1 6 ANCIENT EGYPT. 



Any of you who have had much to do with documents that 

 have passed through the hands of the copyist several times 

 can readily conceive how a text of such antiquity would get 

 mangled in the course of time, transcribed by so many 

 generations of priests and monks, often both ignorant and 

 careless. As an independent record this copy would have 

 been possessed of little value ; but information derived from 

 the Chronicon of Eusebius, the writings of Josephus, Julius 

 Africanus, De Iside et Osiride, attributed to Plutarch, and 

 others who made extracts from Manetho's book, have afforded 

 invaluable assistance in filling in and correcting the list. Then 

 comes the Turin papyrus, written in hieratic early in the 

 xviiith dynasty, about B.C. 1700, which, as far as it goes, 

 gives a list of kings ; the later ones, with their reigns in years, 

 months, and even days. In the earlier portion of the list 

 unfortunately the chronological element is wanting; and here 

 again we have long and critical periods more or less illigible, 

 which is not surprising considering that the papyrus was 

 pasted together in minute pieces. These two lists may be 

 described as the ground plan for all systems : and they have 

 been filled in and corrected, so to speak, by monumental 

 records, such as the roll of Thotmes III., now at Paris, and 

 Sethi's List of Ancestors, which is still at Abydos. A photo- 

 graph of part of it is now reproduced on the screen. These 

 data have been supplemented by cartouches* from the monu- 

 ments ; names on scarabaei ; inscriptions on the rocks ; lists 

 of hereditary architects ; certain astronomical conjunctions ; 

 papyri ; and information collected and handed down by Greek 

 and Roman travellers in Egypt such as Herodotus, Diodorus, 

 and Strabo. These, though often inaccurate and misleading, 

 have yet afforded many clues and hints, which, taken with 

 other evidence, have proved invaluable. The historic parallels 

 in Jewish, Assyrian, and other records furnish us with 

 approximate landmarks. 



The period of time covered by the first dynasty to the 



• The name of a king is placed witliiu an elliptical frame called by Cbampolion 

 A cartouche, 



