Introduction to Ancient

Egypt
Chronology
 Chronology

• Timeline - sequence of events: which

event happened 1st and which event happened
later (not necessary to know the date on
which the event occurred)
• Dates – “calendar” based dates, the Year
something happened
 BC,
• Gregorian calendarAD
– BC = “Before Christ” - before the birth of Jesus Christ
• BCE = “Before the Common Era” – same starting point as
BC, a non-denominative form of the globally recognized
dates
• BP = “Before Present”. Used for prehistoric dating, based on
radio carbon 14C. “Present” = 1950 (we look at the
degradation of the radioactive carbon since that date)
– AD = “Anno Domini” – Latin “in the year of the/our
Lord” (Jesus Christ). 0 is taken as the date at
which Jesus Christ was born
• AH = Hijri years, not used in pre-Islamic
Egyptian archaeology AH 1= 15/16 Jul 622 AD
– 3/4 Jul 623 AD
 Talking about dates BC
• 1st century BC = 100 – 0 BC (we are counting
backward)
• 1st Millennium BC = 1000 – 0 BC
• 3rd Millennium BC = 3000 – 2000BC

• e.g. 2357 BC = during the 3rd millennium BC

• e.g. 646 BC = during the 7th century BC
Timelines
 Evidence for
took place? How olddating
How do we know when something happened / was made??? What date an event
something is?
• Historical records are written records recorded by Ancient Egyptians. They
come in the form of:
-Inscriptions = records inscribed or carved into the walls of temples or things
carved into stone in some way and that's what hieroglyphs are and this is to record
very important events but it’s crucial to remember who commissioned the writing of
that text on the walls of the temple and why because these kind of statements are
part of propaganda I think very carefully about what information is included and
what's missing
-Dated documents: documents that have an Ancient Egytian date on them and
they might be documents that aren't something like propaganda like an email to
somebody, a record of a delivery , birth of something so these documents might be
more reliable and they are usually related to administration
• Artefacts = the things left behind by people (e.g. plastic bags glass bottles
Cardboard boxes furniture ) and we can put them in a relative sequence in order
or in relationship to each other so we can know which things are older and
which things are newer
• Stratigraphy – layers: older rocks make up the bottom layers and newer rocks
the top layer
• Scientific dating methods: radio carbon 14C dating
 Ancient Egyptian
•
Calendar
They had their own calendar
system which consists to know
who has the king and this was
very difficult for Egyptologists
because they had to know
which king came first, the 2nd , rnpt-sp 28 xr Xm
the 3rd… Regnal Year 28 under the person
• Now we use BC / AD / AH of…..
etc…
• Ancient Egyptians used the
reign of a specific king so we
can know exactly when in the
reign of the king something took
place
– Year
– Season (they had 3 season)
– Month
– Day
 The seasons of the Egyptian Year
• Almost every major aspect of life in Egypt depended on the
Nile river, and the natural annual cycle of the flood
• Before the construction of the 1st Aswan Dam in 1910, the Nile river
flooded the land every year – unless there was a drought in Africa
A 2nd Dam was built in 1960s
• River source in central eastern Africa fall from the mountains and
because it rains an enormous amount, this creates huge amount of
water that floods all the way down the River through Sudan and into
Egypt and it used to go all the way through Egypt and out into the
Mediterranean.
• There was an annual flood cycle so in certain times of the year, the
river is much bigger because it's burst and it’s flooded across all of
the low lying land in Egypt
Egypt
 LOWER Egypt

UPPER Egypt

Lake Nasser, created in 1960

by the construction of the
2nd Aswan Dam
Red land (kmt) Black land
(dSrt)
 • Three seasons

Seasons – Akhet
– Peret
– Shemu
• Akhet – Flood, summer.
Starts May/June reaching its
peak in August/September.
– Deposits layers of fertile silt on
the land
• Peret – Sowing and growing,
autumn/winter. Waters recede
hsbt in October/ November
abd • Shemu – Harvest, spring.
Water at lowest point.
sw February- May.
 Months and Days
• 4 months in each
season
• 30 days in each
month
• 10 days in each
week

• Example:- The
Attendance Ostraca
from Deir el-Medina
 Manetho
• 3rd Century BC
• Greek / Egyptian Priest living in the Delta,
Priest in the temple at Heliopolis
• Egyptian History / Notes about Egypt
• Only known from quotes by other
scholars
• Provides a useful chronological division
of Egypt into Kingdoms and ruling
Dynasties
• Based on various sources
Manetho’s dating • Value
– Provides a clear and
system universally accepted
• Old Kingdom terminology for
Egyptian Chronology
• First Intermediate
Period
• Problems
• Middle Kingdom
– Pre-dynastic missing
Second Intermediate
– Many rulers missing
Period
– Intermediate periods
• New Kingdom
– Lengths of reigns
• Third Intermediate often incorrect
Period
• Late Period
 Historical records
• Palermo Stone
• Karnak King List
• Abydos King List
• Saqqara King List

BM EA 117
Kinglists
 Royal Canon of Turin
• Discovered by Drovetti
in Luxor (Thebes)
• Badly damaged
papyrus
– like a huge puzzle
• Written 1200 BC
• Recto (back) of a
Ramesside accounts
papyrus
• Listed 300 kings
• Exact length of each
reign, even to the day
 Problems
• Relative dating
• Co-regencies
• ‘Missing’
Rulers
• Intermediate
Periods

Stela of Nakht CG 20516

Inscriptions – dated “documents”
Commemorating events
 Donation Stela
Year 22 of
Sheshenq III, ca.
804 B.C.E.

A commemorative
inscription that
records the gift of
land to a temple or a
member of the temple
staff.
Brooklyn Museum
67.118
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3762
Rosetta Stone • Donation Stela
• Decree issued in
Memphis in 196 BC,
granting tax exemption
to priests
• Ptolemy V
• Three scripts -
Hieroglyphs, Demotic
and Greek
• Two languages – Greek
and Egyptian
 Commemorativ
e artefacts

2018 Coin
marking 100
years since the
Armistice WWII

1953 Queen Elizabeth II coronation

 Amenhotep III
Commemorative
Scarabs
• "lion hunt scarabs" (123)
• "marriage scarabs" (56)
• "lake scarabs" (11) - DATED
• "bull hunt scarabs" (5) - DATED
• "Gilukhepa scarabs" (5) - DATED
 • Year 11 under the majesty of Horus:
Lake Scarab
• His majesty commanded the making of a
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-
static/digitalegypt/seals/comm.html
Strong bull, appearing in truth; two ladies:
Who establishes laws and pacifies the two
lands; Golden Horus: Great of Strength,
smitter of the Asiatics; king of Upper and
Lower Egypt, lord of the two lands,
Nebmaatre; son of Re: Amenhotep, ruler
of Thebes, given life; and the great royal
wife Tiy, may she live. Her father's name
is Yuya; her mother's name is Tuya.
lake for the great royal wife Tiy, may she
live, in her town Djarukha. Its lengths is
3700 (cubits) and its width is 700
(cubits). (His majesty) c elebrated the
festival of
opening the lake in the third month of
inundation, day 16. His majesty was
rowed in the royal barge Aten-tjehen in
it.
Dating with artefacts
• Art (2D)
– Tombs
Dating based on
– Temples “evolution”
–
–
Coffins
Stelae
and changing
• Sculpture (3D) styles
• Writing TYPOLOGIES
– Grammar
• Artefacts
– Traditions
– Ceramics
• Architecture – Lithics
– Temples – Furniture
– Tombs – Jewellery
– Settlement – Tools
s
– Weapons
Typologies
 Sir Flinders
Petrie
• Relative dating
– What comes
before
what
– The ORDER of
things, not the
date
• Based on
stratigraphy
• Predynasti
c ceramics
 Cof in ‘evolution’

5th dynasty coffin

3rd dynasty coffin
Berlin Kunsthistorisches Museum 7512
Manchester Museum 5467
Middle Kingdom

Coffin from Beni Hasan

Liverpool Museum
55.82.112

Coffin from Asyut

Pelizaeus Musuem 4750

 New Kingdom

Coffin of Bak
Manchester Museum 15208

Liverpool Museum
16.4.61.1
Art
 Artistic ‘trends’
Reserve
Heads

Giza, Cemetery 1200, tomb of Kanofer, tomb

1203; (Dynasty 4, reign of Khufu) Museum of Fine
6–19767 arts, Boston
New Kingdom Ancestor
Busts
Sculpture
 Senwosret III

Senwosret I Amenemhat III

 Meritaten?

Amenhotep III

Amenhotep II
 Two-dimensional Art
Old Kingdom
 New
Kingdom
Amarna
 Stratigraphy

• Enables us to put
artefacts into
chronological
order (relative
dating)
• Origin = geological
methods
Stratigraphy
 C
14

• dating
Radiocarbon /carbon dating
• Carbon isotope 14
• Gives a ‘date’ based on how ‘old’ the item
is
– Dates are given as BP (before present), and the
‘Present’ date is 1950, when the
measurements were first taken
• Therefore 4950BP = around 3000BC
• Organic matter
– Plants
– Animals
 Why would you use 14C dating??
• If you have inscriptions or texts that give
an ancient Egyptian date – it is not
necessary
• If you know your remains date to a certain time
period based on well accepted artefact typologies
– it is not necessary
• If you have only found scatters of remains with
unclear typology – it is necessary
• If you specific research questions regarding
chronology that are unclear – it is useful
• If you find something that might be the ‘oldest’
example of that item – it is necessary
 Egyptian Chronology
• Sources:
– Manetho
– Historical Records (Palermo Stone, Karnak, Luxor
& Abydos Kinglists, Turin Canon)
– Commemorative inscriptions and scarabs
– Artefacts
• Artefacts with dates on (seal impressions, jar labels)
• Artefacts dated based on typologies
Petrie’s Sequence Dating of Predynastic ceramics
– Stratigraphy
 Egyptian Chronology
• Prehistoric Period – c. 500,000 – 4000 BC
• Predynastic Period – 4000 – 3000 BC
• Pharaonic Period - 3000 – 332 BC
• Old, Middle and New Kingdoms
• First, Second and Third Intermediate Periods
• Ancient Dates = Regnal Year, Season, Month
and Day