Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker.

Date:
1885-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    109/628 (page 85)
    Chronological Table. Introduction. There is no people in the world whose history is traceable to so remote a period as that of the Egyptians. Other nations may possibly have understood the art of writing as early as they, but no specimens of it have been preserved; whereas the Egyp- tian records, hewn in stone, burned in clay, or written on leather or on scrolls of papyrus, have survived the ravages of thousands of years. The preservation of these memorials, however, is mainly due to the dryness of the air in the rainless valley of the Nile, and to the property possessed by the hot sand of the desert of hermetic- ally sealing everything committed to its keeping. The remote dates with whieh Egyptian chronology deals seem my- thical when judged by the standards of Jewish and Christian chrono- graphers, and particularly when compared with the supposed date of the creation of the world; but they are derived from the lists given by Manetho, which have been confirmed by the monuments themselves. The priest Manetiio (Egypt. Mai en Thot, i.e. ‘beloved of Thoth’) of Se- bennytus (the modern Semennud, p. 445), being acquainted with the Greek language, was employed by King Ptolemy II. Philadelphus (B.C. 284-246) to translate the ancient historical works preserved in the temples. This ‘Egyptian History1 of Manetho enjoyed a high reputation at a later period, but was subsequently lost, with the exception of his lists of kings and their dates, which have been transmitted to us partly by Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian (1st cent. A.D.), and partly by Christian historians. The monuments and inscriptions in some cases confirm, and in others supplement, the records transcribed by Manetho for the Ptolemies, our information being derived from the series of kings’ names inscribed on tablets found at Abydus, Karnak, and Sakkara, from papyrus scrolls, particularly one in the Museum of Turin, and lastly from historical and genealogical notices on the walls of tem- ples and tombs, on statues, implements, and trinkets. A method- ical mode of utilising these fragmentary historical records was first taught by the learned Prof. Lepsius (d. 1884). The lists of the Pharaohs are arranged in the families or dynasties of the Thinites, Memphites, and others. If it be assumed that these dif- ferent houses reigned in succession, and their reigns be simply added together, the sum which results is very large. But, if it be assumed that many of the dynasties mentioned by Manetho reigned contemporaneously in different parts of the country, the reigns of members of the leading dynasties alone have to be added together, and a comparatively moderate sum is the result. Adopting the former method of computation M. Mariette has fixed the date of Menes, the first King of Egypt, as B.C. 5004, while Sir Gardner Wilkinson, proceeding on the latter assumption, assigns the date B.C. 2700 to the same monarch. Lepsius, on the other hand, believes the true date to be B.C. 3892, as Manetho states that an interval of 3555 years (or 3553, taking into account the difference between the Egyptian and the Julian year) elapsed between the reign of Menes, the first King of Egypt, and that of Nectanebus II. (B.C. 340), the last of the native sover- eigns. Our information becomes more definite after the beginning of the New Empire, while from the 26th Dynasty (B.C. 685) downwards the da- tes of the different kings are well ascertained. In accordance with the arrangement of the history of Egypt