During his long lifetime, young-earth advocate David Down (1918–2018) championed a revised Egyptian chronology that claimed to correlate the pharaohs of Egypt with the historical text of the Bible. This revision was sourced in part from the vilified reconstruction of ancient history published several decades ago by the Russian-born catastrophist, Immanuel Velikovsky (best-selling author of Worlds in Collision 1950). Down's chronology repeated Velikovsky's hypothesis that Rameses III of Dynasty 20 ruled Egypt during the late Persian period—some eight centuries after the conventional date for his reign. His claim is scientifically testable using the archaeological principles of stratigraphy, in particular the law of superposition. For example, if Down's hypothesis is valid, stratified artifacts inscribed with the name of Rameses III will not be found in deposits sealed prior to the late Persian period. This paper examines the ancient remains at Tel Lachish—a mound ruin in modern Israel—to show that archaeological stratigraphy conflicts with Velikovsky's unconventional theory concerning Rameses III. That conclusion, in turn, creates difficulty for the framework of Down's revised Egyptian chronology, including his central claim (originally proposed by Velikovsky) that Thutmose III of Dynasty 18 was King Shishak, who plundered Solomon's temple.