LH III C Chronology and Synchronisms

The topic of the international "LH III C Chronology and Synchronism" Conference 2001 was to clarify the chronological sequence of the Late Helladic III C periods of the 12th and 11th centuries B.C., which followed the fall of the Mycenaean palaces and their advanced civilisation. The importance of this period is in the communication of the Mycenaean cultural achievements through the "dark ages" up to the culture of the classical antiquity. Since SH (LH) III C* was an illiterate culture, it is only possible to define its consecutive periods, i.e. their historical sequence, with the assistance of the stages of the stylistic development of ceramics. However, this is made more difficult by the marked regionalism of the SH (LH) III C ceramics in the various parts of Greece. Consequently, at the Vienna Conference, leading ceramics specialists and excavators attempted to define and correlate in time the stages of development of the post-palatial ceramics of the Peloponnese, Crete, the Aegean islands and various marginal territories. Alongside the lectures, the conference volume also contains a detailed discussion of general issues and theoretical questions.