(no subject)

[Gatti Anne, ICTP - Trieste]

Public Lecture

Friday, 17 March 2006 at 17.00

Main Lecture Hall, Main Building

by Walter Kutschera from the Institute of Isotope Research and Nuclear 
Physics, University of Vienna.

Title: Synchronizing cultures in the past. How to combine natural 
science and humanities.

C-14 is a wonderful gift of nature for archaeology and related fields 
to establish absolute time scales. Yet, it has its limitations due to 
the natural variations of the C-14 content in the atmosphere. Great 
advances in both archaeological excavations  and C-14 measurements by 
accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) led to pushing both fields to their 
limits, in order to decide crucial issues in ancient history. In this 
talk, we will focus on the synchronization of civilizations in the 
Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium BC. In the middle of 
this millennium, some 3500 years ago, the volcanic eruption of Thera 
(the modern Greek island of Santorini) set an important time mark. Yet, 
its exact date is elusive. Various methods of the natural sciences 
(C-14 dating, dendrochronology, ice core dating, analysis of volcanic 
ash by neutron activation and mass spectrometry) and the humanities 
(archaeology, oriental studies, egyptology, history) are employed to 
solve the problem. So far, no consensus has been reached. We will 
discuss the current situation, which will show that all methods are 
pushed to the limit of their applicability. Possible approaches for the 
solution of  this problem will be discussed.



Anne Gatti
Director's Office
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
Strada Costiera 11
I-34100 Trieste
Italy
Tel:  +39 040 2240251
Fax: + 39 040 2240410
e-mail: gatti at ictp.it