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What we know of the history of the First Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, which was the first state formed in Egypt about a thousand years before the building of the first pyramids, has largely depended so far on archaeological findings of ceramics. Archaeologists studied the evolving style of ceramics used in burial chambers to determine the order of the kings and queens of the dynasty, which offered a rough estimate at best.

Now, researchers from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology at the University of Oxford have used radiocarbon dating to determine a more accurate estimate for this little known period of Egyptian history, publishing their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. They used radiocarbon dating on samples of hair, bone and plant excavated from the tombs of the monarchs and the surrounding region to determine their age.

By combining the radiocarbon dating and archeological evidence, the researchers used a mathematical model to produce more accurate estimates of when the state was formed, and when each king or queen came to power. They also found that the Predynastic period, which is when inhabitants started settling along the River Nile and focusing on agriculture before the formation of the first state, was shorter than previously thought.

The first king of the dynasty, King Aha, succeeded King Narmer (Menes) who is most credited with unifying Upper and Lower Egypt for the first time. His reign started between 3111 and 3045 BC. Additionally, the Predynastic period, which was previously thought to have started somewhere around 4000 BC, has been refined in the new study to ~3800 BC. This shrinks the period between concentrated agriculture and the formation of the state to 600 – 700 years. This is in contrast with neighbouring civilizations such as Mesopotamia, where there were between four and five millennia in the transition from agriculture to a centralized state. Despite being geographic neighbours, the rise of political centralization between the two regions took different paths.

The researchers dated the reigns of all eight kinds and queens of Egypt’s first dynasty: Aha, Djer, Djet, Queen Merneith, Den, Anedjib, Semerkhet and Qa’a.

The radiocarbon dating has found a rather long period between Djer and Djet that raises some questions. This would suggest that Djer reigned for over 50 years. This long period of rule may be unlikely, however, and could mean there are other kings or queens missing or ” be the result of a political hiatus,” as the paper suggests.

Researchers have used radiocarbon dating before on ancient Egyptian artefacts from the Old, Medium and New Kingdoms and managed to settle some differences that archaeologists had on the order of kings.