Changes

== Current Status ==

== Current Status ==

The academic community appears confused as to whether to accept the Sothic cycle or not. One of the most authoritative conventional sources seems at once to condemn and yet to rely on the Sothic cycle as a foundation for Egyptian chronology.<ref name=Cambridge>Edwards, I. E. S., Gadd, C. J., and Hammond, N. G. L., eds. ''The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 1, Part 1: Prolegomena and Prehistory.'' Cambridge University Press, January 29, 1971 (ISBN 0521070511). Cited and quoted in: Anonymous. "[http://www.biblemysteries.com/lectures/egypt.htm Egypt -- The Chronology]." ''[http://www.biblemysteries.com/ Mysteries of the Bible],'' 2007. Retrieved June 27, 2007.</ref> Specifically:{{Cquote|The most significant advance made in the study of ancient Egyptian chronology in recent years is the repudiation by Neugebauer and others of an astronomical origin for the Egyptian civil calendar and , as a corollary, the elimination of the so-called Sothic Cycle as a factor in dating the earliest periods of Egyptian History.}}

The academic community appears confused as to whether to accept the Sothic cycle or not. One of the most authoritative conventional sources seems at once to condemn and yet to rely on the Sothic cycle as a foundation for Egyptian chronology.<ref name=Cambridge>Edwards, I. E. S., Gadd, C. J., and Hammond, N. G. L., eds. ''The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 1, Part 1: Prolegomena and Prehistory.'' Cambridge University Press, January 29, 1971 (ISBN 0521070511). Cited and quoted in: Sanders, Michael S. "[http://www.biblemysteries.com/lectures/egypt.htm Egypt -- The Chronology]." ''[http://www.biblemysteries.com/ Mysteries of the Bible],'' 2007. Retrieved June 27, 2007.</ref> Specifically:{{Cquote|The most significant advance made in the study of ancient Egyptian chronology in recent years is the repudiation by Neugebauer and others of an astronomical origin for the Egyptian civil calendar and , as a corollary, the elimination of the so-called Sothic Cycle as a factor in dating the earliest periods of Egyptian History.}}

And yet:{{Cquote|For the fixing in time of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom and the periods preceding it, the key date is the seventh year of the reign of King Sesostris III of the Twelfth Dynasty. In this year, a helical rising of the star Sothis (our Sirius) was recorded on 16. VIII of the 365-day civil calendar, a fact which, thanks to the regular displacement of this calendar, in relation to the true astronomical year, allows the year in question to be placed between 1876 and 1864 BC, with every probability favoring 1872 BC.}}

And yet:{{Cquote|For the fixing in time of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom and the periods preceding it, the key date is the seventh year of the reign of King Sesostris III of the Twelfth Dynasty. In this year, a helical rising of the star Sothis (our Sirius) was recorded on 16. VIII of the 365-day civil calendar, a fact which, thanks to the regular displacement of this calendar, in relation to the true astronomical year, allows the year in question to be placed between 1876 and 1864 BC, with every probability favoring 1872 BC.}}

The two paragraphs are clearly contradictory--for as the anonymous critic points out, how can a source condemn the Sothic cycle as unreliable and yet in the same volume use it to fix an [[epoch]]?<ref name=Cambridge/>

The two paragraphs are clearly contradictory--for as Michael Sanders points out, how can a source condemn the Sothic cycle as unreliable and yet in the same volume use it to fix an [[epoch]]?<ref name=Cambridge/>

Despite the criticism, conventional Egyptologists still use the Sothic cycle to compute their dates--primarily because they recognize that, without the Sothic cycle, Egyptian chronology becomes exactly what Heinrich Otten called it in 1973: "a rubber chronology."<ref name=Mackey/><ref name=Otten>Otten, Heinrich. ''Festschrift Heinrich Otten.'' [[Germany]]: Harrassowitz, 1973. ISBN 3447015365.</ref>

Despite the criticism, conventional Egyptologists still use the Sothic cycle to compute their dates--primarily because they recognize that, without the Sothic cycle, Egyptian chronology becomes exactly what Heinrich Otten called it in 1973: "a rubber chronology."<ref name=Mackey/><ref name=Otten>Otten, Heinrich. ''Festschrift Heinrich Otten.'' [[Germany]]: Harrassowitz, 1973. ISBN 3447015365.</ref>