The Minoan Eruption of Santorini -by Friedrich, W.L. and Heinemeier, J.:  now Radiocarbon Dated to 1613 ± 13 BC

Description

Precise and direct dating of the Minoan eruption of Santorini (Thera) in Greece, a global Bronze Age time marker, has been made possible by the unique find of a charred branch of an olive tree, buried alive in life position by volcanic ash and pumice of yje eruption on Santorini. The so-called radiocarbon wiggle-matching to a carbon-14 sequence of 4 tree-ring segments has been applied to constrain the eruption date to 1613 ± 13 BC calibrated (95.4% probability). The result is in the range of previous, less  precise, and less direct results of several scientific dating methods, but it is a century earlier than the date derived from traditional Egyptian chronologies. Read more in the coverstory of  SCIENCE  issue from April 28th   2006 by: Friedrich WL, Kromer B, Friedrich M, Heinemeier J, Pfeiffer T, Talamo S. 2006. Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627-1600 B.C. Science 312(5773) p 548. See also pp 508 (Balter, M.) and 565 (Manning et al.)of the same issue.