The ARCANE Project

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The ARCANE Project
Associated Regional Chronologies for
the Ancient Near East and the Eastern
Mediterranean
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The ESF-ARCANE Programme presented atthe 5th
ICAANE in Madrid
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Scientific background (1)
Chronology underpins all archaeological and
historical studies
The chronological framework of the ANE
civilizations has been broadly outlined by
scholarship until the 1960s.
Since then the multiplication of excavations and
the widespread use of C14 dates have
revolutionized our knowledge and profoundly
altered the chronology of the Bronze Age
As a result, disagreements between specialists
are numerous, controversies frequent and
uncertainties general
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Scientific background (2)
There is an urgent need for a drastic review of
our chronological frameworks
A group of scholars is currently at work to
review the chronology of the Middle and Late
Bronze Age. They have established the SCIEM
Project (Synchronization of Civilizations in the
Eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd Millennium BC)
But nothing has yet been done for the 3rd
Millennium BC
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Scientific background (3)
Major problems of Early Bronze Age chronology
   A considerable increase in the number of
reliable archaeological sequences. Our
knowledge of the archaeology of each area has
progressed in isolation.
  The consequences of the introduction of the
low chronology for the 2nd millennium have
yet to be drawn for the chronology of the 3rd
millennium
There are growing discrepancies between the
results of C14 datings and those of empirical
chronologies based on archaeological
sequences, the former being usually much higher
than the latter would suggest
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History of the project
The ARCANE preliminary meetings A gradual set
up of the project
   April 2002 in Pisa conceiving the project
   December 2003 in Paris defining the project
and preparing the grant application to the
European Science Foundation
  April 2004 in Berlin organizing the project
   December 2004 in Blaubeuren finalizing the
project
  February 2006 in Blaubeuren official
launching of the project under the aegis of
the European Science Foundation
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Today
125 researchers
81 academic institutions
28 countries
12 sponsoring institutions representing the
contributing countries
engaged in a five-year research project
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Aims and Goals
The ultimate goal of the ARCANE project is to
produce a reliable relativeand absolute
chronology of the entire Near East and East
Mediterraneanarea based on the synchronization
of regional chronologies for the 3rdmillennium
BC.
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Chronological scope

•  3rd millennium BC  is a conventional
  designation corresponding,
• in fact, with the  Early Bronze Age , i.e., a
  period
• which begins, depending on the area, near the
  end of the 4th millennium
• and whose termination may occur , depending on
  the area, at the beginning of the 2nd
  millennium

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Topical scope

• The project intends to review
• all aspects of the material culture
• the artistic manifestations, the historical and
  epigraphic
• records, and the various methods of dating.

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Geographical scope
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A regional approach
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and also a transregional/transversal approach for
History and epigraphy Art history and
glyptics C14 and other dating technologies
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Main features of the ARCANE Project
1. Scientific
Development of a comprehensive data base
New periodizations and new terminologies
The mobilization of a large and representative
segment of the scientific community.
The association of graduate students and young
scholars
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Main features of the ARCANE Project
2. Functioning
Regular wokshops of the Regional and Transversal
Groups
An ambitious programme of publications
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• Operational aspects

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• Common terminology

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Sealed assemblages
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1. Regional level2. Supra-regional level
3. General synchronization
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• Regional group
• Team leaders
• Topic coordinators

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• Topics

1. Stratigraphy
2. Ceramic
3. Architecture
4. City planning
5. Small finds figurines
6. Metal
7. Lithics
8. Burials funerary practices

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Downloadable DB files
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• Inventories

• 1 to undetermined (12-15) per site
• 65 to 125 per region
• c. 1000 for the general Programme
• 8.000 - 12.000 vessels
• 4.000 - 6.000 objects
• Basis for the chronological reconstruction

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• Synopsis

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• Workshops

• 30 regional and transversal workshops (2006-2008)
• 5 steering committee meetings (2006-2010)
• 5 inter-regional meetings (2008-2009)
• 1 final conference (2010)

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• Communication
• Exchange
• Solidarity
• Commitment

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• Quality instead of Quantity

• Most reliable sequences
• Largest excavated areas
• Single-phase sites
• Best inventories

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• Transversal groups

• History Epigraphy
• Glyptic Art History
• Radiocarbon other dating technologies

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• Regional phase publications

15 volumes
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Downloadable DB files
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• Temporary new periodization

cal. BC Jezirah Traditional 1 Traditional 2 Traditional 3 Tigridian
3050-2900 EJZ 0 Jemdet Nasr EB I ETG 1-2
2900-2750 EJZ 1 Early Dyn. I Ninivite 5 EB II ETG 3
2750-2600 EJZ 2 Early Dyn. II ETG 4
2600-2450 EJZ 3a Early Dyn. IIIa Metallic Ware EB III ETG 5
2450-2350 EJZ 3b Early Dyn. IIIb EB III-IVa ETG 6
2350-2200 EJZ 4a-b Akkadian Akkadian EB IVa ETG 7
2200-2100 EJZ 4c Post-Akkadian EB IVb ETG 8
2100-2000 EJZ 5 Ur III Ur III ETG 9
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• Inter-regional phase publications

4 - 5 volumes
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• General synthesis

1 volume
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• People and Institutions

• 125 Arcanians
• 81 institutions
• 28 countries

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Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique,
Belgium Research Promotion Foundation, Cyprus
Statens Humanistike Forsksningsråd, Denmark
Suomen Akatemia/Finlands Akademi, Finland Centre
national de la recherche scientifique, France
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk
Onderzoek, The Netherlands Fundação para a
Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
Vetenskapsrådet, Sweden Schweizerischer
Nationalfonds zur Förderung der
Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Switzerland
Scientific and Technical Research Counsil of
Turkey The British Academy, United Kingdom.

• Sponsored by

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• Benchmarking

• It is hard to be sure when any scholar writes
  of the Early Bronze I-IV exactly what time they
  are talking about
• Competing chronological schemes

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• Synchronisation in European prehistory

• Christian Thomsen and the National Museum c.
  1816
• Relative chronology for finds based on a
  selection of what he termed closed finds sets
  of artefacts buried at the same time in grave,
  hoard or other context.
• A rough seriation analysis was used for the
  relative chronology of Danish prehistory

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• Near Eastern contrasts

• Tells deep stratigraphy yielding sequences
  of material culture
• Enormous quantities of varied artefacts
• From continuously (re)-occupied sites the
  problem of re-deposition
• And from a great mixture of types of contexts
  the problem of chronological integrity

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• Attempts at relative
  and absolute chronologies

• Focus on sequences, geographic spreads and
  relationships
• cultural and chronological equations
  (1992, x)

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• date probably Sargonid
• Parallels privileged over
  secure, dated contexts

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• ARCANE priority safe contexts benchmark
  assemblages

• A chrono-stratigraphic or benchmark assemblage
  is a standard by which other archaeological data
  can be measured or judged. Benchmark assemblages
  are thus groups of objects found in contexts of
  the highest depositional integrity that
  hopefully, though not always, can be linked to an
  absolute chronology, e.g. single burial deposits,
  suddenly destroyed floors / buildings /
  complexes, single event caches.
•  
• Rigorous selection of chronologically discrete
  material culture will result in unrivalled
  quality data and the inevitable loss of enormous
  quantity. The result will be selective, not
  representative. What we lose in quantity we gain
  in quality.

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• Structure abandonment

• primary refuse disposal the discard of
  exhausted material at point of use
• secondary refuse disposal the discard of
  exhausted material in another location i.e.,
  deliberately re-deposited material derived from a
  variety of sources
• planned abandonment episodic, seasonal or
  permanent abandonment in which depletion and
  disturbance lead to low contextual integrity of
  house-floor assemblages reduced value for
  functional analysis, high value for chronology if
  rapidly sealed and undisturbed
• unplanned abandonment interruption of normal
  house life-cycle leads to greater numbers of
  objects in their primary discard locations.
  Pompeii premise-the remains of a once living
  community, stopped as it were in time excellent
  value for functional analysis, high value for
  chronology if rapidly sealed and undisturbed

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• Structures unplanned abandonment

• Event Short-term activity, e.g. collapse of a
  wall
• Episode Palimpsest of related events, e.g.
  use and abandonment of a room
• Phase Grouping of (construction) episodes
• Unit-complex-site gt regional sequences
• Assemblage formation content and structure
  conditioned by various activities
• Reject fragmentary objects e.g. sherds?

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• Caches planned abandonment

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• Funerary deposits planned abandonment

• Single vs collective facilities
• Intra- vs extra-mural stratigraphies

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• Presentation of the DataBase system

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Development of the Database System according to
the main Phases of the Project
ARCANE Project Phases
Database System
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Development of the Database System according to
the main Phases of the Project
ARCANE Project Phases
Database System
1 - Data collecting phase
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Development of the Database System according to
the main Phases of the Project
ARCANE Project Phases
Database System
1 - Data collecting phase
6 basic files (standalones)
- Input of basic data (benchmarks)
50
Development of the Database System according to
the main Phases of the Project
ARCANE Project Phases
Database System
1 - Data collecting phase
6 basic files (standalones)
- Input of basic data (benchmarks)
Additional files (standalones)
- Input of specialized and additional data
51
Development of the Database System according to
the main Phases of the Project
ARCANE Project Phases
Database System
1 - Data collecting phase
6 basic files (standalones)
- Input of basic data (benchmarks)
Additional files (standalones)
- Input of specialized and additional data
- Semi-processed documents
Synopsis
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Development of the Database System according to
the main Phases of the Project
ARCANE Project Phases
Database System
1 - Data collecting phase
6 basic files (standalones)
- Input of basic data (benchmarks)
Additional files (standalones)
- Input of specialized and additional data
- Semi-processed documents
Synopsis
Analytical Tables
Relational Database
2 - Data processing at regional level
53
Development of the Database System according to
the main Phases of the Project
ARCANE Project Phases
Database System
1 - Data collecting phase
6 basic files (standalones)
- Input of basic data (benchmarks)
Additional files (standalones)
- Input of specialized and additional data
- Semi-processed documents
Synopsis
Analytical Tables
Regional Syntheses
Relational Database
2 - Data processing at regional level
Regional Periodizations
Synthetic Tables
Regional Typologies
54
Development of the Database System according to
the main Phases of the Project
ARCANE Project Phases
Database System
1 - Data collecting phase
6 basic files (standalones)
- Input of basic data (benchmarks)
Additional files (standalones)
- Input of specialized and additional data
- Semi-processed documents
Synopsis
Analytical Tables
Regional Syntheses
Relational Database
2 - Data processing at regional level
Regional Periodizations
Synthetic Tables
Regional Typologies
Extended Relational Database
3 - Data processing at inter-regional level
55
Development of the Database System according to
the main Phases of the Project
ARCANE Project Phases
Database System
1 - Data collecting phase
6 basic files (standalones)
- Input of basic data (benchmarks)
Additional files (standalones)
- Input of specialized and additional data
- Semi-processed documents
Synopsis
Analytical Tables
Regional Syntheses
Relational Database
2 - Data processing at regional level
Regional Periodizations
Synthetic Tables
Regional Typologies
Extended Relational Database
3 - Data processing at inter-regional level
4 - Final syntheses
General Periodizations
General Typologies
General Synthesis
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General Structure of the Relational Database
ANALYTICAL TABLES
Site
Complex
INVENTORY
Unit
Pottery
Object
Additional TABLES (Analytical)
GENERAL DOCUMENTARY TABLES
SYNTHETIC TABLES
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General Structure of the Relational Database
ANALYTICAL TABLES
Site
Complex
INVENTORY
Unit
Pottery
Object
Additional TABLES (Analytical)
GENERAL DOCUMENTARY TABLES
SYNTHETIC TABLES
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General Structure of the Relational Database
ANALYTICAL TABLES
Site
C14 / TL
Complex
INVENTORY
Unit
Pottery
Object
Additional TABLES (Analytical)
GENERAL DOCUMENTARY TABLES
SYNTHETIC TABLES
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General Structure of the Relational Database
ANALYTICAL TABLES
Site
C14 / TL
Complex
Stone V.
INVENTORY
Metal
Unit
Glyptic
Pottery
Object
Ware
Textual data
Additional TABLES (Analytical)
GENERAL DOCUMENTARY TABLES
SYNTHETIC TABLES
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General Structure of the Relational Database
ANALYTICAL TABLES
Site
C14 / TL
Complex
Stone V.
INVENTORY
Metal
Unit
Glyptic
Pottery
Object
Ware
MAPS
PLANS SECTIONS
DRAWINGS
Textual data
Additional TABLES (Analytical)
GENERAL DOCUMENTARY TABLES
SYNTHETIC TABLES
PHOTOS
Bibliography
Synopsis
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General Structure of the Relational Database
ANALYTICAL TABLES
Site
REGIONAL TYPOLOGIES - Pottery - Objects
C14 / TL
Regional Periodizations
Complex
Stone V.
INVENTORY
Metal
Regional Assemblages
Unit
Glyptic
Pottery
Object
Ware
MAPS
PLANS SECTIONS
DRAWINGS
Textual data
Additional TABLES (Analytical)
GENERAL DOCUMENTARY TABLES
SYNTHETIC TABLES
PHOTOS
Bibliography
INDEX
Synopsis
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Standalone Files for Data Input
SITE
INVENTORY
COMPLEX
POTTERY
UNIT
OBJECT
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Downloadable Standalone Files for Data Input
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Downloadable Standalone Files for Data Input
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Downloadable Standalone Files for Data Input
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Downloadable Standalone Files for Data Input
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Downloadable Standalone Files for Data Input
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Downloadable Standalone Files for Data Input
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Downloadable Standalone Files for Data Input
Integrated Utilities
Easy Shape Class determination from drawing for
open and closed shapes
Volume calculation from drawing
Reference Shape Class Chart
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http//www.uni-tuebingen.de/arcane/

• Information