The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C.: Proceedings of an International Symposium at Schloss Haindorf, 15th-17th of November 1996 and at the Austrian Academy, Vienna, 11th-12th of May 1998.

Feldman, Marian H.

Edited by MANFRED BIETAK. Vienna: VERLAG DER OSTERREICHISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN, 2000. Pp. 179, tables. OS 627 (paper).

Chronology, both relative and absolute, occupies a favored position in studies of the second millennium B.C. On the one hand, this thousand-year period witnessed unprecedented into national relations across most of the Mediterranean and Near East. Yet on the other, almost every region presents conundrums regarding internal chronology, which when factored into any attempt to synchronize events among regions, produce a rippling effect that jeopardizes (and problematizes) the fundamental basis of historical inquiry, namely, causality. Thus the pursuit of a secure chronology by which to assess interregional contacts has assumed monumental proportions. Manfred Bietak, under the auspices of the Austrian Academy in Vienna, has embarked on a long-term international collaborative venture to address the problem through the integration of "scientific" and "historical" approaches. The volume under review represents an assortment of papers and reports from two symposia, one in 1996 and the other in 1998, that launched this large-scale project. The long list of contributors--more than twenty, the majority of whom are European--reflects its diversity and collaborative nature.

The book is divided into two parts. The first section presents proposals and research methods for determining relative and absolute chronologies. As might he expected, this discussion includes dating the Thera eruption, evaluating the merits of ice-core dating (pro: Hammer, pp. 35-37; contra: Zielinski, p. 34), and championing the "prospection" for volcanic ash at "well-stratified" Near Eastern sites (Bichler, pp. 30-31 ; Fischer, pp. 32-33). Other methods for absolute dating discussed include C14 (Kutschera and Stadler, pp. 68-91), astronomical phenomena (Brein, pp. 53-56; Luft, p. 57; Firneis, pp. 58-59; and Hunger, pp. 60-61), dendrochronology (Cichocki, pp. 62-67), and genealogy (Kitchen, pp. 39-52).

Bietak's own interest lies in the use of ceramic seriation for purposes of relative chronology (Bietak and Kopetzky, pp. 22-26; and Bietak, pp. 27-29). Seriation studies also factor into many of the projects in the second part of the book, which focus on specific regions: Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, coastal Syria, Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Aegean. This second section includes one of the most useful features of the volume--brief summaries of the archaeological evidence from sites that most directly bear on second-millennium chronology. With one notable exception (Hauptmann on Anatolia, pp. 147-49) the site summaries conclude with relevant bibliography, a handy tool for interdisciplinary research. Several of the regional contributions are independent of the Austrian Academy, but have been associated with Bietak as "parallel" projects, substantially extending the geographical scope of the endeavor. These include projects for Syria/Lebanon (Matthiae, pp. 136-39; Lagarce and Lagarce, pp. 140-46) and Anatolia (Hauptmann, pp. 147-49). The content of the regional surveys, like that of the contributions on methods, varies rather significantly from one author to another, underscoring the difficulty of achieving consistency in such a large-scale project.

As a whole, the volume offers something of a mixed bag. Many of the contributions, particularly in the first part, take on a strange flavor, being for the most part proposals for research not yet conducted (sometimes with a less than subtle call for funding). The general Jack of results presented and the expansive scope of many of the projects without supporting specifics lend a slightly unreal feel to the work, as if the symposium participants were asked to compile research wish-lists irrespective of feasibility (with regard to either finances or available evidence). In one case, that of an extremely abbreviated contribution by Luft entitled "absolute chronology during the 2nd millennium B.C." (p. 57), one is left wondering precisely just what sort of research agenda is being proposed.

Some of the projects involving complex scientific analysis are introduced by informative and accessible overviews of the methodology--see, for example, the opening sections of Cichocki's proposal for dendrochronological study of Egyptian wooden objects (pp. 62-63). In general, however, problems stemming from the various approaches receive little consideration. For example, significant assumptions regarding the linear development of pottery styles underlie many of the conceptual methodological formulations of ceramic sedation studies, while Deger-Jalkotzy warns of the problems arising from coexistent pottery styles in the LHIIIC and "barbarian ware" sequences (pp. 163-64). A related issue is whether ceramic similarity always demonstrates historical synchronicity. Likewise, concerns about the accuracy and reliability of analytical results elicit few remarks, although the common call for care in collecting samples to avoid contamination (e.g., pp. 23, 31, 73) reveals the extent of this problem. The opposite conclusions reached by Zielinski (p. 34) and Hammer (pp. 35-37) with regard to Greenland ice-core analysis serve to highlight the interpretive difficulties raised in quantitative analysis. However, discussion of methodological limitations here is scarce, and one senses that such concerns were downplayed in order to bolster the project as a whole.

In many ways the volume addresses a specialist audience, one already aware of the dominant debates of second millennium chronology and at least superficially familiar with the various approaches. Such an audience, however, may feel disappointed at the lack of substantive results presented (with a few exceptions, such as Kitchen's proposed absolute chronology for Egypt stretching back to the predynastic period, pp. 39-52). A major contribution of the volume lies in its publication of the ongoing efforts of the Austrian Academy in promoting chronological research. The long-term results of the project promise to supply much grist for future scholarship, and Bietak is to be congratulated for spearheading such an effort. The editor concludes by stressing the commitment of the project to publishing its results and providing a forum for interdisciplinary collaboration on a scale not envisioned previously. This set of papers, therefore, constitutes the first in a special series entitled "Contributions to the Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean," and we can thus anticipate following the progress of the various proposals outlined here over the course of the coming years, Additional publications and periodic supplementary bibliographic reviews are to appear in the series Agypten und Levante / Egypt and the Levant.

MARIAN H. FELDMAN

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY