ARCANE Project [Associated Regional Chronologies for the Ancient Near East]

"The ARCANE project aims at synchronising the third millennium BC regional assemblages of archaeological material in the Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean, with the goal to produce a reliable relative and absolute chronology.To reach this aim, it was decided to review the complete material culture, but to examine it under the specific point of view of chronological variation, leaving aside other historical and archaeological problems. A common methodology will be used by all regional groups, and participants will try to develop, in the course of the project, a common terminology in order to define both periods and different types of material..."