Middle Chronology



Reviewing: On the Chronlogy of the Second Millennium B.C.
A. Goetze, JCS 1957

Goetze' "Middle" Chronological Table:



Dynasty of Akkad - c. 2334-2152
Ur III - c. 2112-2004
Dynasty of Isin and Larsa - 2017-1793
Babylon I - 1894-1793
Hammurabi - 1728-1688 1792-1750


(Original proposal and schema found in Goetze, JAOS 72 (1952).

Goetze about the low model: "it was my contention that some of the proposals which had been made with great
assurance and had been widely accepted -among them the system that goes under the name of Albright and Cornelius - went
definitely too far and no longer allowed the accommodation of facts of which we have sure knowledge.

About the High model: "In the meantime Landsberger made public his views utilizing old and also new material about
all the tablets from Alalah. He agrees with me in the essential point, but advocates a chronology still more
"conservative" [read early/high] than mine."

Goetze Basic Outlook: "Chronology cannot be treated by consulting king-lists and be searching for astronomical dates,
not caring either for the full historical or the full archaeological evidence. History and archaeology must work hand in hand."

Central Considerations for Middle Chronology model:

Goetze' cheif method in his JCS 1957 article is to consider the Hittite evidence and its impact on the chronological
problem. His reconstructs in detail the reigns of Hittite kings, while at the same time combating assertions on the subject
made earlier by Cornelius (which were presumably applied to the 'low' model.)

Secondly, Goetze explored Archeology in the Old Hittite kingdom, and explains that research into the "Hittite Sequence" will
potentially link it with the Old Assyrian colonies. He also explains that the archaeological level IVd "includes the period of
Shamashi-Adad I of Assur and ends approximately with Hammurabi off Babel."