Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age 1700-1400 B.C.
Abstract
Radiocarbon (carbon-14) data from the Aegean Bronze Age 1700–1400 B.C. show that the Santorini (Thera) eruption must have occurred in the late 17th century B.C. By using carbon-14 dates from the surrounding region, cultural phases, and Bayesian statistical analysis, we established a chronology for the initial Aegean Late Bronze Age cultural phases (Late Minoan IA, IB, and II). This chronology contrasts with conventional archaeological dates and cultural synthesis: stretching out the Late Minoan IA, IB, and II phases by ∼100 years and requiring reassessment of standard interpretations of associations between the Egyptian and Near Eastern historical dates and phases and those in the Aegean and Cyprus in the mid–second millennium B.C.
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We thank National Environment Research Council (NERC) for funding (both for the specific grant held by Manning and Bronk Ramsey and for the funding of the Oxford laboratory's infrastructure) and all of the members of Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit staff who worked on the project. We thank the SCIEM2000 project for support of the VERA dating work. For samples, assistance, and collaboration, we gratefully thank G. Cadogan, C. Doumas, E. Hallager, P. I. Kuniholm, T. Marketou, M. Newton, W.-D. Niemeier, C. Pearson, J. Rutter, J. and M. Shaw, Y. Tzedakis, I. Unkel, and J. Wright. We also acknowledge the important groundwork laid for this project by R. Housley and colleagues in the 1980s.
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Science
Volume 312 | Issue 5773
28 April 2006
28 April 2006
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American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 1 February 2006
Accepted: 23 March 2006
Published in print: 28 April 2006
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