Hi Brendan,

No, I do not agree with the dates proposed by the R&P hypothesis for the start of Khufu's reign. I will try to explain why.

There are two important differences between the R&P hypothesis and my hypothesis that the 4th dynasty pyramids were oriented to the pole star:

1. The target of orientation.
The R&P hypothesis (as well as all modifications of the "simultaneous transit" method) believes that the celestial Pole was the ultimate target of the Egyptians' orientation ritual, and stars were only auxiliary targets for finding it. My hypothesis suggests that the ultimate targets were the stars themselves, because they embodied the Egyptian gods living in the sky.

2. Dating of the epoch of the Old Kingdom.
The R&P hypothesis (as well as all modifications of the "simultaneous transit" method) believes that the Egyptian chronology was reconstructed by the chronologists quite correctly (that the start of Khufu's reign dates back to 2575 +- 25 BC) and, accordingly, the orientation method is selected with the necessary condition that it gives certain dates close to the calculated ones. (Compare: the beginning of Khufu's reign according to Beckerath - 2579 +- 25 BC; according to Shaw - 2589 BC; Spence - 2480 BC; R&P - 2638 BC; Belmonte - 2577 BC). I tried not to confine myself to certain dates, but to consider a wider range of 3000-2000BC, since the “exact dates” for the Old Kingdom by chronologists are not based on strong evidences (such as synchronisms), but only on assumptions (for more details, see Chapter 6 in the article).
Thus, it can be said that in other methods, dating is primary, and the orientation method is derived taking into account the known dates; while the "pole star" method is primary, and the dates are shifted in accordance with the found global astronomical synchronism (it turns out that neither radiocarbon nor the chronological data contradict this shift) .

I also want to clarify that the R&P hypothesis implies an orientation not to Tuban, but to the middle line between the two stars - Thuban and 10 Dra, each of which was about 1 degree distant from the Pole at the epoch of the Old Kingdom.

Table 9 in the article compares radiocarbon data (calibrated date ranges) with the expectations of the proposed hypothesis. The graphs on the next page show that the data is in line with expectations. According to the "pole star" hypothesis Khufu's pyramid was started near 2803 BC.

Best,
Alex.