The traditional names of the pharaohs have been known for more than two thousand years. In the majority of cases, these are in fact ancient approximations of their original names derived from Greek historians in antiquity. The true names of the pharaohs were only fully revealed in the past two centuries, following the decipherment of the hieroglyphs in the early 1820s.
The king lists of antiquity
The Bible only mention the names of four minor pharaohs of the Late Period, otherwise the kings of Egypt are simply known as Pharaoh. In antiquity, Greek historians who visited Egypt encountered the names of kings from that country which were unknown to them. They
attempted to approximate these names into Greek, but the resulting transcriptions were not entirely accurate, as might be expected.
Manetho, an Egyptian priest who flourished in the first half of the third century BC, is the
principal source for the chronology of ancient Egypt. He composed Aegyptiaca, "The History of
Egypt," by combining material from the sacred temple archives with popular traditions, legends, and narratives. The majority of the names of
the pharaohs that are currently in use originate from Manetho, or more specifically, from quotations preserved by historians who wrote several
centuries later. The dynasties of Manetho provided the fundamental chronology of ancient
Egypt.
It is inevitable that errors and corruption will occur in subsequent copies over the centuries. These may range from simple misunderstandings of the text to outright alterations and omissions. The names that had been preserved by Manetho were widely recognised and constituted the initial point of reference for Champollion when he embarked upon deciphering of the cartouches of kings. The second half of the nineteenth century saw the advent of the new science of Egyptology and the gradual revelation of the original names of the pharaohs.
Timeline
- 450 BC
Herodotus of HalicarnassusThe Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt during the Persian occupation of the mid-5th century BC. His "Histories" is the earliest known work to include the actual royal names, rather than the generic term "pharaoh." As a chronological work, it is of no value; for example, he placed the Old Kingdom after the New Kingdom. Although often unreliable, he provides a detailed account of Egypt and offers anecdotal insights into the lives of numerous pharaohs, some of whom are composites of multiple kings. He also references the claim made by priests that there had been approximately 330 kings in total.
- 275 BC
Manetho of SebennytosThe Egyptian priest Manetho wrote Aegyptiaca, or the “History of Egypt”, that covered all dynasties until the conquest of Alexander the Great. During the first centuries AD, the knowledge of reading hieroglyphs was gradually forgotten and completely lost around the time of the fall of Western Rome in 476. Thanks to early historians who made extracts from the Aegyptiaca, the names and a detailed chronology of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt had been preserved. Until the deciphering of the hieroglyphs, this was the only information available about the pharaohs. Though far from perfect, much of Manetho’s chronology has been confirmed by archaeology.
- 65-72 CE
PlutarchPlutarch references Manetho multiple times in Isis and Osiris; however, it is unlikely that the source was Aegyptiaca, but rather another work by Manetho. Plutarch visited Alexandria and Egypt to complete his education, and although it is unknown when he wrote the essay, it is generally thought to have been after his visit to Egypt. He does not mention any list of kings.
- c. 95
JosephusThe Roman–Jewish historian and military leader Flavius Josephus (c. 37-100 CE) mention of Manetho in the last decade of the first century. In the Antiquities of the Jews, and Against Apion he quotes from “the Egyptian born Manetho who translated Egyptian history from the priestly writings.” Josephus does not mention dynastic divisions, and only mention the names about of 25 rulers, most of them from the New Kingdom.
- c. 200
AfricanusJulius Africanus (c. 160–240 CE) was an early Christian historian. He wrote Chronographiai, a history of the world in five volumes; from the birth of the Adam to his own time. The original has not survived, it is only known in fragments, primarily excerpts preserved by Eusebius and Syncellus.
- c. 3rd-century
The Ancient Chronicle (Pseudo-Manetho)There was also circulated a forgery claiming to be ancient Egyptian called the Old or Ancient Chronicle, describing 30 dynasties for 113 generations, comprising 36,525 years.
- c. 325
EusebiusEusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–339 CE), was an early Christian historian. Around 310 CE wrote the Chronicle, a two-volume “Universal History” from the birth of Abraham up his own time. The original volumes in Greek are lost, but quotations preserved by later authors makes it possible to reconstruct most of it. With the second book, the Canons, Eusebius revolutionised chronology by arranging historical timelines from different civilisations in a series of parallel columns, allowing readers to see how events in different cultures corresponded chronologically.
- c. 382
JeromeAn updated Latin translation of the second book of Eusebius’ (the Canons) known as the Chronicle of Jerome was created by Christian priest and historian Jerome of Stridon around 382. Jerome updated or extended the timeline from where Eusebius left off, adding events up to his own time. The purpose of the work as a whole was partly to make clear the greater antiquity of Hebrew history relative to most others. Jerome’s well-received Chronicle, written in Latin, made it more accessible to a wider audience in the Western world, while Eusebius’ Greek original became increasingly obscure.
- c. 4th century
The Book of Sothis (Pseudo-Manetho)Also called the Sothic Cycle, attributed to Manetho but most likely a forgery used/composed by Panodorus of Alexandria. The sequence of kings is clearly not presented in chronological order.
- c. 4th century
Eratosthenes (Pseudo-Eratosthenes)A forgery trying to gain credibility by using the famous Eratosthenes. Some of the names listed are found in Manetho and Herodotus, suggesting that there may be a common but corrupted source behind the list, but most names bear no resemblance to the namess on other king lists.
- c. 810
SyncellusSelected Chronography, a chronicle written by the Byzantine priest George Syncellus, is the primary source of our knowledge of the contents of Aegyptiaca, thanks to Syncellus’ preserved excerpts from Africanus and Eusebius’ chronicles. The original manuscript of Syncellus has been lost, and only later copies remain.
- Tenth century +
Surviving manuscriptsNone of the original books written by the authors in question above have survived. The extant manuscripts date from the 10th century or later, representing copies of copies that are themselves separated from the originals by several centuries. Given the considerable number of generations of texts, it is inevitable that the originals will have been contaminated or corrupted to some extent.
A number of potential errors may be introduced in the course of the copying process, The may include the skipping of lines, the omission of words, or the replication of phrases. Such errors may be inadvertent, but they can give rise to discrepancies between different manuscript copies, particularly if the document undergoing transcription itself was already compromised by earlier transcriptions. Copyists might have trouble comprehending the text they were transcribing if it was written in an unfamiliar language or used archaic expressions. There are numerous other ways errors might be introduced.
- 1822-24
Hieroglyphs decipheredThe discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 played an instrumental role in the decipherment of the hieroglyphs. The hieroglyphs were still unreadable, but progress was being made. It contains the same text written in three scripts: hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek. Many scholars worked to solve the puzzle, slowly adding clues, until Jean François Champollion made a breakthrough in 1822. He used the Rosetta Stone inscriptions and his methodical study of demotic and hieratic from previous years to finally be able to decipher the hieroglyphs. The discovery opened the way to the reading of a wide range of texts on monuments and papyri, and it can be said that the field of Egyptology was born.
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