Article

Monddaten aus dem Archiv von Illahun: Chronologie des Mittleren Reiches

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Abstract

Last/first sightings of the lunar crescent and new moon epochs between 2000 BC and 2000 AD were calculated using modern up-to-date lunar and solar ephemerides for different locations in Egypt and for Babylon. All results of these calculations are available online. The lunar data from the archive of Illahun are reanalysed and the uncertainties of the data reduction and possible absolute chronological assessments are discussed. The data can be fit best when a reign length of 30 years is allowed for pharaoh Senwosret III, which is in accordance with the given number for this king in the Turin papyrus. The lunar data do not support a low chronology of the Middle Kingdom. Two temporal assignments are possible in combination with the recorded date of a heliacal rising of Sirius on either IIII Peret 16 or 17 in the surrounding of Memphis. The best fit (82.5% reproduced correctly) can be obtained with an assumed beginning of the day with dawn and year 1 of Senwosret III equalling 1872 BC and year 1 of Amenemhet III in 1842 BC respectively. In this case the correct Sirius date of year 7 Senwosret III in 1866 BC must have been IIII Peret 17 in order to match with the lunar data. The second possible fit (72.5% correct) is obtained with an assumed beginning of the day with sunrise and year 1 of Senwosret III equalling 1883 BC and year 1 of Amenemhet III in 1853 BC respectively. The correct Sirius date would be IIII Peret 16 in 1877 BC.

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... Allowing for this yields very slightly later modelled calendar age ranges for the minimum felling date TPQ (compared to Fig. 7B If we compare the PIT minimum felling dates with the calendar date ranges calculated from 14 C and historical reign length information Dee, 2013), or from historicalastronomical information alone (e.g. Huber, 2011;Gautschy, 2011a;2011b;Kitchen, 2000;Hornung et al., 2006), for Senusret III and his successor Amenemhat III, we see that the minimum Fig. 7. A: 14 C-wiggle-match best fit of the dendro sequenced 14 C dates on the PIT-6 sample (Tables 4 and 5) against the IntCal13 14 C calibration curve (Reimer et al., 2013) employing OxCal (Bronk Ramsey, 1995, 2009a e the grey bars for each date illustrate the 1s uncertainties in both the 14 C and calendar timescales. B: the modelled calendar date of the minimum felling date for the last extant tree-ring of the overall PIT chronology (as shown in Fig. 2a). ...
... felling date TPQ ranges for the PIT timbers lie from a little before, to perhaps into, the start of the reign of Senusret III, especially when compared either to the 14 C and reign length chronology of Bronk and most recently Dee (2013), or the higher historical dates of e.g. Huber (2011);Gautschy (2011a;2011b) or Kitchen (2000): Fig. 11. It is important to note that there was no terminal ring in the PIT sequence, thus an unknown number of tree-rings are missing after relative year 1306 e hence the real bark date for the latest trees cut down for this boat could well lie very comfortably into the reign of Senusret III. ...
... 1882e1865 BC for Senusret Year 7 (Gautschy, 2011a: 59 e note typo in her Fig. 3 where "1 Senwosret III" option 1 should be 1872 BC e compare Gautschy, 2011b: 11e18), and a seemingly most plausible solution (despite imperfect data) for an accession date for Senusret III of ca. 1873/1872 BC (Huber, 2011: 211e225), with 1883 BC the next most likely date (Gautschy, 2011a: 59 e note these 1872 BC and 1883 BC dates, options 1 and 2, are instead called options 3 and 4 in Gautschy, 2011b), and both of these dates within a possible range from ca. 1889e1871 BC. A date of accession in this range and likely ca. ...
... Sesostris III on Papyrus Berlin 10003 3 June 1991 BC perfect; (Gautschy 2011:3, Depuydt 1995 . ...
... Sesostris III on Papyrus Berlin 10003 3 June 1991 BC perfect; (Gautschy 2011:3, Depuydt 1995 . ...
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