Contra Bimson, Bietak Says Late Bronze Age Cannot Begin as Late as 1400 B.C.

In your September/October 1987 issue, John Bimson and David Livingston in their article “Redating the Exodus,” BAR 13:05, referred to evidence coming from our investigation at Tell el-Dab‘a in the Eastern Nile Delta. I would like to correct some of their statements in this respect.

Using the low Egyptian chronology of the New Kingdom (NK) and the association of the Middle Bronze (MB) II A and B material with Egyptian material culture in finely stratified contexts, I proposed to lower the transition from MB II A/B by about 50 years (not 100!) to about 1700 B.C. (not to 1650 B.C.). While our MB II C started about 1570 B.C.,¹ this is a local development and cannot simply be used as evidence for determining the end of MB II C in Palestine.