Calendars and Chronology in Ancient Egypt and the Ancient World

Time is the dimension of history. Chronology studies how we know when events happened. Chronology is much more important to "BC history" than to "AD history." History books state that the great Ramses II ruled around the thirteenth century B.C.E. But how do we know this? The focus of this class is on the answers to such questions through the study of the foundations of the history of Egypt specifically and of the ancient world in general. Some prior knowledge of Egyptian language or civilization might be handy but is by no means required.