Absolute Chronologies of the European Middle and Late Bronze Ages
Absolute Chronologies of the European Middle and Late Bronze Ages – Challenges and Perspectives
After a three-year hiatus, the OeAI discussion forum UK-Gespräche – »Get Together«will resume from 1 December to 2 December 2023 in Vienna. This year we will focus on absolute dating in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages and the impact of new data on relative chronologies and traditional classifications such as those established by Paul Reinecke and Hermann Müller-Karpe. Cremated human remains can now be directly radiocarbon dated, and a large series of 14C dates from urnfields and other contexts have become available for discussion.
The aim of the workshop is to bring together experts on the Bronze Age and absolute chronology and to gain insights into the recent absolute dating of archaeological contexts in a region between Central and South Eastern Europe. The workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss and compare the data and fine-tune the models with respect to the latest calibration curve. Of particular interest are dates from reliable archaeological sequences (e.g., vertical stratigraphy of settlements or horizontal stratigraphy of cemeteries) and the possibility of cross-checking dates at regional and supra-regional levels. We will also address sampling strategies and inconsistencies between absolute dates and conventional dating based on metal and pottery typology.
The program will include presentations on the first and second day as well as an active exchange with other colleagues and experts in radiocarbon dating (B. Weninger, L. Webster) on the second day. Our workshop aims to improve the integration of absolute dates into the chronology of the Middle Bronze Age and the Urnfield Period and to identify potential challenges and limitations of absolute chronology for the second and early first millennium BC.