proto-history, with a focus on identifying, analyzing and dating collapse at the close of these pivotal periods. The end of the Early Bronze Age in the late third millennium BCE and a subsequent 'intermediate' or transitional period before the Middle Bronze Age (~2200-1900 BCE), and the end of the Late Bronze Age in the late second millennium BCE and the ensuing period of transformation during the Early Iron Age (~1200-900 BCE), are key examples. Among other issues, climate change is regularly invoked as a cause or factor in both cases. Recent considerations of "collapse" have emphasized the unpredictability and variability of responses during such periods of reorganization and transformation. Yet, a gap in scholarly attention remains in documenting the responses observed at important sites during these 'transformative' periods in the Old World region. Tell Tayinat in southeastern Turkey, as a major archaeological site occupied during these two major 'in between' periods of transformation, offers a unique case for comparing and contrasting differing responses to change. To enable scholarly assessment of associations between the local trajectory of the site and broader regional narratives, an essential preliminary need is a secure, resolved timeframe for the site. Here we report a large set of radiocarbon data and incorporate the stratigraphic sequence using Bayesian chronological modelling to create a refined timeframe for Tell Tayinat and a secure basis for analysis of the site with respect to its broader regional context and climate history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sturt W. Manning
- Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
| | - Brita Lorentzen
- Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
| | - Lynn Welton
- Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Dawson Building, Durham, United Kingdom
| | - Stephen Batiuk
- Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Timothy P. Harrison
- Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
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Manning SW, Wacker L, Büntgen U, Bronk Ramsey C, Dee MW, Kromer B, Lorentzen B, Tegel W. Radiocarbon offsets and old world chronology as relevant to Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia and Thera (Santorini). Sci Rep 2020; 10:13785. [PMID: 32807792 PMCID: PMC7431540 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-69287-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2020] [Accepted: 07/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The new IntCal20 radiocarbon record continues decades of successful practice by employing one calibration curve as an approximation for different regions across the hemisphere. Here we investigate three radiocarbon time-series of archaeological and historical importance from the Mediterranean-Anatolian region, which indicate, or may include, offsets from IntCal20 (~0-22 14C years). While modest, these differences are critical for our precise understanding of historical and environmental events across the Mediterranean Basin and Near East. Offsets towards older radiocarbon ages in Mediterranean-Anatolian wood can be explained by a divergence between high-resolution radiocarbon dates from the recent generation of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) versus dates from previous technologies, such as low-level gas proportional counting (LLGPC) and liquid scintillation spectrometry (LSS). However, another reason is likely differing growing season lengths and timings, which would affect the seasonal cycle of atmospheric radiocarbon concentrations recorded in different geographic zones. Understanding and correcting these offsets is key to the well-defined calendar placement of a Middle Bronze Age tree-ring chronology. This in turn resolves long-standing debate over Mesopotamian chronology in the earlier second millennium BCE. Last but not least, accurate dating is needed for any further assessment of the societal and environmental impact of the Thera/Santorini volcanic eruption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sturt W Manning
- Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.
| | - Lukas Wacker
- Laboratory for Ion Beam Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Ulf Büntgen
- Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, UK.,Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.,Global Change Research Institute CAS, 603 00, Brno, Czech Republic.,Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 611 37, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Christopher Bronk Ramsey
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3TG, UK
| | - Michael W Dee
- Centre for Isotope Research, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 6, 9747 AG, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Bernd Kromer
- Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Heidelberg, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Brita Lorentzen
- Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
| | - Willy Tegel
- Chair of Forest Growth and Dendroecology, Institute of Forest Sciences, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,Archaeological Service Kanton Thurgau (AATG), 8510, Frauenfeld, Switzerland
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Reply to Manning: Dating of Gordion tree-ring sequence still stands within a year of 745 BC. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:18159-18160. [PMID: 32753551 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2007824117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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Complications and challenges for securing Mediterranean timelines. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:18157-18158. [PMID: 32753550 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2006552117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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9
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Securing timelines in the ancient Mediterranean using multiproxy annual tree-ring data. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:8410-8415. [PMID: 32229554 PMCID: PMC7165418 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1917445117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Calendar-dated tree-ring sequences offer an unparalleled resource for high-resolution paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Where such records exist for a few limited geographic regions over the last 8,000 to 12,000 years, they have proved invaluable for creating precise and accurate timelines for past human and environmental interactions. To expand such records across new geographic territory or extend data for certain regions further backward in time, new applications must be developed to secure "floating" (not yet absolutely dated) tree-ring sequences, which cannot be assigned single-calendar year dates by standard dendrochronological techniques. This study develops two approaches to this problem for a critical floating tree-ring chronology from the East Mediterranean Bronze-Iron Age. The chronology is more closely fixed in time using annually resolved patterns of 14C, modulated by cosmic radiation, between 1700 and 1480 BC. This placement is then tested using an anticorrelation between calendar-dated tree-ring growth responses to climatically effective volcanism in North American bristlecone pine and the Mediterranean trees. Examination of the newly dated Mediterranean tree-ring sequence between 1630 and 1500 BC using X-ray fluorescence revealed an unusual calcium anomaly around 1560 BC. While requiring further replication and analysis, this anomaly merits exploration as a potential marker for the eruption of Thera.
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Manning SW, Kromer B, Cremaschi M, Dee MW, Friedrich R, Griggs C, Hadden CS. Mediterranean radiocarbon offsets and calendar dates for prehistory. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:eaaz1096. [PMID: 32206721 PMCID: PMC7080444 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz1096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2019] [Accepted: 12/19/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
A single Northern Hemisphere calibration curve has formed the basis of radiocarbon dating in Europe and the Mediterranean for five decades, setting the time frame for prehistory. However, as measurement precision increases, there is mounting evidence for some small but substantive regional (partly growing season) offsets in same-year radiocarbon levels. Controlling for interlaboratory variation, we compare radiocarbon data from Europe and the Mediterranean in the second to earlier first millennia BCE. Consistent with recent findings in the second millennium CE, these data suggest that some small, but critical, periods of variation for Mediterranean radiocarbon levels exist, especially associated with major reversals or plateaus in the atmospheric radiocarbon record. At high precision, these variations potentially affect calendar dates for prehistory by up to a few decades, including, for example, Egyptian history and the much-debated Thera/Santorini volcanic eruption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sturt W. Manning
- Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics, B-48 Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | - Bernd Kromer
- Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Heidelberg, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Mauro Cremaschi
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra “Ardito Desio,” Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Festa del Perdono 7, 20122 Milano, Italy
| | - Michael W. Dee
- Centre for Isotope Research, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 6, NL-9747 AG Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Ronny Friedrich
- Curt-Engelhorn-Center Archaeometry gGmbH, 68159 Mannheim, Germany
| | - Carol Griggs
- Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics, B-48 Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | - Carla S. Hadden
- Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia, 120 Riverbend Rd., Athens, GA 30602, USA
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Manning SW, Birch J, Conger MA, Dee MW, Griggs C, Hadden CS, Hogg AG, Ramsey CB, Sanft S, Steier P, Wild EM. Radiocarbon re-dating of contact-era Iroquoian history in northeastern North America. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2018; 4:eaav0280. [PMID: 30525108 PMCID: PMC6281431 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav0280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2018] [Accepted: 11/07/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
A time frame for late Iroquoian prehistory is firmly established on the basis of the presence/absence of European trade goods and other archeological indicators. However, independent dating evidence is lacking. We use 86 radiocarbon measurements to test and (re)define existing chronological understanding. Warminster, often associated with Cahiagué visited by S. de Champlain in 1615-1616 CE, yields a compatible radiocarbon-based age. However, a well-known late prehistoric site sequence in southern Ontario, Draper-Spang-Mantle, usually dated ~1450-1550, yields much later radiocarbon-based dates of ~1530-1615. The revised time frame dramatically rewrites 16th-century contact-era history in this region. Key processes of violent conflict, community coalescence, and the introduction of European goods all happened much later and more rapidly than previously assumed. Our results suggest the need to reconsider current understandings of contact-era dynamics across northeastern North America.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sturt W. Manning
- Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics, B-48 Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | - Jennifer Birch
- Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, 250A Baldwin Hall, Jackson Street, Athens, GA 30602-1619, USA
| | - Megan A. Conger
- Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, 250A Baldwin Hall, Jackson Street, Athens, GA 30602-1619, USA
| | - Michael W. Dee
- Centre for Isotope Research, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 6, NL-9747 AG Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Carol Griggs
- Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics, B-48 Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | - Carla S. Hadden
- Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia, 120 Riverbend Rd, Athens, GA 30602-4702, USA
| | - Alan G. Hogg
- Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, University of Waikato, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
| | - Christopher Bronk Ramsey
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, School of Archaeology, Oxford University, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK
| | - Samantha Sanft
- Department of Anthropology, 261 McGraw Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4601, USA
| | - Peter Steier
- University of Vienna, VERA Laboratory, Faculty of Physics, Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, Währinger Straße 17, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Eva M. Wild
- University of Vienna, VERA Laboratory, Faculty of Physics, Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, Währinger Straße 17, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
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