Abstract
A fundamental goal oJ archaeological research in the Near East is the determination of accurate chronology, particularly in situations where one is attempting to correlate specific events and places in written history with archaeological features and sites. In the past, Near East archaeologists have relied heavily on 'relative' dating techniques, such as pottery seriation and comparison with ancient texts and/or inscriptional evidence to ascribe ages to their materials and sites, all of which are necessary for site interpretation and a basic understanding of chronology. However, while the relative ordering of many seriation chronologies is often correct, interpretive problems and even heated chronological debates can arise when attempting to fix seriation-derived dates within an absolute time scale such as our modern calendar dating system.