Timing Akhenaten 

Léo Dubal
VLA,  virtual laboratory for archaeometry
archeometrie  @  neuf.fr

Abstract:  

Evidences for the actual dates of the reign of heretic Pharaoh AKHENATEN,
 based on a critical repertory of NM, i.e. No Moon Days,  are presented:
from coronation on NM  -1341.11.22  to death at the age of 27, during summer -1324. 

To establish the Chronology of  Ancient Egypt, 
one of the first researchers having fully recognized 
the prime importance of the Sun in this civilisation, is late William McMurray
(see http://www.egiptomania.com/EEF/EEFLibrary5.html).
The days when only the sun was visible in the sky, the "No Moon  Days",
appeared to have been chosen for important events.
( New Moon occurrences are available on imcce site), 
 Solar eclipses were perceived as special "omen",
 good or bad , according the actual political conjecture.
Summer solstices, when the Sun shines at longest must have been 
considered worth of the greatest devotion.
While we identified the role of the summer solstice zenith in Elephantine, 
 in connection with the "expected" start of the flooding of the Nile, 
in the launching of the Egyptian calendar, 
see http://www.bibalex.org/eclipse2006/CultureLectures.htm 
with great pleasure, we recently discovered  that
another physicist, reached, independently of us, just the same conclusion: 
see Juan Antonio BELMONTE AVILES " Some open questions on 
Egyptian calendar: an astronomer's view" TdE 2 ( 2003) pp. 23-25 , 
Last but not least, the conversion from a given Julian Day to a date of 
the Ancient Egyptian Calendar is available on Holger ORTELIUS'  calendar calculator. 


 Timing Solstices

In the Northern Hemisphere, the 5'200 year old
 Newgrange's 19 meter long passageway testifies that,
 the point of retrogression of the Rising Solar Fire in its run southwards has been celebrated
 as the beginning of the (365 ¼ day long) year, but, in absence of a writing code,
 this accurate solstitial mark did NOT give rise to any known calendar.

In Ancient Egypt, the story of Eratostene, seeing, in Syene (Tropic of Cancer), 
the bottom of his well  on summer solstice day, illustrates an alternate paradigm: 
The shadowless summer solstice zenith is obviously the most salient feature.
The Sphinx of Gizeh testifies for the celebration of the sunset at summer solstice, too.



It depicts the hieroglyph akhet



which has been interpreted by CHAMPOLLION as "horizon",
and has been re-interpreted by the Egyptian astronomer, Aymen IBRAHEM as "eclipse".
 The context of the Amarna Heresy suggests an additional meaning: "Genesis of Time".

Let us notice that  the summer solstice, in the year of the Nicaea's Council, occurred
  on +325.06.22/05:36. or, at noon,  JD_ssNicaea = 1'839'937.
If one now calculates the date
of the 1^st Akhehtaten Summer Solstice, 1661 years earlier  :
JD_ssAmarna =  JD_ssNicaea - 16.61 [cy] ^. λ^-1  = JD 1'233'269.5,
this corresponds to -1336.07.05  in the Julian Calendar, instead of 06.22.
One should therefore,
 for the AKHENATEN's period, add 13 days
to the date of the Julian Calendar,
for RAMSES II's, add 12 days, 
while for DJOSER's 24 days. 

DJOSER's name is usually associated with the first large pyramid
though this monument is the achievement of his Great Vizir IMHOTEP.
Joseph DAVIDOVITS even suggests that IMHOTEP
introduced geopolymers for manufacturing agglomerated limestone...
Most probably, IMHOTEP is the one to be thanked  for having launched 4'775 years ago, 
on summer solstice day   -2767.07.16, a 365 day long cyclic calendar.
  This day was called: 1^st day of Thot, 1^st month of the inundation season Akhet. 

 IMHOTEP' Calendar

Some might argue that the coincidence with IMHOTEP  is fortuitous.
Though, in the tropical Island of Elephantine, the summer solstice matches
 the beginning of the Nile's inundation season. 
The Ancient Egyptian Calendar Year has 3 seasons of 120 days each + 5 additional days. 
Each seasons is made up of  4  months of 30 days each.
 there exists a ship's log written on a recycled papyrus,
 i.e. the back of  Hymns to AMUN (Papyrus Leiden I 350). 
It reports that

on 27 Peret II of the 52^nd regnal year, the "New Moon Festival" took place.
52^nd must refer to the long reign, from -1290.06.03 (27 Shemu III)  to -1223, of
RAMSES II, while, according to the IMCEE., & ORTELIUS Calendar Calculator
a New Moon occurred on -1238.12.22 ( JD 1 269 234), i.e. on 27 Peret II .
So Day "Thot1"must have been 176 days earlier on JD1'269'058 (-1238.06.29).  
 The previous correspondence between Summer Solstice and Thot1
was on -1257.07.04 (and for the 3 years before) and then
1'508 years earlier, on -2765.07.16. 
Considering that Summer solstice AND New Moon occurred on -2762.07.16,
 another obvious possibility for Thot1 is: -2762.07.15.

Georges BONANI, Zahi HAWASS & al.  in "Radiocarbon Dates of Old and Middle
Kingdom Monuments in Egypt", Radiocarbon, 43, 2001, p.1313
 reported their Calibrated Dates from AMS measurements of straw and reed 
of adobe bricks from 3m above the 4th tier of the Saqqara Step Pyramid:
-2741 +/- 74    
with a confidence level of 80%,  in complete agreement with our findings.
That contrasts sharply with the so-called historical range : -2657 +/-10

Solar Pharaoh  vs. Solar Eclipses
 
  AMENHOTEP IV has been crowned, at the age of 10, on  1Peret I ,
 i.e. NM -1341.11.22. The scene is depicted in Kheruef's tomb: 
the young pharaoh being chaperoned by his mother Tiye.
At the end of reignal year III, probably on NM -1338.11.18, he married Nefertiti.
 During reignal year IV a solar eclipse occurred on NM -1337.05.14, 
   There exists one supposed  depiction of the event:
George S. JOHNSON photographed this unique representation of ATEN,
in the unfinished tomb of MERYRE I, who was called the "Great Seer of ATEN".



 Is it a memorial to the Amarnian Heresy founding event ?
Typical of the pre-HIPPARCHUS'  No Moon / eclipsed Sun confusion,
 crescents are spontaneously painted in cold colour,
 as first noticed by Brigitte QUILLARD.

The Pharaoh probably saw he eclipse at Thebes (E32.6 / N25.7),
where the magnitude has been 0.94.
He interpreted it as a personal message from "his father ATEN"...
and then inquired all the way North to Memphis "How is the situation..."
while surveying the Nile's riverside.
The Pharaoh also decided to change his name into AKHENATEN,
hiding, under the monotheistic cult of the faceless Solar Disk ATEN,
the cult of his own personality.



In fall -1337, MERITATEN, his first daughter, was born.

And after a gestation time of 10 New Moons, 
at a site now called Tell El-Amarna @ E30.90 /N27.67,
where the solar eclipse had been total (for 4 minutes),
250 km North of Thebes, 
about half way to the Northern end of his kingdom,
in the most occidental part of the Nile river, 
AKHENATEN inaugurated the first temple of Aten in AKHET-ATEN,
 what will become, in ryVII, his new capitol. 
According to Marc GABOLDE,
 in "Akhenaton, Du mystère à la lumière" Découvertes Gallimard 2005,
 the bordary stele mentioned "at dawn of 13 Peret IV, regnal year V".
In our opinion, the stele have been written  3 years later, in ryVIII,
for the celebration of Gempet, on New Moon day, i.e. 13 prt IV,
which brings the inauguration date on 
16 prt IV , ryV, i.e. NM -1336.03.05,
28 days before the spring equinox.
As Marc GABOLDE demonstrated this point with his breath-taking picture,



that very day, at 4:38 UT, the rising sun, appears there....."akhet-like".
One could therefore call "Amarna Staging" the alignment of monuments on
 the rising sun four weeks before the spring equinox.
Away from the Amarna wadi, 
in another landscape,
what is left should be called the "Amarna Heritage",  e.g
the illumination of the shrine of the temple of Ramses II in Abu Simbel ... 




According to Marc GABOLDE, AKHENATEN died shortly after the death
 of Queen NEFERTITI,  in the 17^th year of his reign.
 
This Chronology of the Amarna Period, is comforted by 
a letter from Hittite's King MURSILI II in his ryVII to General HOREMHEB,
 during, presumably, reignal year II of Pharaoh Aï.
In his ryX, MURSILI II mentioned a "bad omen", which
most probably refers to the solar eclipse over Hattusa, on -1311.06.24. 

Tentative Chronology of the Amarnian Heresy
Out of those data one might attempt to sketch an
  overview of this most peculiar period of Ancient Egypt 

-1341.11.22 NM	ry I	1PeretI	Crowning Amenhotep IV (10 years old,  depicted with his mother Tiyi in Kheruef's tomb)
-1338.11.18 NM	ryIII		Wedding AmenhotepIV - Nefertiti Sed Festival
-1337.05.14 NM	ryIV	25ShemuII	Total Solar Eclipse over Akhet-Aten
-1337.10			Birth Meritaten
-1336.03.05 NM	ry V	16PeretIV	Fondation Akhet-Aten
-1336.11			Birth Ankhesepaaten
-1330.12.26 FQ	ry XII	8PeretII	Reception (depicted in presence of the six daughters of the  Great Royal  Spouse Nefertiti, probably pregnant of Tutankhaten)
-1324.01 -1324.07	ryXVII		Death Nefertiti Wedding  Akhenaten - Meritaten Death Akhenaten (27y)
-1324.07 -1323.07	ry I ry II		Crowning Meritaten (13y) Wedding Meritaten - Zannanza/Smenkhkare    Retreat to Thebes & Memphis....                End of the Amarnian Heresy
-1322.09.27	ry III	10AkhetIII	Graffito in Tomb of Païre
-1322.11			Death Meritaten (15y)
-1322.11	ry I		Crowning Tutankha(t/m)on (8y) Wedding with sister Ankhesepaaten (13y)
-1314.12	ry IX		Death Tutankhamon (17y)
-1314.12	ry I		Crowning Aï Wedding with Ankhesepaaten
-1313	ryII		Letter Mursili II to Horemheb
-1311.06.24 NM	ryIII		Solar Eclipse over Hattusa (Mursili II ryX)
-1310.01	ryIV		Death Aï
-1310.01	ryI		Crowning Horemheb
-1295	ry XV		Death Horemheb...end of the XVIIIth Dynasty

Acknowledgment : The author would like to thank  Marc GABOLD
                    for stimulating comments.

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© Virtual Laboratory for Archaeometry /  latest revision:    2008.06.23 09:48