Seeds Found in Pyramid Calibrate Timeline
Scientist have used new radiocarbon dating techniques to precisely lock down the historical chronology of ancient Egypt.
Plant material from various periods of Egypt’s ancient past were dated using the new techniques to verify the accuracy of our current understanding of ancient Egypt’s history.
Seeds over 4,500 years old that were discovered beneath the pyramid of Djoser were tested and the dates of his reign were accurately determined.
Thomas Higham, another member of the team who is also from the University of Oxford, explained that many items were found in ancient Egyptians’ tombs and other archeological sites “where we could independently determine their historical age”
“We also used seeds from a room underneath the Saqqara step pyramid dated to a specific year of the reign of King Djoser,” he said.
…
Dr Ramsey’s team was able to determine the exact period when this king reigned Egypt – from about 2691 to roughly 2625 BC, said the scientist.
The team found that this particular event took place earlier that previously thought.
“For the first time, radiocarbon dating has become precise enough to constrain the history of ancient Egypt to very specific dates,” said Dr Ramsey.
According to accepted chronologies, such as that developed by Professor John Baines and Dr Jaromir Malek, Djoser reigned from 2630 to 2611 BC.
In an interview with Cosmic Logic Oxford University’s Christopher Bronk Ramsey explains some of the complexities involved:
Cosmic Log: Because the slight discrepancy in dates seems to be systemic (consistently earlier based on radiocarbon data), what might the explanation be? Might there be a systemic factor in the carbon-dating process that puts the top of the curve consistently earlier, or are there selections of key dates (based on astronomical or other dating techniques) that throw things off systemically?
Bronk Ramsey: It depends on exactly what you mean here. Are you referring to the fact that the radiocarbon chronology is earlier than some of the historical chronologies? If so, I’d point out that the chronology is very similar to the consensus published by Shaw and for the New Kingdom. Our results for, e.g., Tutankhamun are both very precise and just where you would expect them to be.
If you are referring (as I suspect) to the fact that the radiocarbon dates lie, on average, just above the calibration curve in our fits, this is an issue that we investigated in some detail. This effect is also seen for material from the last few centuries (plant specimens taken by botanists in the 18th and 19th centuries). The reason for this is, we think, due to the fact that the amount of radiocarbon in the atmosphere varies in a regular way during the year. There is less in the winter and more in the summer. In Egypt, the plants in the Nile Valley tend to grow in the winter, when the floods come, and this means that the radiocarbon ratio is slightly lower than for plants in, for example, Northern Europe where the calibration data comes from. The effect of this is that the dates in Egypt are on average about 20 years older.
Read more at the sources below.
Sources:
Radiocarbon dating verifies ancient Egypt’s history.
How Old is That Mummy Anyway
Egyptian kingdoms dated
Constraining the Reign of Ancient Egypt: Radiocarbon Dating Helps to Nail Down the Chronology of Kings, Researchers Say
Photo by John Kannenberg. Some rights reserved.
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