An Aegean History and Archaeology Written through Radiocarbon Dates

Markos Katsianis,Yannis Maniatis,Giorgos Styliaras,Andrew Bevan

doi:10.5334/joad.65

Abstract

This dataset is the outcome of an INSTAP-funded project “An Aegean Prehistory Written in Radiocarbon Dates”. It includes 3159 14C dates from 353 sites in Greece and reflects an attempt to exhaustively collect and cross-check all published radiocarbon dates from existing databases, original publications and preliminary reports using both international and Greek sources (376 sources in total). Although originally targeting prehistoric dates, all dates coming from archaeological or environmental sampling were integrated in the final dataset regardless of chronological period. Sites have been identified and positioned as accurately as possible, while additional information on sampling procedures, sample material and stratigraphic context have been recorded. Funding statement: The Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP) provided the core funding for the “An Aegean Prehistory Written in Radiocarbon Dates” project which ran between 2016–2017. Previous support by INSTAP to Yannis Maniatis for the radiocarbon dating of Early Neolithic settlements in Greece in NCSR Demokritos Radiocarbon Laboratory allowed for several dates to be processed and included in the present work. Work related to data cleaning and terminology mapping was implemented as part of the dataset preparation process to be ingested in the ARIADNEplus portal. ARIADNEplus (Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Database Networking in Europe) is a project funded by the European Commission under the H2020 Programme, contract no. H2020-INFRAIA-2018-1-823914. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

Highlights

(1) Overview Context The Aegean area has so far lagged behind several other parts of Europe and the Mediterranean in not offering any major listing of its considerable radiocarbon record, despite decades of radiocarbon sampling at major sites and worldwide radiocarbon-led debates, such as over the dating of the Santorini eruption (e.g. [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8])
Some 3159 14C dates from 353 sites located in Greece have been discovered or cross-checked via a combination of harmonizing records from several existing radiocarbon databases, searching original publications and checking preliminary reports from both international and Greek sources
The project was designed to complement/enhance wider research agendas considering the interplay between human population, land use and long-term environmental processes, especially a Leverhulme Trust funded project known as “Changing the Face of the Mediterranean” (RPG-2015-031, PI Neil Roberts) to which the current radiocarbon data were used as part of regional case study paper ([9], for the special issue, see [10])

Summary

Introduction

(1) Overview Context The Aegean area has so far lagged behind several other parts of Europe and the Mediterranean in not offering any major listing of its considerable radiocarbon record, despite decades of radiocarbon sampling at major sites and worldwide radiocarbon-led debates, such as over the dating of the Santorini eruption (e.g. [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]). (1) Overview Context The Aegean area has so far lagged behind several other parts of Europe and the Mediterranean in not offering any major listing of its considerable radiocarbon record, despite decades of radiocarbon sampling at major sites and worldwide radiocarbon-led debates, such as over the dating of the Santorini eruption The dataset provided here is the outcome of a project “An Aegean Prehistory Written in Radiocarbon Dates” and it offers the most complete list so far of published radiocarbon dates from Greece. – There is a small core of radiocarbon dates especially for Aegean prehistory originally published in English and re-used extensively in subsequent attempts by researchers to better define individual chronological subperiod boundaries, period outsets (e.g. the beginning of Neolithic) or important events (e.g. the Santorini eruption)

Objectives

Findings

Methods