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orion-list Radiocarbon
As a result of private correspondence from Stephen Goranson
I would like to clarify that my remarks at the beginning of my
post yesterday were intended to respond to a charge
of being dishonest or engaging in wilful misrepresentation.
Goranson's radiocarbon argument itself, on its own terms,
presented in opposition to my own, is important and
merits full acknowledgement and serious consideration.
There are indeed, of the nineteen Qumran texts which have
been radiocarbon dated, five which gave AMS measurements
whose two-sigma ranges are completely later than 63 BCE,
even at their earliest end, according to the most current
Seattle-Belfast calibration.
Goranson regards this as killing a 63 BCE hypothesis outright,
dead on arrival. I do not agree with this conclusion concerning
a 63 BCE hypothesis, for reasons which I have made clear
elsewhere. Nevertheless, every reader of orion should be aware
of what Goranson emphasizes--five radiocarbon dates,
for 1QH, 4Q171, 4Q266, 4Q258, and 4Q521, give calibrated date
ranges, each at two-sigma 95% confidence, later than 63 BCE.
In addition to the stand-alone issue of 4QpPsA, the testimony
of these five radiocarbon dates considered together is the most
serious argument on radiocarbon grounds against a 63 BCE
terminus hypothesis. I apologize to Goranson for any impression
in my post yesterday of failing to acknowledge the merits or
legitimacy of that argument and its central importance to the issue.
Greg Doudna
Copenhagen
For private reply, e-mail to Greg Doudna <gd@teol.ku.dk>
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