For the history of civilizations, the timeline of Egypt is crucial. The Egyptians were prolific in their correspondence with other civilizations. They also traded widely with other civilizations.
On top of that, six different historians have recorded the history of the Egyptian kings. They don't agree with each other, and so the dates have seemed to be uncertain over the years. Historians have based their histories of Egypt primarily on the kinglist of Manetho (c200 BC). At first, when Manetho's works were first translated, the beginning of Egyptian civilization was dated about 5000 BC. It has since been reduced to about 3100 BC. Historians today recognize that further reductions may be necessary, particularly in the time of the third intermediate period.
But the other kinglists are often ignored. Both the Turin and Abydos kinglists provide helpful information, but because the lengths of reigns are in disagreement with Manetho, historians have discounted their writings.
This is where I want to share my personal story in exploring history. You need to understand that I, like many of you, I imagine, disliked history in school. In fact I hated it. I saw no need for studying all those dates and events. Now, you need to understand that when I read about the Peloponnesian wars, or the founding of Rome, or other events like that, I remember that I studied them, but you could not make me remember what I learned for the life of me.
But when I was homeschooling my children, one of the tools I used to attempt to prevent the idea that history was irrelevant was the Book of the Centuries. But I couldn't resolve the biblical record with the secular record so we just began ancient civilizations and used the accepted dates, realizing there was a problem with them. No one had attempted to resolve them...yet.
It wasn't until my children were all out of the house that my study took me to the works of a gentleman in Ontario. His name is Jim Reilly. Please read his story here. He had done one of his master's theses on the time of the 26th and 27th dynasties of Egypt. But he began with scripture. And he supported a change in the dynastic arrangement of these two dynasties. For a "blurb" about this event please read the short page here.
Edited to add:
Read the following scriptures for some of the prophecy concerning Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Egypt.
Jeremiah 43:8-13, 44:29-30, 46:25-26
Jeremiah mostly addressed the Jews who had moved to Tahpenes in Egypt following the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
Ezekiel 30:4-8, 32:3-6, 30:10-11, 13, 29:10-12
Ezekiel is addressing Egypt itself.
You'll see that with the changes proposed in these two dynasties, the rest of Egyptian history must also be moved to later dates along with the 26th dynasty. Over the remaining 3 books in his series, he moves the history of Egypt to later dates all the way back to the Old Kingdom of Egypt. While he did not set out to match the Egyptian timeline to a biblical one, he has successfully achieved that.
And the adjustment of Egyptian chronology has meant that the synchronisms (or correspondences) between Egypt and other civilizations have caused adjustments in those civilizations as well. And those adjustments did not cause problems, they solved them.
I continue to study this area...particularly the synchronisms with other cultures...in order to properly date those other cultures.
The "4.2 kiloyear event"
This is a strange time. In the last 30 years, it has become evident that about 4200 years ago, a climate change began on earth that caused a collapse or near-collapse of almost every civilization in existence at that time. It began with the end of a Holocene (recent geological time) wet phase...meaning a time of high moisture for a long time...at about 2350 BC on a secular timeline. Beginning about 2200 BC and for the next 300 years, ending about 1900 BC, there were massive drought conditions. The evidence shows massive dust and sand storms, the desertification of huge areas of land, and the resulting collapse of the civilizations in those areas. At the end of this time, there seemed to be a major "chill" that further affected the survival of any civilization, because agriculture was severely affected.
This has become a major area of study for historians, archaeologists, climatologists, and the like, even leading to major world meetings concerning the topic.
Looking at what we have studied before, this event matches the description of the deglaciation period of the ice age perfectly. But a secular scientist cannot accept that because his deglaciation lasted 6000 years and there was a 9000 year difference in the times on the timeline.
Now the dates being tossed about...2200-1900 BC...are based on the secular timeline. They are tied to the end of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, the end of the Akkadian Empire, the abandonment of the Harappan civilization, and others. Those dates will be adjusted to match these events.
Civilizations inundated under the oceans
We'll look at these in more detail later, but in the areas where the earlier civilizations are located, there are also remains of their civilizations under water off the coasts. None of those remains are any deeper than about 250 feet, in other words, they are on the continental shelf, but they look as if they are a continuation of the civilization on the land. In every instance the inundation is dated at about 2000 BC.
Notice the fact that this is the same time as the event we just discussed. And we said that that event matches the deglaciation period of the ice age. Well, so does a sea level rise.
Hmm. Do you see a pattern here? It appears that these events definitiely match a biblical timeline.
But they don't match a secular timeline. Secular historians admit that the sea level rose at the end of the ice age. But that is 12,000 years ago. To them this inundation CAN'T be the result of the end of the ice age because there is 8000 years between the two events. It just isn't possible. They have to find some other explanation for the massive rise in sea level in 2000 BC.
Further study
I intend to continue this study. Some areas that are in line for this are:
- The bronze age collapse
- Eruptions of super-volcanoes
- Dating climate events in scripture
Stay tuned. Each time I teach this class, I share new information.
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