Writing, the systematic use of signs that correspond to elements of a language, was invented separately in different places and times around the world. In the Near East and eastern Mediterranean, the first writing systems were Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, developed in fairly quick succession in the later fourth millennium BC. Recording systems already existed, however, from the notched bones of the Upper Paleolithic (15,000—10,000 BC) to the clay tokens of the Neolithic. But history proper, based on written records and with events whose dates can be correlated with the Julio-Gregorian calendar, begins around 3100 BC in Egypt and in the midthird millennium BC in southern Mesopotamia.
The organization of Egyptian history according to dynasties, or ruling families, is the work of Manetho, a Greek-speaking priest who lived in Alexandria during the early Hellenistic period, late fourth to early third centuries BC. His writings have not survived independently, but are preserved in edited form in the texts of such late Roman authors as Julius Africanus and Eusebius; his information has been supplemented by surviving Egyptian king lists of the sort he would have consulted. Manetho chronicled thirty dynasties that spanned some 2,500 years, listing the kings in each with the length of their reigns. Despite inaccuracies, his work remains the invaluable framework for the study of Egyptian history.
The absolute chronology of this historical framework depends upon ancient sightings of the star Sirius (Sothis, for the Greeks, the “Dog Star”). Especially important are the observations recorded in the seventh year of the reign of the Twelfth Dynasty pharaoh Senwosret III; in the ninth year of the Eighteenth Dynasty ruler Amenhotep I; and in Roman imperial times, in AD 139. The first sighting is generally calculated as 1872 BC, the second as 1541 BC. The accuracy of the ancient reports is not, however, completely certain. Moreover, the place where the observation was made was not specified; a northern location such as Memphis or Heliopolis is assumed, but if the astronomers were watching in the south, at Thebes or even at Elephantine on the southern border of Egypt proper, the dates would be slightly different. Such uncertainties give a flexibility of forty-two years for the start of the Twelfth Dynasty, 1979 BC (high) or 1937 BC (low), and a play of eleven years for the start of the Eighteenth Dynasty, 1550 BC (high) or 1539 BC (low).
Other difficulties in establishing an accurate absolute chronology include occasional conflicting reports in ancient documents concerning the length of individual reigns and the numbers and lengths of possible coregencies. Despite these problems, the absolute chronology can be extended back to ca. 3100 BC, the beginning of dynastic history, thanks to such king lists as the Turin Canon of Kings, a papyrus document written in the Nineteenth Dynasty now in the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy. From the later Eighteenth Dynasty on, Egyptian chronology is agreed upon; during the first millennium BC, frequent correlations with Assyrian, Babylonian, and Hebrew sources produce accurate time determinations.
Mesopotamian chronology is more complex than the Egyptian, because of the many states in the region, each with different methods of recording the passing of time. From 910 to 668 BC the chronology is secure, thanks to the Babylonian Chronicles, with their daily astronomical observations, and to the Neo-Assyrian Eponym Lists, lists of kings and high officials whose names were used as labels for individual years. Before 910 BC, the lists have unbridgeable gaps. As a result, different reference points are needed to establish the absolute chronology for earlier periods.
The backbone of historical reconstructions for third millennium BC Sumer is the Sumerian King List, a chronicle compiled ca. 2100 BC listing the kings of various cities from the previous 500 years and the lengths of their reigns. But problems remain. Because the clay tablets can be fragmentary and their contents contradictory, matching the sequence from one city with that of another is difficult. Further, while the relative sequence of dynasties and kings seems credible, the attribution of absolute dates to the events and periods is not reliable. And information about the earliest periods contains a heavy dose of myth and cannot be taken literally. The eight kings of the earliest era were said to have ruled for thousands of years each. This epoch ends with a great flood, an event that recalls the story near the beginning of the Hebrew Bible. Archaeological exploration has revealed traces of flooding at various sites, but the remains date to different periods, suggesting localized rather than general flooding. After the flood, the list of kings begins to inspire more confidence. The list picks up with King Etana of Kish, and moves eventually to Gilgamesh, the fifth king of the First Dynasty of Uruk and subject of the best known of Mesopotamian narratives, the Epic of Gilgamesh. This period may correlate with the Early Dynasty (ED)
II period. The picture provided by the King List and other texts becomes clearer still in the ED
III period, by now the middle of the third millennium BC.
The absolute chronology of the first half of the second millennium BC depends on an astronomical observation. At the time of a new moon in the sixth year of the reign of the Babylonian king Ammi-saduqa, the planet Venus was spotted on the horizon just before dawn. Such a combination occurs once every sixty-four or fifty-six years, an event not quite rare enough to provide an absolute date with complete certainty. Ammi-saduqa ascended the throne ninety-four years after the death of the important king Hammurabi; Babylon itself was destroyed thirty-one years after Ammi-saduqa’s death by the Hittites under Mursili I. This sighting leads to not one, but four possibilities for the absolute chronology of Babylonian history at this time: for the start of the reign of Hammurabi 1848 BC, 1792 BC, 1728 BC, or 1696 BC; and for the fall of Babylon 1651 BC, 1595 BC, 1531 BC, or 1499 BC. The chronological systems based on these dates are known as high, middle, low, and ultra-low. Not even the radiocarbon dating method can settle the dispute, because the margin of error in the determinations is too great. Although each system has its ardent champions, we shall follow the low chronology, the system preferred at present by the majority of specialists on Near Eastern chronology.
With the first millennium BC we are much more secure. Our own Julio-Gregorian calendar was developed by the Romans of the late Republic. Like the Mesopotamian and Egyptian calen-drical systems of the time, many of the various dating systems used by the Greek city-states and Hellenistic kingdoms can be linked to this calendar. With this, the framework for absolute chronology is firm.
World History
