Biblical Hebrew Forum

["James Spinti" <JSpinti AT Eisenbrauns.com>]

Karl,

The subject of dating in the ancient world comes up with amazing
frequency on the ANE list. I would suggest that you search the archives
there (both from the old ANE list hosted by U of Chicago, and the new
ANE-2 list on Yahoo). Bob Whiting, of the University of Helsinki, is an
expert on Assyrian dating and the underpinnings thereof. You don't need
to take his word for the conclusions; he gives the data for you to
explore it yourself. His conclusions are based on the king lists and
limmu-lists that have been discovered. Of course, a knowledge of
Akkadian is helpful (but not necessary).

There simply isn't a way to move the Amarna period as late as you wish.
Amarna happens to be one of the best documented time periods in the
ancient world. The texts mention the Hittite empire, which we know was
destroyed c. 1200 BCE based on archaeological evidence (more recent
findings have actually dated it more exactly, but I don't recall the
year right now, probably around 1190 BCE). This doesn't depend on
Egyptian chronology at all; it leans more on Greek/Aegean stuff. I doubt
you want to move Greek chronology forward that far, or you will end up
with Alexander being at the time of Jesus!

James

________________________________
James Spinti
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-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of K Randolph
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 4:28 PM
To: B-Hebrew
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 1 Kings 20:14 Who are the young men,princes of
the districts?

James:

On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 12:29 PM, James Spinti
<JSpinti AT eisenbrauns.com>wrote:

<snip> 
 What I keep hearing is that the Akkadian of the Amarna letters is dated
by
the Egyptian history. Then to claim that we can date the letters by the
Akkadian used, makes a circular argument.

The data that I know of from archaeology and a competing history (namely
the
Bible) pretty much rules out the Amarna period as being before the 11th
century BC at the earliest, and more likely ninth to eighth centuries
BC.
Therefore which should I follow: the consensus, or the data?

Karl W. Randolph.