Fig 1.
The eastern Mediterranean region and Egypt, showing the location of the Thera (Santorini) volcano and other places mentioned in the text. Based on Mapcarta, the open map with CC BY license © OpenStreetMap, Mapbox, and Mapcarta.
Table 1.
The Turin King-list from column 10 line 30 to column 11 line 31 (end of papyrus) with associated interpretations of dynasties and kings. Reconstruction of the Turin King-list (TK) is based on Ryholt [63], slightly modified by Allen [119]. Tentative chronologies of kings (accession year or year of death BCE) are given by Franke [118] and Ryholt [63], who also suggested kings for blank TK lines. Wegner [120] mentioned preserved TK reign length years and a newly discovered king at Abydos, whose name Woseribre Senebkay [116,120] fits TK lines 11.16 or 11.17.
Table 2.
Kings of the 17th and early 18th Dynasty and their estimated historical chronologies in years BCE. *Since the nomen of Senakhtenre is also Ahmose [65], we distinguish between the two Ahmose kings by adding (I) and (II) behind their names, as suggested by Cahail [66]. The mudbrick from the Temple of Ahmose (II), which we investigated, dates historically to ca year 22 of his reign [111,112].
Table 3.
Minimum time length between the 12th Dynasty king Senusert III (year 7) and the accession year of the first 18th Dynasty king Nebpehtire Ahmose. Table based on Bennett [113, p. 240].
Fig 2.
The Ahmose Temple and Pyramid complex at ancient Abydos in Upper Egypt west of the green Nile Valley.
Plan of ancient buildings is from Wikimedia Commons open access: (1) Disintegrated Pyramid of Ahmose, (2) Hill of rubble, (3) Construction ramp, (4) The Ahmose Temple from where mudbrick EA 32689 is derived. Regional map of the Nile Valley (Abydos and Thebes area) is based on Mapcarta, the open map with CC BY license © OpenStreetMap, Mapbox, and Mapcarta.
Fig 3.
Brick with stamped prenomen Nebpehtire of Pharaoh Ahmose from the Temple of Ahmose at Abydos.
Photograph from Randall-MacIver and Mace, 1902, Plate xxxii [138], reproduced under a CC BY license with permission and courtesy of © The Egypt Exploration Society, London.
Fig 4.
Mudbrick EA 32689 (British Museum) from the Temple of Ahmose at Abydos, showing the same stamped prenomen Nebpehtire of Pharaoh Ahmose.
Photo by H.J. Bruins, 2018 © The Trustees of the British Museum, London. Shared under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Fig 5.
Plant fragments (straw) in the Ahmose mudbrick EA 32689 (British Museum). Photo by H.J. Bruins, 2012 © The Trustees of the British Museum, London. Shared under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Fig 6.
Thin section of an intact lump of the Ahmose mudbrick EA 32689. (A) Plant fragment, 1.4 mm long in plain polarized light. (B) Its right part in higher magnification to show the phytoliths within the epidermis.
Microscope photos by H.J. Bruins, 2024 © The Trustees of the British Museum, London. Shared under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Table 4.
Samples of Ahmose mudbrick EA 32689 with their δ13C values and uncalibrated radiocarbon results.
Fig 7.
Calibrated 14C date of mudbrick lump sample GrM-15201 from the Ahmose brick.
Fig 8.
Calibrated radiocarbon age ranges of the pure straw fragment GrA-64347 from the Ahmose mudbrick.
Fig 9.
Calibrated age ranges of the weighted average of three radiocarbon dates of the Ahmose mudbrick, derived from samples with a high carbon content (Table 4).
Table 5.
Radiocarbon dating of linen burial cloth EA 37106, associated with Queen Satdjehuty.
Fig 10.
Calibrated radiocarbon age ranges of linen burial cloth EA 37106, associated with Queen Satdjehuty.
Fig 11.
Tree rings are clearly visible in the bottom part of Shabti UC 40184 (diameter 3.1 cm).
Photo by H.J. Bruins (2017), published with permission from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology (University College London) under a CC BY license.
Table 6.
Radiocarbon dating results of six wooden stick shabtis from the Petrie Museum.
Fig 12.
Photo by H.J. Bruins (2017), published with permission from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology (University College London) under a CC BY license.
Fig 13.
Calibrated radiocarbon age ranges for Shabti UC 40178.
Fig 14.
Photo by H.J. Bruins (2017), published with permission from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology (University College London) under a CC BY license.
Fig 15.
Calibrated radiocarbon age ranges for Shabti UC 40179.
Fig 16.
Photo by H.J. Bruins (2017), published with permission from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology (University College London) under a CC BY license.
Fig 17.
Calibrated radiocarbon age ranges for Shabti UC 40181.
Fig 18.
Photo by H.J. Bruins (2017), published with permission from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology (University College London) under a CC BY license.
Fig 19.
Calibrated radiocarbon age ranges for Shabti UC 40182.
Fig 20.
Photo by H.J. Bruins (2017), published with permission from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology (University College London) under a CC BY license.
Fig 21.
Calibrated radiocarbon age ranges for Shabti UC 40184.
Fig 22.
Photo by H.J. Bruins (2017), published with permission from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology (University College London) under a CC BY license.
Fig 23.
Photograph published in 1916 by Petrie, showing four 12th Dynasty shabtis and one shabti attributed by him to the 17th Dynasty (on the right), which can be recognized as shabti UC 40196 (Fig 22).
Courtesy of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology (University College London), reproduced with permission under a CC BY license.
Fig 24.
Calibrated radiocarbon age ranges for Shabti UC 40196.
Table 7.
Comparison of uncalibrated 14C dates between Egypt’s 17th to 18th Dynasty transition (blue) and the Minoan Thera Eruption (yellow).
Fig 25.
Graphic comparison of uncalibrated radiocarbon dates: Egypt’s 17th to 18th Dynasty transition (blue), and the Minoan Thera eruption (red).
The latter dates are consistently older than the former. The two red dotted vertical lines roughly indicate the most likely 14C time range in which the eruption occurred, a specific geological event that took place within a certain year. On the other hand, each 14C date of the Egyptian museum objects represents its own temporal position within the 17th to early 18th Dynasty period.