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Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt

Pınar Erdil Orcid Logo, Lyndelle Webster Orcid Logo, Margot Kuitems, Christian Knoblauch Orcid Logo, Laurel Bestock Orcid Logo, Felix Höflmayer Orcid Logo, 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 Orcid Logo

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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,...

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Published in: PLOS One
ISSN: 1932-6203
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69296
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spelling 2025-06-24T15:51:39.2001835 v2 69296 2025-04-15 Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt 80cec9b2951e1bf14e693e66b1eac7a2 0000-0001-5587-386X Christian Knoblauch Christian Knoblauch true false 2025-04-15 CACS 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. Journal Article PLOS One 20 5 e0314612 Public Library of Science (PLoS) 1932-6203 28 5 2025 2025-05-28 10.1371/journal.pone.0314612 COLLEGE NANME Culture and Communications School COLLEGE CODE CACS Swansea University External research funder(s) paid the OA fee (includes OA grants disbursed by the Library) 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. 2025-06-24T15:51:39.2001835 2025-04-15T15:49:10.2739695 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - Classics, Ancient History, Egyptology Pınar Erdil 0000-0001-7463-6034 1 Lyndelle Webster 0000-0002-6538-4573 2 Margot Kuitems 3 Christian Knoblauch 0000-0001-5587-386X 4 Laurel Bestock 0009-0005-7159-8374 5 Felix Höflmayer 0000-0002-6784-0536 6 Hans Beeckman 7 Dorian Q. Fuller 8 Sturt W. Manning 9 Michael W. Dee 10 69296__34568__2894fbeb451c493ca4bce24c9835fe37.pdf 69296.VOR.pdf 2025-06-24T15:48:13.6981152 Output 870524 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 Erdil et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt
spellingShingle Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt
Christian Knoblauch
title_short Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt
title_full Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt
title_fullStr Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt
title_full_unstemmed Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt
title_sort Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt
author_id_str_mv 80cec9b2951e1bf14e693e66b1eac7a2
author_id_fullname_str_mv 80cec9b2951e1bf14e693e66b1eac7a2_***_Christian Knoblauch
author Christian Knoblauch
author2 Pınar Erdil
Lyndelle Webster
Margot Kuitems
Christian Knoblauch
Laurel Bestock
Felix Höflmayer
Hans Beeckman
Dorian Q. Fuller
Sturt W. Manning
Michael W. Dee
format Journal article
container_title PLOS One
container_volume 20
container_issue 5
container_start_page e0314612
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 1932-6203
doi_str_mv 10.1371/journal.pone.0314612
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - Classics, Ancient History, Egyptology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - Classics, Ancient History, Egyptology
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description 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.
published_date 2025-05-28T05:27:48Z
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