TY - JOUR
T1 - Archaeological cross dating
T2 - a formalized scheme
AU - Levy, Eythan
AU - Piasetzky, Eli
AU - Fantalkin, Alexander
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Cross dating is the standard method by which archaeologists date archaeological contexts of unknown age based on parallel contexts of known age. Despite its importance, archaeological cross dating apparently still lacks proper mathematical modelling and a precise methodology. This paper proposes a formal definition of cross dating and discusses its complexity and limitations. We define the concept of “chronological propagation” between time periods and characterize its mechanism in terms of various types of synchronisms. We discuss the notion of archaeological contemporaneity, we define its inherent limitations for performing cross dating and we propose two practical solutions to deal with these limitations. We then present a comprehensive scheme for modelling real-life cross dating applications, based on the recent ChronoLog software (chrono.ulb.be). Finally, we illustrate these concepts by a practical case study from Aegean Bronze Age archaeology: Tomb 4 at Sellopoulo (Crete) and its rich assemblage linking the chronologies of Crete, Mycenaean Greece and Egypt.
AB - Cross dating is the standard method by which archaeologists date archaeological contexts of unknown age based on parallel contexts of known age. Despite its importance, archaeological cross dating apparently still lacks proper mathematical modelling and a precise methodology. This paper proposes a formal definition of cross dating and discusses its complexity and limitations. We define the concept of “chronological propagation” between time periods and characterize its mechanism in terms of various types of synchronisms. We discuss the notion of archaeological contemporaneity, we define its inherent limitations for performing cross dating and we propose two practical solutions to deal with these limitations. We then present a comprehensive scheme for modelling real-life cross dating applications, based on the recent ChronoLog software (chrono.ulb.be). Finally, we illustrate these concepts by a practical case study from Aegean Bronze Age archaeology: Tomb 4 at Sellopoulo (Crete) and its rich assemblage linking the chronologies of Crete, Mycenaean Greece and Egypt.
KW - ChronoLog
KW - Chronology
KW - Cross dating
KW - Sellopoulo
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116748302&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12520-021-01371-8
DO - 10.1007/s12520-021-01371-8
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AN - SCOPUS:85116748302
SN - 1866-9557
VL - 13
JO - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
JF - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
IS - 11
M1 - 184
ER -