Ancient Egyptian Chronology HANDBOOK OF ORIENTAL STUDIES SECTION ONE THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST Ancient Near East Editor-in-Chief W. H. van Soldt Editors G. Beckman • C. Leitz • B. A. Levine P. Michalowski • P. Miglus Middle East R. S. O’Fahey • C. H. M. Versteegh VOLUME EIGHTY-THREE Ancient Egyptian Chronology Edited by Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David A. Warburton BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2006 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ancient Egyptian chronology / edited by Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David A. Warburton; with the assistance of Marianne Eaton-Krauss. p. cm. — (Handbook of Oriental studies. Section 1, The Near and Middle East ; v. 83) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-90-04-11385-5 ISBN-10: 90-04-11385-1 1. Egypt—History—To 332 B.C.—Chronology. 2. Chronology, Egyptian. 3. Egypt—Antiquities. I. Hornung, Erik. II. Krauss, Rolf. III. Warburton, David. IV. Eaton-Krauss, Marianne. DT83.A6564 2006 932.002'02—dc22 2006049915 ISSN 0169-9423 ISBN-10 90 04 11385 1 ISBN-13 978 90 04 11385 5 © Copyright 2006 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands EDITORIAL With this volume of the Handbook of Oriental Studies (Handbuch der Orientalistik) a new editorial board for the ancient Near East takes over from the board that has edited the HdO volumes for so many years. The new editors have been chosen because of their expertise in the fields that pursue the study of the civilizations of the ancient Near East. These editors are: G. Beckman (Hittitology), C. Leitz (Egyptology), B. Levine (Hebrew Bible/Ancient Israel), P. Michalowski (Sumerology), P. Miglus (Near Eastern Archaeology), and W. H. van Soldt (Assyriology, Editor-in-Chief ). The board has planned a number of new volumes in the HdO series and expresses the hope that with these volumes the series will resume its original function of a handbook for Ancient Near Eastern Studies. At the same time, the new board is committed to the publi- cation of volumes that had already been planned and accepted and which are scheduled to appear in the near future. However, it should be pointed out that the present board members do not necessarily agree with the entire content of a volume that they have ‘inherited’ from their predecessors. Finally, we would like to thank the members of the former editorial board for all their work for the HdO series. The Editors CONTENTS Acknowledgments .......................................................................... xi Introduction .................................................................................... 1 Erik Hornung PART I EGYPTIAN CHRONOGRAPHICAL TRADITION AND METHOD OF DATING 1. Royal Annals ............................................................................ 19 The Editors 2. The Royal Canon of Turin .................................................... 26 Kim Ryholt 3. King Lists and Manetho’s Aigyptiaka ...................................... 33 The Editors 4. Genealogy and Chronology .................................................... 37 Morris L. Bierbrier 5. Methods of Dating and the Egyptian Calendar .................... 45 The Editors PART II RELATIVE CHRONOLOGY 1. Predynastic—Early Dynastic Chronology .............................. 55 Stan Hendrickx 2. Dynasties 0–2 ............................................................................ 94 Jochem Kahl 3. Dynasty 3 .................................................................................. 116 Stephan J. Seidlmayer viii contents 4. Dynasties 4 to 5 ...................................................................... 124 Miroslav Verner 5. Dynasties 6 and 8 .................................................................. 144 Michel Baud 6. First Intermediate Period ...................................................... 159 Stephan J. Seidlmayer 7. Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period ...... 168 Thomas Schneider 8. New Kingdom ........................................................................ 197 Erik Hornung 9. Dynasty 21 .............................................................................. 218 Karl Jansen-Winkeln 10. Third Intermediate Period .................................................... 234 Karl Jansen-Winkeln 11. Saite and Persian Egypt ........................................................ 265 Leo Depuydt 12. Nubian Kingdoms, Dyn. 25 through the Kingdom of Meroe ...................................................................................... 284 Karola Zibelius-Chen 13. Chronological Links between the Cuneiform World of the Ancient Near East and Ancient Egypt ................................ 304 Jörg Klinger PART III ABSOLUTE CHRONOLOGY 1. Radiocarbon Dating and Egyptian Chronology .................. 327 Sturt Manning 2. Luminescence Dating of Egyptian Artefacts ........................ 356 Christian Goedicke 3. Dendrochronology .................................................................. 361 Otto Cichocki 4. Dates relating to Seasonal Phenomena and Miscellaneous Astronomical Dates ................................................................ 369 Rolf Krauss 5. Astronomy on the Horizon—A Tool for ancient Egyptian Chronology? ............................................................................ 380 Juan Antonio Belmonte contents ix 6. Lunar Days, Lunar Months, and the Question of the Civil based Lunar Calendar .................................................. 386 Rolf Krauss 7. Long-term Variation in the Motions of the Earth and the Moon ........................................................................................ 392 Kurt Locher 8. Lunar Dates ............................................................................ 395 Rolf Krauss 9. The Heliacal Rising of Sirius ................................................ 432 Teije de Jong 10. Egyptian Sirius/Sothic Dates and the Question of the Sirius based Lunar Calender ................................................ 439 Rolf Krauss 11. Foundations of Day-exact Chronology: 690 BC–332 BC .... 458 Leo Depuydt PART IV CONCLUSIONS AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES 1. Conclusions and a Postscript to Part II, Chapter I ............ 473 Rolf Krauss & David A. Warburton 2. Chronological Table for the Dynastic Period ...................... 490 The Editors 3. Tables for Kushite Rulers ...................................................... 496 Karola Zibelius-Chen Abbreviations & Bibliography ...................................................... 501 Index of Personal Names .............................................................. 509 Index of Place Names .................................................................. 514 General Index ................................................................................ 516 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It was Wolfgang Schenkel who suggested the project of a Handbook of Egyptian Chronology to Brill, Academic Publishers, nearly a decade ago. He will have asked himself in the intervening years whether the work would ever appear. Co-editor Erik Hornung developed the concept of the Handbook and together we selected the authors for each section. The subsequent addition of David Alan Warburton to the team provided an impetus to overcome the inertia that had set in. He and Marianne Eaton-Krauss took over the thankless task of translating and/or editing contributions by authors whose mother tongue was not English, except for Chapters II. 1 and 11, III. 7, 9, and 11. I am indebted to the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz who trans- ferred me from the Ägyptisches Museum to the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte in 2001 to do research on the Calendrics and Chronology of ancient Egypt, the Near East and Europe. Although the move deprived me of direct access to an Egyptological library, the Handbook would not have seen the light of the day without this change of for- tune. Thanks to Wilfried Menghin, Director of the MVF, I could con- centrate on the Handbook during 2004 and 2005. Last but not least, I thank Juán José Granados who encouraged me to complete the unloved task. R.K. February 2006 INTRODUCTION Erik Hornung It is widely accepted that chronology is the “spine” of history. The ensuing image is slightly distorted since one can only extend or shorten a spine using violence, stretching it or forcing it like the giant Procrustes into a bed which is far too short. In recent years there have been repeated attempts to cut an entire century off history, and not merely in the “Dark Ages” of antiquity, but even now for the supposedly “invented” Middle Ages. It would thus be more suitable to view time as the clothing of history: a garment can be non-violently adjusted to a changing body. The image of time as a piece of clothing, the habit of mankind and the dress of the deity, can be found in the poem “Song of Time” by the Pakistani poet Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938),1 who was