An Updated Working Chronology of Predynastic and Archaic Kemet

Bibliographic Data

ID19002897
AuthorsSteven H Newton (Delaware State College, corresponding author)
Year1993
Volume23
Issue3
Pages403-415
Publication date1993-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Black Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9347 • E-ISSN: 1552-4566
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002193479302300308
OpenAlexW2071369118
LanguageEN
References cited14

The revolutionary discoveries Kemetic studies over the past two decades require a rethinking of the chronology to be accepted for predynastic and archaic Kemet. This is especially true given that the second volume of Bernal's Black Athena (1991) has made a strong case for moving the date of Dynasty I back to the vicinity of 3400 B.C.E. Bernal notes that in 1987, a detailed report of new carbon datings from the pyramids was published. A group of Swiss and American scholars led by Herbert Haas collected sixty-four fresh organic samples from the pyramids and tested them laboratories Texas and Switzerland. Their results were amazing, for they required that the periodization of the Cambridge Ancient History be raised by 374 years (p. 209). This correlates closely with an estimated Dynasty I date of 3440 B.C.E. proposed by Mellaart (1979) and provides the foundation for Bernal's redating of the Kemetic dynasties down through the Middle Kingdom (Mellaart, 1979, pp. 6-19). Bernal (1991), however, is focused primarily on the Middle Kingdom rather than earlier periods-specifically the question of Kemetic influences on Crete and Mycenae and the validity of the legends concerning the conquests of Senwosre I (Sesostris I). As a result, he bypasses rather quickly the critical question of the greater implications of his lengthening of standard Kemetic chronology. What does this reevaluation of the unification of Kemet under Narmer do to currently accepted chronologies of the predynastic period? That is what I shall attempt to show

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Chronology · Kingdom · Period (music) · Periodization · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Classics · Geology · History · Paleontology

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