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June 9, 1923] 
short period, and would not disagree with the German 
dates.» That of Egyptian archeology and art is also 
in favour of the shorter dates, yet scarcely for so short 
a period as a bare two hundred years. We have, too, 
sO many contemporary records of kings of this time 
(apart from the evidence of the Turin Papyrus) that 
we cannot suppose that only two hundred years 
elapsed between the end of the XIIth and the begin- 
ning of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The Hyksos period 
alone can, one would think, scarcely have occupied 
less than two centuries. 
So impressed is Prof. Flinders Petrie by these argu- 
ments (and others) that he boldly supposes that we 
must put the XIIth Dynasty back a whole Sothic 
period in time, and make Senusret III. reign about 
3300 instead of about 1900 B.c. He has not been 
followed in this cutting of the Gordian knot, for few- 
will beli¢ve that 1600 years can have elapsed between 
the two great dynasties, which on the ancient monu- 
mental lists of kings at Abydos and Sakkarah are 
immediately coterminous, the Hyksos and their pre-. 
decessors being regarded either as usurpers or of no 
account. Prof. Capart is the only Egyptologist who 
seems inclined to go somewhat in the direction of sup- 
porting Prof. Petrie, but he must do so at the expense 
of abandoning the astronomical calculation, which 
Prof. Petrie accepts. 
Personally, being unable to believe either that so 
few as 200 or so many as 1600 years separated the two 
dynasties, I can only suspend judgment until the 
astronomers have examined the question and the 
evidence anew and have recalculated the date indi- 
cated by the observation in Senusret’s reign. Until 
then I can only suppose that some mistake either in 
ancient observation or modern calculation has occurred, 
and adopt provisionally the very round date of circa 
2000 B.C. for the end of the XIIth Dynasty, which 
would satisfy most historical, archeological, and 
artistic demands. 
This date would give the Middle Kingdom (XIth- 
-XVIth Dynasty) the date circa 2350-2000 B.C. 
know the lengths of the reigns of the kings of the 
XIIth Dynasty accurately from contemporary monu- 
ments, and Manetho combined with the monuments 
gives us an adequate idea of the XIth. 
Now the Turin Papyrus becomes important. Its 
regnal years for the Old Kingdom (Dyns. I.—VII.) are 
often useful, in conjunction with Manetho and the 
monuments, and it gives the definite sum-total of the 
reigns of this period as 955 years. Allowing about 
_ 150 or 200 years for the IXth and Xth Dynasties (so 
far as they were not contemporary with the VIIIth 
NATURE 
We | 
777 
and XIth) and for the period of interregnum in art and 
civilisation which certainly elapsed between the VIth 
and the XIth, we can roughly date the Old Kingdom 
to the round date circa 3500-2500 B.c. The three 
conquerors of the North, the Scorpion, Narmerza, 
and ‘Ahai, who seem to have become conflate in later 
Egyptian legend as Meni or Menes, the first king of all 
Egypt and founder of the Ist Dynasty, will then have 
reigned about 3600 or 3500 B.c. 
This date is about two centuries earlier than that 
maintained by the Germans, who are followed by Prof. 
Breasted. Prof. Petrie, of course, in accordance with 
his theory, goes much further back, returning to the 
remote date of more than 5000 B.c. which used to 
be credited twenty or thirty years ago. Capart moves 
in the same direction, too far in my opinion, and rely- 
ing somewhat on an interpretation of the evidence of 
the fragments of the Palermo Stone (an ancient con- 
temporary monumental chronicle of the time of the 
Vth Dynasty) put forward by Borchardt, which has 
been shown to be misconceived and untrustworthy by 
Prof. Peet. 
The predynastic period, when there existed two 
independent kingdoms, if not three, in Egypt, which 
had arisen out of neolithic primitiveness, will then date 
to any length of time before 3500 B.c. that one may 
be inclined to credit. The institution of the fixed 
calendar in 4241 or 4238 B.c. will have been the first 
important sign of civilisation in Egypt. 
Such, explained as succinctly as possible consist- 
ently with intelligibility, is the evidence on the subject 
of ancient Egyptian chronology. If the astronomers 
will turn their attention to the Kahun date and re- 
compute it, and also tell us whether any ancient 
mistake is possible and of what kind, we shall all be 
better able to make up our minds on the subject of 
the dates before 1580 B.c. 
That there is room for a recomputation is shown 
by the divergence of the calculations of Mr. Nicklin 
and of the Germans. That doubts of the neces- 
sary validity of all astronomical calculations of this 
kind are not altogether mistaken seems to be shown by 
the fact that the astronomical fixation of certain early 
Mesopotamian dates by Kugler, which has been 
accepted for several years past, is now discredited by 
many Assyriologists on the authority of the newly- 
discovered Assyrian king-lists and on account of the fact 
that Kugler’s calculations, I understand, place the 
harvest season at an impossible time of the year, 
These doubters would bring the epoch of Hammurabi 
down again to nearly the date originally advocated by 
the late Prof. King before he accepted Kugler’s results. 
The 800th Anniversary of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. 
N the long history of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, 
now extending over eight hundred years, during 
which the gates have never been closed or the wards 
entirely empty, many men have served the Charity 
well and faithfully. The exacting nature of the duties 
required of those attending upon the sick do not leave 
much time for speculative science, but the staff of the 
hospital has always been foremost in advancing the 
~ art of physic. The hospital was founded in 1123; and 
the celebration of its eight hundredth anniversary is 
NO. 2797, VOL. 111] 
being held this week. It was founded upon a religious 
basis and was placed in charge of a master, eight 
brethren and four sisters of the Augustinian Order. 
They had no science, but the scanty records of the 
treatment adopted shows that common sense prevailed 
and the experience gained was sufficient to build up a 
great tradition of practice and nursing. 
The religious foundation lasted uninterruptedly for 
four hundred years until the Reformation led to a 
reconstruction. The enlightened policy of the citizens 
Z2 
