A Small Town in Late Bronze Age Syria

The Many Ways between Late Bronze Age Aegeans and Levants

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

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 c...

Environmental Roots of the Late Bronze Age Crisis

The Late Bronze Age world of the Eastern Mediterranean, a rich linkage of Aegean, Egyptian, Syro-Palestinian, and Hittite civilizations, collapsed famously 3200 years ago and has remained one of the mysteries of the ancient world since the event's retrieval began in the late 19(th) century AD/CE. Iconic Egyptian bas-reliefs and graphic hieroglyphic and cuneiform texts portray the proximate caus...

Dating the Aegean Late Bronze Age with Radiocarbon*

When Cadogan wrote ‘Dating the Aegean Bronze Age without radiocarbon’ (1978), this writer agreed completely with the view that the absolute dating of the Aegean Late Bronze Age was already established. Correlations with Egypt and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean seemed secure, and virtually all Aegean prehistorians felt that radiocarbon dates could be ‘tested’ by comparison with the Aeg...

An example of cranial trepanation dating to the Middle Bronze Age from Ebla, Syria.

This paper regards the discovery of a trepanated skull dating back to the end of the Middle Bronze Age II (1650-1600 B.C.). The skull was found in a funeral pit in the Syrian city of Ebla. A rectangular area of the frontal bone measuring approximately 50 by 45 mm was purposely surgically removed through the use of a blade. Deposition of new bone indicates that the subject survived for a long pe...