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Pyramids Radiocarbon Dating Project
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Dr. Robert Wenke and John Nolan
collecting samples from Menkaure

The Pyramids Radiocarbon Dating Project set out in 1984 to establish a
new and internally consistent set of radiocarbon dates for some of the
important pyramids and associated monuments of the Third to Sixth
Dynasties.

Before this project, most radiocarbon dates from Egypt had come from
movable objects like sarcophagi, mummies and grave ornaments - objects
whose removal from their original context, or whose treatment since
their removal, cast some doubt on the final radiocarbon dates. For
this reason, great care was taken to collect only organic material
embedded in the original construction of the Old Kingdom monuments.
The colossal pyramids and their associated temples and tombs were not
just pristine funerary complexes. They were also large-scale
construction sites, with people working, cooking and living around and
on top of them as they were being erected. Much of the debris from
this activity was incorporated - often unintentionally - into the
fabric of the pyramids, and can still be seen in the mortar and
crevices.

With this in mind, 80 samples of this organic material were collected
in 1984 and 64 of them yielded results. Since 8 samples were large
enough to be dated twice - once at Southern Methodist University, and
once at Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich - this
first round of dating produced a grand total of 72 dates.

Before these dates could be analyzed, however, they had to be
"calibrated." When the technique of radiocarbon dating was developed,
it had been assumed that the relative amount of the radioactive
isotope Carbon-14 in the atmosphere had always remained constant.
However, by testing tree-rings -whose exact, absolute age was known -
it was discovered that the amount of this isotope had indeed varied
over time, and that radiocarbon dates had to be "calibrated" to this
fluctuation in Carbon-14.

By comparing the averages of the calibrated radiocarbon dates from
this first round, with the mid-point of each king's reign as given by
the chronology published in the Cambridge Ancient History (3rd ed.),
the radiocarbon ages were found to be, on average, 374 years older.

These surprising results led to another round of sampling conducted in
1994-1995 supported by the David H. Koch Foundation. The primary goal
of this most recent stage of the project was both to increase the
numbers of samples taken from the same monuments tested in 1984 and to
include other monuments from the Archaic Period as well as the Middle
Kingdom. It was hoped that more samples and a broader time range would
either support the previous results, or point out possible sources of
error.

Using the same sampling techniques as in 1984, a total of 347 samples
were collected in the secound round. So far the results from 163 of
these have been calibrated, but not yet analyzed. However, a selection
of results is shown in Figure 1.

Senwosret ll Pyramid (Sample DRI 2971 not included)

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Here, all the processed samples from the pyramid of Senwosret II at
Illahun (except for the much too old, and probably erroneous DRI 2971)
have been calibrated and plotted. The sample numbers are labelled
along the horizontal axis (DRI 2971 was one of three readings done on
Sample 524). The absolute dates in years B.C. are labelled along the
vertical axis on the left. In the chart, all the possible, absolute
date ranges are indicated by a thin, black line, with a red square
indicating the upper (youngest) limit of each range, and a green
circle showing the lower (oldest) possible date for each range. As can
be seen in the figure, a single reading can provide several such
ranges. These ranges are 96% likely to contain the actual, absolute
date of the sample.

Also shown in the chart is the thick, blue line which indicates the
time span covering the reign of Senwosret II according to the
Cambridge Ancient History, from 1897 B.C.-1878 B.C. From this it is
readily apparent that, for this monument our results can be easily
reconciled with the standard, Egyptological chronology for the Middle
Kingdom. However, this is not the case for the Old Kingdom. For
instance, similar charts for the kings of the Fourth Dynasty, at first
glance, show that the radiocarbon dates are much older than the
conventional chronology would allow, but the discrepancies are neither
uniform nor simply explained, as can be seen in the second chart
below. It is precisely these complicated results which the forthcoming
publication of the Pyramids Radiocarbon Dating Project will address.

Sahure Pyramid and Temple

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The first round's results were published and discussed in:

* (Haas, H., et al.,"Radiocarbon Chronology and the Historical
Calendar in Egypt," in Olivier Aurenche, et al., Chronologies in
the Ancient Near East: Relative Chronologies and Absolute
Chronology, 16,000-4,000 BP (BAR International Series, 379),
(Lyons,France: C.N.R.S., 1987), p. 585-606).

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