Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

■oh. i. CHRONOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES 15

slightest intelligible information about them, though
it is possible that they are all included under the general
name of Hor-Shesu. It must, however, be granted
that Egypt had really a life before the historic age, but
that the monuments—apart from the myths—contain
nothing about the condition of the land in those prime-
val times. All that can be allowed is that Egypt's pre-
historic age must of necessity correspond to the time
of the first development of society and the dawn of
the arts and sciences. German Egvptologists have
attempted to fix the era when Mena, the first Pharaoh,
mounted the throne, with the following results :—

B.C.

Boeckh . . 5702
Unger . . 5613

Brugsch . . 4455

B.C.

Lauth . . 4157

Lepsius . . 3892
Bimsen . . 3623

The difference between the extreme dates is enor-
mous, amounting to no less than 2,097 years ! It is as
if one should hesitate whether to fix the date of the
accession of Augustus at B.C. 207 or a.d. 1872.

The calculations in question are based on the
extracts from a work on the history of Egypt by the
Egyptian priest Manetho. His book, which is now lost,
contained a general review of the kings, divided into
Thirty Dynasties, arranged in the order of their names,
with the length of their reigns, and the total duration
of each Dynasty. Though this invaluable work was
little known and certainly but little regarded by the
historians of the old classical age, large extracts were
made from it by some of the ecclesiastical writers ; but
m process of time the copyists, either by error or
designedly, corrupted the names and the numbers.

The deciphering of the Egyptian writing has, how-
ever, proved that much of the original work was both
valuable and authentic. And so the Manethonian list