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David Rohl |
David M. Rohl (born 12 September 1950) is a British Egyptologist and historian who has put forth several controversial theories concerning the chronology of Ancient Egypt and Israel. He was born in Manchester and currently lives in the Marina Alta, Spain.
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Rohl traces his fascination with ancient Egypt to a visit of that country at the age of nine, which featured a journey on the Nile on King Farouk's paddle-steamer.
He first worked as a rock musician, forming a band in 1968, which eventually became Mandalaband, which released two albums, Mandalaband and The Eye of Wendor, in the early 1970s. About 1974, Rohl started work as a sound engineer, which career he pursued until he returned to his interest in ancient Egypt.
Rohl has been the editor of the Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum since 1986. In 1988 he was accepted by University College, London and awarded the prestigious W.F. Masom History Research Scholarship by the University of London as well as being awarded his degree in Ancient History and Egyptology. Rohl started work towards his doctorate in 1990, but it is unclear if he has been granted this advanced degree. He is a past President of the Sussex Egyptology Society (SES) and edits the Eastern Desert Survey Report. He excavated at Kadesh in Syria for the London Institute of Archaeology during the 1990s, and is currently Co-Field Director of the Eastern Desert Survey in Egypt. Rohl has also been associated with the Institute for the Study of Interdisciplinary Sciences (ISIS).
The publication of his book, A Test of Time led to his role in a three-part television documentary, "Pharaohs and Kings: A Biblical Quest", which appeared late summer 1995 on Channel 4 in the UK, and spring 1996 on The Learning Channel/Discovery in the USA.
His published works A Test of Time and Legend set forth Rohl's theories for dating Egyptian kings of the 19th through 25th Dynasties, which would require a major revision of the conventional chronology of ancient Egypt, and less radical revisions of the chronologies of Israel and Mesopotamia. Rohl asserts that these would allow scholars to identify many of the main characters in the Old Testament with people whose names appear in archeological finds. One of Rohl's methods includes the use of archaeo-astronomy, which he uses to fix the date of a solar eclipse which happened during the reign of Amenhotep IV and was observed in the city of Ugarit. He used a computer to calculate the exact time; the only possible time where such eclipse could be visible in Ugarit during the whole second millennium BC was 9 May 1012 BCE. According to conventional chronology, Ugarit was already destroyed in the 12th century BC and Amenothep IV (Akhenaton) reigned in 1353-1334 BC.
Rohl's redating is based on criticism of three of the four arguments which he considers are the foundations of the conventional Egyptian chronology:
Rohl bases his revised chronology (the New Chronology) on his interpretation of numerous archeological finds and genealogical records of several individuals. For example:
Rejecting the Revised Chronology of Immanuel Velikovsky and the Glasgow Chronology presented at the Society for Interdisciplinary Studies' 1978 'Ages in Chaos' conference, the New Chronology lowers the Egyptian dates (established within the traditional chronology) by up to 350 years at points prior to the universally accepted fixed date of 664 BC for the sacking of Thebes by Ashurbanipal.
While Rohl's theories have been rejected by many Egyptologists, Rohl's most vocal critic has been Professor Kenneth Kitchen, formerly of Liverpool University. One of Kitchen's major objections to Rohls' arguments concerns his alleged omission of evidence that conflicts with Rohl's theories. Kitchen has pointed out that the genealogies Rohl references to date Ramesses II omit one or more names known from other inscriptions.1 Similarly, Egyptologists have pointed out that no other known king of Egypt fits the identification as well as Shoshenq I.citation needed Redating the floruit of Ramesses II three centuries later would not only reposition the date of the Battle of Qadesh and complicate the chronology of Hittite history, it would require a less severe revision of the chronology of Assyrian history prior to 664 BC.
Rohl's theory should not be confused with the theory advocated by Russian mathematician Anatoly Fomenko, which is also known as New Chronology. Although it involves a 1000-year shift, his theory covers much more than the chronology of ancient Egypt.
Rohl identifies:
Dates proposed by Rohl for various Egyptian monarchs:
In addition to his theories on Egypt, Rohl has put forth other theories related to the Old Testament. In his published work, Legend: The Genesis of Civilisation, he posits a location for the Garden of Eden in Iranian Azarbaijan, south-east of Tabriz. In the same work, he assumes a local flood theory for the Genesis Flood, positing that the biblical reference to the covering of "all the high mountains" is merely a description of the flooding of cities in the plains of Mesopotamia on the basis that the Hebrew word 'har' does not just mean 'mountain' but also 'hill' and 'city mound'.
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