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Understanding how we pinpoint the past is crucial to putting the present in perspective and planning for the future. Now, for the first time, journalist and geologist Chris Turney explains to the non-specialist exactly how archaeologists, paleontologists, and geologists "tell the time". Each chapter explores one famous event or object from the past, walking readers step by step through the detective work used to determine when things happened. From the Ice Age to the pyramids, from human evolution to the Shroud of Turin, Turney reveals how written records, carbon, pollen, constellations, DNA sequencing, and more all play a part in solving the mystery of the true age of objects and events. As we struggle to manage current environmental threats and conservation troubles, we ignore or misunderstand these techniques and their results at our peril.
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BONES, ROCKS AND STARS The Science of When Things Happened
CHRIS TURNEY
macmillanscience
e-book
BONES, ROCKS AND STARS
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BONES, ROCKS A N D S TA R S The Science of When Things Happened
Chris Turney
Macmillan London New York Melbourne Hong Kong
© Chris Turney 2006 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2006 by Macmillan Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–8599–6 ISBN-10: 1–4039–8599–5 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 Printed and bound in China
To Annette, my ever-patient wife
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CONTENTS List of figures and tables List of permissions and figure sources Acknowledgements
viii ix xi
Introduction 1 The ever-changing calendar 2 A hero in a dark age 3 The forged cloth of Turin 4 The pyramids and the bear’s groin 5 The volcano that shook Europe 6 The Mandate from Heaven 7 The coming of the ice 8 The lost worlds 9 And then there was one 10 The hole in the ground 11 Towards the limits of time Epilogue: Time’s up for creationism
1 5 12 30 46 62 77 88 104 119 135 146 159
Further reading Index
168 176
vii
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures 3.1 Radiocarbon formation and movement in the environment 3.2 The decay curve for radiocarbon 3.3 The normal distribution 4.1 The ‘wobble’ in the Earth’s rotation causes the precession of the equinoxes 4.2 Making the alignment for the Great Pyramid of Khufu against Mizar and Kochab in 2478 BC 4.3 Dating the Egyptian pyramids of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties
36 38 40 55 57 60
5.1 Using radiocarbon wiggles to date the Santorini eruption
74
6.1 Oak ring patterns for trees growing during the 1628 BC event at Garry Bog, Northern Ireland
81
7.1 The different controls on the Earth’s orbit aro