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Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt
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Lyndelle Webster ,
Margot Kuitems,
Christian Knoblauch ,
Laurel Bestock ,
Felix Höflmayer ,
Hans Beeckman,
Dorian Q. Fuller,
Sturt W. Manning,
Michael W. Dee
PLOS One, Volume: 20, Issue: 5, Start page: e0314612
Swansea University Author:
Christian Knoblauch
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DOI (Published version): 10.1371/journal.pone.0314612
Abstract
The unrivaled millennia-long historical chronology of ancient Egypt forms the backbone for archaeological synchronization across the entire Eastern Mediterranean region c. 3000-1000 BCE. However, for more than a century, scholars have wrangled over the correct calendrical positioning of this record,...
| Published in: | PLOS One |
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| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69296 |
| Abstract: |
The unrivaled millennia-long historical chronology of ancient Egypt forms the backbone for archaeological synchronization across the entire Eastern Mediterranean region c. 3000-1000 BCE. However, for more than a century, scholars have wrangled over the correct calendrical positioning of this record, with older scenarios being referred to as ‘High’, and younger ones, ‘Low’ chronologies. Offsets between the two can be as great as a century, substantially confusing connections with other civilizations of the time. Here, we settle this debate for two major periods of political unity in ancient Egypt, the Old Kingdom (the Pyramid Age), and the Middle Kingdom. We introduce 48 high-precision radiocarbon dates obtained through rare access to museum collections as well as freshly excavated samples. By combining these new results with legacy radiocarbon data and with text records for reign lengths of kings within a Bayesian statistical framework, we show that the Low Chronology is no longer empirically supported for the Old and Middle Kingdoms, and resolve a long-standing historical schism. |
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| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Funders: |
The radiocarbon analyses and project members at the University of Groningen were funded by the European Research Council project, ECHOES (Grant No. 714679). The radiocarbon analyses at the University of Oxford were funded by M.W. Dee’s Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (ECF-2012-123). The first author was also supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO, grant number PGW.21.013). The samples were obtained from Uronarti, Sudan by in the framework of the project, “Tracing Transformations” funded by the Austrian Science Fund (START-project Y 932-G25). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. |
| Issue: |
5 |
| Start Page: |
e0314612 |