Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
DEFINITION OF THE INQUIRY
The Bronze Age in lands bordering the Aegean Sea was a period of roughly two millennia that followed the age of Neolithic cultures. The name is not perfectly accurate; men did begin to use metals more or less systematically in this time, but chief among them at the outset was natural copper, not yet deliberately alloyed with tin. None the less the phrase has useful connotations, reflecting the Greek memory of an older γενος μεροπων ανθρωπων χαλκειον, and it is firmly established. The terms Chalcolithic and Copper Age, logical and correct in themselves, are now best reserved for Anatolia and other areas where their meanings have won acceptance.
As a source of confusion the name of the metal is of minor consequence. More perplexing are the formidable quantities of material remains that have been gathered in three generations of archaeological research, for they beckon the student of this area to conclusions more positive than are in fact justified. Since written records are lacking in Greece during the early period with which we are here concerned, one must rely upon stratification and comparison of objects at the known sites in order to establish a relative chronology. An approach to absolute dates may be made through proven relationships with Egypt and Mesopotamia, but these are few in number and less exact than one is often led to suppose. New and promising methods of dating, including particularly the process of radiocarbon (C–14) analysis, are still in experimental stages and the results they yield must be regarded objectively.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.