Contents of the Turin king list

Every row of the hieratic include a hieroglyphic transcription, transliteration and English translation. Where appropriate, the king lists of Manetho, the ancient Greek historians, as well as the Canons of Abydos, Saqqara, and Karnak are cross-referenced.

Methodology

The plates of Lepsius from 1842 were used to create a detailed facsimile of the entire papyrus roll. Further reconstructions and restorations indicated by the research of modern scholars (Beckerath, Helck, Ryholt et al.) were then incorporated, moving fragments, and correcting spellings as specified. The hieratic were then compared to the indispensable Hieratische Paläographie, sign-by-sign, and finally transcribed to hieroglyphs. Due to the nature of facsimiles being copied by hand, some minor inaccuracies can be expected to have slipped by Lepsius unnoticed. While not perfect, the facsimile has the benefit that it is also a sort of time capsule, preserving the writing as it were almost 200 years ago.

The distinction between (rnpt, year) and (rnpt-ḥsb, regnal year) is sometimes lost due to the cursive nature of hieratic. Several variants occur throughout the king list, but the simple "year" is assumed to be the intended format, even though is is reasonable clear that the literatim palaeography in many cases is "regnal year".

Two common formulas are found throughout the king list:

Instead of writing the same text over and over (i.e. the formulas) out for every king, the ancient scribes used a horizontal line or small dot as a ditto mark for the repeating text. Additionally, the symmetry made the text easier to read and update at a glance, and also more pleasing to the eye. Ditto marks were also used for the "month" ligature (Ꜣbd) and also for "day" ☉ (hrw).

Signs that are lost but can be inferred and restored with a good degree of certainty are presented as slightly greyed out, while lost or unreadable text is indicated by three dots.