Chronologies

Chronology is the practice of arranging events in their proper order in time and of determining when they occurred. In scholarship, chronologies are used to reconstruct sequences of events, compare developments across cultures, and anchor historical narratives to specific dates. The term derives from Greek chronos time and logos study.

Chronology is divided into relative and absolute dating. Relative chronology places events in a sequence without fixed calendar dates, using stratigraphy, typology, and cross-cultural synchronisms. Absolute chronology assigns estimated calendar dates to events, often with stated uncertainties, through methods such as radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, thermoluminescence, and astronomical eclipse dating.

Building a chronology relies on diverse sources: inscriptions, chronicles and annals, manuscripts, architectural features, material artifacts, tree rings, ice cores, and geological layers. Calibrating results across methods and regions is essential, as calendar reforms and regional time-keeping practices can complicate comparisons.

Chronologies support historical analysis, archaeology, paleoclimatology, geology, and astronomy by providing temporal frameworks for interpretation, correlation, and modeling of processes such as cultural change, environmental shifts, and migrations.

Challenges include dating uncertainties, biases in written sources, gaps in the record, and the need to reconcile different calendar systems. Modern chronologies increasingly integrate multiple lines of evidence to produce coherent, testable timelines.

See also: timeline, dating methods, chronology (history).