History of Ancient Egypt

By Ian Mackenzie

In the summer of 1972, TV news featured huge crowds queuing patiently on the pavements outside the British Museum to see the Tutankhamun Exhibition. So great was the clamour to see the exhibition that it had to be extended from the planned six months to nine months to accommodate total visitors of almost 1.7 million. But the world's interest in Ancient Egypt long pre-dates the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. Egypt's hot, dry climate has preserved almost perfectly the evidence of an ancient civilisation: the pyramids, massive stone statues and tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Most Egyptologists agree that simple antiquity is a major part of Ancient Egypt's appeal: there is a mysterious nature to anything that is thousands of years old and mystery intrigues us all. This very accessible introduction to Ancient Egypt explores those mysteries, providing details of the ancient civilisation's temples, tombs, kings and culture. And as a handy reference work there are tables listing all the Dynasties of Ancient Egypt and all the Pharaohs of each Dynasty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: G2 Rights Ltd
• Release date: Jan 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781782816201

Book preview

Chapter 1

SOURCES AND EVIDENCE

Manetho, Egyptian priest and scholar

The most important source of information about ancient Egypt is the work of Manetho, an Egyptian priest in the Temple of Ra at Heliopolis. As a priest he would have had the skills to read hieroglyphic texts and have access to various temple archives. Of the six or seven works credited to Manetho the most important is his Aegyptiaca (Egyptian History), sometimes referred to as Notes about Egypt.

The term dynasty was coined by Manetho in Aegyptiaca, derived from the Greek dynasteia which refers to the rule of government. In Aegyptiaca he divided pharaonic history into 30 or so different dynasties, identified not just by bloodline but also according to periods of rule from a particular capital or region. Manetho’s dynasties established the framework for the study of Ancient Egypt’s history that has remained fundamental right up to the present day.

Though dedicated to the pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285 – 246 BC) it is likely that the book was written during the reign of his predecessor Ptolemy I Soter (305 – 285 BC). Written in Greek it is likely, too, that the book was prepared as either an alternative or supplementary text to an Egyptian history written a century earlier by the Greek scholar Herodotus. With access to temple records, inscriptions and king-lists dating back to the Predynastic era there is no doubt that Aegyptiaca would have been extremely accurate. Unfortunately no copies of the work have survived and we have to rely, instead, on fragments of Aegyptiaca reproduced in the works of later scholars such as Josephus (c. 1st century AD), Sextus Julius Africanus (c.AD 220) and Bishop Eusebius (c.400 AD). Personal opinion, political and racial prejudices mean that the fragments of Manetho borrowed by these writers are often contradictory.

For corroboration of Manetho historians have had to scour alternative sources, ideally original written sources from preserved tablets, hieroglyphic inscriptions and surviving papyri.

Illustration

The Rosetta Stone, currently in the British Museum

Evidence from hieroglyphic inscriptions

Hieroglyphic inscriptions providing details of Egyptian life and history survive from the Predynastic era through to AD 394 with reputedly the last recorded inscription on the Temple of Philae. Seemingly after that date the key and skill required to read hieroglyphs was lost though during the European Renaissance scholars made some bold and credible attempts at translation. This included the correct identification in 1761 by Abbe Jean Jacques Barthelemy that the oval rings containing a number of hieroglyphic signs, what we now know as cartouches, enclosed royal