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THE NEW CHRONOLOGY OF EGYPT
THE NEW DATUM OF 1012 NC
1012 NC
Hitherto, conventional chronology has placed the 18th. Dynasty in the time
span of 1539-1295 BC. The fifteen pharaohs forming this dynasty are well
recorded and are not disputed. However, the historical relationship between the
Egyptians and Israelites has had to be refined more accurately.
In AD 1887, a peasant woman of Tell el-Amarna, nowadays a small village on
the Nile and midway between Cairo and Luxor, dug up 380 clay tablets from
beneath the floor of a ruined mudbrick house. They subsequently transpired to be
part of the contents of the 'House of Correspondence of Pharaoh'. The majority
of these letters were either from notables of the Levant or Pharaoh's own file
copies of replies. They also included letters to both Akhenaten and his Queen
Nefertiti. It seems that all these letters were lost when the then city of El
Amarna was abandoned (for whatever reason) early in the reign of Tutankhamun.
These letters also contained reports of military campaigns in Canaan,
including David's raids and his seizure of Jerusalem. One vital document helped
to pin-point the death of Amenhotep III in 1012 NC. It was from Abimilku, King
of Tyre, commiserating upon the death of Amenhotep. It went on to describe a
disastrous fire in the palace archives of King Nikmaddu II at Ugarit (about 120
miles (200 km) up the coast from Tyre). Subsequent archaeological digs beside
the palace ruins found a blackened tablet which described the total eclipse of
the sun at sunset in April/May of that year, and which was watched by Nikmaddu
and his priests.
Total eclipses of the sun occur at the same place, on average, every 360
years. Only once in recorded history has this happened near sunset. Advanced
computer technology (by M.I.T.) has been able to calculate the exact time as
6.09 pm. on 9th. May 1012 NC, and 30 minutes before sunset. Clearly, therefore,
Akhenaten must have succeeded Amenhotep that year. Consequently, it has been
possible to bring forward the 18th. Dynasty's time span by as much as 345 years
to 1194-952 NC.
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