I am writing a book about the life of Homer.  In order to place Homer in proper historical context I start with the questions of when Homer lived and when his stories in the Iliad and the Odyssey took place.  Those questions led me into the controversy of ancient chronology.  This post is background for the New Chronology of the Bronze Age.

For several years now I’ve been convinced that the Standard Chronology for the Late Bronze Age (circa 1550 – 1200 BC) is incorrect.  Instead we should move it forward in time by about 300 years to circa 1250 – 900 BC).  My interest in the topic began when I watched a television show in the late 1990’s called “Pharaoh’s and Kings: A Biblical Quest.”  In it David Rohl, the author of a book of the same title, argues that Egyptian chronology and Biblical chronology, which should be very much in sync given the close relationship between ancient Palestine and Egypt, have been placed in an incorrect relation to each other based on the single supposed synchronism that the “Shishak” of the Bible was Pharaoh Shoshenq I.

Early Egyptologists were looking for validation of the Biblical record in archaeology.  They searched for the biblical “Shishak” and found Pharaoh Shoshenq I of the 22^nd Dynasty.  The name was similar to the one in the Bible and archaeologists found a stela at Megiddo in Palestine bearing his name as well as some inscriptions at Karnak in Egypt suggesting he may have done battle in Palestine.  Interestingly, there is no record of Shoshenq I attacking Jerusalem, which is what he is supposed to have done in the Bible.  Nevertheless, based on the assumption that Shishak = Shoshenq I, Egyptologists arranged the rest of the known Egyptian king lists in chronological order.  The Hebrew Bible places Shishak during the reign of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.  Shishak’s invasion of Palestine would have occurred around 925 BC.  Because of its detailed king lists and later synchronisms with other Near Eastern kingdoms, the Biblical timeline is generally accepted by archaeologists, at least back to the period of Saul.  If Shishak/Shoshenq I reigned around 925 B.C, then Ramesses II, the most famous king of the Late Bronze Age 19^th Dynasty, must have reigned during the 13^th century BC.  By many estimates that would make Ramesses II the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Continue reading Ancient Chronology and Dark Ages – An Overview →