A guide to the Egyptian collections in the British MuseumBritish Museum. Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities
History
A guide to the Egyptian collections in the British Museum
British Museum. Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities
Egypt -- Antiquities
It has now to be considered how the above facts bear upon Egyptian
=chronology=. To make a complete scheme of Egyptian chronology we need
a complete list of the kings of Egypt, and to know the order in which
each succeeded, and the number of years which each reigned. Now, such a
list does not exist, for the lists we have only contain selections of
kings’ names; and of many a king neither the order of his succession nor
the length of his reign is known. The facts at present available do not
permit the making of a complete detailed scheme of chronology, but one
which is =approximately correct= in many parts of it can be framed. As
authorities for the names of the kings there are:—1. The =Royal Papyrus
of Turin=, which, when complete, contained over 300 royal names. 2. The
=Tablet of Abydos=,[29] made for Seti I, containing seventy-six names.
3. The =Tablet of Ṣaḳḳârah=, containing fifty names. 4. The =Egyptian
monuments= of all periods. 5. The King List of =Manetho=.[30] The Turin
Papyrus, which was compiled about B.C. 1500, gave the lengths of the
reigns of the kings, but unfortunately most of them are broken. Manetho
compiled his King List, it is said for Ptolemy II Philadelphus, in the
first half of the third century B.C., but, as the work in which it
appeared is lost, we only know it by the copies which have come down to
us in the =Chronicle of Julius Africanus= (third century A.D.), in the
=Chronicle of Eusebius=, Bishop of Caesarea, who died about A.D. 340, and
in the =Chronography of George the Monk= (eighth century A.D.). Eusebius
himself also compiled a King List, but his results differ materially from
those of Manetho as given by Africanus. Manetho divided the kings of
Egypt into thirty dynasties, which he arranged in three groups: Dynasties
I-XI, XII-XIX, and XX-XXX. He also gave the lengths of the reigns of the
kings, and the cities of their origin, Memphis, Elephantine, Thebes, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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