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Re: orion-list Radiocarbon
Greg Doudna wrote:
> Dear orioners: for those following the issues with 63 BCE
> and the radiocarbon dates I suggest in terms of method that
> the 63 BCE terminus hypothesis be evaluated separately
> in terms of (a) all non-radiocarbon grounds, and (b)
> radiocarbon data alone. Secondly, as a provisional term the
> five radiocarbon dates whose 2-sigma ranges are entirely
> post-63 BCE might be termed "apparent evidence against a
> 63 BCE terminus". The lab-reported dates are actual, not
> apparent, but the conversion of these lab reported dates to
> an historical judgment is what is at issue.
>
> Third, for the 5 clearly post-63 BCE AMS dates, there are
> basically three possibilities: (a) the 63 BCE terminus is wrong;
> (b) there is some anomaly in the calibration curve, i.e. a
> regional effect; or (c) contaminated dates.
Is there not the possibility that the majority of the texts may
have been deposited prior to the 63 BCE terminus but
a few may have been deposited post-63BCE?
I am not the best of palaeographers but I have a very difficult
time in assigning a "watershed" within 50 years between
"Hasmonean" and "Herodian" hands and can never be sure
a "hasmonean hand" is not typical of a scribal school well
into the Herodian period or that the subtle "Herodian"
qualities did not first appear long before 63 BCE.
Jack
jkilmon@historian.net
For private reply, e-mail to Jack Kilmon <jkilmon@historian.net>
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