The Taming of Dating Precision and Accuracy in 14C-Chronologies. Case Studies at Santorini (Greece) and Tel Rehov (Israel)

Lecture presented by Bernhard Weninger at: IRON AGE MEDITERRANEAN CHRONOLOGY Symposion Oct 30-31, 2025. Organised by the Austrian Archaeological Institute and The Society for Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology. With Funding by the Austrian Science Fund - FWF.Organised by Ann E Killebrew and Stefanos Gimatzidis ******************************************************************************************** ABSTRACT: The lecture has three main sections.1. Construction and properties of a pottery seriation for Tel Rehov (Israel), based on the excavations and pottery analysis of Amihai Mazar and Nava Panitz-Cohen.2. Re-analysis of the published previously radiocarbon data from Tel Rehov.3. The proposal is made that the ~ 30 yr debates on the Levantine Early Iron Age Chronology are to some large extent caused by Bayesian Squeezing (sensu Steier and Rom, 2000), and that the same (unresolved Bayesian mechanism) is also responsible for the debates as to the Santorini Eruption dating. *********************************************************************************************