I dont have any strong feelings on it either way. The old wood explanation seems plausible enough. Dating charcoal is always risky business, since all it tells you is the age of that part of the tree when it was burnt. I dont know enough about Egyptian chronology to comment otherwise, but I would have no contention with its current dating, or even if it was redated to a few centuries earlier.

Jonny

The path to good scholarship is paved with imagined patterns. - David M Raup