Tree Stories:
     WHEN A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST DOES IT MAKE A NOISE?  WELL, WHETHER OR
NOT IT MAKES A SOUND WHEN IT DIES, IT CERTAINLY CARRIES A MESSAGE THROUGH TIME. 
THE RINGS ON A TREE TELL A STORY--A THICK RING POINTS TO A RAINY YEAR, A THIN RING
TO A DROUGHT.  PETER KUNIHOLM IS AN ARCHAEOLOGIST AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY.  HE'S
USED THIS SIMPLE FACT ABOUT TREES TO INTERPRET ANCIENT EGYPTIAN HISTORY.  HE'S
SNIPPED BITS OF WOOD OFF TEMPLES AND MOSQUES AND RUINS AND THEN COMPARES
THEM.  BY MATCHING UP THIN AND THICK RINGS, HE CAN PINPOINT THE DATE WHEN THE
TREE WAS CUT DOWN.

     Kuniholm: "Starting with the living trees and working our way backwards we end
up with a chrnology that is pinned down to the tyear, not plus or minus anything." 

IF YOU CAN DATE THE WOOD SAMPLE THAT ACCURATELY, THEN YOU LEARN SOMETHING
ABOUT WHEN THE BUILDING WAS BUILT.  IF ON TOP OF THAT YOU KNOW WHAT PHARAO
ORDERED IT BUILT, YOU'VE JUST FIGURED OUT WHEN THAT PHARAO WAS ALIVE.  ONE
STICKING POINT KUNIHOLM HAS WORKED ON IS FINDING THE DATE THAT THE GIGANTIC
VOLCANO THERA ERUPTED.

     Kuniholm: "We're talking about an explosion that's 900 times greater thatn that of
Mt. St. Helens. . . and when something like this happens. . . one should expect cool wet
summers for several years until this stuff settles down, well my trees under cool wet
conditions will grow like the dickens. . . and this is what I have at one time in the last 9
thousand years."

     KUNIHOLM'S TREES SUGGEST THAT THERA ERUPTED IN 1628 B.C. AS OPPOSED TO THE
PREVIOUSLY ACCEPTED DATE OF 1500. 

     Kuniholm: "It would be like  if instead of 1776 for the united states how about 1650.
. . well you'd have to rewrite a lot of history books." 

      SOME HISTORIANS ARE RESISTING THIS RADICAL CHANGE OF DATE SINCE IT PUSHES
EVENTS IN THE MEDITTERANEAN BACK 150 YEARS, BUT KUNIHOLM SAYS MANY THINK HIS
TREE STORY HAS A RING OF TRUTH.