Chronology of Ancient Egypt

Although there is consensus among scholars regarding the fundamental sequence of major chronological periods in ancient Egypt, the precise dates and relationships remain a matter of ongoing research.

Work in progress!

Introduction

The Astronomical Tablet of Nebuchadnezzar II2 is a cuneiform tablet that details a series of astronomical observations during the 37th year of the Babylonian king's reign. Modern astronomy shows that the only year that matches the dates within centuries is 567 BC. This would mean that the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign was 604 BC, which is perfectly consistent with the canon. There are several biblical references to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II that provide a link with Hebrew chronology, which together with other contemporary king lists further confirm the validity of Ptolemy's sequence of kings, providing reasonably accurate dates as going back to 747 BC.

The Julian calendar

When administering the rapidly expanding Roman Empire, it became clear that a calendar was needed to coordinate the many local calendars in use. This calendar would be used throughout the Empire. The Romans recognised the Julian calendar's greater accuracy compared to the old Egyptian calendar and adopted it as their primary calendar, which later became the standard for most of the Western world. The Julian calendar added an extra day every four years.

Like the Egyptians, the Romans did not number each year sequentially from a specific year, but instead differentated years by naming the two elected consuls in Rome serving a specific year. For example: in the Year of Braccus and Cassius, the Consuls were Cassius and Braccus, and if Cassius served multiple times, the second time his name would have an additional number, Braccus and Cassius II, the third time, Probus and Cassius III, and so on.

The lists of the elected consuls, the Fasti consulares,3 were originally engraved on marble tablets erected in the Roman forum, and survive in the writings of several historical accounts, along with fragments from various places throughout the Empire.

In the middle of the first century BC, the Roman scholar Terentius Varro established a system that place the traditional foundation of Rome as year 1 ab urbe condita (A.U.C.). The year of the founding of the Republic was available from the fasti, and Varro simply added seven generations before that, counting each generation as 35 years (7 × 35 = 245).4 From Cicero we learn that according to the annals of the Greeks, Rome was founded in the second year of the seventh Olympiad.5

Eratosthenes of Cyrene established the use of the Olympiad and the individually numbered years between them in the third century BC. Olympic dates survive in Eusebius' Chronicon, which attempted to reconcile the events of biblical history with classical historical material, and was only used for historical purposes, never for everyday use. The second part of Chronicon, the Canons, puts the historical material into a parallel timeline, listing the reigning rulers of each nation side-by-side, for every year. Although the original is lost, Jerome's Latin translation written around 380 in Constantinople preserve the chonological tables.

The Anno Domini (AD) system we still use today was developed by the monk Dionysius Exiguus in 525 AD (A.U.C. 1278), as a result of his work on calculating the date of Easter, but was not widely used until the 9th century. He produced tables with a 19-year cycle for calculating Easter but also years since the birth of Christ, which is the basis of the AD system:

Nineteen year cycle of Dionysius (Cyclus decemnovennalis Dionysii)
First Argumentum. On the years of Christ. If you want to find out which year it is since the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, compute fifteen times 34, yielding 510; to these always add the correction 12, yielding 522; also add the indiction of the year you want, say in the consulship of Probus Junior, a 3, yielding 525 years altogether. These are the years since the incarnation of the Lord.

Consulting Dionysius’ Easter table, which includes years in the era of the Roman emperor Diocletian, we see that Probus was consul in the year 241 of Diocletian. Subtracting 241 from 525 gives 284, the year in which Diocletian became emperor.

Although Moses was a first-hand witness to what he wrote, the Bible is not very helpful as it does not name the Pharaohs in the time of Moses and Joseph. However, a few Late Period pharaohs were named: Shishak (1 Kings 11:40), Tirhakah (2 Kings 19:9), Hophra (Jeremiah 44.30), and Neco (2 Kings 23:29).

Syncronizing events and calendars

So, with that out of the way, how do we go about to establish a chronological link between today and a pharaoh? We could simply look it up in a book on the subject, but that does not actually teach us anything. Instead, we will trace the path and then actually walk that path.

Chronology

• 2024
  

  The current year.

• 1582
  

  The Gregorian calendar adopted. All dates before this use the Julian calendar.

• 643
  

  Arabic-Greek Papyrus PERF 558 is dated by Islamic (1 Jumada al-Thani 22 AH) and Coptic (30 Baramudah I, 360 AM) dates, corresponding to 25 April 643.

• 525
  

  Dionysius developed Anno Domini in 525 = A.U.C. 1278 = 241 Anno Martyrum.

• 284
  

  The Alexandrian calendar used by the Coptic church start in 284 AD, and is year 1 Anno Martyrum – the year Diocletian became Roman Emperor.

• 27 BC
  

  Octavian becomes Augustus, the first Roman emperor.

• 30 BC
  

  The last pharaoh of Egypt, Cleopatra, is defeated by Octavian and commits suicide.

• 509 BC
  

  Rome becomes a republic = A.U.C. 245.

• 747 BC
  

  The first Babylonian king Nabonassaros of Ptolemy's Canon of Kings started his reign 696 years before Cleopatra started hers.

• 753 BC
  

  The traditional foundation of Rome = A.U.C. 1.

• 763 BC
  

  June 15 solar eclipse in Sicily is used to fix the chronology of the Ancient Near East. (Diod. 20.5.5)

• 776 BC
  

  First Olympiad.

Chronology becomes increasingly unreliable the further back in time you go, as records become scarce or sketchy. This is not to say that it is impossible – historians are some very clever people and they have managed to find very elusive evidence to form a coherent and working chronology for very ancient times. However, it is not always possible or necessary to establish exact dates.

Cleopatra, the last of the Pharaohs

We know from Plutarch that during Octavian's fifth consulship, which he shared with Antony, Octavian defeated Cleopatra and Antony in Egypt.6 This was before he was given the title Augustus, which is clear as he was still known simply as (Imperator) Caesar.

The Fasti Capitolini have a gap for the years around the fifth consulship, but the The Chronograph of 354 records it in AUC 725, but with Appuleius, as do the Fasti of Hydatius, but with Pulchro (alt. Appuleius). This is typical of antiquity - conflicting and/or incomplete information.

The Chronicon Paschale tells us that Augustus (Octavian) landed in Egypt AUC 727 (Anno Mundi 5477) and halted the reign of the Ptolemies, which had lasted 296 years, which according to Ptolemy's Canon of Kings lasted 294 years.

As we have learned above, AUC 1278 = 525 AD. There are 553 years between AUC 725 and AUC 1278. Subtracting 525 AD from those 553 years yield -28. Since there was no year zero, we have to increase it by one, and thus we arrive at -29 = 29 BC ≈ 30 BC, the date commonly used by historians.

All Roman dates, if they are complete and reliable, can be directly expressed in Julian years. All the other datings of ancient chronology are linked to our reckoning by direct or indirect synchronisms with Roman dates.