Chronology in Ancient Egypt

Regnal years

Administrative documents, production dates, and inscriptions were dated by the regnal year: Reign of King Usermaatra, Year 38, III Akhet, day 20. Regnal years were counted from the day of accession of the king, thus not the same as a civil year. Many ancient cultures used regnal year dating because it provided the most immediate and important dates needed. It was not necessary to know when a particular ancestor ruled, especially legendary ones from centuries ago. When one pharaoh succeeded another, the civil year would change in the middle of the year, overlapping the last year of the previous king with the first year of the new ruler, which meant that Year 1 could range from a few days to almost a whole year.

King lists

King lists preserve the sequence of rulers and in some cases the length of their reigns. They are important chronological sources, but should not be regarded as contemporary historical records. Most were compiled centuries after the rulers they name and might incorporate older traditions, omissions, duplications, or legendary material. Documented sequences of kings are very rare, and dated chronological lists even more so, as chronology in the modern sense was unheard of in the ancient world

The Sumerian King List (SKL) is one of the earliest known Mesopotamian examples. It records successive rulers and dynasties of Sumer and Akkad, but its earliest section includes legendary kings with extraordinarily long reigns. It is valuable for the preserved succession and traditions, rather than as an independent chronology. Other Mesopotamian king lists provide more useful chronological connections. The Assyrian King List (AKL) preserves the succession of Assyrian rulers, while the Synchronistic King List (ScKL) places Assyrian and Babylonian rulers in relation to one another. Such synchronisms are particularly valuable because they connect otherwise separate chronological sequences.

King lists provide an essential framework of succession, but they rarely establish an absolute chronology by themselves. Their value increases when their sequences can be connected to contemporary inscriptions, administrative records, astronomical observations, archaeological evidence, or synchronisms with rulers whose dates can be established independently.

In Egypt, the 12th century BC Turin King List, a fragmentary papyrus from the Ramesside period, records the names and reign lengths of more than 200 rulers. It provides an important framework for foundation of Egyptian chronology by establishing the sequence of Egyptian rulers, although gaps and damage to the papyrus mean that it must be supplemented by other evidence. Temple and tomb inscriptions often include the date on which they were made, and the name of the ruling pharaoh. For example, the Battle of Kadesh inscription begins: “Year 5, third month of the harvest season, day 9, under the majesty of Ramesses II ...” Labelled goods (wine jars etc.) often included the date of production in a similar manner.

Kings of Prehistory

Some of the earliest traditions concerning the rulers of Egypt and Mesopotamia extend beyond ordinary human history. Both civilizations preserved traditions in which gods, divine beings, and legendary heroes were said to have ruled before the beginning of ordinary history, sometimes for impossibly long periods.

Both Egypt and Mesopotamia preserve traditions of rulers belonging to a remote age before the historical dynasties. In Egypt, the Turin King List preserves a tradition of divine rulers preceding the human kings, mentioning reigns of thousands of years, including Thoth, for 7 726 years. Manetho, writing in the Ptolemaic period, also placed the gods and demigods before the human dynasties, assigning them extremely long periods of rule.
Egyptian religious texts also preserve traditions concerning the gods as the primordial rulers of Egypt, although these should not be confused with the historical dynastic king lists.

Mesopotamian tradition contains a strikingly similar pattern. The Sumerian King List (SKL) begins with kings who ruled before the Flood, including Alulim of Eridu, whose reign is given as 28 800 years, followed by other rulers whose reigns are similarly extraordinary. After the Flood, the recorded reign lengths gradually become more plausible before eventually reaching historically attested rulers. The transition to historical time is therefore not unique to either civilization.

The impossibly long reigns also illustrate an important principle when evaluating ancient king lists: the presence of a king or dynasty in a chronological tradition does not, by itself, establish that the chronology is historical. The king list must be assessed against contemporary inscriptions, archaeological evidence, synchronisms, astronomical observations, and other independent sources.

These reigns cannot be accepted as literal chronology. However, neither does it necessarily mean that every underlying tradition was invented when it was written down. Some ancient traditions may preserve distorted memories of peoples, rulers or events from much earlier periods that have since disappeared from the archaeological record. Some of the legendary rulers may even have been real historical figures whose names and deeds survived only through oral tradition before eventually being recorded in a much later period.

The possibility becomes particularly difficult to evaluate when considering periods of many thousands of years. Ten thousand years is an immense span of time, during which settlements can be abandoned, destroyed, buried, eroded or otherwise lost. Most materials used in everyday life are unlikely to survive such periods in recognisable form, particularly when exposed to the elements, while even durable remains may remain undiscovered. The archaeological record is therefore necessarily incomplete, and the absence of physical evidence for a particular people or settlement does not by itself demonstrate that it never existed.

This does not mean that the legendary kings belonged to an unknown prehistoric civilisation, but it leaves open the possibility that some traditions may preserve distant and heavily transformed memories of events or people for which no evidence has yet been found. Contemporary archeologists and historians are reluctant (or unwilling) to confirm the possible existence of these legendary rulers, even though it is possible that future discoveries may shed light on their historical basis. Proposals that civilisations existed thousands of years earlier than the conventional historical record are dismissed, often with a smirk, as pseudohistoryile there is currently insufficient evidence to substantiate these claims, they raise questions that deserve to be considered separately from both established history and outright pseudohistory.

Chronology must distinguish between established evidence, historical reconstruction, traditional accounts and speculative hypotheses, while remaining open to the possibility that future discoveries may substantially alter our understanding of humanity's earliest history.

Synchronisms

Ancient cultures used a wide variety of calendars and systems for recording dates. Because each culture had its own system, it can be difficult to convert and synchronise dates between different calendars, particularly as the accuracy of the records was of varying quality where they exist at all. A particularly valuable form of synchronism is diplomatic correspondence between kings, unearthed in the ruins of Akhetaten, buried when the ephemeral capital was abandoned. The correspondence provides the names of rulers from different kingdoms and establishes that they were contemporaries. When one of the rulers can be dated independently, the synchronism allows the chronology of the other kingdom to be anchored to the same period.

While the Sumerian King List is useful for Mesopotamian historiography, it does not provide much chronological context on its own. The Synchronistic King List is more relevant to the interconnection of Mesopotamian chronologies, as Assyrian and Babylonian kings are placed in parallel. However, the surviving text is fragmentary and incomplete. Synchronisms are among the most important tools for connecting otherwise independent chronologies. A single securely dated event or ruler can provide a chronological anchor that allows dates in another historical tradition to be placed within the same framework.

Genealogies

Tombs of high-ranking officials sometimes included records of their ancestry, as well as references to which kings they served under. Administrative documents can provide additional evidence for family relationships, allowing scholars to trace families back several generations. These connections can help corroborate the succession of kings and provide useful chronological controls, particularly reigns that are poorly documented or disputed.

Archaeological records

Archaeology provides an invaluable archive of human history, offering tangible evidence in the form of settlements, structures, artefacts and other cultural remains. Scientific techniques such as radiocarbon dating can help establish when these remains were produced, used or deposited, allowing discoveries to be placed within a broader chronological and historical context.

However, the archaeological record is necessarily limited and incomplete. Most ancient settlements and objects have been destroyed, buried, eroded or otherwise lost, while many surviving remains have yet to be discovered. Materials also survive for very different lengths of time, and the further back we look, the less complete the surviving evidence generally becomes.

Archaeology provides physical evidence of the past, while scientific dating methods and historical interpretation help establish when that evidence belongs. It can provide strong chronological evidence where suitable remains and dating methods are available, but the absence of archaeological evidence for a particular people, settlement or period does not necessarily demonstrate that it never existed.

Traces of human activity are often remarkably short-lived when measured against the vast span of human history. Most buildings, tools and everyday materials do not survive intact for many thousands of years, and settlements can be destroyed, buried or eroded beyond recognition. Consequently, entire periods of human activity may leave little or no identifiable trace in the archaeological record.

Astronomical records

Astronomical observations played an important role in helping to regulate calendars, determine the timing of religious festivals, and predict seasonal changes important to agriculture. Ancient records sometimes describe astronomical events such as solar and lunar eclipses, planetary movements, and the positions of stars.

These observations can provide exceptionally precise chronological evidence. Because the movements of celestial bodies can be calculated using modern astronomical methods, a sufficiently detailed and reliable ancient observation can sometimes be assigned to a specific date in the past. Such observations can therefore provide independent chronological anchors against which historical records and king lists can be compared.

However, astronomical dating also depends on the reliability of the original record. The location from which an observation was made can be particularly important, as the visibility and position of celestial objects vary according to the observer's location. If the location, date, calendar system, or details of the observation are uncertain, several possible dates may result.

The surviving astronomical record is also incomplete. Astronomy can provide remarkably precise dates for particular events, but cannot by itself establish a continuous chronology when no observations survive.

Establishing a chronology

No single source can normally provide a complete and reliable chronology of the ancient world. Instead, chronology is constructed by comparing different types of evidence and looking for points where they overlap. A regnal year may establish when a document was produced within a particular reign; a king list may establish the sequence of rulers; a synchronism may connect two otherwise independent chronologies; and archaeological or astronomical evidence may provide an independent means of dating an event.

The further back in time we go, the fewer independent sources tend to survive, and the greater the uncertainty becomes. Conversely, where several independent sources agree on the same sequence or date, confidence in the resulting chronology increases. Chronological dates should therefore be regarded as conclusions drawn from the available evidence rather than as facts that necessarily appear directly in any single ancient source.