Some of the items, among them seeds and papyrus, were more than 4,000 years old
Experts have used scientific dating techniques to verify the historical chronology of ancient Egypt.
Radiocarbon dating was used to show that the chronology of Egypt's Old, Middle and New Kingdoms is indeed accurate.
The researchers dated seeds found in pharaohs' tombs, including some from the tomb of the King Tutankhamun.
They write in the journal Science that some of the samples are more than 4,500 years old.
Radiocarbon dating of ancient Egyptian objects is nothing new.
But this time, the scientists say, they were able to use a very precise statistical technique to actually verify the Egyptian history.
"The very first dating done with radiocarbon was dating Egyptian material of known dates, to check that [the method] worked," said Andrew Shortland from Cranfield University in the UK.
"Now, for the very first time, [we] managed to get radiocarbon techniques so good, that we can do it completely the opposite way around. We can say, from using radiocarbon, whether the Egyptian history is correct or not.
"Previously radiocarbon hasn't had a voice on this because the errors had been so great. Now radiocarbon is able to distinguish between different ideas of reconstructing the history."
The study brought together researchers from the UK, France, Austria and Israel.
They dated 211 various plants, seeds and papyrus samples, obtained from museum collections.
"The museums were all very helpful in providing material we were interested in—especially important since export of samples from Egypt is currently prohibited," said Christopher Ramsey, the lead author of the study, from the school of archaeology at the University of Oxford.
"Fortunately, we only needed samples that were about the same size as a grain of wheat," he added.
Thomas Higham, another member of the team who is also from the University of Oxford, explained that many items were found in ancient Egyptians' tombs and other archeological sites "where we could independently determine their historical age".
King Tut's tomb
"For example, we used seeds and plant material from Tutankhamun's tomb, which is very precisely dated. We also used seeds from a room underneath the Saqqara step pyramid dated to a specific year of the reign of King Djoser," he said.
Djoser was one of the pharaohs of the third dynasty of the Old Kingdom.
The step pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara is believed to be the oldest stone pyramid in Egypt.
Dr Ramsey's team was able to determine the exact period when this king reigned Egypt - from about 2691 to roughly 2625 BC, said the scientist.
The team found that this particular event took place earlier that previously thought.
"For the first time, radiocarbon dating has become precise enough to constrain the history of ancient Egypt to very specific dates," said Dr Ramsey.
"I think scholars and scientists will be glad to hear that our small team of researchers has independently corroborated a century of scholarship in just three years." ...
via BBC News - Radiocarbon dating verifies ancient Egypt's history.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Radiocarbon dating verifies ancient Egypt's history
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7 comments:
The radiocarbon dating system is actually heavily flawed. It makes the assumption that Carbon-14 levels are the same universally, which most likely, they are not.
Thanks!
Interesting:
"It makes the assumption that Carbon-14 levels are the same universally, which most likely, they are not."
So, explain what you know and how you know it, and why so many scientists are so ignorant.
Cole, you're correct. But, C-14 dating has been around for more than 50 years (or there abouts) and the method has been worked on and improved ever since then (e.g. L. A. Pavlish and E. B. Banning, Revolutionary Developments in Carbon-14 Dating, American Antiquity, 1980;45(2): 290-297) and backed and frequently verified by other dating techniques. Thus, it would seem it's rather reliable. I can't believe scientists have been so naive for so long to use a method that, at least, didn't give a fairly close estimation of age.
Yes, in many instances radiocarbon dating can be very useful. The problem is that its too often radiocarbon dating is used as a standalone test, without using any other means (all of which, by the way, are not completely accurate either). Radiocarbon dating is taken to be correct always, when in reality, it may be right for one test but wrong for another because of contamination. Again, this is an assumption saying that the object was never subjected to a different amount of radiation or it wasn't unearthed or held some intermittent time. The system is completely fallible.
Ramsey's results have locked down a SERIES of dates throughout Egyptian history which roughly conform to the average historical chronology. While the results imply a raising of the chronology here and there the difference is actually quite small relative to the longevity of the periods in question. Because samples were taken from periods THROUGHOUT Egyptian history rather than singular snapshots and that these results conform very well with other historical chronologies, it implies a very high likelihood of accuracy.
The raising of the New Kingdom chronology via Ramsey's results also agrees with the need to raise it as a result of research in respect of the Santorini eruption. This is another indicator of accuracy in that these two projects have converged and provided similar results.
Well done Professor Ramsey. This research was long overdue.
Very enice but I have some thing to say about that the search for that kind of ancient egypt articles on the net is very difficult so if you can advice me about. thanks again
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