By nameBy date

August 4, 1963

Robert Stuckenrath, Jr.
Department of Physics
University of Pennsylvania

Dear Mr. Stuckenrath:

Mrs. Ilse Fuhr wrote me that on June 20th she had mailed 3 pieces of wood (Cedrus Libani and Zizyphus spina Christi), given to her by Dr. Zaki Iskander Hanna of the Cairo Museum, to you by registered airmail (parcel post). It is possible that you are in the process of testing these samples,

According to Dr. Iskander these pieces of wood are from the tomb of Tutankhamon of the 18th Dynasty. The conventional dating of Tutankhamun places him ca. 1358 before the present era. He reigned for seven or eight years.

In my “Ages in Chaos,” a work of a reconstruction and synchronization of ancient history I derived a much more recent timeschedule for the 18th Dynasty, and the time of Tutankhamun—ace. to this chronology-falls into the ninth century, the difference being 540 or 530 years, I have left with Dr. E. Ralph a copy of “Ages in Chaos” and I would like to mail you a copy of this work if you wish to have one. The entire work will comprise three, or possibly, four volumes, and a volume dealing with the 20th Dynasty will soon be given to my publisher.

My original purpose was to have radiocarbon test performed on a mummy, or on wrappings of a mummy, dating from the 20th Dynasty. Wood could be old when cut down and, besides, it could be re-used in a tree-scarce country that Egypt is and was. The great conflagrations that accompanied global upheavals could introduce fossil carbon into the atmosphere. To my understanding, the 20th Dynasty was well removed by several centuries from the last chance of such contamination. But Dr. Iskander chose wood from a well authenticated source (grave of Tutankhamun). My interest in the results of your tests is easily understood.

Mrs. Fuhr will be back to Munich in a few days (August 8th). Ace. to your letter Dr. Ralph is expected back from Europe about this time. Please give her my regards.

  Very sincerely,
  Immanuel Velikovsky