CLST 129 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Sextus Pompey, Ab Urbe Condita, Radiocarbon Dating

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: CLST 129
• Professor: Anne Foley

Document Summary

Relative dating: placing events and material evidence into a sequence, determining if they date before or after others. Absolute dating: placing events and material evidence into one of the general systems to measure time (in years, and using one of the current dating conventions) Absolute dating of ancient events was possible only when and where there was an established historical tradition going back to very ancient periods, such as egypt, the near east, greece, rome, China, india, etc. or when the connection with those established historical traditions is possible. : stele of king hammurabi of babylon c. 1792-1750 bc. The development of new dating techniques of archaeological evidence allow absolute dating of evidence that is older than any historical tradition or from regions where there is no historical tradition. Any timescale needs a fixed point in time. The standard dating convention in the western world"s uses as a starting point the birth of jesus.