The Absolute Chronology of the Aegean Early Bronze Age: Archaeology, Radiocarbon and History.

• Author: Dever, William G.
• Position: Review

By STURT W. MANNING. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology, vol. 1. Sheffield: SHEFFIELD ACADEMIC PRESS, 1995. Pp. 370 + 57, maps, figures, and charts. $70.

In this massively documented and closely reasoned work Sturt Manning, of the University of Reading, a well-known proponent of the Mediterranean "high" chronology, attempts to provide an absolute and precise chronological framework for Crete and the southern Aegean during the Early Bronze Age, or "Early Minoan" era, integrating the archaeological evidence with statistical analyses of the available radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dates. He also examines the terminal Neolithic, as well as many matters pertaining to Middle and Late Minoan Crete. His manuscript was basically completed in 1989, after which he was able to revise only the radiocarbon section, made necessary by new calibration curves published in 1993.

It is impossible to do justice to this exhaustive and highly controversial volume in a brief review, even if one were an expert in radiocarbon statistics, which I cannot claim to be. The work is clearly organized in three sections: "Archaeological Evidence and EBA Aegean Chronology" (pp. 39-123); "Radiocarbon and Thermoluminescence Evidence for EBA Aegean Chronology" (pp. 125-66); and "EB Aegean Absolute Chronological Conclusions" (pp. 168-74). Eight appendices (pp. 175-229) deal with such matters as Anatolian, Cypriote, North Greek, and Levantine connections and radiocarbon dates; the date of the eruption of Thera and the Late Minoan IA period, of critical importance for Manning; and a final "approximate" Minoan Bronze Age chronology in chart form (p. 217).

Manning's extensive preface and introduction (pp. 15-38) set forth with refreshing candor (and even a bit of humor, unexpected in so esoteric a subject) the basic methodological principles that are to be followed. His caveats on the use of radiocarbon dates are particularly useful. This section is also valuable because it updates the 1989 manuscript with brief responses to more recent literature, especially Warren and Hankey (1989), which Manning finds rather conventional.

Section 1 consists of the presentation of a mass of Early Bronze Age archaeological data, mainly from Crete and the Greek mainland, but including interconnections with Anatolia, Cyprus, the Levant, Egypt, and even Mesopotamia. Manning seems to have missed nothing, not even a few controversial individual sherds. Nevertheless, his conclusions are rather...