Chronology Flashcards
1
Q
‘The Spine’
A
- 2500 BC - 945 BC = Unverified Assyrian King List - only floating chronologies, possibly mythological kings or propagandistic underpinnings, particularly the idea of an unbroken succession of kingship
- 945 BC - 722 BC = Verified Assyrian King List - allows checking of other chronologies via synchronisms
- 700 BC - Present = ‘History’ - based on written sources and verified documents
2
Q
Bronze Age Pottery Sequences
A
- Danger of typologies - could be the wrong way round
- Could be verified by stratigraphy
- Bedrock of Neolithic onward Aegean archaeology
- Divided into Early, Middle and Late, then subdivided further
Greek Mainland = Helladic
-EH I-III, MH I-III, LH I-III
Crete = Minoan
-EM I-III, MM I-III, LM I-III
Cycades = Cycladic
-EC I-III, MC, LC I-III
Levant = Bronze Age
-EBA I-IV, MBA I-III, LBA I-II - Material provides a cultural sequence but not a political sequence
- Pottery found in conjunction with burials/other artefacts doesn’t provide a concrete date as some styles may persist longer in certain areas
- E/M/Ls don’t necessarily match up across cultures
3
Q
Sethy/Seti I King List (Abydos King List)
A
- Relative chronology
- On the wall of the Temple of Seti I, Abydos
- 76 Kings
- 1st - 19th dynasties
- From Menes (probably Narmer) - Seti I.
- 3050 BC - 1279 BC
- Name only list, with cartouches
- Some earlier kings are referred to by names that they are not called on other/ contemporary monuments
- Quite a few kings missed out in order to fit it on the walls - obscure kings removed
- Some ‘illegitimate’ kings not included for political reasons
- Depiction of the king and crown prince, the latter is reading from a scroll, honouring all the previous kings in chronological order
4
Q
‘Hooks’ of Egyptian Chronology
A
2478 - Khufu begins Great Pyramid (?) 1872/1830 - Year 7 Senwosret III 1537/1517 - Year 9 Amenhotep I (?) 925 - Latest accession date of Shoshenq 706 - Shabataka on the throne 690 - Year 1 Taharqa 525 - Overthrow of Psamtik III
5
Q
Turin King List
A
- Floating chronology
- Heiratic papyrus
- From the reign of Ramesses II
- Most extensive Egyptian king list
- Originally complete list of kings from the creation of the earth, along with their exact reign length down to the day, to around 1300 BC
- Incomplete, thought to span 1st - 19th dynasties including Hyksos rulers of the 15th dynasty - attempts to piece it back together like a jigsaw via fibres that stretch across the whole thing, and via the text on both sides
- 3050 BC- 1213 BC (?)
6
Q
Sumerian King List
A
- Floating chronology
- Goes back to prehistory and covers a large period of time
- There are periods in Mesopotamia where is kingship is not continuous, and there are contemporary, distinct rulers/dynasties - this is not represented on the king list - typically only covers individual lineages
- Stone tablet in Sumerian
- Lists kings, reign lengths and location of Royal seats
- Contains many mythological kings, and all reign lengths before Ur-Nungal (son of Gilgamesh, 26th c BC, 1st dyn of Uruk) are too long to be humanly possible
- First independently confirmed ruler 2600 BC, last around 1750 BC.
7
Q
Babylonian Dynastic Chronicle
A
- Floating chronology
- Fragmentary Mesopotamian Text in four known extant copies
- Bilingual
- Continuation of the Sumerian King List to 8th century BC.
8
Q
Palermo Stone
A
- Floating chronology, produced in around 2200 BC, Fifth Dynasty
- Incomplete - around 90% missing
- One of seven surviving fragments of a stele known as the Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt.
- First Dynasty (3150 BC) - Fifth Dynasty (2283 BC)
- Information includes key events in each year of the reign of a king, the kings name, the kings mothers name, measurements of the height of the annual Nile flood, the Inundation, details of festivals, taxation, sculpture, buildings, and warfare.
- Includes predynastic (pre-unification, pre-Menes/Narmer, pre-3000 BC) names, but these are controversial/ yet to be assigned to historical figures.
9
Q
Manetho
A
- Wrote a history of Egypt in the 3rd century BC
- His original work doesn’t survive but extracts quoted in other works do
- Only account of Egyptian history that runs all the way from the unification of Egypt to the time of writing
- Believed to have written Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt) at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus
- Important chronology of Kings
- Separated Egyptian history and pharaohs into the 32 dynasties that we use today - historical accuracy debatable - some dynasties have been shuffled around by modern Egyptologists
- Dynasties equivalent to ‘Houses’ e.g. Windsor, Lannister
- Pharoahs in each Dynasty are related to each other
10
Q
Relative Chronologies
A
- What happened before or after what - the order in which events/people/reigns occurred
• Stratigraphy
• Typologies
– Architectural
– Art History
– Pottery
– Assemblages
• Seriation
• Non-dated King lists
• Some Synchronisms - material from one culture which links to or is contemporary with material from another culture
(Bronze Age Pottery sequences, Seti I King List)
11
Q
Floating Chronologies
A
- May provide a small chronology e.g. a lineage of kings, but this doesn’t fit into a larger chronology - it is floating in time
• King lists
• Chronicles
• Histories based on contemporary records
• Some Synchronisms
(Turin King List, Sumerian King List, Assyrian King List, Manetho, Palermo Stone, Assyrian Synchronic Chronicle, Old Testament, Amarna Letters, Karnak Treaty)
12
Q
Absolute Chronologies
A
- Not necessarily correct, just means it is being expressed in a BC or AD date
• Science
• Astronomy
• Some Synchronisms
(Radiocarbon, Dendrochronology, Sothic Dating, Observations of Venus, Lunar Dating, Pyramid Alignment)
13
Q
Santorini (Thera)
A
- Pottery – LM IA – 16th–early 15th C BC
- LC I / White Slip I – early 15th C BC
- C14 – late 17th C BC
- Context of pumice found in Egypt &c – early 15th C BC
14
Q
Sothic Dating
A
• Egypt
• Relies on:
– Astronomical year = 365.2425 days
– Egyptian year = 365 days (no leap years)
– Egyptian New Year’s Day supposed to be marked by rising of Sothis
– Owing to ‘year drift’ actually happened only once in 1,461 years
– Known to have occurred in AD 139
• Therefore:
– Any dated report of rising of Sirius (Sothis) can be placed within a 1,461 year cycle
– Cycle identified by dead-reckoning
15
Q
Observations of Venus
A
• Mesopotamia - babylonians well into astronomy and omens
• Omen-text, including a set of 21 years’ observations of Venus, beginning in:
-1702 BC or
-1646 BC or
-1582 BC or
-1550 BC (unsure as astronomical phenomena repeat)
• 8th year = Year 8 of Ammisaduqa of Babylon - depending on which starting date is chosen, this can fix this kings 8th year - produces a floating chronology
16
Q
Pyramid Alignment
A
• Egyptians used stars to line up pyramids North-South
Basis of theory:
• circumpolar stars Kochab and Mizar used for alignment of all pyramids to true north.
• Kate Spence proposed 2478 BC for alignment of Great Pyramid using position of stars through time
• A century later than date derived from dead reckoning - debatable?
17
Q
Lunar Dating
A
- Egypt
- New moon (psdntyw) recurs on the same day of the civil year once every 25 years with a 1- day ‘near miss’ every 12 years
- New moon dates can be calculated and used to give a range of options for a given newmoon report
- However, choice the preferred option(s) depends on the the decade(s) being pinpointed by other means - not useful to determine an absolute date unless you can pin point a reign to a smaller period e.g. half century from other sources - then relying on accuracy of secondary sources
18
Q
Issues with Sothic Dating
A
- Assumes no ‘re-setting’ of Egyptian calendar due to New Year starting half way through the year, seasons not matching up with their associated weather (cf. Julian > Gregorian)
- Location of observation of Sothic Rising - where you are in Egypt determines what day it rises in - not evidence of where the observation usually took place
- Accuracy of observation - not evidence of whether it was done properly - did they really see it when they thought they did?
- Interpretation of written record- could have just been a religious festival?
19
Q
Example of Sothic Dating
A
• Senwosret III
– papyrus states that sun rose in his Year [7] IV prt 16
= 1872 or 1830 BC (North vs. South) - assume Northern date is the one that works - crucial for much of Egyptian chronology
20
Q
Amarna Letters
A
- Synchronism, mid 14th century BC, late 18th Dynasty
- An archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom
- Mostly written in Akkadian cuneiform, the regional language of diplomacy for this period
- The known tablets total 382, sent over 30 years
- Gives information about cultures, kingdoms, events and individuals from Akhenaten’s and Amenhotep III’s reign
- 300 diplomatic letters, 82 miscellaneous literary and educational materials
- Letters to/ from Babylonia, Assyria, Syria, Canaan, and Alashiya (Cyprus), Mitanni, and Hittites
21
Q
Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty
A
- Synchronism
- Also called Treaty of Kadesh (Qadesh), Eternal Treaty or Silver Treaty
- Treaty between Rameses II and Hattushilish III of Hatti
- The only ancient Near Eastern treaty for which both sides’ versions have survived
- The Egyptian version of the peace treaty was engraved in hieroglyphics on the walls of two temples belonging to Pharaoh Ramesses II in Thebes: the Ramesseum and the Precinct of Amun-Re at the Temple of Karnak
- The Hittite version was found in Hattusa, preserved on baked clay tablets uncovered among the Hittite royal palace’s sizable archives
22
Q
Relative Chronologies: Synchoronism (Lahun/MMII)
A
- Lahun/Kahun, Egypt - reigns of Senwosret II & III, Dyn XII
- Village occupied by builders of nearby pyramid
- Petrie found first prehistoric Greek pottery found in Egypt in 1889 -Cretan MMII sherds.
- Indicated than Dynasty XII in Egypt was contemporary with the Middle Minoan II in Crete.
23
Q
Relative Chronologies: Synchoronism (Tell el-Amarna/LH IIIA)
A
- Tell el-Amarna, Egypt - reign of Akhenaten, Dyn XVIII
- Petrie found Mycenean LH IIIA2, indicating that Dynasty XVIII in Egypt was contemporary with Late Helladic IIIA2 in Greece
24
Q
Assyrian King List
A
- Backbone of Mediterranean chronology
- A combination of a number of documents representing a single tradition
- Issues - back to the mid 10th c is fine but beyond that there is damage to copies, and copies which contradict eachother
- Unverifiable before 954 BC
- Verifiable parts are verifiable as every year is given the name of an official - limmu/eponymic tradition e.g. Year of X
- Assyrian limmu lists give run down of these - with king list, these give solid chronology back to 954 BC
- Some earlier parts are better than others - floating chronologies
25
Old Testament
- While a theological work, there are chunks which are likely legitimate histories of sections of the history of Judah, Israel and Palestine, including rulers, location and political history
- Originate from floating chronologies which editors have tried to tie together but haven't quite made it
- Incorporates some history from Assyria and Egypt
- Battle of Jericho - dating of event an issue as evidence of major destruction doesn't tie in with evidence from bible - OT says Late Bronze Age, archaeology says Middle Bronze Age
26
Assyrian Synchronisms
Assyrian chronology underpins virtually all Iron Age absolute chronology in the Middle East.
- Absolutely solid & verified back to AShur-dan II (934-912)
- King List tradition & limmu lists back into 3rd millenium
- Only some parts externally verifiable
- Concerns that parts may reflect overlapping kings presented as consecutive
- Parts may only be usable as 'floating' chronologies.
