Anatoly Fomenko: Empiric-Statistical Methods in Chronology

A system of empiric-statistical methods an their applications to historical chronology problems will be presented in the lecture. Chronology is the system of dates, which were ascribed in XIV-XVII centuries A.D. to the ancient events. Since, the dates are some numbers, their calculation is the subject of applied mathematics. The chronologists of XVI-XVII centuries based the calculation of the dates on the medieval mathematical and astronomical methods. It turns out that these methods were too rough and unstable to solve a very complicated problem of correct calculation of ancient dates. As a consequence, the chronology created in XIV-XVII centuries, contains some serious errors. Modern empiric-statistical methods allow one to discover such errors. It turns out that a new corrected chronology is significantly shorter than the traditional one.