Many scholars have occupied tliemselves with these Greek chronologists. Hbckh sought to demonstrate an astronomical era as the basis of Manetlio's calculations. Lepsius appealed to the ' Sothis ' book, — a Christian forgery, — which ascribed 35.55 years as total duration to the Egyptian monarchy ; while, according to Unger, Manetho'e system gave 5613 as the date of its foundation. Brugsch has attempted reckoning from the basis of average length of generations and reigns, and thus arrives at 4400 for the same event. Ed. Meyer lays stress cliielly on data as to length of reigns actually recorded on the monu- ments, and has thus constructed a series of ' mini- mum dates,' i.e. dates bcluw whicli, at any rate, the various periods could not be brought down ; but C. Torr has since re-examined the monuments with the result of a possible further reduction of Mever's figures.
I'he most important a.ssistance towards the estab- lishment of indisimtable dates is derived from astronomical calculations, based on the following a.scertained facts as to the Egyptian calendar. The Egyptians did not use a leap year. Consequently in every four years a day was lost, and in 1400 years these los.se» had resulted in aoomplcte shift of all the nominal months througlumt the seiisonal year. An absolute method of reckoninj,' couhl, however, be obtained by observing the variation in the sun's position. Tins variation was gauged by the first visible (heliacal) rising of Sothis (.Sirins), an event which coincided with the beginning of the Inunda- tion. When the ' natural ' years, reckoned from this point, amount to 14(10, that tottil is therefore called a Sothis period. The natural or Sothic year was probably of importance to the Egyptians only for agricultural ann ritualistic calculations ; but to ns it is of great value. For the known fact that a
VOL. I. — 43
Sothis period began in A.D. 139 enables us to fix its preWous occurrences in B.C. 1322, 27H4, 4242, etc. With tliese points for a basis, and taking into con- sideration the recorded Sothis ri.sings under kings Mrnpth (Merenptah) and Amenophia I., Ed. Mahler fixes the reign of Thutmosis III. at 1.503-144U. He has, indeed, also calculated exact dates for the remainder of the 18th and 19th Dynasties ; l>ut results drawn from documents still often disputable cannot be relied on. To such astronomical dates Flinders Petrie has contributed 34 10 as the probable commencement of the 6th Dynasty. The following are selected dates, from those provisionally adopted by Petrie,* Ed. Meyer, Mahler, and Steindorti (in 'Baedeker,' 1897):—
Petrie. Meyer.
Dynasty. B.C. B.C.
I. 4777 3180
IT. 3998 2830
n. 3410 2530
XI. 2985
xn. 2778 2130
Xin. 2565 1930 Mahler,
xvm. 1587 1530 1575
XIX. 1327 1320
XX. 1240
XXI. 1089 1060
XXII. 930
XXV. 728
XXVI. 663
xxvn. 625 Stelndorff.
XXX. 382
Macedonians. 332
Romans. 30
viii. History. — Modem historians conveniently partition Manetho's series of 31 l)yna.sties into the following groups : (a) the Old kinrjdom, Dyns. i.-vi. ; (A) t/ie Middle Kingdom, Dyns. xi.-xiii. ; (r) the New Kingdom, Dyns. xviii.-xx. ; (d) the Foreign Dominion, Dyns. xxii.-xxv. ; (c) the Ecs- toratlon, Dyn. xxvi. ; (/) the Persian Supremacy, Dyn. xxxi. Between these lie obscure, disturbed periods, not assignable to any of the more distinctly defined groups.
(a) Tlic Old Kingdom. — Although nothing is known of the history of the earliest I'haraohs, the tombs of the 1st and 2nd Dynasties have lately been discovered at Abydos (Om cl-Gu'.ib), the legendary cradle, it will be remembered, of the monarchy. Unfamiliar royal names of the same remote age have come to light somewhat farther south (Negadeh);t while the so-calleil ' New Race ' cemetery — the remains of a very rude stage of culture — in the latter locality, is regarded as dating from at least as distant a period. In Greek times legends could still be collected, attri- buting to some of these early kings notable achievements, such as the first damminfj of the river, the establishment of a certain divine cult, or the regulation of succession to the throne ; to others, some memorable experience — a devastating plague, or an earthquake.
It is to be reiiiembered that, while the first historic Dynasty and that of demigods which pre- ceded it are said to be native to Upper Egypt, the legends of the still remoter Dynasty of gods are localized in the North ; the great gods were at home first in Heliopolis and the Delta. This iniiv point, it is said, to a racial contrast which. Mow- ever strong at first, was early obliterated. One ol
* So far aa yi-t published ; see Hutory, voU. L iL ; Meyer's u« the miniinuin dntea referred to above. I See jUg. ZeiUchr. xxxv. 1 0.
558
EGYPT
EGYPT
the prehistoric races had occupied districts about the river's mouth ; another — that, perhaps, to which the rude monuments at Coptos are due — had arrived in the upper valley, and one of its chiefs, attaining, we may suppose, at Abydos, or more properly Thinis, to a position of supremacy, had been able to extend tnence his power down the river, settling near the later Memphis, subduing or absorbing the Delta tribes, and finally identi- fying himself with the religion of the district which became thenceforth the state religion of tne nation. Relics of a possibly pre - dynastic nwnarchy can be traced in archaic survivals in the titles, functions, dress, etc., of the later kings ; but of the people ruled by these primitive Pharaohs, or of the limits of their domains, little can as yet be said. Interments, flints, pottery, regarded by some as prehistoric, are by others assigned to far later ages.