Conventional Time

By modern standards Asimov’s historical time scale is conservative to the point of being traditional. Asimov Quote on time uncertainty This speaks to his intellectual honesty as skeptics often harp on chronological issues. Questions in chronology are only a little improved on when he first wrote. If anything, we know more about what we don’t know.

There are two evidence pathways in which time is considered - relative time and absolute time. Relative time is concerned with the sequence of events, while absolute time is concerned with getting precise dates for events. These pathways are complementary - a discovery or confirmation in one leads to more clarity in the other. Still, the giant jigsaw puzzle of chronology is hampered by uncertainties in interpretation of evidence, so much so that noted egyptolist Kenneth Kitchen has talked of chronology as a disease ().

Relative dating methods pottery, deposition layers, major technologies. relative and absolute dating methods are not closely coupled during the many uncertain times.

There are several direct methods for obtaining more precise absolute time:

• Writings referencing events to other datable events

• Tree ring counting and correlation

• Date ranges of regional pottery styles

• Radio-isotope dating such as Carbon dating  

These methods are often synchronized together to give more precise dating. For instance, Carbon dating relies on the assumptions that the concentration of Carbon-14 is the same seasonally, throughout the ages and mixes equally in the atmosphere. For measurements within a precision 10%, these assumptions are not true. Carbon dating a continous sequence of tree rings can establish a calibration curve that in some cases allows carbon dating to within 1% certainty. Pottery and known events can validate and confirm dates established by carbon dating. 

There are times when it doesn’t work out so well. For instance over the past 30 years there has been an on-going debate over dates prior to about 1400 BC (15th century BC) in Egypt. Carbon dating has produced dates 70 years or more older than well accepted dates arrived at be relative dating methods. The controversy has been so divisive that many of those using relative dating methods have conducted there research independently of radio-isotope and tree ring data. There are a variety of factors at play that make the absolute methods more uncertain than usual including: 

• A relatively flat calibration curve that allows multiple valid dates from carbon dating.

• No continous tree ring sequence to establish a precise regional calibration curve.

• Possible old carbon sources (low carbon-14 concentrations) from volcanic activity and/or upwelling of the Mediterranean Sea.

Though not the only uncertainty in the field of chronology, this particular one puts a big question mark on chronology throughout the Egypt and the Middle East prior to the 1400 BC. Not only has it not been establish how far North or East this discrepancy exists, the chronology of much of the Middle East is based on Egypt.

As in natural history, archaeologically informed chronology used named ages. Relative to a type of anthropological development such as the ability to refine iron. Based on development the absolute dates may be the same for all cultures.

Geologic time has eons, eras, periods and epochs as divisions of time going from largest to smallest. The A major advantage is how well this maintains the structure of evidence from relative dating while an absolute chronology is constantly being modified. of events in Earth’s with major geologic events or extinctions at the boundaries

Works Cited

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Jeppson Janet (2006-06-06). Notes for a  Memoir: On Isaac Asimov, Life, and Writing (1st ed.). Amherst: Prometheus.

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