Egyptian Dates.

Egyptian dates

It is very difficult to establish accurate dates for Egyptian history. the Egyptians did not keep a timetable of years and events. Some dates can be checked against records of other ancient peoples, or against known events in astronomy records. But all dates before 664 B.C.E. are estimates. Early dates were recorded based on the years of a king’s reign (such as “year five of Djet”) or some major or unusual event (such as “the second year after Djet’s first expedition to Nubia”). Sometimes, dates were given based on when the national cattle census was taken—a major event that happened every two years (“the year after pepy’s sixth counting of the oxen”). When a new king took the throne, the year was reset to one. During the middle Kingdom and later, dates were given only relative to each king’s reign (“the 12th year of tuthmosis”). often, several kings had the same name, and this makes understanding Egyptian dates even more complicated. there is still much controversy among Egyptology about dates. As new information has come to light, Egyptology have revised Egyptian dates several times. In the new Kingdom, dates from different sources can vary by as much as 20 years. for the old and middle Kingdoms, dates might differ as much as 50 years more or less.