SYNCHRONIZED CHRONOLOGY SYNCHRONIZED CHRONOLOGY RETHINKING MIDDLE EAST ANTIQUITY A SIMPLE CORRECTION TO EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY RESOLVES THE MAJOR PROBLEMS IN BIBLICAL AND GREEK ARCHAEOLOGY Roger Henry Algora Publishing New York © 2003 by Algora Publishing. All Rights Reserved. www.algora.com No portion of this book (beyond what is permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act of 1976) may be reproduced by any process, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 0-87586-191-1 (softcover) ISBN: 0-87586-192-X (hardcover) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: 2002014693 Henry, Roger, 1949- The synchronized chronology : a simple correction to Egyptian chronology resolves the major problems in biblical and Greek archaeology / Roger Henry. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-87586-191-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-87586-192-X (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Egypt—History—To 332 B.C.—Chronology. 2. Middle East—History—To 622—Chronology. 3. Chronology, Egyptian. 4. Bible—Antiquities. 5. Greece—Antiquities. I. Title. DT83 .H54 2002 932'.002'02—dc21 2002015851 Front Cover: The Pharaoh Akhnaton and Greek Pottery Printed in the United States TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE 1 1. WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS CHRONOLOGY? 5 THE OBJECTIVE 6 THE SOLUTION 8 THE KEY TO THE SYNCHRONISMS 10 2. FOUNDATIONS OF CONVENTIONAL CHRONOLOGY 13 MANETHO 13 BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY 15 THE STARTING POINT 17 3. THE EXODUS AND THE END OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM OF EGYPT 21 THE MOST IMPORTANT SYNCHRONISM 23 THE PAPYRUS IPUWER 24 THE EL ARISH SHRINE 26 THE ERMITAGE PAPYRUS 27 THE INVASION 27 THE AMALEKITES 28 THE DEFEAT OF THE HYKSOS/AMALEKITES 30 4. THE CONQUEST AND THE TIME OF THE JUDGES 33 THE MIDDLE BRONZE AGE 35 THE BIBLICAL MIDDLE BRONZE AGE 37 THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN 38 ISRAELITE OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE 40 JERICHO 40 SHECHEM 41 ABRAHAM AND THE AMORITE MIGRATION 43 THE ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET 45 VII 5. THE 18TH DYNASTY AND THE UNITED KINGDOM 47 THE UNITED KINGDOM 47 THE THEBAN DYNASTY 49 QUEEN SHEBA 50 6. THE WARS OF EGYPT AND ISRAEL 59 SOLOMON’S PUNISHMENT 61 ASA BATTLES AMENHOTEP II 66 THE MITANNI, THE KHURRIANS, AND THE RISE OF ASSYRIA 67 7. ISRAEL AND DAMASCUS AT WAR PART 1 OF THE TELL EL-AMARNA LETTERS 71 JEHOSAPHAT’S CAPTAINS 75 THE MESHA STELE 79 8. JERUSALEM IN THE TIME OF AKHNATON PART 2 OF THE TELL EL AMARNA LETTERS 85 JERUSALEM 87 IVORY 90 AKHNATON 91 9. THE END OF THE BRONZE AGE 97 MANETHO 98 ITALY 101 ROME 101 SICILY 102 SPAIN 102 TROY 103 THE END OF THE BRONZE AGE 105 EARTHQUAKES 105 MIGRATION 106 DROUGHT 106 POLITICAL COLLAPSE 107 WARFARE 108 IRON 108 10. NEW LIGHT ON THE GREEK DARK AGES 111 HOMER 113 OTHER PEOPLES OF ASIA MINOR 116 LITERACY 118 ARGOS 120 VIII 11. THE RISE OF ASSYRIA. PART 3 OF THE TELL EL AMARNA LETTERS 125 THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE 128 BABYLONIA 128 ASSYRIA 130 ANOTHER DARK AGE 131 SHALMANESER 132 SHALMANESER ATTACKS PHOENICIA 132 SHALMANESER’S SYRIAN WAR 133 THE KING OF HATTI 136 THE AGE OF THE AMARNA SCRIPT 137 MITANNI 138 12. SAMARIA AS A BENCHMARK FOR ARCHEOLOGY 141 ARCHAEOLOGY IN “CANAAN” 143 LOOKING FOR A BENCHMARK 144 THE LACHISH OSTRACA 146 MEGIDDO 148 13. THE THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD IN EGYPT 151 THE CASE FOR SHOSHENQ AS SHISHAK 153 SHOSHENQ IN THE SYNCHRONIZED CHRONOLOGY 154 THE PHOENICIAN SCRIPT 155 SAMARIA AS THE BENCHMARK 155 ISRAEL 157 LIBYA WITH A DISTRACTED ASSYRIA 158 14. WHO WERE THE HITTITES? 161 THE ARCHIVE 161 A MIXED PEOPLE 163 HITTITE ORIGINS 164 THE KHIRBET KERAK PEOPLE 165 THE HATTI LANDS 166 GREEK REFERENCES TO HITTITES 169 THE CHALDEANS 171 THE URARTIANS 171 THE CIMMERIAN INVASION 172 THE TWO HITTITES 174 UR OF THE CHALDEAS 175 IX 15. CHALDEAN ART 177 THE CONVENTIONAL ORDER 178 PHASE 1 179 PHASE 2 180 PHASE 3 180 EAST AND WEST HITTITE COMPARED 181 THE SCRIPT 183 MALATYA 185 PHRYGIA 185 THE CHALDEAN SECRET WRITING 187 A ROYAL “HITTITE” BURIAL IN CARCHEMISH 188 16. THE BATTLE OF CARCHMISH 191 PSAMATICH (SETI-PTAH-MAAT) 193 NECHO (RAMSES II) 194 JUDAH 195 THE BATTLE 197 THE OTHER SIDE 199 HOPHRA (MERNEPTAH HOTPHIRMAE) 202 THE ISRAEL STELE 204 17. RAMSES III AND HIS TIME 207 THE HISTORICAL SCENE 211 THE HARRIS PAPYRUS 214 THE EGYPTIAN RECORD 217 WHO ARE THE P-R-S-TT? 220 TELL EL YAHUDIYEH 223 THE NECROPOLIS 225 18. THE PEOPLE OF THE SEA 229 THE BATTLES 230 WHERE IS THE EGYPTIAN RECORD? 235 19. SUMMARY 241 BIBLIOGRAPHY 251 X List of Illustrations Presentation of Gifts to Queen Hatshepsut 54 Loading Egyptian Boats with Goods from Punt 55 Vessels and Furnishings of Solomon’s Temple Shown as Plunder on the Walls of the Temple of Karnak. 65 The Pharaoh Akhnaton 92 Greek Pottery from Mycenaean Times to the Battle of Marathon 121 East Greek Pottery Compared to Philistine Pottery 218 Portion of Hittite Pantheon at Yazilikaya from Molds 189 Gold Figurines from Charchemish Tomb 190 Ramses III Relief of Pereset Soldiers with their Women and Chil- dren in Oxcart. 221 Persian Royal Guard from Palace of Darius at Persepolis 222 Anthropoid Coffins from Egypt and Palestine 226 Battle Scenes from Medinet Habu Temple Reliefs: A. Libyan Battle with Pereset and Peoples of the Sea as Allies 237 B. Asian Land Battle Against Pereset with Peoples of the Sea as Allies. 238 C. Sea Battle Against Pereset and Peoples of the Sea 239 Maps The Exodus and the Hyksos Invasion 29 The Conquest 39 The Route of Abraham and the Amorite Migration 44 The Middle East in the Time of the Hittites 168 PREFACE Imagine how distorted our understanding of ancient history would be if the chronological framework around which it was built had several extra centuries added. What if the backbone of Egyptian dynasties contained duplicates? If they were far enough back in time there would be no outside reference for comparison. But if duplicates occurred while Greeks and Hebrews were recording history there would be a very predictable consequence. The archaeological remains of the pharaohs from the duplicated dynasties, those with Greek and Hebrew names, would be missing from Egypt. At the same time, the dynasties with Greek names would be prefigured further back in time with Egyptian names. Those pharaohs would have left abundant archaeological, even monumental, remains. An entire history would be built around the writings left by these pharaohs. And just as surely the Greeks and Old Testament writers would know nothing of those. How would the effects of this distorted history manifest on those surrounding cultures whose archaeology is cross-dated to Egypt? Greek pottery placed as funerary gifts in pharaohs’ tombs locks two chronologies. But Greek history does not have the kind of rigid dating seen in the Hebrew scriptures. So the two main “victims” of faulty Egyptian chronology would be affected in dramatically different ways. In the following pages, I assert that this is precisely what has happened. While some details of any review of antiquity are bound to be left open to question, I hope the ideas presented here will challenge those engaged in the study of these civilizations to take a fresh look at some important assumptions. On the one hand, Greek history has been forced to accommodate a Dark Age following the Trojan War, in contradiction to what the Greeks themselves 1 Syncronized Chronology believed happened. Their history indicates that Dorians moved south two generations after the war and so overcrowded eastern Greece with refugees that they had to send out colonies. Archaeologists have bullied historians into accepting a very different version: that, basically, after the war the culture collapsed and Greece was uninhabited for 500 years. Hypothetical (read “pretend”) evidence has been used for so long to minimize this gap that nobody even realizes it is happening. But at least the distorted sequences of Greek history remain intact. What happens when there is a complete rigid history paralleling Egyptian history? Which history will be trusted? Will the Old Testament Chronicles, with sequentially dated reigns of kings and judges for over 1500 years, be accepted? Or will it be assumed that disagreements with Egyptian archaeology disqualify scripture? The battle between these two versions of history will be the subject of this work. It spans a great deal of time and territory. It is quite impossible to be an expert in all the disciplines touched by the reconstruction. And a certain amount of seemingly boring (at least to the layman) material must be included to support the theory. Those parts or chapters can be skipped, by the casual reader, without losing the story. It took fifteen years of research before I felt qualified to undertake the project. It then took five years to write and refine the work. I can only thank my family for their patience, and my long time friend and consummate historian Vern Leming for his editorial efforts. 2 Preface Table 1: The Synchronized Chronology Conventional Synchronized Time BC Conventional Egypt Palestine Synchronized Egypt Palestine Era Era 2300-2000 Middle Bronze I 11th Dynasty Pastoral & Villages 12th Dynasty Middle Bronze I 1 1 t h D y n a s t y Patriarchs 2000-1800 Middle Bronze 1 3 t h D y n a s t y Canaanite City Middle Bronze 1 2 t h D y n a s t y Abraham IIA States IIA Egyptian Sojurn 1800-1550 Middle Bronze 2nd Interm. 1 3 t h D y n a s t y IIB-C Period 1550-1400 Late Bronze I 18th Dynasty Egyptian Middle Bronze Arab (Hyksos) Exodus Dominance IIB Dynasty Conquest 1400-1200 Late Bronze IIA- Middle Bronze B IIC 1300 19th Judges Dynasty 1200-1150 Iron IA 20th Dynasty Hebrew Conquest and Judges 1150-1000 Iron IB 1087 21st L a t e B r o n z e I Theban Dynasty Dynasty United Kingdom 1000-925 Iron IIA United Monarchy 945 22nd Late Bronze II Divided Dynasty Kingdom 925-720 Iron IIB 817 23rd Dynasty Divided 830 Libyan Kingdom Dynasty 720-715 24th Late Bronze III Dynasty 720-586 Iron IIC 751-663 25th Assyrian Iron Age Ethiopian Assyrian Dynasty Conquest Dynasty Conquest 586-525 Chaldean 663-525 26th Babylonian 663 Tanitic Babylonian Empire Dynasty Captivity Dynasty Captivity 525-404 27th Priest Kings Dynasty 525-332 Persian Empire 404-399 28th 2nd Common- ^ 525 Persian 2nd Common- Dynasty wealth Dynasty wealth 399-380 29th ^ Dynasty 380-343 30th ^ 2nd Tantic Dynasty Dynasty 3 1.