Radiocarbon verification of the earliest astro-chronological datum
Abstract
Papyri 10012A and 10012B from Illahun, Egypt, provide the earliest astro-chronological datum in history and, while calculated to various years in the 19th century BCE, have never been independently verified. As this datum enables the Middle Kingdom (MK) section of Egyptian historical chronology to be anchored in absolute time, it establishes the principal calendrical timeline for the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. AMS radiocarbon measurements of Papyrus 10012B establish its date range to 1886–1750 BCE, confirming the astronomical calculations and the essential reliability of Egyptian historical chronology for this period. Furthermore, all three leading estimates for the calendar year attribution of the document are supported by this analysis, with the role of a possible growing season effect determining which is most favored.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
One of the earliest Sothic records comes from the Illahun Papyrus assigned to Year 7 of king Senusret III of the Middle Kingdom.
“One of the earliest Sothic records comes from the Illahun Papyrus assigned to Year 7 of king Senusret III of the MK, a ruler known for military expeditions to Nubia and the Levant [1,25,27–32].”
From Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt (2025) · cites this paper as [32]
Cites
Radiocarbon-Based Chronology for Dynastic Egypt
Ramsey, C. B., Dee, M. W., Rowland, J. M., Higham, T. F. G., Harris, S. A., Brock, F., Quiles, A., Wild, E. M., Marcus, E. S., & Shortland, A. J. (2010) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1189395 · Cited by 246 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Clearly, any radical shifts in Egyptian chronology, as have been seemingly noted in the past (Bietak and Höflmayer 2007: 14, Figure 1) find no support in the 14C data presented here or previously (Bronk Ramsey et al. 2010).”
BackgroundResultSelf-citationInvestigating the likelihood of a reservoir offset in the radiocarbon record for ancient Egypt
Dee, M. W., Brock, F., Harris, S. A., Ramsey, C. B., Shortland, A. J., Higham, T. F. G., & Rowland, J. M. (2010) · Journal of Archaeological Science · doi:10.1016/j.jas.2009.09.003 · Cited by 68 · cited 2× · see citing works
“In order to correctly calibrate this result, we employed the additional “growing season offset” proposed by Dee et al. (2010) The calibrated date range produced was 1886–1750 BCE (95.4% probability, Figure 1).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationAntagonisms in Historical and Radiocarbon Chronology
Bietak, M. (2013) · Radiocarbon and the Chronologies of Ancient Egypt · doi:10.2307/j.ctvh1dmh2.12 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
The present status of Egyptian chronology
Ward, W. A. (1992) · Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research · doi:10.2307/1357231 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Resolution of the High versus Low debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt
Erdil, P., Webster, L., Kuitems, M., Knoblauch, C., Bestock, L., Höflmayer, F., Beeckman, H., Fuller, D. Q., Manning, S. W., & Dee, M. W. (2025) · PLOS One · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0314612 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“One of the earliest Sothic records comes from the Illahun Papyrus assigned to Year 7 of king Senusret III of the MK, a ruler known for military expeditions to Nubia and the Levant [1,25,27–32].”
Self-citation
- Authors
- Marcus, E. S., Dee, M. W., Ramsey, C. B., Higham, T. F. G., & Shortland, A. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Haifa (IL)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Cranfield University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Marcus, Ezra S
- Venue
- Radiocarbon
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2016-08-30
- Volume
- 58
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 735-739
- ISSN
- 0033-8222 (ISSN-L)
- 1945-5755
- OpenAlex
- W2517230761
- Cited by
- 1
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Radiocarbon (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Natural Environment Research Council (NRCF010002)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Ancient Egypt and Archaeology
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Historical Astronomy and Related Studies
- Keywords
- Middle Kingdom Egypt, AMS radiocarbon dating, astronomical calculations
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
