Linear A and BThe Bronze Age Aegean

Dating the Aegean Bronze Age

Periods named from pottery styles (Early, Middle and Late Minoan; Helladic on the mainland), tied to years by radiocarbon and by links to Egypt.

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In The Minoans of Crete and The Mycenaeans you met dates like "about 1450 BC". Where do such numbers come from? No Minoan or Mycenaean text gives a year. Archaeologists build the dates in three steps, and each step has some give in it.

Key idea

Aegean dates come from pottery sequences (which layer is older), tied to years by radiocarbon and by links to Egypt's dated history. They are approximate, often by decades, and some, like the eruption of Thera, are debated.

Step 1: pottery gives the order

Pottery breaks easily, is thrown away constantly and changes style over time, so every dig is full of it. Evans divided Crete's Bronze Age into Early, Middle and Late Minoan by pottery style, each split further (Late Minoan IA, IB, II, and so on). On the mainland the same scheme is called Helladic (Late Helladic is the Mycenaean age), and in the islands, Cycladic. These names tell you which came first, not how many years ago.

Approximate dates; specialists differ by decades.
PeriodAboutWhat happens
Early Minoan3100 to 2100 BCVillages and towns, before the palaces
Middle Minoan2100 to 1600 BCThe first palaces; writing begins
Late Minoan1600 to 1100 BCThe second palaces at their height; Linear B at Knossos; decline
Late Helladic (Mycenaean)1600 to 1100 BCMainland palaces and Linear B
The periods on a time axis. The whiskers show how uncertain each boundary is.

Steps 2 and 3: tying the order to years

  • Links to Egypt. Minoan pots turn up in Egyptian tombs, and Egyptian objects on Crete. Egypt's kings can be dated from its own records, so a Minoan style found with a datable Egyptian object gets a date too.
  • Radiocarbon. Living things take in carbon-14, which decays at a known rate after they die. Measuring what is left in seeds, wood or bone gives a date, with a margin of error.

Why it works

Why do the methods sometimes disagree? Each has its own uncertainty: a pot can stay in use for decades before it is buried, Egyptian dates themselves have some give, and radiocarbon dates come with error ranges and need careful calibration. When two methods point to different centuries, scholars debate which to trust.
The eruption of Thera (Santorini) buried the town of Akrotiri. Radiocarbon dating points to about 1600 BC; the older dating from links with Egypt pointed to about 1500 BC. The question is still debated, so this course says "about 1600 BC, perhaps later".

Common mistake

Reading "c. 1450 BC" as an exact year. "c." stands for circa, "about", and Aegean dates can be off by decades or more. Check yourself: a question on this site will ask for an order or a period, never for an exact Bronze Age year, and you should treat any exact year you see elsewhere with care.

Worked example: Older or younger?

A Middle Minoan pot is found in one layer and a Late Minoan pot in another. Which layer is older?
  1. The Minoan periods run Early, Middle, Late.
  2. Middle comes before Late.

Answer: The layer with the Middle Minoan pot.

Worked example: What "about" means

A book dates the end of the second Cretan palaces to "c. 1450 BC". Could the real date be 1470 BC?
  1. "c." means about.
  2. Aegean dates come from pottery, radiocarbon and links to Egypt, each with a margin.
  3. A date 20 years off is well within that margin.

Answer: Yes, easily.

Practice

Pass with 3 right answers, the last 2 in a row. Each right answer earns 2 XP.

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