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manetho and the king lists

Manetho was a Greco-Egyptian priest born at Sebennytos in the Nile
Delta, and lived during the reign of * Ptolemy I*. He is of significant
importance to the study of Egyptology because he wrote a detailed
history of Egypt which gives us the basic structure for the chronology
of Ancient Egypt that we use today.

Manetho divided Egyptian history into dynasties which were essentially
ruling houses, of which 30 are recognised and used today. These date
from unification around 3100 BC up until the death of the last native
Egyptian ruler * Nectanebo II* in 343 BC. Two additional dynasties were
then added onto these; the 31st or Second Persian Period, and the 32nd
or Macedonian rulers followed by the Ptolemies.

It is ironic that although great reliance is placed upon Manetho and his
"Egyptian History", no full text of his work actually survives!
Manetho's history is known to us because several writers whose works
have survived have quoted extensively from it. These writers included
*Josephus*, writing in the late first century AD, *Sextus Julius
Africanus*, writing around the year 220 AD, and *Bishop Eusebius of
Caesarea*, writing in the early 4th century AD. Around five hundred
years later the works of Sextus Julius and Bishop Eusebius were used as
a basis for a history of the world, written by *George the Monk*, the
secretary to the Byzantine Patriarch *Tarasius* (784-806 AD).

*Other sources of evidence for the dating and chronology of Ancient
Egypt include:*

*THE PALERMO STONE:* A 5th Dynasty black basalt slab in several pieces,
and now in the Palermo Museum in Sicily, with further fragments in the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Flinders Petrie Museum in London. The
stone is inscribed on both sides and records some of the last
pre-dynastic kings, plus the kings that followed, up until the reign of
Neferirkare in the mid 5th Dynasty.

*THE ROYAL LIST OF ABYDOS:* In the Hall of the Records at the Temple of
Abydos, Seti I and his young son the future Ramesses II, are shown
worshipping the cartouched names of 76 of their ancestors. However,
"unacceptable" predecessors, such as Hapshepsut and Akhenaten are
conveniently omitted from this list. The list also does not have records
of any of the kings from the Second Intermediate Period.

*THE ABYDOS KING LIST:* A badly damaged duplicate of the Royal List of
Abydos was discovered in the nearby temple of Ramesses II.

*THE ROYAL LIST OF KARNAK:* A list of kings from the first kings down to
Tuthmosis III. It records the names of many of the obscure kings from
the Second Intermediate Period, and is now housed in the Louvre Museum
in Paris.

*THE ROYAL LIST OF SAQQARA:* Discovered in the tomb of the royal scribe
Thunery at Saqqara. Originally this list had 58 cartouches, but now only
47 remain, running from Anedjib of the 1st Dynasty up to Ramesses II,
and once again omitting those names from the Second Intermediate Period.

*THE ROYAL CANON OF TURIN:* This papyrus is the best surviving
chronology of the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs, but is unfortunately the
most damaged. Originally listing over 300 kings, it is written in a fine
literate hand, around 1200 BC. It lists the dynasties of the kings with
the lengths of each reign in years, months and days. Because of the poor
condition, piecing the fragments together is like trying to solve an
immense jigsaw. Consequently, what should have been a premier source of
Egyptian chronology is now more like a nightmare!

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