00:02Our stories of the ancient world might undergo some major revisions thanks to a precise new way to analyze tree
00:08rings.
00:09According to Cornell University, radiocarbon dating has been a powerful tool for nailing down the dates of ancient events.
00:15Tree rings contain carbon-14, which is an isotope that decays over time because of radiation from space.
00:22This makes the isotope a natural clock, according to the French news service RFI.
00:26And since trees can grow a new ring every year, their radiocarbon data is measured against ancient artifacts to estimate
00:33the age of these artifacts.
00:34The problem is that nature is full of variation. Cosmic radiation from space changes from year to year, and tree
00:40growth changes with the seasons.
00:42For decades, radiocarbon dating has been based on trees from the entire northern hemisphere.
00:47But archaeologists from Cornell found subtle differences between trees in Germany and ones in Turkey.
00:52The study published in the journal Science Advances could help reconstruct a more accurate history of civilizations in the Mediterranean.
00:58And it could resolve debates about important events, from a volcanic eruption in Santorini, Greece, to the burial of King
01:05Tut.
01:05To be taken care of by the
