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arXiv:2004.12952v2 [physics.hist-ph] 20 Jul 2020 cascpaanceiute.Mmhsna oa’ today’s near Memphis etiquette”. pharaonic “classic 8hdynasty. 18th h orsigtm fte1t o2t yat fteEgyp- the of dynasty 20th to 18th the of time flourishing The hbsaot60k ate otesuhrmie nim- an remained south while the to times, farther old km very 650 the about in Thebes center administrative the was aiiaina h nvriyo Heidelberg of University the at Habilitation eti egahclrgo stecoktm correction clock-time the is ∆ region geographical certain a . for supporting slot linkage time important early most an the provide Connections subsequent doctrine. the the current in the with incidents than better other history with agrees that timeline striking claim we the some but speculative, present on seems and hypothesis answer Our eclipses our events. rest solar We of experience . the of his favour of in worship for customs religious monotheistic polytheistic the ask a the in we abandon changes to radical particular, and the belief In out carry we to life. First, reasons Akhenaten’s his in guesswork. impor stages outline of ant and year kind circumstances political the some the investigate recap by briefly to accession 14th be his the will of of attempt middle illustrious Our on the the BCE. Depending in of century somewhere accession assumed debate. the is reckoning, much of to his method subject of the interval been The has IV). reign ( Akhenaten was asty gp skonbs,snems epeascaewt tthe it ancient with associate of people era most this since best, awareness known public is the 1550 In between BCE. roughly 1070 placed and is es- it well Traditionally not is tablished. Kingdom”, “New so-called the , tian Introduction 1 aia nar-nfidEytwt h omneeto the of commencement the with as Egypt restored re-unified was a Thebes in capital monarchs. the of residence portant eeaino h at’ oain hterraccumulates 9.0 error than That more rotation. earth’s the of celeration I RGNLFR ULSE IN PUBLISHED FORM ORIGINAL N T htsit h cis ahi codnewt h de- the with accordance in path eclipse the shifts that , rca lmn hnatiuighsoia cissto eclipses historical attributing when element crucial A dyn- 18th the of pharaohs prominent most the of One Abstract. Keywords: disen be can events. dependencies subsequent re lateral the later some on mark though its scarce, left is that 1 era sun in the lifetime: of This worship his BCE. his during 1382 for sun motive in the of placed eclipses be annular would three reign of of year first His Egypt. ± . or o h eido ieconsidered time of period the for hours 0.5 esgeta ale aefrteacsino h hro Ak pharaoh the of accession the for date earlier an suggest We oa cis,Atooia aig keae,NwKingdo New Akhenaten, dating, Astronomical eclipse, Solar h oa cisso h hro Akhenaten Pharaoh the of Eclipses Solar The : e-mail: 92 edleg Germany Heidelberg, 69126 [email protected] mlKhalisi Emil to to t- , 1 0hpaaho h 8hdnsy keae,i nexample an is Akhenaten, dynasty, 18th the of pharaoh 10th eecpbeo rtn,adte eesrcl obde to forbidden strictly were they and writing, of capable were ar- to one first the was civilisation That sky culture. the in in as well luminary important most the of adoration The iu etosaotosuain ftermjrojc of object major their of obscurations about mentions vious vralohrdiisadspotdterts rbbyhe Probably rites. the supported and other all over state. the in the disharmony far-reaching of a episode for The details. obvious of nor mention dates, neither — nor way names, cryptic leak highly ever a should in probably something then af- If an speaking affairs. shortages, religious on tensions, more, ban social even turmoils, The of kind pharaoh. any godlike fected the equal over would dare that a system the within malfunctions announce people few Only society. The authoritarian absolute structure. an governmental in the lived in lie counts ap- phenomena natural incomprehensible. these interpreta pears of at ignorance attempts complete A anything or find tion. uproars, not dramatic do the we worries, of but about eclipses noticed, manner been same have the must In - moon a belief. caused the have of must shake sun rific the of darkening sudden A ob- cult. no are there that surprising seems or it more in the undertaken All as China. auxil- leaps from lunar disengage with to solutions and as iary sun the religion after in calendar its , range old the for role central a played Sun the of Worship 2 course revised our suit cornerstones. to historical required the not of is tracks central the this average the from that argue refrain we ∆ to BCE, 700 reasons before many dates for are method there Though here. T 9,18,ad17 C.Te ol xli the explain would They BCE. 1378 and 1389, 399, iiu omnte.Eiec rmAkhenaten’s from Evidence communities. ligious ssfcett aif h ieie h xc oiinof position exact The timeline. the satisfy to sufficient is age nipeetn h itrclcus of course historical the implementing on tangled i ahr mnoe I,fvue h o tn(Sun) Aton god the favoured III, Amenhotep father, His ac- eclipse of absence the for explanation possible One ojcuei ae ntepsil witness possible the on based is conjecture ,Egypt. m, eae fteNwKndmin Kingdom New the of henaten ri:20.25 [physics.hist-ph] 2004.12952 arXiv: 2 0hJl 2020 July 20th v2: d, - , E. Khalisi (2020): The Solar Eclipses of the Pharaoh Akhenaten

aimed at a smart change in politics to counter the local tra- Table 1: Suggested reign of Akhenaten (selection). dition of (creationism) which was sustained by the powerful priesthood. His son Akhenaten became pharaoh at Time [BCE] Method Ref. an estimated age of 18 to 22 years [7]. He executed drastic 1382– 1367 Moonvisibility+tables [10] changes, in his fifth year, by elevating the sun over all exist- 1380– 1365 Cambridge [11] ing gods (other historians speak of the third year of reign). 1377– 1356 SynchronismswithHatti [17] The sun would take over the sole universal mastery in the 1367– 1350 LinkstoAssyria [11] Egyptian pantheon. Then, he appointed himself its descend- 1360– 1343 Genealogicalrelationships [3] ± σ ant and changed his name: “Akhen-” means “the one 1359 11 (3 ) Radiocarbondating [16] serving the sun”. As a pharaoh he deprived the off 1356– 1340 Geo-politicallinks [6] their power and ordered to stop the former Amun rites. He 1353– 1336 Egyptologicalresearch [9] tempestuously promoted , portraitures, and amu- 1351– 1334 CrosslinkstoBabylon [4] lets with sun-related features. Moreover,he dedicated a new 1350– 1334 Dynastylists [20] capital to it: Achet-Aton, today known as . After a 1349– 1333 Anthropologicalexamination [7] rapid construction he moved there in his 8th year. 1340– 1324 Archaeology [21] < The objectives of these acts are quite sketchy, and -1300 Dendrochronology [11] the background is controversial among Egyptologists. It remains an open question why Akhenaten took the glori- Akhenaten’sreign is situated by historians at the middle fication of the sun to extremes. It seems another case for of the 14th century BCE. Depending on the method of ana- the stock of legends. In any case, the reorganisation of the lysis, various time slots for his rulership are proposed (Table religious belief must have run into opposition by the priests. 1). For the entire 18th dynasty there are rumours of co- Historians call this the “”. It is likely that regencies that would complicate the reckoning. In the case a few Jews, who were working as slaves in of Akhenaten the claims fluctuate between 8 and 12 years exile at that time, were inspired by Akhenaten’s new mono- of co-regency, however, they are also vehemently rejected theistic mindset and incorporated these ideas into their own by other historians. philosophy [1]. The Old Testament emerging very much Manifold attempts to absolute time limits for the later was re-written in order to retroactively adjust a primor- 18th dynasty turn out unsteady. Information is patched to- dial pagan socket religion with the new thoughts evoked by gether from various disciplines, as one tries to generate a Akhenaten. Maybe these workers were even constructing holistic picture. Historians tend to use a “short chronology” Amarna, and, hence, became acquainted with the subject. for their needs, but the “long chronology” offers better res- The pharaoh died in his 17th year of reign, and the ults from the astronomical point of view [10, 12]. The circumstances of his death are obscure. His successor, lifetime of Akhenaten casts shadows over the dates for the , pops up as an enigmatic figure that seems Hittite king Muršili II, the “Dakhamunzu” episode, and the to conceal someone else. It is not clear whether a man or Battle of several decades later. a woman hides behind that name, from who descending, or epitomising even two persons. Akhenaten’s only son, , was an infant at an age of four when inaug- 3 Previous Suggestions for Eclipses urated as pharaoh [20]. An age of 8 or 9 is also conceivable. However, Tutankhamun’s kinship is not conclusively clari- In the variety of works on dating Akhenaten, we restrict fied, as genetical analysis proves intricate patterns between ourselves to eclipses. Studies of similar kind were presen- the pharaohs. The complexity of the family relationships is ted by the engineer and historian William McMurray [14], reviewed, e.g., by Habicht [7]. the archaeoastronomer Göran Henriksson [8], and the astro- It is said that Tutankhamun withdraw many changes in- physicist Giulio Magli [13]. Another analysis was provided troduced by his father, most likely upon the pressure of the by Peter Huber who thoroughly synchronised various moon priesthood. For them, it would be easy to bring an under- dates with pillars from history [10]. aged to restore the religious practice back to the old Amun Reviewing McMurray briefly, he expressed the idea cult. The birthname of the child pharaoh was originally that an image on a grave wall, discovered in Amarna, de- “Tutankh-Aten”, like all his sisters bearing the syllable for picts an allusion to a solar eclipse. The tomb is assigned the sun, but he altered it for the sake of the old gods and to the high Meryra I and is categorised as a major former rites. In Tutankhamun’s second year the capital was private one from the 18th dynasty. Meryra’s task was to moved back to Memphis, and Thebes lost significance even care for the new Aton service launched by the pharaoh. The more. He died after nine or ten years in power at a max- tomb is estimated at the 9th or 10th year of Akhenaten’s imum age of 20. After him the worship of the sun was to be reign. liquidated and all traces erased. Tutankhamun never stood Among the countless sketches showing the pharaonic out politically in any way. For the history of the country couple beneath the beamy sun, McMurray selected one with he was completely irrelevant. His present-day fame is just arcs (Figure 1). These arcs are still not understood. The based on the sensational discovery of his undamaged tomb interpretations cover a wide range of suggestions: collars, in 1922. clouds, upside-down rainbows, or atmospheric halos. Also,

2 E. Khalisi (2020): The Solar Eclipses of the Pharaoh Akhenaten

Figure 2: Total solar eclipse of 1338 BCE [5].

So, in contrast to McMurray who proposed an active impetus received by that eclipse (construction of Amarna), Magli prefers a passive interpretation: the site was evacu- ated because of it. Additional evidence for this hypothesis would come from the celestial circumstances at the instant Figure 1: Replica of a worship scene by Akhenaten and his of totality: it occurred in that part of the sky which lies wife in the tomb of Meryra I [14]. between the star constellations of Gemini and Taurus. The sun is closest to the celestial region pertaining the - Orion, as defined by the old Amun religion. According to flying shadow bands were proposed appearing shortly be- Magli, the eclipse “communicated” the divine sign for the fore the totally eclipsed sun. Resting his arguments on the reversal of policy. latter option, McMurray pleads in favour of the total solar A different eclipse was brought forward by Göran Hen- eclipse of 14 May 1338 BCE (Figure 2). The track passed riksson [8]. He selected six partial and annular eclipses a few kilometers south of Cairo (Memphis) at noonday at from a large sample and constrained them to the horizon, 2 p.m., and it is quite insensitive to the clock-time correc- because small obscurations will be noticed there much bet- tion ∆T because of its course in west-to-east-direction. The ter than in the glare of the day. A partial eclipse can eas- magnitude was 0.991 in Memphis and 0.943 in Thebes, re- ily escape attention if the magnitude is smaller than ≈0.7 spectively. That event would have inspired Akhenaten to [12]. Henriksson showed that the annular eclipse of 5 July build the new residence halfway between these where 1378 BCE was very conspicuous, especially, in at totality was actually achieved. Thus, it would be no factor the king’s residence near Thebes (Figure 3). The sun would of chance that the complex was raised in a deserted area. have risen with a circular black “hole” inside. It happened Akhenaten ascended the in 1340 BCE, i.e. two years in the sixth year of Akhenaten’s reign and would be the before the eclipse, because of special festivals celebrated at cause for his name change. full moon, and after the eclipse those heretic changes were Three years later, on 3 May 1375 BCE, another eclipse initiated. McMurray asserts a consistency with appropriate (partial, mag= 0.795 in Luxor) would have triggered the inscriptions on temples. pharaoh’s definite decision to construct Amarna. Here, Hen- The same eclipse was favoured by Giulio Magli upon riksson deviates from the majority that the idea took shape consideration of architectural alignments of temples in Am- before the fifth year. And, furthermore,a third eclipse might arna [13]. The whole urban plan was fixed dependingon the have induced his son, Tutankhamun, for the turnaround: 27 location of the wadi and tomb in such way that ideal straight October 1356 BCE (partial, mag = 0.852 in Amarna). The lines connect the tomb with all main buildings. Even if priests would have urged to abandon Amarna, and the child a few things may stretch some things too far, as the au- pharaoh went with it. thor admits, there are boundary stelae arranging symmet- rical spaces in which the tomb itself is the focus of atten- 4 An Eclipse Triple? tion. Amarna would have been constructed before that total eclipse of 1338 BCE, and the unexpected incident would Following the chronology by Peter Huber [10], only three have taken place at the end of Akhenaten’s reign. It was in- years are suitable for the time of Akhenaten’s accession: terpreted as a negative sign: a spell was cast by the old gods 1353, 1378, and 1382 BCE. The years are based on the vis- on the sun, and the priests would have “welcomed” that as ibility of lunar crescents that led to a most probablecalendar the call to return to the former status quo. Akhenaten was round. replaced, after his mysterious death, by Smenkhkare first Although a solar calendar was used for indicating dates, and then by the child-king Tutankhamun. the everyday’slife of the common people was guided by the

3 E. Khalisi (2020): The Solar Eclipses of the Pharaoh Akhenaten

Figure 3: Akhenaten could have witnessed three annular eclipses in his lifetime. The total eclipse of 1375 BCE (grey) was partial in Egypt and occurred at sunrise. phases of the moon. For keeping pace of the solar days with to the viewer, but one can imagine that Baily’s Beads the lunar month, a “psdntyw day” was inserted, that oper- flickered around, and the terrifying circle was surrounded ated like a double date, if the visibility of the lunar phase fell by a reddish chromosphere making the scene appear diabol- behind. This “psdntyw day” was introduced by Heinrich ical. Whatever it looked like to the observer, if he stood Brugsch in 1864, and discussed by follow-up researchers, on the central path, the phenomenon would have created a see [10, 15] for details. Huber analysed such days on the stunning show of light. basis of the visibility of the lunar crescent at its conjunction If assuming 1382 BCE for the accession of Akhenaten, with the sun and concluded that only the aforementioned he must have been a child ≈ 3±2 years of age at that spec- years are viable to Akhenaten’s year 1. Therein, the interval tacle in 1399. His father would be pharaoh and surely not of 4 years between 1382 and 1378 BCE is intriguing. less astonished at the strange sight as it was. The father We checked the eclipses of the period from 1420 to could have experienced another eclipse 11 years earlier, on 1320 BCE in Espenak’s Five Millennium Canon of Solar Ec- 25 September 1410 BCE: also of annular type, right after lipses [5]. Relying on the ancillary informationfrom history sunrise (mag = 0.923 in Memphis or 0.864 in Thebes). It that the construction of the new capital started in Akhen- must have caught attention unless weather conditions im- aten’s fifth year, we presume a solar eclipse prior to that. peded the view. Other eclipses in the childhood of the pharaoh could also Akhenaten, as a juvenile, might have experienced his have influenced his attitude towards worship, though such second eclipse ten years later, on the evening of 9 February things stay rather speculative. Altogether, Akhenaten could 1389 BCE. Again of annular type, the sun exhibited a lu- have seen some impressive events before he became regent. minous ring around a black disk. In such sinister state the His father, Amenhotep III, ruled for 38 years, and it is be- sun set in Memphis, or partially in Thebes (mag = 0.891). lieved that he died at an age of almost 50, when Akhenaten Thus, two striking eclipses occurred before his regency. inherited the throne [9]. Eleven years onward Akhenaten would have observed Indeed,we meet the solar eclipse of 1 March 1399 BCE the third one, now in his role as : 5 July 1378 BCE, first. Being of hybrid type, it had a maximum path width as suggested by Henriksson. In Thebes it was seen (mag of 10 km (Figure 3). For the average ∆T, the track swept = 0.982) in the morning hours, and in Memphis it was im- exactly over Thebes which was itself close to the turning pressive, too (mag = 0.872). This happened in his fourth point from totality to annularity (mag ≈ 0.996 at 4:30 p.m.). year and might have inspired him to construct Amarna. Fur- We will never know what sight the blackened sun displayed thermore, another (fourth) great eclipse would have fallen

4 E. Khalisi (2020): The Solar Eclipses of the Pharaoh Akhenaten into his reign. On 3 May 1375 BCE, at sunrise, the solar Table 2: Proposed years [BCE] for the Battle of Kadesh. disk climbed over the horizonbeing partially obscured (mag The year (*) 1274 BCE is favoured by most historians. = 0.854 in Amarna, and 0.796 in Thebes). Akhenaten would have witnessed three central eclipses Year Method of evidence mentioned in in his lifetime, if he had stayed, by chance, in Memphis 1335 Lunardates [10] and Thebes at the respective days. If this was not the case, 1310/11 Lunardates [10] and he remained throughout in Thebes before moving to 1299 Lunardates [15] Amarna, two of the eclipses are impressive enough to leave 1296 Lunardates [15] behind a strong impression. Only very few people get the 1285 Lunardates [2] ± chance of sighting more than one central eclipse, the ma- 1280 ( 12)Radiocarbonanalysis [16] jority even none. Such experiences do affect the attitude, 1278 SynchronismstoAssyria [6] and being a child all the more. Our claim now is that the 1274 Lunardates (*) repeated observation of these oddities laid the foundation (1271) Lunardates(unlikely) [15] for Akhenaten’s worship of the sun. A boundary stone was 1260 Lunardates [10] < found in Amarna bearing an inscript stating that ...“he 1250 Archaeologicalconsiderations [10] would never cross the southern nor northern border of his 1249 Lunardates [10] but wants to be buried towards the sunrise after a mil- 1235 Lunardates [10] jubilees of regency” [18, 21]. Now, let us check whether or not the years of the three secured date from there, and start computing “distances” in eclipses would fit to the course of history. time deploying crosslinks. One of such kind is the so-called “solar omen” of Muršili II, another one could principally 5 Discussion be the Battle of Kadesh. A third way is trickier: recon- structing the timeline from the capture of Babylon after the Solar eclipses strongly depend on the location of the ob- -Dynasty down to the political Dakhamunzu server. When they are historical, they will additionally be affair that followed Akhenaten’s death. The latter way, ∆ subject to the clock-time error, T, that denotes the dif- however, is dependent on the choice of the chronology ference between the strictly uniform time scale (Ephemeris (high, middle, low) for the . Time) and the civil time (Universal Time). The difference is based on the long-term slowdown of the Earth’s rotation 1. For Muršili’s solar omen, which is interpreted as a due to tidal friction, but other geophysical causes apply as solar eclipse in , we refer to Chapter 9.7 well. The value of ∆T can be approximated by a parabola of [12]. Seven possible eclipses between 1340 and ∼ 32.5 · t2 with t in centuries before 1800. This issue has 1301 BCE are on the shortlist for a closer inspec- been investigated in many publications, see the extensive re- tion. Many authors declare themselves in favour of search by Richard Stephenson [19] or the most recent over- the event of 1312 BCE. After working backwards view by the author [12]. through the Dakhamunzu affair, they arrive at ac- Avoiding repetitions, we just make mention that eclipse cession years for Akhenaten around 1350 BCE, and paths are very sensitive to ∆T when going far back in time. they feel done. A motive for his worship of the sun In the case of the hybrid eclipse of 1399 BCE, it amounts is missing. If these authors had adopted the year to 32,946±1,593 s [5]. However, there exist other models 1340 BCE for the solar eclipse, as suggested by as- producinga slightly different value, but all of them obey the tronomers earlier, they would have arrived 30 years parabolic formula. Though the error in ∆T is decisive, we further back in time, and the motive would light up emphasise that it is the average of this extrapolation being immediately — see above. fully adequate to reproduce the coherent scene as discussed here. Furthermore, the exact position of the central zone re- 2. The second support is obtained from the Battle lative to the observer is of minor relevance. A small shift of Kadesh fought between the fifth successor of of the geographical course of the eclipse to the west or east Tutankhamun, II, and the Hittites. This would not change much of the individual sight at the ob- military campaign is described extensively on many scured sun, but the choice of the correct eclipse for dating temple walls, and it took place in the 5th year of purposes will. Ramesses II. The year 1274 BCE is entrenched in So, what reference points do we have, in general, in the minds of historians, but how is it worked out? — order to select the proper event for Akhenaten? Astro- Those, who prefer a sound practice, use astrochrono- nomy supplies the most accurate pegs, but for Egypt of the logy, again, but this time the trail comprises some pharaohs there are almost no celestial hints handed down. kind of “island-hopping”. First, one has to find the There is nothing to be used as a pillar than the calendrical accession year of Ramesses II. In his 52nd year, a system, whether it is linked to agriculture, lunar visibility, lunar date “II prt 27” is recorded as being “psdntyw or heliacal rising of Sirius. Therefore, historians usually day”, i.e. the first day of the lunar month when the make a detour via the Hittites or Babylonians, borrow a crescent was not visible [15, 2]. When performing detailed astronomical calculations, several years turn

5 E. Khalisi (2020): The Solar Eclipses of the Pharaoh Akhenaten

out possible (Table 2). From there, the other points References in the life of Ramesses II would emerge, and so does the Battle of Kadesh. The mounting of further [1] Assmann, Jan (1997): “ und Echnaton”, Dialog 3/4, jigsaw pieces can continue. The comparison of lit- 1997, p29–48 (in German) erature discloses much shakier results than hoped [2] Casperson, Lee W. (1988): “The lunar date of Ramesses for a reliable synchronisation. The widespread year II”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 47, 1988, p181–184 1274 BCE proves far from certain. In view of the computation by Peter Huber (visit his discussion to [3] Dobson A. & Hilton D. (2004): “The Complete Royal Fam- ilies of ”, ed. by Thames & Hudson, Lon- Table 4 in [10]), we feel convinced to re-adjust the don/UK, 2004; ISBN 0-500-05128-3; cited by [13] battle, tentatively to 1310/11 BCE. The subsequent island-hopping would lead to exactly our result for [4] Eder, Christian (2004): “Assyrische Distanzangaben Akhenaten. und die absolute Chronologie Vorderasiens”, Altorien- talische Forschungen 31, No. 2/2004, p191–236; doi: 3. The radiocarbon-based analysis supplies another sci- 10.1524/aofo.2004.31.2.vii (in German) entific method, but it is has to cope with consider- [5] Espenak, Fred (2006): “Predictions for Solar and able errors like calibration and refinement. The year ± Lunar Eclipses”, Eclipse maps courtesy of Fred Espenak, “1280 12” in our Table 2 is simply derived from NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center; the model by Ramsey etal [16] for the accession of http://www.eclipsewise.com/ Ramesses II on the 95% confidence level: take the medium of 1297 and 1273, as given in that paper, [6] Gertoux, Gérard (2013): “Dating the fall of Babylon and then subtract 5 years for the battle. The authors ad- thanks to Astronomical Events”, eprint arXiv:1309.2758; https://arxiv.org/abs/1309.2758 mit that their average calendrical precision is off by 24 years for the New Kingdom and also recommend [7] Habicht M.E., Bouwman A.S., Rühli F.J. (2016): “Iden- earlier years than the current consensus. tifications of Ancient Egyptian Royal from the 18th Dynasty Reconsidered”, Yearbook of Physical Astronomy returns the most substantial arguments for Anthropology 159, (Suppl. 61), 2016, S216–231; doi: dates, but it serves as an assistant only. It cannot replace the 10.1002/ajpa.2209 adjustment of the historical plot into the global picture. The [8] Henriksson, Göran (2007): “Chronology for the Egyptian development of a story long ago has to be re-constructed by pharaohs of the Amarna period . . . ”, British Archaeological historians. Within the setting we suggest the year 1382 BCE Reports 1647, ISSN 978-1-4073-0081-8, 2007, p122–148 for Akhenaten’s accession. Our concept of three eclipses (1399, 1389, and 1378 BCE) is based on plausibility, but [9] Hornung, Erik (2006): “The New Kingdom”, in: An- we do not insist on having found the ultimate solution. cient , ed. by Hornung etal., Brill, The timeline was already put forward by others in a Leiden/NL, 2006, p197–217; ISBN 978-90-04-11385-5 similar way deploying astronomical dating, and we hope to [10] Huber, Peter J. (2011): “The Astronomical Basis of support this view by the method of eclipses. That “long” Egyptian Chronology of the Second Millennium BC”, chronology is reluctantly accepted by historians who stick Journal of Egyptian History 4, 2011, p172–227; doi: to their conventional king counts. If they are willing to ac- 10.1163/187416611X618721 cept the reason for Akhenaten’s venture, as brought forward [11] Kelley D.H. & Milone E.F. (2011): “Exploring An- in this paper, re-arrangementswould need to be made in the cient Skies”, Springer Science + Business Media, New lengths of reigns and probably some re-interpretation of the York/USA, 2011; ISBN 0-387-95310-8 textual evidence. [12] Khalisi, Emil (2020): “Das Buch der legendären Finster- nisse”, Habilitation at the University of Heidelberg, Ger- Acknowledgements many, 2020, ch. 9.6 (in German)

This work is part of the Habilitation submitted to the Uni- [13] Magli, Giulio (2013): “Architecture, Astronomy and Sac- versity of Heidelberg, Germany, in February 2020 [12]. The red Landscape in Ancient Egypt”, Cambridge University present version of the paper is overhauled, linguistically im- Press, New York/USA, 2013, p215–217; ISBN: 978-1-107- 03208-8 proved, and now published “as is”. The entire research was performed in dire straits. [14] McMurray, William (2003): “Dating the Amarna Period in Egypt: . . . ”, Egyptologists’ Electronic Forum (EEF), On- Line Library (visited 2019); http://www.egyptologyforum.org/EMP/DAPE.pdf

[15] Parker, Richard A. (1957): “The Lunar Dates of III and Ramesses II”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 16, 1957, p39–43; cited by [2, 17]

6 E. Khalisi (2020): The Solar Eclipses of the Pharaoh Akhenaten

[16] Ramsey C.B., Dee M.W., Rowland J.M. + 7 co-authors (2010): “Radiocarbon-Based Chronology for Dynastic Egypt”, Science 328, 7 June 2010, p1554; doi: 10.1126/ science.1189395

[17] Rice, Trevor (2003): “ Late Chronology”, Online article at https://www.oocities.org/trevoraug/ (ch. 3 + 6), vis- ited in July 2020

[18] Schlögl, Hermann A. (2008): “Echnaton”, Verlag C.H. Beck oHG, München/D, 2008, p41; ISBN: 978-3-406- 56241-9

[19] Stephenson, Francis Richard (1997): “Historical Eclipses And Earth’s Rotation”, Cambridge University Press, Cam- bridge/UK, 1997; ISBN: 0-521-46194-4

[20] Wente E.F. & van Siclen III C.C. (1976): “A Chronology of the New Kingdom”, in: Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes, Chicago, 1976, p217–263, esp. p249–250

[21] Wikipedia (2020): https://de.wikipedia.org/ (Ger- man + English sites), visited in February 2020

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