Ancient Egyptian radiocarbon chronology

Abstract

Radiocarbon dates have been measured which were obtained from historically well-dated Egyptian samples belonging to the time period from the I to XXX dynasties. The radiocarbon and historical chronologies go hand in hand for the entire period in which historical time placement can be indepen­dently verified by astronomical calculations, that is up to the time of Sesostris III of the XII dynasty. From this point on a calibration based on an empirical relationship between conventional radiocarbon dates and dendrochronologically determined wood ages derived from bristlecone pine approximates the presently recognized historical chronology of what amounts to mostly the time of the Old Kingdom in the 3rd millennium b. c. A number of reasons seeking to explain the differences between historical and radiocarbon chronologies in that millennium are offered. So far, conventional radiocarbon measurements of ancient Egyptian samples can be converted to dates coming close to fitting the presently accepted historical chronology by calibration against the bristlecone pine correlation. However, some ancient Egyptian dates appear to correlate better to the historical chronology if only the 5730-year half-life is used.