Assessing Typological, Chronological and Regional Variations: How far can we go?
Jean-Paul Thalmann

Discussion groups within the framework of the SCIEM2000 project have resulted over the past two years in a wide exchange and confrontation of data, among others in the field of pottery typology and chronology. Such data are however often difficult to correlate, especially when comparisons between distant areas of the Levant are attempted. This paper will examine through a few examples some of the problems encountered and the requirements to be met in order to achieve significant correlations in the building up of the new "stratigraphie comparée".
It is hoped that further elaboration of this topic will lead to some uniformization of stratigraphical and typological assessment procedures as well as laying down basic principles for a new periodization system which will take into account the cultural and regional complexity of Levantine cultures of the late IIIrd and IInd millenia B.C.