The absolute chronology of Late Helladic III A2 revisited

Annual of the British School at Athens

Volumn 98, Issue , 2003, Pages

  Wiener, Malcolm H ^a  

^a Institute for Aegean Prehistory

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EID: 61949381591     PISSN: 00682454     EISSN: 20452403     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0068245400016865     Document Type: Article

References (135)

1. An abridged version of this paper was presented at a conference at University College London on 25 May 2002 held in memory of Vronwy Hankey in recognition of her assistance to colleagues and contributions to learning. I dedicate this paper to the memory of Vrowny and Henry Hankey.
2. M. H. Wiener, 'The absolute chronology of the late Helladic IIIA2', in M. S. Balmuth and R. H. Tykot (eds), Sardinian and Aegean Chronology: Towards the Resolution of Relative and Absolute Dating in the Mediterranean. Proceedings of the International Colloquium 'Sardinian Stratigraphy and Mediterranean Chronology', Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, March 17-19, 1995 (Oxford, 1998), 309-19.
3. P. Warren and V. Hankey, Aegean Bronze Age Chronology (Bristol, 1989). The authors note in a postscript (p. 214) that 'discoveries of substantial LM IIIA2 levels in southern Crete, especially Haghia Triada, may require this view to be modified'.
4. Others have proposed spans ranging from the 20 years between 1360 and 1340 BC (E. Cline) to the 100 years between 1400 and 1300 BC (A. Furumark, A. Kanta); E. Cline, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: International Trade and the IMIC Bronze Age Aegean (Oxford, 1994);
5. A. Furumark, Mycenaean Pottery (Stockholm, 1972).
6. All dates herein follow the Egyptian Middle Chronology. See K. Kitchen, 'The basics of Egyptian chronology in relation to the Bronze Age', in P. Åström (ed. ), High, Middle or Low? Acts of an International Colloquium on Absolute Chronology Held at the University of Gothenburg 20-22 August 1987, Part 1 (Göteborg, 1987), 37-55;
7. id. , 'History of Egypt (chronology) ', The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ii (New York, 1992), 322-31;
8. id. , The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100-650 B. C. ), 2nd revised edn. with supplement, (Warminster, 1996);
9. id. , 'The historical chronology of Ancient Egypt: a current assessment', Act. A. (1996), 1-13;
10. id. , 'Regnal and genealogical data of Ancient Egypt (absolute chronology I): the historical chronology of Ancient Egypt, a current assessment', in M. Bietak (ed. ), The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B. C. Proceedings of an International Symposim at Schloss Haindorf, 15th-17th of November 1996 and at the Austrian Academy, Vienna, 11th-12th of May 1998 (Vienna, 2000), 39-52;
11. K. Kitchen and M. Bierbrier, The Late New Kingdom in Egypt (c. 1300-664 B. C. ) (Warminster, 1975);
12. E. Hornung, Untersuchungen zur Chronologie und Geschichte des Neuen Reiches (Wiesbaden, 1964);
13. 'Chronologie in Bewegung', in M. Görg and E. Pusch (eds), Festschrift Elmar Edel (Bamberg, 1979), 247-52;
14. J. von Beckerath, Chronologie des ägyptischen Neuen Reiches (Hildesheim, 1994);
15. Die Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägypten (Mainz, 1997);
16. R. Krauss, Das Ende der Amamazeit (Hildesheim, 1978);
17. id. , Sothis und Monddaten (Hildesheim, 1985);
18. W. Helck, 'Was kann die Ägyptologie wirklich zum Problem der absoluten Chronologie in der Bronzezeit beitragen?', in Åström (op. cit. ), 18-26;
19. id. , 'Schwachstellen der Chronologie-Diskussion', Göttinger Miszellen, 70 (1983), 43-9;
20. U. Luft, 'Und nocheinmal zum Ebcrs-Kalender', Göttinger Miszellen, 92 (1986), 69-77;
21. Wiener (n. 2), Addendum, 315-17.
22. A recent restatement of the Egyptian chronology position appears in M. Wiener, 'Time out: the current impasse in Bronze Age archaeological dating', in K. Foster and R. Laffineur (eds), METRON: Measuring the Aegean Bronze Age. Proceedings of the Ninth International Aegean Conference, Yale University, 18-21 April 2002 (Aegaeum, 25 forthcoming).
23. Wiener (n. 2).
24. W. -D. Niemeier, 'The Mycenaeans in Western Anatolia and the problem of the origin of the Sea Peoples', in S. Gilin, A. Mazar, and E. Stern (eds); Mediterranean Peoples in Transition. Proceedings of the International Symposium in Jerusalem in Honor of T. Dothan, 3-7 April 1995 (Jerusalem, 1998), 44;
25. id. , 'The Mycenaean potter's quarter at Miletus', in R. Laffineur and P. P. Betancourt (eds), TEXNH: Craftsmen, Craftswomen and Craftsmanship in the Aegean Bronze Age. Proceedings of the Sixth International Aegean Conference, Philadelphia, Temple University, 18-21 April 1996 (Aegaeum, 16; Liège, 1997), 347.
26. Wiener (n. 2);
27. C. Mee, 'A Mycenaean thalassocracy in the eastern Aegean?', in E. B. French and K. A Wardle (eds), Problems in Greek Prehistory: Papers Presented at the Centenary Conference of the British School of Archaeology at Athens, Manchester, April 1986 (Bristol, 1988), 301-6.
28. Mee notes that pottery imported from the Argolid was particularly prevalent in Rhodian funerary deposits (C. Mee, 'Mycenaeans overseas in the eastern Aegean and western Anatolia', paper presented at 'From Crete to Mycenae to Amarna: pots, pictures and places in the work of Vronwy Hankey', Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 25 May 2002). I am most grateful to Christopher Mee for providing me with his paper and for his advice generally.
29. Warren and Hankey (n. 3), 149;
30. Wiener (n. 2), 309 and works cited therein.
31. K. S. Shelton, 'The excavation of Petsas House at Mycenae: drinking and dumping', paper presented at the 104th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, New- Orleans, 5 Jan. 2003;
32. S. Voutsaki, 'Social and political processes in the Mycenaean Argolid: the evidence from the mortuary practices', in R. Laffineur and W. -D. Niemeier (eds), Politeia: Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age. Proceedings of the Fifth International Aegean Conference, Heidelburg (Aegaeum, 12; Liège, 1995), 55-66;
33. id. , 'Mortuary evidence, symbolic meanings and social change: a comparison between Messenia and the Argolid in the Mycenaean period', in K. Branigan (ed. ), Cemetery and Society in the Aegean Bronze Age (Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology, 1; Sheffield, 1998), 41-58;
34. M. J. Alden, Bronze Age Population Fluctuations in the Argolid from the Evidence of Mycenaean Tombs (Göteborg, 1981), 326.
35. M. Popham, 'Sellopoulo Tombs 3 and 4, two Late Minoan graves near Knossos', BSA 69 (1974), 216-17.
36. For recent statements of the Egyptian Middle Chronology position, see K. Kitchen (n. 4).
37. S. Manning, The Absolute Chronology of the Aegean Early Bronze Age (Sheffield, 1995), 227.
38. B. P. Hallager, 'Mycenaean pottery in LM III A1 deposits at Khania, western Crete', in French-Wardle (n. 6), 180.
39. P. Warren also noted the overlap of LM III A2 and LH III B at the Stratigraphic Museum Extension site at Knossos (Hallager, 181).
40. B. Kaiser, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Deutschland, 40 (Munich, 1976), 82-96.
41. C. Podzuweit, 'Bemerkungen zur mykcnischen Keramik von Tell el-Amarna', in C. Dobiat and D. Vorlauf (eds), Festschrift für Otto-Hermann Frey zum 65 Geburtstag (Marburg, 994). 457-74.
42. I am grateful to V. Hankey for these references.
43. W. M. F. Petrie, Tell el Amanta (London, 1894), 16-17;
44. Warren-Hankey (n. 3), 149;
45. M. R. Popham, The Destruction of the Palace at Knossos. Pottery of the Late Minoan III A Period (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, 12; Göteborg, 1970), 84, n. 87.
46. V. Hankey, pers. comm.
47. A. Furumark, Mycenaean Pottery (Stockholm, 1941);
48. for Amarna see ii, 113.
49. Pers. comm.
50. V. Hankey, 'Stirrup jars at El-Amarna', in W. V. Davies and L. Schofield (eds), Egypt, the Aegean and the Levant. Interconnections in the Second Millennium B. C. (London, 1995), 116-24;
51. Warren-Hankey (n. 3), 150, fig. 9.
52. P. Mountjoy observes (pers. comm. ) that FS 178 does not usually have a decorated belly zone in III A2.
53. E. French, 'lAte Helladic IIIA2 pottery from Mycenae', BSA 60 (1965), 159-202.
54. Warren-Hankey (n. 3), 155, fig. 10.
55. I am most grateful to E. French for this assessment and for permission to quote it here, and to P. Mountjoy as well.
56. S. W. Manning in A Test of Time (Oxford, 1999), 314, stated the prior case as follows: 'The 1628 B. C. and 1159-1141 B. C. tree-ring events arc the only major tree-ring growth anomalies in the entire second millennium B. C. in the Irish dendrochronology. Therefore the correlation, within the possible dating window established by the high precision radiocarbon dating and wiggle-match, of the Anatolian and Irish dendrochronologies at both these decisive points provides a clear case for being able to apply the absolute dates from the Irish dendrochronology (and its European associates) to the Anatolian dendrochronology'.
57. Wiener (n. 2), 314.
58. S. W. Manning, B. Kromer, P. I. Kuniholm, and M. W. Newton, 'Anatolian tree rings and a new chronology for the East Mediterranean Bronze-Iron Ages', Science, 294 (21 Dec. 2000, 2532-5.
59. The issues raised by this proposed radiocarbon-based shift in the dcndrological dates for the Anatolian floating chronology are addressed in detail in my forthcoming study entitled 'Time Out: The Current Impasse in Bronze Age Archaeological Dating' (Wiener, forthcoming [n. 4]), which concludes that the proposed shift in dates, while not free of all doubt, should be accepted as providing the best approximation of dates for the Anatolian sequence presently available.
60. 1C levels from tree ring chronologies back to 12. 400 BP: a tracer of natural climate variability in the Holocene', lecture delivered at Cornell University on 29 Oct. 2002, and pers. comm. ; S. Manning, pers. comm. I am grateful to both colleagues.
61. Pers. comm. of 17 May 2002.
62. P. I. Kuniholm, Aegean Dendrochronology Project: 1996 Annual Progress Report (Ithaca, New York, 1996);
63. C. Pulak, 'The Uluburun shipwreck', in R. Hohlfelder and S. Swiny (eds), Res Maritima 1994: Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, Prehistory Through the Roman Period (Atlanta, 1997), 233-62.
64. Wiener (n. 2), 314 and pers. comm.
65. See Manning et al. (n. 28), 2535, n. 38. I am most grateful to Professor Kuniholm for this information. Archaeological scientists as well as excavators sometimes find lhat it is necessary to correct a preliminary report.
66. I am grateful to M. Newton for calling this possibility to my attention.
67. P. T. Nicholson and J. Henderson, 'Glass', in P. T. Nicholson and I. Shaw (eds), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (Cambridge, 2000), 195-222, esp. 200. The comparison was made possible through the provision of a cast of the Uluburun ingots by G. Bass and C. Pulak.
68. See also C. Pulak, 'The cargo of the Uluburun ship and evidence for trade with the Aegean and beyond', in L. Bonfante and V. Karageorghis (eds), Italy and Cyprus in Antiquity, 1500-450 B. C. Proceedings of an International Symposium Held at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, November 16-18 2000 (Nicosia, 2001).
69. Nicholson and Henderson (n. 36), 200
70. citing G. Bass 'Oldest known shipwreck reveals splendors of the Bronze Age', National Geographic, 172 (1987), 692-733;
71. C. M. Jackson, P. T. Nicholson, and W. Gneisinger, 'Glass-making at Tell el-Amarna: an integrated approach', Journal of Glass Studies, 40 (1998), 11-23.
72. Another LH III A2 link has been suggested in the form of possible Mycenaean warriors or at least their equipment. L. Schofield and R. B. Parkinson, 'Of helmets and heretics: a possible Egyptian representation of Mycenaean warriors on a papyrus from el-Amarna', BSA 89 (1994), 157-70.
73. Nicholson-Henderson (n. 37), 204. Presumably this would imply a date between about 1360 and 1345 B. C. on the Egyptian Middle Chronology.
74. Warren-Hankey (n. 3), 149.
75. Nicholson-Henderson (n. 37), 205;
76. E. B. Pusch, 'Glasproduktion in Qantir', Ägypten und levante, 9 (1999) 111-20;
77. T. Rehren and E. B. Pusch, 'Glass and glass making at Qantir-Piramesses and beyond', Ägypten und Levante, 9 (1999) 171-9. I am grateful to David Aston for reminding me of the papers by E. B. Pusch.
78. J. Weinstein, 'The Bronze Age shipwreck at Ulu Burun: 1986 campaign: III. The gold scarab of Nefertiti from Ulu Burun: its implications for Egyptian history and Egyptian-Aegean relations', AJA 93 (1989), 23.
79. Pers. comm. for which I am most grateful.
80. Pers. comm. conveyed by Dominique Collon, for which I am most grateful.
81. Pers. comm. of 8 Apr. 1997, for which I am most grateful.
82. Pers. comms. for which I am most grateful; J. Smith, letter of 4 Jan. 2003.
83. The bucchero jug in question is illustrated in G. Bass, 'A Bronze Age shipwreck at Ulu Burun (Kaş): 1984 campaign', AJA 90 (1986), 281.
84. I am grateful to J. Rutter, who is publishing the pottery, and to E. French for discussing it with me and for these observations.
85. B. and W. -D. Niemeier, 'Milet 1994-1995.
86. Projekt "Minoisch-mykenisches bis protogeometrisches Milet": Zielsetzung und Grabungen auf dem Stadionhügel und am Athenatemple', AA 1997, 197;
87. W. -D. Niemeier 1997 (n. 6);
88. id. , 1998 (n. 6), 32-3;
89. id. , pers. comm.
90. For the settlement sequence of prehistoric Miletus as established by the new excavations see W. -D. Niemeier, in A. M. Greaves and B. Helwing, 'Archaeology in Turkey: the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, 1997-1999', AJA 105 (2001), 505-6.
91. See also J. D. Hawkins, 'Tarkasnawa King of Mira Tarkondemos", Boǧazköy Scalings and Karabel', Anatolian Studies, 48 (1998), 1-31.
92. A. Goetze, 'Die Annalen des Mursilis', Mitteilungen der vorderasiatisch-ägyptischen Geselkchaft, 38 (1933), 36-8, 253-4.
93. S. Heinhold-Krahmer, Arzawa. Texte der Hethiter 8 (Heidelburg, 1977), 62-4;
94. H. G. Güterbock, 'The Hittites and the Aegean world I: the Ahhiyawa problem reconsidered', AJA 87 (1983), 135;
95. T. R. Bryce, 'The nature of Mycenaean involvement in western Anatolia', Historia, 38 (1989)
96. and 'Ahhiyawans and Mycenaeans - an Anatolian viewpoint', OJA 8 (1989), 299.
97. M. J. Mellink, 'The Hittites and the Aegean world II: archaeological comments on Ahhiyawa-Achaians in western Anatolia', AJA 87 (1983), 139-40;
98. W. -D. Neimeier, 'Mycenaeans and Hittites in war in western Asia Minor', in R. Laffineur (ed. ), Polemos: Le contexte guerrier en Egée à l'âge du bronze (Aegaeum, 19; Liège and Austin, 1999), 150-1.
99. Hawkins 1998 (n. 49), 28 considers this suggestion possible but points out, that 'it infers more than the text records'.
100. G. Wilhelm and J. Boese, 'Absolute Chronologie und die hethitische Geschichte des 15. und 14. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. ', in Åström (n. 4), 108, table on 117.
101. Wilhelm and Boese (n. 53);
102. F. Starke, 'Hattusa', in Der Neue Pauly, Enzyklopädie der Antike 5 (Stuttgart and Wiemar, 1998), table on 191-2.
103. I am deeply grateful to W. -D. Niemeier for this communication and his permission to publish it here. See also Niemeier-Niemeier (n. 46)
104. and Niemeier (n. 6).
105. V. Hankey and D. Aston, 'Mycenaean pottery at Saqqara: finds from excavations by the Egypt Exploration Society of I. ondon and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, 1975-1990', in Carter and S. P. Morris (eds), The Ages of Homer: A Tribute to Emily Townsend Vermeule (Austin, 1995), 69. I am grateful to Peter Warren for bringing this article to my attention.
106. A. J. Evans, The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos I: The Cemetery of Zafer Papoura (London, 1906), 87-90.
107. Indeed, some III A2 even appears in the shaft of a tomb of a Ramesside princess buried during the reign of Merneptah toward the end of the 13th c. , about 100 years into the III B era, but there is a possibility that the III A2 pottery was intrusive (G. T. Martin, cited in Warren-Hankey [n. 3]).
108. Warren-Hankey (n. 3), 154.
109. Pers. comm. 8 Apr. 1997.
110. W. M. F. Petrie, Illahun, Kahun and Gurob (London, 1891), 17;
111. T. G. H. James, cit. P. Åström, 'Supplementary-material from Ayios Iakovos Tomb 8', Op. Ath. 4 (1962), 223 n. 1;
112. Åström (n. 59), 207-24;
113. M. R. Bell, 'Gurob Tomb 605 and Mycenaean chronology', Mélanges Gamal Eddin Mokhtar, i (Cairo, 1985), 61; I am grateful to David Aston for calling the Bell publication to my attention.
114. L. Badre, 'Kamid el-Loz, in E. M. Meyers (ed. ). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, iii (Oxford, 1997). 265.
115. R. Hachmann, Kamid el-Loz (Bonn, 1980), 88, pl. 26. 2.
116. Wiener (n. 2), 311.
117. While it is conceivable that the former temple courtyard could have served as a shrine after the destruction, it is unlikely that Mycenaean pottery would have been imported under such circumstances.
118. See e. g. tablet EA 29 in W. L. Moran, The Amama Letters (Baltimore, 1992), 92-9.
119. I am greatly indebted to Eliezer Oren for this information (pers. comm. ).
120. Pers. comm. of 29 Sept. 2002, for which I am most grateful.
121. Warren - Hankey (n. 3), 151-2.
122. Hankey-Aston (n. 56).
123. Pers. comms. for which I am most grateful.
124. G. T. Martin, The Hidden Tombs of Memphis (New York, 1991), 182;
125. J. van Dijk, 'The Overseer of the Treasury Maya: a biographical sketch', Oudheidkundige Mededelingen uit het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden te Leiden 70 (1990), 25;
126. M. J. Raven, 'The site and its history' and E. Strouhal, 'The skeletal remains', in M. J. Raven, The Tomb of Maya and Meryt, Pt. 2: Objects and Skeletal Remains (London and Leiden, 2001 ), 1-18, 80-97. I am grateful to David Aston for information concerning these publications and to Jacobus van Dijk for his comments and corrections on this section of the paper.
127. Martin (n. 73), 148-9.
128. Martin (n. 73), 172;
129. Strouhal (n. 73). 86.
130. Neutron activation analysis (NAA) of certain III A2 and III B pictorial vessels found in Egypt and Cyprus indicates that a number of them were composed of clays from the MycenaeBerbati area (H. Mommsen and J. Maran, 'Production places of some Mycenaean pictorial vessels: the contribution of Chemical Pottery Analysis', OpAth 25-6 (2000-1), 95-106).
131. The LH III A2-B transition among others at Tiryns is portrayed in a chart published in 1988. The chart shows a sudden decrease in III A2 pottery at a point around 1300 B. C. , but the calendar date is of course based on Egyptian contexts (K. Kilian, 'Mycenaeans up to date, trends and changes in recent research', in French-Wardle (n. 7), 115-52).
132. Hallager (n. 14) and Warren comment therein.
133. J. Phillips. 'And then there were none - Egypt and Crete in the 13th c. BC', paper presented at 'From Crete and Mycenae to Amarna: Pots, Pictures and Places in the Work of Vronwy Hankey', Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 25 May 2002.
134. Evans (n. 57).
135. Phillips (n. 80).