About

Sturt Manning is a faculty member at Cornell University, affiliated with both the Classics Department and the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies. His research interests encompass a broad range of topics within archaeology, including Aegean Prehistory, archaeological fieldwork such as survey and excavation, archaeological theory, Classical archaeology, Cypriot Prehistory, and East Mediterranean Prehistory. His work focuses on landscapes, cultural connections, trade, art, chronology, and identities in the Aegean, Cypriot, and East Mediterranean regions. Manning also specializes in archaeological science, particularly dendrochronology, dendrochemistry, dendroclimatology, environmental and climate change science, radiocarbon calibration, and archaeological dating. His recent and current research projects span diverse geographic areas including Armenia, China, the East Mediterranean and Levant, Mexico, and North America. Manning has made significant contributions to the field through his publications, which include books and papers addressing key chronological debates and archaeological methodologies. Notably, he has worked on resolving the long-standing High versus Low chronology debate for ancient Egypt's Old and Middle Kingdoms by introducing high-precision radiocarbon dating combined with Bayesian statistical analysis. This work has helped clarify the historical timeline and synchronization of the Eastern Mediterranean region around 3000-1000 BCE. Additionally, Manning has edited volumes such as "New Directions in Cypriot Archaeology," which highlights innovative techniques and theoretical approaches in the study of prehistoric and protohistoric Cyprus, addressing topics like social complexity, urban settlement histories, and cultural identity changes. His scholarship also includes detailed studies on the chronology and history of the Aegean and East Mediterranean in the mid-second millennium BCE, exemplified by his work on the Thera volcanic eruption and its implications for synchronizing Aegean and Egyptian chronologies. Manning's interdisciplinary approach integrates archaeological evidence with scientific dating methods to refine historical timelines and enhance understanding of ancient civilizations. His extensive research and publications have established him as a leading figure in archaeological science and Mediterranean prehistory.

Research topics

• Geography
• Geology
• Paleontology
• Physical geography
• Archaeology
• Climatology
• History
• Demography
• Meteorology
• Ancient history
• Statistics
• Oceanography

Selected publications

• Dating burial histories: radiocarbon wiggle-match of Kurgan 8 at Uzun Rama (Western Azerbaijan)

  Radiocarbon · 2026-03-25

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Burial mounds, or kurgans , are a widespread archaeological feature in ancient Eurasia. In the South Caucasus, the Kura-Araxes (KA) culture adopted these funerary structures to express horizontal social ideology through collective inhumations. KA communities also constantly re-engaged with the dead through the regular reopening of burials, contributing to a rich organic archive that relates to episodes of funerary manipulation. This article reports on the results of a radiocarbon wiggle-match obtained from a semi-burnt branch of Juniperus sp. associated with Kurgan 8 at Uzun Rama (Ganja, Azerbaijan). This structure yielded evidence of burial activity during the KA I phase (ca. 3500–3000/2900 BCE) and the post-KA, the “Early Kurgan” period (ca. 2500–2000 BCE), and the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500–1150 BCE). The sample came from a wooden structure constructed and then burnt in the ritual closure of the kurgan by fire, marking the final stage of its KA use. The results of the wiggle-match allowed us to produce a close estimate for the felling of the branch, thus providing a refined Terminus Post Quem (TPQ) for the construction of the wooden structure itself and its use within 3204–3174 BCE. These results shed light on finer temporal resolution of burial history not just pertaining to funerary sequences, but also in terms of social engagement with visible landmarks and long-term cultural or generational memory. The results correlate with broader trends observed in other KA kurgans and settlements excavated along the Kura basin, pointing at large-scale landscape (or even historical) reconfigurations across the Kura-Araxes world.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Overlooking Environmental Context Causes Misidentification of Ancient Mediterranean Plant Oil in Organic Residues

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Overlooking environmental context causes misidentification of ancient Mediterranean plant oil in organic residues

  Journal of Archaeological Science · 2025-11-24 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Radiocarbon evidence over the apparent grand solar minimum around 400 BCE

  Radiocarbon · 2025-02-13 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Grand solar minima are periods spanning from decades to more than a century during which solar activity is unusually low. A cluster of such minima occurred during the last millennium, as evidenced by reductions in the numbers of sunspots observed and coeval increases in cosmogenic isotope production. Prior to the period of instrumental records, natural archives of such isotopes are the only resources available for detecting grand solar minima. Here, we examine the period 433–315 BCE, which saw a sustained increase in the production of the cosmogenic isotope, radiocarbon. Our new time series of radiocarbon data (Δ 14 C), obtained on cellulose extracted from known-age oak tree rings from Germany, reveal that the rise in production that occurred at this time was commensurate with patterns observed over recent grand solar minima. Our data also enhance, and to a degree challenge, the accuracy of the international atmospheric radiocarbon record over this period.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt

  PLoS ONE · 2025-05-28 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  The unrivaled millennia-long historical chronology of ancient Egypt forms the backbone for archaeological synchronization across the entire Eastern Mediterranean region c. 3000-1000 BCE. However, for more than a century, scholars have wrangled over the correct calendrical positioning of this record, with older scenarios being referred to as 'High', and younger ones, 'Low' chronologies. Offsets between the two can be as great as a century, substantially confusing connections with other civilizations of the time. Here, we settle this debate for two major periods of political unity in ancient Egypt, the Old Kingdom (the Pyramid Age), and the Middle Kingdom. We introduce 48 high-precision radiocarbon dates obtained through rare access to museum collections as well as freshly excavated samples. By combining these new results with legacy radiocarbon data and with text records for reign lengths of kings within a Bayesian statistical framework, we show that the Low Chronology is no longer empirically supported for the Old and Middle Kingdoms, and resolve a long-standing historical schism.

  PublisherDOI

• Origins, endings and temporal pluralities: Bayesian perspectives on the Kura-Araxes phenomenon

  Antiquity · 2025-12-10 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  The Kura-Araxes culture spread over a large area of South-west Asia, participating in the transformational dynamics of Early Bronze Age societies in the region. Yet, the absence of a robust chronological framework for this cultural horizon hinders its integration into wider regional and interregional models. Drawing on a substantial new radiocarbon dataset, collating novel Bayesian chronological models for eight sites and existing data from the wider region, this article identifies settlement patterns that coincide with broader reconfigurations of the Kura-Araxes cultural landscape, which in turn track socioeconomic, and possibly political, shifts observed in eastern Anatolia and the greater Near East.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Origins, endings and temporal pluralities: Bayesian perspectives on the Kura-Araxes phenomenon

  Refubium (Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin) · 2025-11-07

  articleOpen access

  The Kura-Araxes culture spread over a large area of South-west Asia, participating in the transformational dynamics of Early Bronze Age societies in the region. Yet, the absence of a robust chronological framework for this cultural horizon hinders its integration into wider regional and interregional models. Drawing on a substantial new radiocarbon dataset, collating novel Bayesian chronological models for eight sites and existing data from the wider region, this article identifies settlement patterns that coincide with broader reconfigurations of the Kura-Araxes cultural landscape, which in turn track socioeconomic, and possibly political, shifts observed in eastern Anatolia and the greater Near East.

  PublisherDOI

• Climate and the Ancient World: Beyond Present Concerns to Complications, Where Details Matter

  Heritage · 2025-05-08 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Current modern attention and concern about (human-driven) climate change has prompted much focus on the historical/archaeological relevance and role of (natural) climate change in the past. The topic is both relevant and important—and especially those short(er)-term events that perhaps helped trigger historically substantive change episodes. But, at the same time, initial, somewhat naïve enthusiasm has now run headlong into the limitations of the available data sources before the early modern era, and the many complications of establishing actual causal associations. These need to be, first, closely defined in terms of timing and effects, and then also, second, established as relevant to the specific human societies/civilizations and contexts in question. This paper seeks to highlight the need for appropriate care and rigorous method when seeking to associate climate and environmental events with the available ancient historical and archaeological evidence, and investigates three illustrative, problematic, cases from the Classical Mediterranean world.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A revised radiocarbon calibration curve 350–250 BCE impacts high-precision dating of the Kyrenia Ship

  PLoS ONE · 2024-06-26 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The Kyrenia Ship, found off the north coast of Cyprus, is a key vessel in the history of scientific underwater excavations and in the history of Greek shipbuilding. The first volume of the site's final publication appeared in 2023 and provides detailed archaeological information tightly constraining the dating of the ship. A very specific date range is proposed: ca. 294-290 BCE, but is based on a less than certain reading of one coin recovered from the ship. While there is clear benefit to finding high-precision dates for the Kyrenia Ship and its rich assemblage using independent scientific dating (combined with Bayesian chronological modeling), efforts to do so proved more challenging and complex than initially anticipated. Strikingly, extensive radiocarbon dating on both wooden materials from the ship and on short-lived contents from the final use of the ship fail to offer dates using the IntCal20 calibration curve-the current Northern Hemisphere radiocarbon calibration curve at the time of writing-that correspond with the archaeological constraints. The issue rests with a segment of IntCal20 ca. 350-250 BCE reliant on legacy pre-AMS radiocarbon data. We therefore measured new known-age tree-ring samples 350-250 BCE, and, integrating another series of new known-age tree-ring data, we obtained a redefined and more accurate calibration record for the period 433-250 BCE. These new data permit a satisfactory dating solution for the ship and may even indicate a date that is a (very) few years more recent than current estimations. These new data in addition confirm and only very slightly modify the dating recently published for the Mazotos ship, another Greek merchant ship from the southern coast of Cyprus. Our work further investigated whether ship wood samples impregnated with a common preservative, polyethylene glycol (PEG), can be cleaned successfully, including a known-age test.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Problems of Dating Spread on Radiocarbon Calibration Curve Plateaus: The 1620–1540 BC Example and the Dating of the Therasia Olive Shrub Samples and Thera Volcanic Eruption

  Radiocarbon · 2024-04-01 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Determining calendar ages for radiocarbon dates, or ordered sequences of radiocarbon dates, that intersect with a plateau on the radiocarbon calibration curve can be problematic since, without additional prior constraints, the calendar age ranges determined will tend to spread across the plateau, yielding wide and less than useful calendar age probability densities and age ranges. Where possible, modeling analysis should seek to identify informative priors that act to restrict the otherwise poorly controlled spread of probability across plateaus. Such additional information may be available, among other sources, from the stratigraphy, the context, or the samples themselves. The recent dating of ordered sequences of radiocarbon dates on sections of branches of the same olive ( Olea europaea ) shrub from Therasia (southern Aegean) associated with the Minoan eruption of the Thera (Santorini) volcano (Pearson et al. 2023), which intersect with the plateau in the radiocarbon calibration curve ca. 1620–1540 BC, offers an example of the problem. A re-analysis adding some plausible informative priors offers a substantially better defined likely dating range and different conclusions. Instead of finding an inconclusive probability range “encompassing the late 17th and entire 16th century BC” followed by arguments for “indications of increased probabilities for a mid-16th century BC date for the eruption,” a re-analysis incorporating appropriate informative priors identifies the likely date range as falling between the late 17th to early 16th centuries BC.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Checking and Correcting the Timescale for the Archaeology of the East Mediterranean-Near East in Later Prehistory & Protohistory: Investigating the Scale of a Radiocarbon Offset

  NSF · $205k · 2012–2016

• Collaborative Research: the Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments Project. Investigating Social Transformation in Late Bronze Age Cyprus

  NSF · $108k · 2009–2013

Frequent coauthors

• Bernd Kromer

  92 shared

• Christopher Bronk Ramsey

  University of Oxford

  91 shared

• Eva Maria Wild

  Universität Hamburg

  58 shared

• Peter Steier

  55 shared

• W. Kutschera

  54 shared

• John Southon

  Irvine University

  41 shared

• J. van der Plicht

  University of Groningen

  41 shared

• Thomas Higham

  35 shared

Education

• PhD, Classics

  University of Cambridge