Dating Pharaohs

University of Oxford researchers have come up with the most comprehensive chronology thus far of Egypt’s dynasty of pharaohs by radiocarbon-dating some 211 artifacts (Science 2010, 328, 1554). Until now, when Egyptologists have talked about when different pharaohs reigned, the dates they discussed were primarily determined using historical documents. The results of the project, led by Christopher Bronk Ramsey, director of a radiocarbon-dating facility at Oxford’s Research Laboratory for Archaeology & the History of Art, correlate well with historically derived dates—with a few exceptions. For example, new radiocarbon dating puts the start of the New Kingdom—ancient Egypt’s golden age—between 1570 and 1544 B.C., several decades earlier than historical estimates. The revised chronology will also enable experts to compare and contrast the timing of important events in other ancient societies such as those in Mesopotamia, Sudan, and Central Asia. Ramsey’s team sampled baskets, plant-based textiles, seeds, and other plant remains from museum collections around the world that were clearly associated with the reign of a particular pharaoh and used statistical methods and calibrated samples to ensure that the dating was accurate.