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The olive-branch dating of the Santorini eruption

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Paolo Cherubini ,
Turi Humbel ,
Hans Beeckman ,
Holger Gärtner ,
David Mannes ,
Charlotte Pearson ,
Werner Schoch ,
Roberto Tognetti  and
Simcha Lev-Yadun
Paolo Cherubini
Affiliation:
WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland (Email: paolo.cherubini@wsl.ch (author for correspondence), holz.schoch@woodanatomy.eu, holger.gaertner@wsl.ch)
Turi Humbel
Affiliation:
WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland (Email: paolo.cherubini@wsl.ch (author for correspondence), holz.schoch@woodanatomy.eu, holger.gaertner@wsl.ch) Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland (Email: turihumbel@gmail.com)
Hans Beeckman
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Wood Biology and Xylarium, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Leuvense Steenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium (Email: hans.beeckman@africamuseum.be)
Holger Gärtner
Affiliation:
WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland (Email: paolo.cherubini@wsl.ch (author for correspondence), holz.schoch@woodanatomy.eu, holger.gaertner@wsl.ch)
David Mannes
Affiliation:
PSI Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland (Email: david.mannes@psi.ch)
Charlotte Pearson
Affiliation:
The Malcolm and Carolyn Wiener Laboratory for Aegean and Near Eastern Dendrochronology, B-48 Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853–3201, USA (Email: c.pearson@cornell.edu) Bryant Bannister Tree-Ring Building, The University of Arizona, 1215 E. Lowell Street, Tucson, AZ 85721–0400, USA (Email: c.pearson@ltrr.arizona.edu)
Werner Schoch
Affiliation:
WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland (Email: paolo.cherubini@wsl.ch (author for correspondence), holz.schoch@woodanatomy.eu, holger.gaertner@wsl.ch)
Roberto Tognetti
Affiliation:
Department of Science and Technology of the Environment and Territory, University of Molise, I-86090 Pesche, Italy (Email: tognetti@unimol.it)
Simcha Lev-Yadun
Affiliation:
Department of Biology & Environment, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa-Oranim, Tivon 36006, Israel (Email: levyadun@research.haifa.ac.il)
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Abstract

The date of the volcanic eruption of Santorini that caused extensive damage toMinoan Crete has been controversial since the 1980s. Some have placed the event in the late seventeenth century BC. Others have made the case for a younger date of around 1500 BC. A recent contribution to that controversy has been the dating of an olive tree branch preserved within the volcanic ash fall on Santorini. In this debate feature Paolo Cherubini and colleagues argue that the olive tree dating (which supports the older chronology) is unreliable on a number of grounds. There follows a response from the authors of that dating, and comments from other specialists, with a closing reply from Cherubini and his team.

Keywords

SantoriniTheraMinoan eruptionradiocarbon datingtree-rings
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 339 , March 2014 , pp. 267 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014

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