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The chronology of the 18th Dynasty of ancient Egypt is a historical model which Egyptologists attempt to produce in order to assign specific dates for the accession and death of the kings of this period. Certain astronomical observations can be used to date certain kings with a fair amount of certainty, however in other cases it is only possible to get an estimated date by adding together the lengths of sucessive kings' reigns, and even here it is not always certain how long each king ruled. Towards the end of the 18th Dynasty, events which cannot be dated by Egyptian sources can be found dated in foreign calanders, however this also has limited effectiveness in calculating exact dates. Nonetheless, in the 20th century great advances were made in interpreting the avalable data, and the current model is considered fairly accurate.
[edit] The early 18th Dynasty and the sothic cycle
The very early 18th Dynasty provieds only one tool for establishing absolute dates for the period, although it is arguably the most important tool – a dated observation of the heliacal rising of Sirius.[1] This was observed in the reign of the dynasty's second king, Amenhotep I, on the ninth day of the third month of summer of his ninth year.[1] While the rising would take place on the same day every solar year (if observed from the same latitude), the Egyptian year had no leap year and accordingly lost one day per four years. By determining in what year a day on a 365 day calander lines up with another day on a 365.24 day calander, Egyptologists can determine what the absolute date for this observation was, within a margin of error of four years. Unfortunatly, the location where that observation was made is not found on that papyrus. Assuming it was taken from somewhere in the delta, early Egyptologists dated Amenhotep I's reign of 21 years from about 1546 to 1526 BC. This is called the high chronology. However, modern Egyptologist are more likely to assume it was observed from Thebes, and date his reign from about 1526 to 1506. This is the low chronology.
It is believed that Amenhotep's father, Ahmose I, ruled for 25 years, thus his reign in the low chronology was from 1550 to 1526. Amenhotep's two sucessors, however, have reigns of uncertain lengths. Thutmose I had at least 9 years of reign, as proven by his highest dated monument, however his son's highest dated monument only dates to his first year.
