Article ID: CBB001211739

Mathematical Methods in the Study of Historical Chronology (2013)

unapi

Some ancient and medieval historical dates we learn in school may stick in our minds: 1193 BC (the fall of Troy), 753 BC (the founding of Rome), AD 1 (the birth of Jesus), or AD 1066 (the battle of Hastings), to mention just a few. Most of us take these dates for granted, but are they correct? Anatoli Fomenko, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Sciences, nds them ctitious and promotes an alternative chronology that often di ers from tradition by more than a millennium [1]. The concerns about the correctness of ancient and medieval dates are not new. Isaac Newton also opposed them. In his last book, which he nished preparing for publication just before his death, he argued that ancient Greek history should be about 300 years shorter than claimed [9]. Since the global chronology is based on the Greek chronology, the foundation of its edi ce appears to be shaky. It is thus natural to ask how historical events were dated, why they are controversial, and if mathematics might play any role in raising or solving these problems. To lay the background towards throwing some light on these questions, let us rst make an incursion into the origins of history's timetables. The material that follows is based on [1], the second edition of a book originally published by Knopf Canada.

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Authors & Contributors
Guicciardini, Niccolò
Cristiani, Riccardo
Mediano, Fernando Rodríguez
Cosgrove, Richard A.
Dunning, David E.
Kharlamova, Vera I.
Concepts
History as a discipline; chronology; study of the past
Historical method
Historiography
Chronologies
Mathematics
Science and culture
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
Medieval
20th century
Shang dynasty (China, ca. 1766-1027 B.C.)
Zhou dynasty (China, 1122-221 B.C.)
Places
England
Spain
Portugal
Germany
France
Europe
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