Scholars treat the Atharvaveda as a multi-layered tapestry, teasing out its chronology through a blend of linguistic sleuthing, metrical analysis, and manuscript comparison. It begins by spotting archaisms—words and grammar that echo the Rgveda or Old Avestan. Those features point to the oldest core, probably composed in the late Bronze Age, while later Sanskrit innovations signal medieval additions.

Metrical patterns serve as another trusty compass. Early hymns often stick to the rigid Gāyatrī and Triṣṭubh metres, whereas more recent charms and spells loosen up into irregular rhythms—a marker of folk traditions gradually slipping into the text. When a spell invokes a ritual or deity absent from Vedic layers but common in Puraṇas, it’s flagged as post-Vedic.

Manuscript families—the Śaunakīya and the Paippalāda—offer yet another dimension. By collating over a hundred palm-leaf and birch-bark manuscripts (some now digitized by the Bodleian Library and India’s National Mission for Manuscripts), editors construct a stemma codicum: a family tree showing how variants branched off over centuries. This lets modern critical editions restore readings closest to the “original” hymns, while footnotes document later interpolations.

Recent computational-philology tools—think AI-driven pattern recognition—are giving these ancient layers fresh air. In 2024, a project at IIT Madras used machine learning to cluster verses by linguistic style, corroborating traditional dating with data-driven insights. That kind of high-tech meets old-school philology approach resembles climate scientists cross-referencing ice-core layers to date atmospheric changes.

Ultimately, dating and editing the Atharvaveda is like archaeological work for the ears: poring over each syllable, spotting strata, and assembling a narrative of how folk remedies, healing rites, and priestly chants fused over a millennium. The result is a living anthology, where Bronze-Age invocations and medieval amulets peacefully coexist in a single, sprawling hymn-collection.