Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
PROLEGOMENA
Chronology
The history of Egypt between 1552 and 664 B.C., as for earlier periods, is conventionally divided up into usually sequential, numbered dynastics (table 12.1). These are derived from later ‘Epitomes’ of Manetho's history of Egypt (late fourth century B.C.) and usually do in fact coincide with real breaks, alterations or divisions in the line of dynastic succession.
The absolute chronology of these dynasties has been reconstructed with a high degree of reliability. It is true that two chronologies can be postulated for the Eighteenth to Twentieth dynasties (1552–1069 B.C., because it is uncertain whether several dynastically-dated astronomical observations – vital for chronological reconstruction – were made near Memphis (‘high’ chronology) or near Thebes (‘low’ chronology). On the whole, the ‘low’ chronology fits the available evidence better, and is followed in the chronological table; nevertheless, neither the ‘high’ nor ‘low’ chronologies can yet be shown to be unquestionably correct. For the period between 945 and 330 B.C. there are an increasing number of reliable synchronisms, another dated astronomical observation, and some chronologically exceptionally well-documented dynasties (Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh), and the degree of disagreement amongst scholars is correspondingly smaller. In fact, disagreement about the absolute chronology of the entire period 1552–664 B.C. is quite small; significant developments within Egypt and the ever-changing pattern of its contacts with other areas can be dated with considerable if not complete precision.
Egyptian absolute chronology should prove a most important complement to radiocarbon and other dating methods in the reconstruction of the ancient history of north-east and east Africa as a whole.
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