Tracing the Absolute Time-Frame of the Early Bronze Age in the Aegean

Radiocarbon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 751-773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodora Arvaniti ◽  
Yannis Maniatis
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Statistical Treatment ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Northern Greece ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Absolute Time ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
First Time ◽  
Southern Greece

AbstractThe Early Bronze Age (EBA) is associated with technological and cultural changes that may suggest the onset of a new culture. The question usually posed is whether the spread of the EBA culture is a matter of contemporary evolutionary practices or a matter of migration of peoples. We contribute to this discussion by tracing the appearance and spread of the EBA in the Aegean using an absolute time-frame provided by more than 200 radiocarbon (14C) dates from 25 different Aegean sites. These have been compiled and statistically treated, individually, and in geographical groups to allow temporal and spatial comparisons. A new model is constructed for the first time for northern Greece. The dates are compared between various settlements and areas in each of the traditional cultural divisions EBA I, EBA II, and EBA III and possible subdivisions. The statistical treatment and comparisons indicate that the EBA appeared slightly earlier, around 3300 BC, in northern Greece than in southern Greece, and the Cycladic Islands and also lasted longer in some areas in northern Greece, ending at around 1900 BC.

scholarly journals The Chalcolithic Radiocarbon Record and Its Use in Southern Levantine Archaeology

Radiocarbon ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 1223-1246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margie Burton ◽  
Thomas E Levy
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Chalcolithic Period ◽  
Chronological Sequence

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Chalcolithic period (5th–4th millennium BCE) in the southern Levant was a time of significant settlement expansion and increasing social complexity. Important technological and social developments during this era set the stage for the later rise of fortified sites and nascence of urbanization in the Early Bronze Age. Controversy surrounding the chronology of Chalcolithic settlement and the reconstruction of social trajectories has stimulated an interest in building a database of radiocarbon dates to measure the tempo of change and help resolve these issues. To facilitate social evolutionary research, this paper reviews and updates published 14C data for the southern Levantine Chalcolithic. The now-substantial database supports the generally accepted time frame for this archaeological period and allows synchronic comparisons across diverse geographic subregions in the southern Levant. In addition, it helps to temporally place the emergence of sophisticated technologies and the development of complex social institutions within the Chalcolithic period. However, radiometrically based attempts at pan-regional internal periodization of the Chalcolithic and fine-tuning of protohistoric events such as site establishment and abandonment are frustrated by the lack of precision in 14C dates, which limits their ability to resolve chronological sequence. Improved delineation of Chalcolithic social trajectories can be achieved most effectively by focussing research efforts on stratigraphic and typological investigations of deeply-stratified settlement sites such as Teleilat Ghassul and Shiqmim within their local contexts.

scholarly journals The Study of Middle Bronze Age Interments at Khanghah Gilavan: Tentative Results

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-53
Author(s):  
R. Rezalou ◽  
Y. Ayremlou ◽  
N. Hariri ◽  
S. F. Eisvand
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Northwestern Iran ◽  
Ceramic Manufacturing

We give a detailed description of burials 14 and 24, typical of the Khanghah Gilavan cemetery, discovered in 2006 near Khalkhal, in the Ardabil Province, northwestern Iran. Parallels to the fi nds are discussed, mostly suggesting the Middle Bronze Age, although similar handmade vessels, hairpins, and daggers had been common in the region since the Early Bronze Age. The most illustrative examples are Nakhchivan-type vessels, the two handles of which are decorated with buttons. The burials indicate cultural changes over the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, despite the continuity of the ceramic manufacturing tradition.

scholarly journals An insight into Old Hittite metallurgy: alloying practices at Hüseyindede (Çorum, Turkey)

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 77-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonca Dardeniz ◽  
İ. Tunç Sipahi ◽  
Tayfun Yıldırım
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Nickel Alloys ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Analytical Data ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
Metal Artefacts ◽  
First Time ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractThis paper presents archaeological and analytical data on metal artefacts from Hüseyindede (Çorum, Turkey), dated to the Old Hittite period (ca 16th century BC). Hüseyindede, which is set in a rural landscape, demonstrates continuity in alloying traditions from the Early Bronze Age III (ca 26th/25th–22nd/21st century BC) and the Assyrian Trading Colonies period (20th–18th century BC) to the emergence of the Hittites. In addition to known alloying practices of the period, the site presents, for the first time, evidence of the existence of copper-nickel alloys, namely cupronickels, which so far have been documented only at the Late Bronze Age capital of the Hittites, Boğazköy/Hattuša. The Hüseyindede cupronickel objects now pinpoint the presence of this technology to regions spreading out from the Halys basin from the Old Kingdom Hittite period.

EARLY BRONZE AGE CHRONOLOGY OF MAINLAND GREECE: A REVIEW WITH NEW DATES FROM THE EXCAVATIONS AT KOUPHOVOUNO

2016 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 35-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Cavanagh ◽  
C. Mee ◽  
J. Renard
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Bayesian Modelling ◽  
General Development ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Data Support ◽  
First Time ◽  
Modelling Approach

A series of radiocarbon dates for Early Bronze Age contexts from the excavations at Kouphovouno are published for the first time. By adopting a Bayesian modelling approach, the 14C estimates allow greater precision in arriving at an absolute chronology for the period. The opportunity is taken to place these dates as part of the more general development of the Early Bronze period. The sequence for mainland Greece is compared with the recently revised dating of the Early Cycladic period. The new data support a lower chronology than that advocated in recent publications.

Absolute Time Ranges in the Plateau of the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition and the Appearance of Bichrome Pottery in Canaan, Southern Levant

Radiocarbon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-37
Author(s):  
Yotam Asscher ◽  
Elisabetta Boaretto
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Absolute Time ◽  
The North ◽  
New Material ◽  
A Site

ABSTRACTThe Late Bronze Age to Iron Age transition in the Levant includes the appearance of new material culture that is similar in styles to the Aegean world. In the southern Levant, the distribution of early styles of Aegean-like pottery, locally produced, is limited to the coastal areas of Canaan, making synchronization with the rest of the region difficult. Radiocarbon (14C) dating provides a high-resolution absolute chronological framework for synchronizing ceramic phases. Here, absolute14C chronologies of the Late Bronze to Iron Age transition in the sites Tel Beth Shean, Tel Rehov, Tel Lachish, and Tel Miqne-Ekron are determined. Results show that the ranges of transitions vary in an absolute time frame by 50–100 years between different sites and that the range of the Late Bronze Age to Iron Age transition in Canaan spans the 13th–11th centuries BC plateau. These chronologies, based on a site-by-site approach for dating, show that the change between early types of Aegean-like pottery (Monochrome) to developed types (Bichrome), occurred over 100 years in Canaan and that the transition occurred in southern sites prior to sites in the north. These ranges show that not only is the Late Bronze to Iron Age not contemporaneous, but also synchronization between sites based on their ceramic assemblages is problematic.

Towards the Reconstitution of the Arreton Hoard: a Case of Faked Provenances

1986 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart P. Needham
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Isle Of Wight ◽  
First Time

The major Early Bronze Age hoard from Arreton Down in the Isle of Wight was made known to the Society of Antiquaries as early as 1735. Until recently however, half of the hoard had remained unlocated since 1737, when it was drawn by Charles Frederick. His drawings, which appear in the Society's MS 265, have been instrumental in relocating five of the missing bronzes; four of these were found to have acquired false provenances. This paper traces as far as possible the varied histories of ownership of the Arreton bronzes and in conclusion draws some lessons from the problem of uncorroborated provenances. For the first time the whole of the known hoard is illustrated together.

Chronology of Greece and South-east Europe in the Final Neolithic and Early Bronze Age

1999 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 319-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
East Europe ◽  
East European ◽  
South East Europe ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequences ◽  
Southern Greece ◽  
Of Greece

Final Neolithic to Early Bronze Age chronology in Greece remains obscure due to a lack of stratified deposits and radiocarbon dates. In this paper the Greek evidence is considered in the light of typological parallels, stratigraphic sequences, and the larger series of radiocarbon dates available from the south-east European cultures, and a tentative chronology for Greece and south-east Europe is presented. The evidence does not support the earlier notion of an overlap between the Thessalian Rachmani period and the Early Helladic period of southern Greece, but rather suggests that Rachmani is essentially contemporary with the southern Greek Final Neolithic. The Final Neolithic–Early Bronze Age transition in southern Greece shows affinities to Petromagoula in Thessaly and the Boleráz culture of Europe. Several radiocarbon dates place the Boleráz period in the early 5th millennium BP, suggesting that dates from FN–EBA transitional contexts in Greece may, in the future, help to fill the existing early 5th millennium gap in the Greek radiocarbon date series.

Rillenkarren at Vayia: geomorphology and a new class of Early Bronze Age fortified settlement in Southern Greece

Antiquity ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (307) ◽  
pp. 145-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Tartaron ◽  
Daniel J. Pullen ◽  
Jay S. Noller
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
New Class ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Site Survey ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Type ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Southern Greece

With ever more inhibited programmes of excavation, new methods of site survey are always welcome. Here a soil geomorphologist joins forces with archaeologists to read the history of limestone blocks exposed on the surface at sites in southern Greece. Rillenkarren for example are vertical grooves caused by rainfall on stones that remained for long periods in the same place. These and other observations showed that what looked like clearance cairns had in fact been piled up in the Early Bronze Age and led in turn to the definition of a new type of settlement.

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