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Science 28 April 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5773, pp. 565 - 569
DOI: 10.1126/science.1125682
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Reports

Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age 1700-1400 B.C.

Sturt W. Manning,1,2* Christopher Bronk Ramsey,3 Walter Kutschera,4 Thomas Higham,3 Bernd Kromer,5 Peter Steier,4 Eva M. Wild4

Radiocarbon (carbon-14) data from the Aegean Bronze Age 1700–1400 B.C. show that the Santorini (Thera) eruption must have occurred in the late 17th century B.C. By using carbon-14 dates from the surrounding region, cultural phases, and Bayesian statistical analysis, we established a chronology for the initial Aegean Late Bronze Age cultural phases (Late Minoan IA, IB, and II). This chronology contrasts with conventional archaeological dates and cultural synthesis: stretching out the Late Minoan IA, IB, and II phases by ~100 years and requiring reassessment of standard interpretations of associations between the Egyptian and Near Eastern historical dates and phases and those in the Aegean and Cyprus in the mid–second millennium B.C.

1 Department of Classics, Cornell University, 120 Goldwin Smith Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853–3201, USA.
2 Department of Archaeology, School of Human and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AB, UK.
3 Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK.
4 Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) Laboratory, Institut für Isotopenforschung und Kernphysik, Universität Wien, Währinger Straße 17, A-1090 Wien, Austria.
5 Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Institut für Umweltphysik der Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 229, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sm456{at}cornell.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)