The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C.: Proceedings of an International Symposium at Schloss Haindorf, 15th-17th of November 1996 and at the Austrian Academy, Vienna, 11th-12th of May 1998.

• Author: Feldman, Marian H.
• Position: Book Review

Edited by MANFRED BIETAK. Vienna: VERLAG DER OSTERREICHISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN, 2000. Pp. 179, tables. OS 627 (paper).

Chronology, both relative and absolute, occupies a favored position in studies of the second millennium B.C. On the one hand, this thousand-year period witnessed unprecedented into national relations across most of the Mediterranean and Near East. Yet on the other, almost every region presents conundrums regarding internal chronology, which when factored into any attempt to synchronize events among regions, produce a rippling effect that jeopardizes (and problematizes) the fundamental basis of historical inquiry, namely, causality. Thus the pursuit of a secure chronology by which to assess interregional contacts has assumed monumental proportions. Manfred Bietak, under the auspices of the Austrian Academy in Vienna, has embarked on a long-term international collaborative venture to address the problem through the integration of "scientific" and "historical" approaches. The volume under review represents an assortment of papers and reports from two symposia, one in 1996 and the other in 1998, that launched this large-scale project. The long list of contributors--more than twenty, the majority of whom are European--reflects its diversity and collaborative nature.

The book is divided into two parts. The first section presents proposals and research methods for determining relative and absolute chronologies. As might he expected, this discussion includes dating the Thera eruption, evaluating the merits of ice-core dating (pro: Hammer, pp. 35-37; contra: Zielinski, p. 34), and championing the "prospection" for volcanic ash at "well-stratified" Near Eastern sites (Bichler, pp. 30-31 ; Fischer, pp. 32-33). Other methods for absolute dating discussed include C14 (Kutschera and Stadler, pp. 68-91), astronomical phenomena (Brein, pp. 53-56; Luft, p. 57; Firneis, pp. 58-59; and Hunger, pp. 60-61), dendrochronology (Cichocki, pp. 62-67), and genealogy (Kitchen, pp. 39-52).

Bietak's own interest lies in the use of ceramic seriation for purposes of relative chronology (Bietak and Kopetzky, pp. 22-26; and Bietak, pp. 27-29). Seriation studies also factor into many of the projects in the second part of the book, which focus on specific regions: Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, coastal Syria, Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Aegean. This second section includes one of the most useful features of the volume--brief summaries of...