First-of-its-kind radiocarbon dating of artifacts associated with Pharaoh Ahmose – sampled from the British Museum and the Petrie Museum – indicates that the Thera eruption occurred as early as the Second Intermediate Period, supporting a “lower chronology” for the 18th Dynasty and requiring a revision of the Eastern Mediterranean timeline.
New interdisciplinary research from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands proposes to correct the chronology of ancient Egypt – and places the beginning of the New Kingdom (18th Dynasty) later than previously estimated.
Through carbon-14 dating of artifacts directly linked to Pharaoh Ahmose, the founder of the New Kingdom, researchers found that the massive eruption of the Thera (Santorini) volcano in the Aegean Sea preceded his rise to power, and occurred as early as the Second Intermediate Period – and not during the New Kingdom as many believed.
One eruption, centuries of controversy
The eruption of Thera is considered one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in the last 10,000 years. Volcanic ash from it has been discovered at many sites across the eastern Mediterranean, but its precise dating – sometime in the 17th–16th centuries BC – remains a source of ongoing controversy among archaeologists, geologists, and chronologists.
The key question: How does this huge volcanic event fit into the timeline of Egypt – one of the only cultures in the region to which a relatively continuous kingly calendar can be attached?
The new study provides, for the first time, carbon-14 dates for objects linked to Pharaoh Ahmose, who reunited Upper and Lower Egypt and is considered the founder of the 18th Dynasty.
Rare access to museum collections
Prof. Hendrik J. Bruins of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University's Sde Boker campus, together with Prof. Johannes van der Pliecht of the University of Groningen, received exceptional permission to conduct carbon-14 dating of samples from artifacts in museum collections in the UK.
Under the supervision of the curatorial teams, they took samples from 3 types of artifacts:
- Mud brick From the temple of Ahmose at Abydos (British Museum), bearing a seal with the royal name Nebpehtire.
- Burial linen fabric Associated with a figure named Satdjehuty (British Museum).
- Six wooden shabtis From the city of Thebes (Petry Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology, UCL).
Combining these findings makes it possible to attach a new and narrower time window to the end of the 17th Dynasty and the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, and to place the reigns of Ahmose and his son Amenhotep I within them.
"Low Chronology" for the New Kingdom
Radiocarbon dating showed that the eruption of Thera clearly predates the artifacts associated with Ahmose. In other words: the eruption occurred לפני The beginning of the New Kingdom, during the Second Intermediate Period.
Meaning: Second Intermediate Period It took longer. than was commonly thought, and therefore the beginning of the 18th Dynasty and the New Kingdom – as attributed to this day – should be pushed back in time (i.e., be "younger").
In terms of chronological research, the findings support the"Low Chronology" To the beginning of the 18th Dynasty – a model that has been proposed previously based on other clues, but so far lacks direct carbon dating for royal objects from the period.
"Our findings indicate that the Second Intermediate Period was significantly longer than traditional estimates, and the New Kingdom began later," says Prof. Bruins.
Implications for the entire Eastern Mediterranean
The readjustment of the Egyptian timeline is not merely a "local" matter: Egypt's chronology serves as a basis for anchoring the chronologies of neighboring cultures - the Minoan and Mycenaean in Greece, the cultures of the Levant, and more.
If the eruption of Thera predates the rise of the New Kingdom, the dating of many archaeological layers throughout the eastern Mediterranean, where Thera ash and Egyptian vessels were used as keystones for dating, must also be adjusted accordingly.
The study, published in PLOS ONE, also presents a comparative map of the epicenters of the eruption and major Egyptian relics, and offers a renewed foundation for understanding the political, economic, and cultural ties between Egypt and its neighbors during the transition period between the Second Intermediate Period and the New Kingdom.
To the scientific article in-PLOS ONE
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