Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The following chronological table is intended to provide a means of orientation for the non-expert, and no attempt has been made to create an illusion of certainty where none exists. No dates should be treated as exact before 664 bc because the means to establish such precision are not available. As a result, Egyptologists have long preferred to date Egyptian history using a system of dynasties which has been preserved to us in the remains of the Aigyptiaka, (Egyptian History) produced by the Egyptian priest Manetho in the third century bc . He divided Egypt's past into thirty dynasties which were regarded as following each other in a lineal sequence, and a thirty-first dynasty was subsequently added by another hand. This system has many faults, but its convenience has guaranteed its survival and its universal use in modern scholarship. Therefore, it features prominently in all Egyptological literature, including the current volumes, and it is the basis of the chronological scheme presented here. In modern literature these dynasties have been combined into larger periods mainly based on perceptions of changes in political structure. The three major periods of centralized control under one king are known in the English-speaking world as Kingdoms, and these alternate with three Intermediate periods where political control was decentralized, and several independent polities existed ... log in or subscribe to read full text