Many authors have commented upon and
criticized the dependence of Egyptian Chronology on the Sothic theory of dating
so I have decided to include extensive quotes from their work here.
You might well ask why, if such criticism is valid has it not been widely
accepted by the academic Egyptological community before now. The problem has
been that the most cogent arguments against the theory have come from people
whose other conclusions in the field have been widely discredited. These four
are a good example.
1) Immanuel Velikovsky showed many of the flaws of the conventional
chronology for all to see and there are few who disagree. However his
methodology and conclusions have been justly criticized and the baby was thrown
out with the bath water so-to-speak. Because he wished to greatly reduce the
time period for Egyptian history he came up with the theory of mirror image
rulers. He concluded that in fact there were not 31 dynasties in Egypt but that
a number consisted of Pharaohs who were identical to the Pharaohs in other
dynasties. Another contemporary writer, Dr. Gunnar Heinsohn of Bremen University
takes this methodology even further reducing the time period of ancient history
by millennia instead of centuries. Heinsohn amazingly contends that Hammurabi
the great Babylonian law giver is in fact Darius I of the Persian period!!!!
I am quoting from Velikovsky's "Peoples of the Sea" pp.215-233.
- Similar criticism was made by Donovon Courville in his 2 volume work "The
Exodus Problem and its Ramifications". Courville, a great friend who in fact
gave me his library when he could no longer work due to failing eye-sight,
made very many important contributions to the field of chronology but
because he was not an academic but rather a devout Christian who looked to
confirm the Biblical account, was just ignored totally by academia. I quote
from his work which is must reading for anyone interested in chronology for
no other reason than his masterful conclusion that the Exodus took place at
the end of the Early Bronze Age. {I had arranged for the whole stock of his
books to be taken over by Martin Luckerman who edited the journal
"Catastrophism and Ancient History. " If anyone knows his whereabouts,
please have him call me.} The major flaw to be found in his work was his
conclusion that the 12th and 6th
dynasties were contemporaneous. This is not as far fetched as it sounds
because both the Old and Middle Kingdoms came to an end in surprisingly
similar ways and there is very good reason to identify the Pharaoh of the
exodus to either a King of the Sixth or the Thirteenth dynasty. We shall see
why when we do a series of lectures identifying the real Pharaoh. One single
inscription in the Egyptian records squelched that theory.
I quote from pages 48-89 in his controversial work.
- The third quote is from Peter James' "Centuries of Darkness". Peter was
the first to come out in print supporting my identification of Shishak with
Ramesses III after years of collaboration with David Rohl and their joint
opting for Ramesses II as their initial choice. Rohl as we shall see never
changed his mind, James changed his presumably after reading my letters and
my published work although he never cited that in his book. He has since
apologized. I take my quote from pp 225-229. His book is essential reading
for his general critiques of other areas in ancient history including the
Greeks and the Hittites.
- David Rohl wrote the beautiful book "Pharaohs and Kings, A Biblical Quest
" a must read, from which a most interesting documentary was made with Bob
Bianchi a professional Egyptologist formerly of the Brooklyn Museum. The
great scholar Kitchen dismisses Bianchi and his conclusions tersely by
saying he was not a chronologist but only an art historian as if truth was
inextricably connected to profession.
For many years Rohl has wanted to find King David in the Amarna letters. He
could not, the nearest he came was his identification of King Saul with someone
termed "The Lion". Ignoring the fact that a Benjaminite would never be called a
Lion, that identification forced him to continue with his identification of
Shishak with Ramesses II even though his book keeps pointing to my conclusion,
Shishak was Ramesses III. He can't and won't move however much evidence is
presented to disprove his conclusion.
However his critiques of the present chronology are telling and I quote from
pages 128-134.