Aegean Bronze Age Chronology. Vera Klontza-Jaklova

Transcription

1 Aegean Bronze Age Chronology Vera Klontza-Jaklova

2 Why the chronology of Aegean Bronze? General historical questions Causal questions Connections to European prehistory

3 Lectures outline Time and chronology First chronological systems Early and Middle Bronze Age LBA I LBA II LBA/EIA

4 Time is not absolute Different meanings in different circumstances Different approaches Different ways of measuring

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6 The meaning of time in Bronze Age Europe and its reflection in material culture

7 Written sources of later periods document significant changes in cosmological theory of LBA. Homer (Iliad & Odyssey end of 9 th 8 th Century BC) Hesiod (c BC) Heraclitus (c BC)

8 Heraklitus of Ephesos (ca BC)

9 Hesiod (ca BC) Landesmuseum Trier, 3rd c. AD Hesiod and the Muse (Gustav Moreau, 1891)

10 Homer After Herodotus: ca 850 BC Odysseus from A. Konchalowsky s movie The Odyssey

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13 Marinatos, N. 2010: Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine.

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20 Old Syrian Relief

21 Bouzek, J. 1985: The Aegean, Anatolia and Europe: cultural interrelations in the second millenium B. C. Gotteborg. Bouzek, J. 1994: Late bronze age Greece and the Balkans: a review of the present picture. ABSA 89, Bouzek, J. 2007: The Amber Route, Apollo and the Hyperboreans. In Galanaki et al. (eds.), Bouzek, J. Kratochvíl, Z. 1994: Od mýtu k logu. Kristiansen, K. Larsson, T. B. 2005: The Rise of Bronze Age Society. Ravel, Transmissions and Transformations. Klontza-Jaklova, V. 2010: The Meaning of Time in late Bronze Age Europe and its Reflection in Material Culture. Anodos. Studies of the Ancient World 10/2010,

22 Trundholm sun chariot

23 Kristiansen and Larsson 2005

24 Early Bronze Age Bird-shaped askoi

25 Ceramic vessels

26 Bronze vessels

27 Parts of jewelry of tools

28 Ceramic, bronze or glass/faience idols.

29 Parts chariot models

30 Svijany hoard

31 On goddesses triaras (Crete)

32 Incised on cliffs

33 Medinet Habu Relief

34 Egyptian calendar The ancient civil Egyptian calendar had a year that was 365 days long. The year consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, plus five extra days at the end of the year. The months were divided into three weeks of ten days each. The months were divided into three weeks of ten days each. Because the ancient Egyptian year was almost a quarter of a day shorter than the solar year and stellar events therefore "wandered" through the calendar, it has been referred to as the annus vagus, or "wandering year". Helliacan rising of Sirius - beginning of the year The heliacal rising of Sothis returned to the same point in the calendar every 1,460 years (a period called the Sothic cycle).

35 Summary Even more complicate today Time has speed Does the time exist independently to us or is it only philosophical category? Time presents to us in many different ways. We measure time, keep time, meet and greet in time and our daily lives are completely wrapped around the onward rush of time. We perceive time as past present and future. In physics time plays a major role in the measurement of motion and forces. Time also gives us a place like feeling to it suggesting that time is a dimension. The many facets of time suggest that time is an emergent phenomenon that is arising from some underlying process that we need to identify.

36 Methods Relative chronology Stratigraphy Comparison of imports and parallel objects Absolute chronology Analogical method Radiocarbon dating Dendrochronology Glaciology Termoluminescent effects

37 Radiocarbon dating

38 Dendrochronology

39 Ice core dating

40 Pioneers of the field excavations just confirm the ancient authors frozen time Example: Troy/Hisarlik

41 What systems we use in Aegean Bronze Age? Early scholars have divided the Aegean Bronze Age into three cultural districts: Minoan Crete after mythological king Minos Helladic Mainland after Hellas Cycladic islands Special system for Troy/Hisarlic Except the Troian system, the all other region were divided chronologically into Early, Middle and Late periods, which were again sub-divided into three phases: I, II, III.

42 We use the abbreviations: M, H, C Crete / Minoan Mainland / Helladic Islands / Cycladic EARLY I EM I EH I EC I II EM II EH II EC II III EM III EH III EC III MIDDLE I MM I MH I MC I II MM II MH II MC II III MM III MH III MC III LATE I LM I LH I LC I II LM II LH II LC II III LM III LH III LC III

43 SYNCHRONISATION CHART

44 Primary criteria of the chronological divisions are not such clear as they looked in the beginning Ceramics, architecture, destructions More details: i.e. LM IIIA2 early The single periods don t start in same moment: i.e. LH ~ LM IA, LH II ~ LM IB The period don t have same length in each region and don t last same in each region: e.g. LM IB starts earlier on Thera than on Crete

45 Renfrew (1972): cultures for Cycladic island It doesn t reflect overlaps

46 Nicolas Platon Architectural phases of palaces Prepalatial period ~ EM III MM IA Protopalatial period ~ MM IB MM II Neopalatial period ~ MM III LM IB Final palatial period ~ LM IB late LM IIIB Post palatial period ~ LM IIIB late Platon, N. 1961: Chronologie de la Créte et des Cyclades á age du bronze. In Bericht über den V. Internationalen Kongress für Vorgeschichte und Frühgeschichte (Hamburg 1958). Berlin. Platon, N. 1966: Crete. Cleveland and New York. Platon, N. 1971: Zakros. The Discovery of a Lost Palace of Ancient Crete. New York.

47 Mainland Helladic and Mycenaean period Mycenaean: Early, Advanced, Late and Post ~ MH III LH IIIB early

48 Troy chronological system Schliemann and Dörpfeld Blegen Korfmann

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50 Absolute dates Early and Middle BA: Radiocarbon dates mainly there are limited sets no differences BC problem (differences between 14C data and archaeological data for Aegean and for Egypt) Since 1450 BC again in agreement

51 European prehistory Late Stone Age / Final Neolithic /Eneolithic / Chalcolithic period Early Bronze Age Middle Bronze Age Late Bronze Age

52 9th March Early and Middle Bronze Age Chronology