Egyptian Kings and Radiocarbon

Introduction

Radiocarbon dates are often quoted for Egyptian kings only as calibrated calendar ranges. A calibrated range already contains a calibration curve, so it cannot be used to test that curve or any alternative to it. This page gives the step before calibration: the measured radiocarbon ages, expressed both in conventional radiocarbon years (BP) and as percent modern carbon (pMC), and arranged in the order of the king lists.

The compilation is restricted to short-lived material: reed, straw, grass, cereal grains, seeds, fruit, papyrus, linen and other textiles, hair, skin and bone. Such material grew or lived within a few years of the context it dates. Wood and charcoal can be decades or centuries older than the building they were used in (the old-wood effect), so they are listed for completeness but not used in the means. Values that are clearly intrusive (far too young), samples whose attribution is doubtful, and values that could not be verified in a primary dataset are also shown but excluded.

The data come from the radiocarbon programme for dynastic Egypt (Bronk Ramsey et al. 2010), the Early Dynastic study of Dee et al. (2013), the Old and Middle Kingdom study of Erdil et al. (2025), the pyramid programme reported by Bonani et al. (2001), and the Egyptian radiocarbon database compiled in IntChron. Every value can be traced through its laboratory code.

The page deliberately stops at the measurements. How these values should be converted into calendar years is the subject of calibration. The author's non-equilibrium calibration model (Streitenberger 2026) is applied to this dataset on a separate page: Egyptian Kings on the Post-Flood Radiocarbon Curve. Any calibration model, conventional or alternative, has to reproduce the order and spacing of the values below.

What the measurements show

These observations follow directly from the measured values. They do not depend on any calibration curve.

1. The major periods are cleanly separated, and in the right order. The Dynasty 1 kings fall between 57.4 and 59.1 pMC. Dynasties 2 to 4 fall between 58.9 and 60.5. Dynasties 5 and 6 fall between 60.7 and 61.7, with one exception, Teti (see 4). The Middle Kingdom (Dynasties 11–12) falls between 63.4 and 64.4, and the New Kingdom (Dynasties 18–20) between 66.8 and 70.1. At the level of these blocks, radiocarbon and the king lists agree without exception.
2. Within Dynasty 1 the sequence is largely visible. Djer (15 samples) 57.83 → Djet 57.97 → Den 58.27 → Qa'a 58.85 pMC. Aha (three reed samples from older laboratories) cannot be separated from Djer. Anedjib (two bone samples) lies slightly above Qa'a.
3. Within Dynasties 3 and 4 the order cannot be resolved. Sekhemkhet (58.91) lies below his predecessor Djoser (59.90), and Sneferu (59.91) is indistinguishable from Djoser.
4. Teti is anomalous. Six plant samples from his pyramid give 59.94 pMC. That is about one pMC below his successors Pepy I and Merenre (61.02 each) and at the level of Djoser. Long-stored building straw is one possible explanation; the question is open.
5. The Middle Kingdom is nearly flat. Mentuhotep II (nine textile and plant samples, 63.64) already lies at the level of Amenemhet I (63.57). Senusret II, Senusret III and Amenemhet III, the Illahun material, lie at 64.2–64.4.
6. The New Kingdom rises overall but not monotonically. Thutmose I gives 66.84 and Ramesses IX 70.06. In between, Tutankhamun (67.97) lies below Amenhotep III (68.16) and Akhenaten (68.37), and Merenptah (67.87) lies below Ramesses II (68.29). Fluctuations of 0.3–0.5 pMC are larger than the change expected over a single reign, so radiocarbon cannot order the New Kingdom king by king. It does confirm the period as a whole.

Mean pMC by king

Each dot is the mean pMC of one king's (or one dated group's) short-lived samples, in king-list order. Larger dots mean more samples. The horizontal axis is sequence, not time. Hover over a dot for its value.

Data by king

Click a row to see the individual measurements. n counts the samples used in the mean. For Hatshepsut, Thutmose III and Akhenaten, the published samples (23, 36 and 19) are entered as one group mean; values more than 150 BP from the group median were left out of that mean.

Method

Conversion. pMC = 100 · exp(−BP / 8033), where BP is the conventional radiocarbon age (δ¹³C-normalised, Libby half-life). This is the measured activity relative to the modern standard, with no calibration applied.

Means. The mean pMC of a king is the unweighted mean of the pMC values of his included samples. The mean BP is the unweighted mean of the corresponding BP values. Errors are given per sample in the detail tables.

Inclusion. Only short-lived material is used. Wood and charcoal, intrusive values, samples with doubtful attribution and values not verified in a primary dataset are listed but excluded, each with its reason.

Order. Kings follow the conventional king lists. Coregencies and parallel dynasties are not shown separately. No calendar dates are given, because they would require a choice of chronology and calibration.

Gaps. Kings without a verified short-lived measurement are listed with an empty row. For several Old Kingdom kings (Menkaure, Userkaf, Pepy II) only charcoal is published.

References

1. Bonani, G., H. Haas, Z. Hawass, M. Lehner, S. Nakhla, J. Nolan, R. Wenke, and W. Wölfli. 2001. “Radiocarbon Dates of Old and Middle Kingdom Monuments in Egypt.” Radiocarbon 43 (3): 1297–1320.
2. Bronk Ramsey, C., M. W. Dee, J. M. Rowland, T. F. G. Higham, S. A. Harris, F. Brock, A. Quiles, E. M. Wild, E. S. Marcus, and A. J. Shortland. 2010. “Radiocarbon-Based Chronology for Dynastic Egypt.” Science 328: 1554–1557. Dataset via IntChron.
3. Dee, M., D. Wengrow, A. Shortland, A. Stevenson, F. Brock, L. Girdland Flink, and C. Bronk Ramsey. 2013. “An Absolute Chronology for Early Egypt Using Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Statistical Modelling.” Proceedings of the Royal Society A 469: 20130395. Dataset via IntChron.
4. Erdil, P., L. Webster, M. Kuitems, C. Knoblauch, L. Bestock, F. Höflmayer, H. Beeckman, D. Q. Fuller, S. W. Manning, and M. W. Dee. 2025. “Resolution of the High versus Low Debate for Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt.” PLoS ONE 20 (5): e0314612.
5. IntChron, Egyptian radiocarbon database (EgyptDB, compiled by C. Bronk Ramsey): records for Saqqara, Saqqara Teti and Sekhemkhet pyramids, Meydum, Dahshur, Giza, Abusir. intchron.org/egyptdb.
6. Streitenberger, P. 2026. “Non-Equilibrium Radiocarbon Calibration Model Based on Post-Diluvian Atmospheric Recovery.” Answers Research Journal 19: 95–116.

How to cite this page