Dating the End of the Greek Bronze Age: A Robust Radiocarbon-Based Chronology from Assiros Toumba

Abstract

Over 60 recent analyses of animal bones, plant remains, and building timbers from Assiros in northern Greece form an unique series from the 14th to the 10th century BC. With the exception of Thera, the number of 14C determinations from other Late Bronze Age sites in Greece has been small and their contribution to chronologies minimal. The absolute dates determined for Assiros through Bayesian modelling are both consistent and unexpected, since they are systematically earlier than the conventional chronologies of southern Greece by between 70 and 100 years. They have not been skewed by reference to assumed historical dates used as priors. They support high rather than low Iron Age chronologies from Spain to Israel where the merits of each are fiercely debated but remain unresolved.

Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP

“…Aegeanizing influences begin to appear in the late 12 th century (FP6b) and proliferate in the 11 th century (FP6a-5), continuing in declining frequencies into the mid-10 th century (FP4-3, 2 Early) [ 51 , 56 , 110 ]. These dates are consistent with a more or less conventional chronology and do not support recent suggestions for much earlier (or ‘higher’) dates for the end of the Late Bronze Age (and the LH IIIB to LH IIIC transition) [ 97 ]. We place Tell Tayinat Phase 6b-a and its assemblage and associations with the Late Helladic IIIC tradition [ 51 , 56 , 110 ] from the late 12 th century BCE onwards, in line with other recent 14 C based work in the Aegean and East Mediterranean [ 94 , 96 , 156 – 158 ].…”

“…[ 56 , 90 ]). The past couple of decades have, unsurprisingly, seen scholars trying to find alternative means to establish secure chronological timeframes for the early Iron Age in several areas of the East Mediterranean and Aegean, and have–almost inevitably–created controversy as previous hypotheses are challenged, usually by new radiocarbon evidence [ 86 , 87 , 91 – 97 ].…”

“…In contrast to the southern Levant and a few other areas, where the widespread use of radiocarbon evidence to address issues of Iron Age chronology has led to the development of a large dataset of chronometric evidence (e.g. [ 87 , 91 – 97 ]), available radiocarbon data in the northern Levant is extremely scarce [ 15 , 23 , 51 , 104 ]. This has led to the development of a series of relative regional chronologies, often employing widely varying chronological terminologies based on locally-defined or somewhat arbitrary subdivisions [ 86 , 105 – 108 ].…”

Drought and societal collapse 3200 years ago in the Eastern Mediterranean: a review

“…By combining historical and environmental data, this review, based on the climate hypothesis, suggests that the Late Bronze Age crisis was a long and complex spiral of decline that coincided with the onset of a ∼300‐year drought event, 3200 years ago. This climatic event and the Late Bronze Age collapse have sometimes been misused and mistaken with local cultural decline or strangely dated in Greece . Even if uncertainties remain concerning the spatial dimensions of the climate event, its duration, and how the circulation patterns were affected, it mainly underlines the agroproductive sensitivity of ancient Mediterranean societies to environmental changes.…”

Investigating the archaeointensity determination success of prehistoric ceramics through a multidisciplinary approach: new and re-evaluated data from Greek collections

“…Such collections are abundant in Greece and are very often well studied as far as their clay characteristics are concerned and also accurately dated (e.g. Reingruber & Thissen 2009;Nodarou 2010;Hein & Kilikoglou 2012;Wardle et al 2014;Urem-Kotsou 2016, among others).…”