Absolute tree-ring dates for the Late Bronze Age eruptions of Aniakchak and Thera in light of a proposed revision of ice-core chronologies

By linking ice-core volcanic horizons with precisely dated frost damage in bristlecone pines, the authors have revised the dating of the principal Greenland ice-core chronologies back to c. 2000 BC. This revision has implications for establishing an absolute calendar date for the Bronze Age eruption of Thera. Three volcanic horizons ( 1653, 1627 and 1610 BC) are now coincident with the seventeenth-century BC radiocarbon dating of Thera, but none of these horizons is likely to result from the Theran eruption. In particular, a volcanic event at c. 1627 BC-a date associated with Thera for over 30 years-can now probably be attributed to the Aniakchak II volcano in Alaska.