The traditional names of the pharaohs have been in use for over two thousand years. In most cases, these are ancient approximations of their original names, derived from Greek historians in antiquity. It was only in the past two centuries that the true names of the pharaohs were fully revealed, following the decipherment of the hieroglyphs 200 years ago.
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 currently in use for pharaohs originate from Manetho, or more specifically, from quotations preserved by historians writing several centuries later. Manetho's dynasties established 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.
Chronological timeline
- c. 1450 BC
This was originally created during the reign of Thutmose III for honouring celebrated ancestors and was located in the south-west corner of the Akh-Menu Hall at the Great Temple at Karnak. On display at the Louvre in Paris.
- c. 1280 BC
A list of 76 pharaohs inscribed in the Hall of Kings in the Mortuary Temple of Seti I at Abydos, where selected ancestors were honoured. Still in its original place in Egypt.
- c. 1225 BC
The most comprehensive ancient list of Egyptian pharaohs is found in a poorly preserved hieratic papyrus scroll dating from the reign of Ramesses II. This list is undoubtedly the most significant of Ancient Egypt. It is likely that Manetho used a list very similar to this one. On display at the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy.
- c. 450 BC
The Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt during the 27th Dynasty, when it was under Persian domination. His Histories is the earliest known work to use the actual royal names rather than the generic term ‘pharaoh’. As a chronological work, however, it is of little value: for instance, he placed kings of the Old Kingdom after the New Kingdom. Although his work is often unreliable, Herodotus provides a detailed account of ancient Egypt and offers anecdotal insights into the lives of numerous pharaohs, some of whom are composites of multiple kings. He also references the priests claim that there had been around 330 kings in total.
- c. 275 BC
The Egyptian priest Manetho wrote Aegyptiaca, also known as the ‘History of Egypt’, which covered all the pharaohs up to the time of Alexander the Great's conquest. During the first centuries CE, knowledge of how to read hieroglyphs gradually declined and was completely lost by the time Western Rome fell in 476. Thanks to the early historians who transcribed extracts from the Aegyptiaca, the Greek approximations of the original names of the pharaohs were preserved, as was the chronology and division of the long line of pharaohs into dynasties. This chronology was the most complete available on the pharaohs. Although it is far from perfect, much of it has been corroborated by archaeological findings, and the division into dynasties is still in use today.
- 65-72Plutarch
Plutarch is sometimes referenced as having information about Manetho, and he does in fact refer to him several times in Isis and Osiris. However, it is unlikely that his source was Aegyptiaca; it is more probable that it was another one of Manetho's works. Plutarch travelled to Alexandria and Egypt to further his education. Although the date of composition of the essay is unknown, it is generally thought to have been written after his visit. He makes no mention of a list of kings.
- c. 95
The Roman–Jewish historian and military leader Flavius Josephus (c. 37-100) mentions Manetho in Antiquities of the Jews and Against Apion: “the Egyptian-born Manetho, who translated Egyptian history from the priestly writings”. Josephus does not mention dynastic divisions and only names about 25 rulers, most of whom were from the New Kingdom.
- c. 200
Julius Africanus (c. 160–240) was an early Christian historian. He wrote Chronographiai, a five-volume history of the world, which covers the period from the creation of Adam to his own time. The original manuscript has not survived; only fragments remain, primarily in the form of excerpts preserved by Eusebius and Syncellus.
- c. 3rd-centuryAncient Chronicle (Pseudo-Manetho)
A forgery claiming to be an ancient Egyptian text called the Old or Ancient Chronicle was also circulated. It described 30 dynasties over 113 generations, spanning 36,525 years.
- c. 325
Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–339) was an early Christian historian. Around 325, he penned the Chronicle, a two-volume “Universal History” covering the period from the birth of Abraham to his own time. While the original Greek volumes are lost, quotations preserved by later authors make it possible to reconstruct most of the work. In the second book, the “Canons”, Eusebius revolutionised chronology by arranging historical timelines from different civilisations in a series of parallel columns. This allowed readers to see how events in different cultures corresponded chronologically.
- c. 382
An 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. 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. There are more than a hundred surviving manuscripts of the Chronicle.
- c. 4th centuryThe 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 centuryEratosthenes (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 names on other king lists.
- c. 810
Selected 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.
- 10th century and onwardsSurviving manuscripts
None 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.
- 1822-24Hieroglyphs deciphered
The 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.
Original text from:
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