DATING THE AEGEAN LATE BRONZE AGE WITH RADIOCARBON: ADDENDUM

Additional comment on the new high-precision calibration curves and tables published after this article (Archaeometry 29 (1), 1987, 45–49) was in press.     

ABSOLUTE DATING OF THE AEGEAN LATE BRONZE AGE

A recent argument for raising the absolute date of the beginning of the Aegean Late Bronze (LB) Age to about 1700 B.C. is critically examined. It is argued here that: (1) the alabaster lid from Knossos did have the strati-graphical context assigned to it by Evans, in all probability Middle Minoan IIIA, c. 1650 B.C.; (2) the attempt to date the alabastron found in an early Eighteenth Dynasty context at Aniba to Late Minoan IIIA:1 is open to objections; (3) radiocarbon dates from Aegean LB I contexts are too wide in their calibrated ranges and too inconsistent both within and between site sets to offer any reliable grounds at present for raising Aegean LB I absolute chronology to 1700 B.C. Other evidence, however, suggests this period began about 1600 B.C., i.e. some fifty years earlier than the conventional date of 1550 B.C.     

WHEELS WITH THICKENED SPOKES, AND THE PROBLEM OF CULTURAL CONTACT BETWEEN THE AEGEAN WORLD AND EUROPE IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE

Summary. A technological advance in wheel construction, entailing spokes with thickened or strengthened ends, can be detected in Central Europe at the start of the Late Bronze Age. Spokes with thickened ends are seen in Central Europe on full-size wheels, wagon models and wheel depictions. It is argued that this technological innovation had its source in the Aegean, where wheels with thickened spokes are seen not only depicted on late Mycenaean craters but also on Linear B wheel ideograms. The second part of the article discusses a closely-related Central European group of wheel-shaped designs, characterised by forked spokes, found on pin-heads, pendants, decorated belt-sheets, phalerae and belt-hooks. As some of these designs refer to real wheels constructed with thickened or strengthened spoke ends, it is concluded that the designs really represent wheels, although the designs are often so simplified that this is not immediately apparent.     

DATING THE BRONZE AGE IN SPAIN

Summary. How can archaeologists combine and use C14 determinations when they have irregular recalibrated dates? This question is solved by an example with six determinations from the Bronze Age settlement of El Castillo in the mountains of eastern Spain. For the first time we can date precisely the end of the Eneolithic to 2150–2110 BC, and the start of a Bronze Age expansion stage by 1960 BC. Each has a distinctive material culture; that of the Bronze Age stage is linked closely to the climax of the Motillas in La Mancha, and more distantly to El Argar in SE Spain.     

RESEARCH NOTES AND APPLICATION REPORTS U-SERIES DATING OF THE DEPOSITS FROM THE PRINCE CAVE,NORTHERN ITALY

The travertine layers of the Prince Cave have been dated by the U-series methods. The age of the lower part of the breccia Br2, where a human iliac fossil bone was discovered, is between 110 and 160 ka. and the upper part of Br2, together with the breccia Br1, between 79 and 160 ka. The reliability of the results is confirmed not only by the consistency of the dates obtained from samples in close proximity, but also by the agreement between two independent dating methods: Th-230/U-234 and Th-227/Th-230.     

CALCAREOUS MICROFOSSILS IN BRONZE AGE AEGEAN CERAMICS: ILLUMINATING TECHNOLOGY AND PROVENANCE*

The calcareous skeletal remains of various microscopic organisms such as foraminifera and ostracods are a striking feature of thin sections of many archaeological ceramics from the Aegean Bronze Age. While the presence of these calcareous microfossils in pottery has been noted for some time, attempts to utilize them to further the aims of ceramic compositional analysis have been few in number. In the following paper, we take a first detailed look at the occurrence and utility of calcareous microfossils in archaeological ceramics. By presenting selected case studies from the Bronze Age of Crete, we demonstrate the potential of calcareous microfossils, especially the extremely small ‘nannofossils’ and the highly contextual geological information that they contain, in terms of the characterization and grouping of ceramics, the determination of their provenance and the reconstruction of ancient technology.     

YUGOSLAVIAN TIN DEPOSITS AND THE EARLY BRONZE AGE INDUSTRIES OF THE AEGEAN REGION

Summary. This paper provides a synopsis of those tin sources available to prehistoric communities in Europe and the Near East. Moreover, it is designed to introduce to archaeologists the recent discovery of substantial cassiterite deposits in Yugoslavia, and to discuss their potential and possible exploitation by Early Bronze Age metallurgists in the area around the Aegean.     

APPLICATION OF LEAD ISOTOPE ANALYSIS TO A WIDE RANGE OF LATE BRONZE AGE EGYPTIAN MATERIALS*

Lead isotope analysis was applied to Egyptian materials from the Late Bronze Age in order to investigate the relationship between these different materials, many of which have lead as a significant component. The galena kohls analysed can be provenanced to Gebel Zeit, a large mining site known to have been active during the period. However, the source of lead metal is different and seems to be outside Egypt, along with the source of copper. Lead‐based pigments such as lead antimonate that were used in glass and glazes seem mostly to come from Egypt, although they may well contain a component of ‘Mesopotamian’ lead. In the Predynastic period, galena from many sources is being exploited for use as kohl. However, by the Middle Kingdom (2055–1650 bc ), extraction has concentrated on one source, Gebel Zeit, perhaps reflecting increasingly centralized control and/or the use of large‐scale exploitation. It therefore appears that a complex pattern of trade in lead‐based materials was evident, with lead metal and galena being separate commodities from separate sources and treated as such.     

THE OLIVE IN THE PREHISTORIC AEGEAN: THE EVIDENCE FOR DOMESTICATION IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE

Summary. In 1972 Colin Renfrew suggested that the rise of Mycenaean civilization may have been made possible by the development of a polycultural triad of wheat, vine and olive in the Early Bronze Age. A careful examination of the botanical and archaeological evidence for the domestication of the olive lends little support to this aspect of the thesis. The palynological evidence from various points in Greece is inconclusive, but for most areas it would seem to suggest that the intensive cultivation of olive began in the Late Bronze Age or even later.
No conclusive archaeological evidence for processing or storage of olive oil exists for any period in the Bronze Age. The question of when olive domestication took place must remain unanswered until more data are available from Early and Middle Bronze Age contexts and more conclusive botanical data have been collected.     

ISOTOPIC DISCRIMINANTS BETWEEN LATE BRONZE AGE GLASSES FROM EGYPT AND THE NEAR EAST

This paper presents oxygen, strontium and neodymium isotopic analysis from a series of Late Bronze Age glasses from Egypt and Mesopotamia. It was found that oxygen and neodymium isotopes alone cannot readily distinguish between glasses from the various sites. However, combined Sr and Nd isotope analysis separate the data into three groups: an Egyptian group with relatively low Sr and Nd ratios; a Late Bronze Age (LBA) Nuzi group with high Sr and low Nd ratios; and an intermediate Sr and high Nd ratio grouping of glasses from Tell Brak. These findings suggest that most of the glass from Nuzi and Tell Brak had different raw materials and hence the glass was probably produced at different manufacturing sites. However, one glass ingot found at Tell Brak (TB1) appears to have Nuzi‐type Sr–Nd characteristics. This is the first positive identification of multiple production sites in LBA Mesopotamia and an exceptional example of a glass that may have been exchanged from one LBA site to another.     

RESEARCH NOTES AND APPLICATION REPORTS ELEMENT DISTRIBUTION MAPS IN FOSSIL BONES

The combined application of fission track analysis and neutron activation-induced β-autoradiography to map the trace element distributions of scandium, cobalt, uranium and rare earth elements in fossil bone samples from East Africa is described. Both uranium and the rare earth elements are incorporated into bone apatite during fossilisation, whereas scandium and cobalt occur additionally in any iron-manganese minerals precipitated in pore spaces within the bone cortex. The distribution of uranium is different from that of the rare earth elements in the fossil bone cortices; it enters fossil bone more rapidly and is sensitive to changes in the redox potential of the palaeogroundwater.