Cultural Recalibration

doi:10.1126/science.312.5773.496g

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Comparison of major events in early Mediterranean cultures in Crete, the Levant, Egypt, and elsewhere during the Bronze Age requires an accurate chronology for comparison. One critical tie point is the age of the Santorini eruption, which flung ash across the area, but this needs to be augmented with longer and better chronologies in each locality. Manning et al. (p. 565) present a large number of radiocarbon dates spanning 300 years that, along with a more firm Santorini age (see the Brevia by Friedrich et al. and the cover), shift the Aegean record about 100 years earlier. Thus, the major New Palace Crete culture was contemporaneous with one in the Levant, not with the New Kingdom period of Egypt as had been inferred.