page_title: Egyptian chronology
section_title: Regnal years
hierarchical_section_title: Egyptian chronology / Regnal years
caption_attribution_description: English: 'Diagonal star tables', or 'star clocks' from wooden coffin lids; 11th Dynasty, from Asyut, Egypt --- Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim Deutsch: Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim
context_page_description: Egyptian chronology is the study of events in ancient Egypt, and trying to date to when they took place. There is a general agreement about this chronology among Egyptologists. The Old Kingdom began in the 27th century BC, the Middle Kingdom in the 21st century BC and the New Kingdom in the mid-16th century BC.
  But there are details which are still being argued about. The dates for the Early Dynastic Period can vary by up to 300 years, up to 30 years in the New Kingdom, and a few years for the Late Period.
  Some individual Egyptologists have come up with "alternative chronologies". For example the "New Chronology" proposed in the 1990s, changes the New Kingdom dates by 350 years, or the "Glasgow Chronology", which changes the New Kingdom dates by 500 years.
context_section_description: The main way to work out the chronology is to use the ancient Egyptian lists of kings. The number of years each king ruled, regnal years, can be added up. However there are problems with these lists. Some, such as the Turin King List, are quite detailed but they are not complete. The whole of Abydos King List has survived, but it does not have a complete list of rulers. Sometimes different versions of the same text are different. For example, Manetho's history of Egypt has not survived. Later writers such as Eusebius and Sextus Julius Africanus used Manetho's work for their histories, but their dates for the same ruler are often very different.
  The dates for king's rule can be pieced together from inscriptions. These often give a date in the form of the regnal year of the ruling pharaoh. They may or may not include any coregencies with a predecessor or successor. Some Egyptian dynasties may have overlapped, with different pharaohs ruling in different regions at the same time. This may lead to widely different chronologies.
  Egyptologists have two other ways to find the total number of years. For the Old Kingdom, they can use the number of cattle censuses. For later periods, they can use the celebration of a sed festival. In the Old Kingdom, there was a regular census where the number of cattle was counted. At first this was believed to have taken place every two years. There were 24 cattle censuses during the rule of Sneferu, who therefore ruled for 48 years. However new research has shown the census was sometimes held every year, or at gaps of more than two years. The sed festival was held on the 30th anniversary of the Pharaoh's rule. A ruler with one sed festival recorded would have ruled at least 30 years. However, this may not be the usual practice in all cases.
caption: 'Diagonal star table' from the 11th Dynasty coffin lid; found at Asyut, Egypt. Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim
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