Sturt Manning

Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Classics

120 Goldwin Smith Hall
sm456@cornell.edu
607/255-8650

Departments and programs

Anthropology
Archaeology Program
Classics
Medieval Studies Program

Affiliated Colleges

College of Arts and Sciences

Academic interests

Classical Archaeology

Keywords

Classical archaeology, east Mediterranean archaeology, climate and archaeology, dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating and analysis

Overview

Research Interests and Activities:

Aegean, Cypriot, Anatolian and east Mediterranean archaeology, classical archaeology

Complex societies, state formation and interactions

Dendrochronology/Dendroarchaeology, Radiocarbon dating and analysis - Mediterranean-Near East, N. America, Mexico and China

Climate (palaeoclimate) and archaeology/history

For publications and information, see: cornell.academia.edu/SturtWManning

Research Focus

Aegean Prehistory, Archaeological fieldwork (survey and excavation), Archaeological theory, Classical archaeology, Cypriot Prehistory, East Mediterranean Prehistory, e.g. landscapes, cultural connections, trade, art, chronology, and identities in Aegean, Cypriot and east Mediterranean prehistory
Archaeological science, Dendrochronology, Dendrochemistry, Dendroclimatology, Environmental and climate change science, Radiocarbon calibration and archaeological dating - east Mediterranean, Near East, North America, Mexico and China

Publications

BOOKS:

Manning, S.W. (ed.). 2022. Critical Approaches to Cypriot and Wider Mediterranean Archaeology. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.

Kearns, C. and Manning, S.W. (eds.). 2019. New Directions in Cypriot Archaeology. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Manning, S.W. 2014. A Test of Time and A Test of Time Revisited. The volcano of Thera and the chronology and history of the Aegean and east Mediterranean in the mid-second millennium BC. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Manning, S.W. and Bruce, M.J. (eds.). 2009. Tree-Rings, Kings and Old World Archaeology and Environment: Papers Presented in Honor of Peter Ian Kuniholm. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Manning, S.W., et al. 2002. The Late Roman Church at Maroni Petrera: Survey and salvage excavations 1990-1997, and other traces of Roman remains in the lower Maroni Valley, Cyprus. Nicosia: The A.G. Leventis Foundation.

Manning, S.W. 2001. The Absolute Chronology of the Aegean Early Bronze Age: archaeology, history and radiocarbon. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology 1. Reprint (from 1995). Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

SELECTED ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS 2025-2018:

Manning, S.W. 2025. Climate and the Ancient World: Beyond Present Concerns to Complications, Where Details Matter. Heritage 8(5): 168. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8050168

Manning, S.W., Lorentzen, B., Bridge, M., Dee, M.W., Southon, J., Wenger, M. 2024. A revised radiocarbon calibration curve 350–250 BCE impacts high-precision dating of the Kyrenia Ship. PLoS ONE 19(6): e0302645. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302645

Manning, S.W. 2024. Problems of Dating Spread on Radiocarbon Calibration Curve Plateaus: The 1620–1540 BC Example and the Dating of the Therasia Olive Shrub Samples and Thera Volcanic Eruption. Radiocarbon 66: 341-370. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2024.44

Manning, S.W. and Lorentzen, B. 2024. Archaeological dendrochronology. In E. Nikita and T. Rehren (eds.), Encyclopedia of Archaeology, 2nd edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Volume 2B, pp. 1019-1037. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-90799-6.00159-2

Manning, S.W., Lorentzen, B., Bakirtzis, N., and Soyluoğlu, M. 2024. Progress towards a Byzantine-Medieval historic buildings tree-ring chronology from Cyprus using dendrochronology and radiocarbon. Radiocarbon 66: 1643-1661. https://doi:10.1017/RDC.2023.84

Manning, S.W., Kocik, C, Lorentzen, B. and Sparks, J.P. 2023. Severe multi-year drought coincident with Hittite collapse around 1198-1196 BC. Nature 614: 719-724.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05693-y

Manning, S.W. 2023. Dendrochronology and Archaeology. In A.M. Pollard, R.A. Armitage and C.A. Makarewicz (eds.), Handbook of Archaeological Sciences, Second Edition: 37-68. Wiley: Hoboken. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119592112.ch3

Atkins, C.E. and Manning, S.W. 2022. Re-survey of the anchorage at Maroni Tsaroukkas, Cyprus: defining and viewing a Late Bronze Age coastscape. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 41: 278-302. https://doi.org/10.1111/ojoa.12244

Manning, S.W. 2022. Second Intermediate Period date for the Thera (Santorini) eruption and historical implications. PLoS ONE 17(9): e0274835. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274835

Manning, S.W. 2022. Climate, environment, and resources. In S. von Reden (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Ancient Greek Economy: 373-391. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Manning, S.W., Lorentzen, B., and Demesticha, S. 2022. Dating Mediterranean shipwrecks: The Mazotos ship, radiocarbon dating and the need for independent chronological anchors. Antiquity 96: 968-980.

Manning, S.W. and Birch, J. 2022. A centennial ambiguity: the challenge of resolving the date of the Jean-Baptiste Lainé (Mantle), Ontario, site—around AD 1500 or AD 1600?—and the case for wood-charcoal as a terminus post quem. Radiocarbon 64: 279-308.

Cremaschi, M., Kocik, C., Griggs, C., Mutti, A., Zerboni, A. and Manning, S.W. 2021. Dating the Noceto Vasca Votiva, a unique wooden structure of the 15th century BCE, and the timing of a major societal change in the Bronze Age of northern Italy. PLoS ONE 16(6): e0251341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251341.

Manning, S.W., Huey, P.R., Lucas, M.T. and Hart, J.P. 2021. Radiocarbon and Artifactual Evidence for Early 17th Century A.D. Dutch Activity at the Site of Fort Orange, Albany, New York, USA. Journal of Field Archaeology 46: 192-209.

Manning, S.W., Lorentzen, B., Welton, L., Batiuk, S., Harrison, T.P. 2020. Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP. PLoS ONE 15(10): e0240799. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240799.

Manning, S.W. 2020. Radiocarbon dating, Bayesian modeling, and American archaeology. The SAA Archaeological Record 20(4): 40-46.

Manning, S.W., Wacker, L., Büntgen, U., Bronk Ramsey, C., Dee, M.W., Kromer, B., Lorentzen, B. and Tegel, W. 2020. Radiocarbon offsets and old world chronology as relevant to Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia and Thera (Santorini). Scientific Reports 10: 41598. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69287-2

Manning, S.W., Kromer, B., Cremaschi, M., Dee, M.W., Friedrich, R., Griggs, C. and Hadden, C.S. 2020. Mediterranean radiocarbon offsets and calendar dates for prehistory. Science Advances 6: eaaz1096. https://doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaz1096

Manning, S.W. and Hart, J.P. 2019. Radiocarbon, Bayesian chronological modelling and early European metal circulation in the sixteenth-century AD Mohawk River Valley, USA. PLoS ONE 14(12): e0226334. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226334

Manning, S.W. 2019. Environment and Sociopolitical Complexity on Prehistoric Cyprus: Observations, Trajectories, and Sketch. In C. Kearns and S.W. Manning (eds.), New Directions in Cypriot Archaeology: 99-130. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Manning, S.W., Birch, J., Conger, M.A., Dee, M.W., Griggs, C., Hadden, C.S., Hogg, A.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Sanft, S., Steier, P. and Wild, E.M. 2018. Radiocarbon re-dating of contact-era Iroquoian history in northeastern North America. Science Advances 4: eaav0280.https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav0280

Manning, S.W., Smith, A.T., Khatchadourian, L., Badalyan, R., Lindsay, I., Greene, A. and Marshall, M. 2018. A new chronological model for the Bronze and Iron Age South Caucasus: radiocarbon results from Project ArAGATS, Armenia. Antiquity 92: 1530-1551.

Manning, S.W. 2018. Events, Episodes and History: Chronology and the Resolution of Historical Processes. In L. Nevett and J. Whitley (eds.), An Age of Experiment: Classical Archaeology Transformed (1976-2014): 119-137. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

Manning, S.W., Griggs, C., Lorentzen, B., Bronk Ramsey, C., Chivall, D., Jull, A.J.T. and Lange, T.E. 2018. Fluctuating radiocarbon offsets observed in the southern Levant and implications for archaeological chronology debates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115: 6141-6146.

Manning, S.W. 2018. Some Perspectives on the Frequency of Significant, Historically Forcing Drought and Subsistence Crises in Anatolia and Region. In E. Holt (ed.), Water and Power in Past Societies: 279-295. IEMA Proceedings, volume 7. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Manning, S.W. 2018. The Development of Complex Society on Crete: The Balance between Wider Context and Local Agency. In A.R. Knodell and T.P. Leppard (eds.), Regional Approaches to Society and Complexity: 29-58. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology 15. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.

Turkon, P., Manning, S.W., Griggs, C., Santos Ramírez, M., Nelson, B., Torreblanca Padilla, C. and Wild, E. 2018. Applications of Dendrochronology in Northwestern Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 29: 102-121.