Endnote 56 – Redating the Exodus

A major implication of our scheme is the redating of certain Cypriot pottery styles, including the so-called Bichrome Ware, which appeared in Palestine at the end of MB II C. Bichrome Ware’s arrival at a supposed date of 1550 B.C. has sometimes been used as a criterion for dating the fall of the MB II cities to that time. As shown in detail in Bimson, Redating, pp. 137–171, this argument is circular, since the date of Bichrome Ware’s arrival is not independently fixed with such precision, and can therefore be redated along with the destruction of the MB II cities. A lengthy discussion of how a lower date for Bichrome Ware can be harmonized with finds at Alalakh (Tell Atchana, in Syria), where ceramic chronology interacts with inscriptional evidence, will be included in the forthcoming third edition of Redating, along with other ramifications of the chronological revision.