Hi Robin,

I am still wondering about 'when were the Hyksos'

Petrie published a book called Historical Studies in 1911, and on pp 8-22 he makes what I think is a good argument for his long chronology. It is available online here:

[dlib.nyu.edu]

I have a copy of Wisdom of the Egyptians (Petrie - 1940), where he gives 4300 BC for the start of the 1st dynasty.

One of the things that he does not mention in either of these books is the ivory tablet of 1st dynasty king Djer that was originally interpreted as indicating the beginning of a Sothic cycle, which would have been either 2800 BC, which is now considered to late, or 4300 BC, which is now considered to early. In Historical Studies Petrie argues for another full sothic cycle back to 5600 BC for the first dynasty..

I think he makes good arguments that the Hyskos period should not be compressed nearly as much as the currently accepted chronology does.

I also wonder about some of the carbondates. I have read that one of the ways that carbondating is 'calibrated' is by matching samples with currently accepted historical dates for ancient Egypt as the most reliable indicator of true ages, and I wonder if the carbondating scientists may want the endorsement of Egyptology as much or more than Egyptology wants the endorsement of carbondating...

Notwithstanding this, I have also seen reports of carbondates for mummies and for Khufu's boat for around 3500 BC, that also raises questions about carbondating and the currently accepted chronology.

Here is a radiocarbon paper that talks about the Hyskos period and says it is longer than what the Egyptologists currently think, but not as long as Petrie thought:

[www.researchgate.net]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2020 01:55AM by Jim Alison.