Sturt Manning

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.…

Research topics

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

Selected publications

• The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP)

  Radiocarbon · 2020 · 7374 citations

  ABSTRACT Radiocarbon ( 14 C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric 14 C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they invariably require revision as new data become available and our understanding of the Earth system improves. In this volume the internatio…

  DOI

• Severe multi-year drought coincident with Hittite collapse around 1198–1196 bc

  Nature · 2023 · 75 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  , with an empire centred in a semi-arid region in Anatolia with political and socioeconomic interconnections throughout the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean, which for a long time proved resilient despite facing regular and intersecting sociopolitical, economic and environmental challenges. Examination of ring width and stable isotope records obtained from contemporary juniper trees in central Anatolia provides a high-resolution dryness record. This analysis identifies an unusually se…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mediterranean radiocarbon offsets and calendar dates for prehistory

  Science Advances · 2020 · 37 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  A single Northern Hemisphere calibration curve has formed the basis of radiocarbon dating in Europe and the Mediterranean for five decades, setting the time frame for prehistory. However, as measurement precision increases, there is mounting evidence for some small but substantive regional (partly growing season) offsets in same-year radiocarbon levels. Controlling for interlaboratory variation, we compare radiocarbon data from Europe and the Mediterranean in the second to earlier first millenni…

  DOI

• Second Intermediate Period date for the Thera (Santorini) eruption and historical implications

  PLoS ONE · 2022-09-20 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The historical relevance of the Thera (Santorini) volcanic eruption is unclear because of major dating uncertainty. Long placed ~1500 BCE and during the Egyptian New Kingdom (starts ~1565-1540 BCE) by archaeologists, 14C pointed to dates ≥50-100 years earlier during the preceding Second Intermediate Period. Several decades of debate have followed with no clear resolution of the problem-despite wide recognition that this uncertainty undermines an ability to synchronize the civilizations of the ea…

  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 other…

  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

Similar researchers at Cornell University

• Thomas Hillh-9
• Benjamin Andersonh-8
• Courtney Ann Robyh-7