Carbon-14 and the Beginning of the Late Bronze Age in the Aegean
Abstract
The evidence for the absolute dating of the initial phases of the Aegean Late Bronze Age is presented and analyzed. Aegean radiocarbon dates for the second millennium B.C. show an internally consistent pattern. They indicate a close correlation with the traditional chronological patterns for the later stages of the Bronze Age (particularly for LH IIIB), but there are major discrepancies at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, and the dates for LH I/LM IA are significantly earlier than has been previously supposed. The material evidence is examined, and it suggests that this early chronology is not substantiated by the archaeological record. No explanation for this situation is possible from the present evidence.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The weight of evidence has shifted substantially across the period from the initial interventions of 14C into second millennium BCE Aegean chronology to now.
“Overall, the weight of evidence has therefore shifted substantially across the period from the initial interventions of 14 C into second millennium BCE Aegean chronology (e.g.[84]) to now.”
From Second Intermediate Period date for the Thera (Santorini) eruption and historical implications (2022) · cites this paper as [84]
There is not, and never has been, any good, clear set of archaeological linkages/synchronisms that tie the Aegean (Cretan) MMIII through LMIA periods to the approximate Egyptian historical chronology.
“there is not, and never has been, any good, clear, set of archaeological linkages/synchronisms that tie the Aegean (Cretan) MMIII through LMIA periods to the approximate Egyptian historical chronology”
From Second Intermediate Period date for the Thera (Santorini) eruption and historical implications (2022) · cites this paper as [84]
There is a conspicuous gap in any secure connections during MMIII to LMIA.
“there is, as long-noted, a conspicuous gap in any secure connections during MMIII to LMIA [7,9,11,84,98,168]”
From Second Intermediate Period date for the Thera (Santorini) eruption and historical implications (2022) · cites this paper as [84]
There was a generally agreed approximate chronology and cultural synchronization of the East Mediterranean in the mid-second millennium BCE, placing the beginning of the Aegean Late Bronze Age contemporary with the start of the New Kingdom (18th Dynasty) in Egypt.
“There was a generally agreed approximate chronology and cultural synchronization, and thus history, of the East Mediterranean in the mid-second millennium BCE.This placed the beginning of the Aegean Late Bronze Age contemporary with the start of the New Kingdom (18 th Dynasty) in Egypt [27,84].”
From Second Intermediate Period date for the Thera (Santorini) eruption and historical implications (2022) · cites this paper as [84]
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Frost rings in trees as records of major volcanic eruptions
LaMarche, V. C., & Hirschboeck, K. K. (1984) · Nature · doi:10.1038/307121a0 · Cited by 396 · see citing works
Mediterranean radiocarbon offsets and calendar dates for prehistory
Manning, S. W., Kromer, B., Cremaschi, M., Dee, M. W., Friedrich, R., Griggs, C., & Hadden, C. S. (2020) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaz1096 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Second Intermediate Period date for the Thera (Santorini) eruption and historical implications
Manning, S. W. (2022) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0274835 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Manning, S. W. (2024) · Radiocarbon · doi:10.1017/rdc.2024.44 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“…the basis that the early Late Bronze Age (and LMIA) was wholly or largely contemporary with, and parallel/ associated with and primarily influenced by, the earlier New Kingdom of Egypt (Evans 1921 – 1935; Furumark 1950; Hankey and Warren 1974; Betancourt and Weinstein 1976; Warren and Hankey 1989).”
Bruins, H. J., & van der Plicht, J. (2025) · PLOS One · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0330702 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Betancourt, P. P., & Weinstein, G. A.
- Venue
- American Journal of Archaeology
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 1976-09-01
- Volume
- 80
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 329-348
- ISSN
- 0002-9114 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-828X
- OpenAlex
- W2330258082
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 45.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Archaeology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies
- Keywords
- Late Bronze Age, radiocarbon dating, absolute dating, Aegean Bronze Age
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
