Towards an Absolute Chronology for the Aegean Iron Age: New Radiocarbon Dates from Lefkandi, Kalapodi and Corinth

Michael B Toffolo,Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier,Rainer C S Felsch,Elisabetta Boaretto,Alexander Fantalkin,Guy D R Sanders,Irene S Lemos,Israel Finkelstein,Roberto Macchiarelli

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083117

Abstract

The relative chronology of the Aegean Iron Age is robust. It is based on minute stylistic changes in the Submycenaean, Protogeometric and Geometric styles and their sub-phases. Yet, the absolute chronology of the time-span between the final stages of Late Helladic IIIC in the late second millennium BCE and the archaic colonization of Italy and Sicily toward the end of the 8th century BCE lacks archaeological contexts that can be directly related to events carrying absolute dates mentioned in Egyptian/Near Eastern historical sources, or to well-dated Egyptian/Near Eastern rulers. The small number of radiocarbon dates available for this time span is not sufficient to establish an absolute chronological sequence. Here we present a new set of short-lived radiocarbon dates from the sites of Lefkandi, Kalapodi and Corinth in Greece. We focus on the crucial transition from the Submycenaean to the Protogeometric periods. This transition is placed in the late 11th century BCE according to the Conventional Aegean Chronology and in the late 12th century BCE according to the High Aegean Chronology. Our results place it in the second half of the 11th century BCE.

Highlights

The absolute chronology of the different phases of the Iron Age in the Aegean has been debated during the last decade [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
It is difficult to tie this relative scheme into an absolute dating system. This is so because the period between the final stages of the Late Helladic IIIC (LH IIIC) in the late second millennium BCE and the archaic colonization of Italy and Sicily toward the end of the 8th century BCE lacks archaeological contexts that can be directly related to events carrying absolute dates, such as layers with Egyptian items bearing names of well-dated pharaohs
Radiocarbon dating The 14C calibrated ages are presented in Table 1, with the dates ordered according to the relative chronological sequence determined for the contexts from which the samples were collected

Summary

Introduction

The absolute chronology of the different phases of the Iron Age in the Aegean has been debated during the last decade [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Scholars of the Aegean Iron Age who tried to resolve the problem have been forced to resort to comparative material from the East, that is, to Levantine sites which yielded Greek Protogeometric (PG) and Geometric (G) items, such as the old excavations at Samaria, Megiddo and Tell Abu Hawam [10] This too did not save the day, because: a) the Aegean items found in these sites did not come from stratigraphically secure contexts; b) the date of the relevant layers in the Levant was debated [11,12], mainly because it was founded on biblical texts whose historicity has been challenged [13,14,15,16]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion