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personal notes from way, _way_ back and maybe today

J.E. Manchip White, Ancient Egypt: Its Culture and History; Manchip White on Egyptian Chronology; p. 136

The problems of ancient Egyptian chronology are extremely complex. The Egyptians numbered their years regnally, not continually from a certain fixed point determined by the dawn of an era. Where we might write: ‘In 1951 A.D., in the reign of King George VI,’ an Egyptian would write: ‘In the twenty-fifth year of the reign of the Pharaoh Menkheperra Tuthmosis.’ Thus the beginning of every reign constituted a new dating point. The Egyptians were not given to thinking in terms of dynasties, neither were Pharoahs accustomed to call themselves Amenophis, Ramses or Tuthmosis I, II, III or IV. The Pharaoh we name Tuthmosis I is called in his monuments and official documents Akheperkara Tuthmosis, Tuthmosis II is Akheperenra Tuthmosis, Tuthmosis III is Menkheperra Tuthmosis, and so on. Pharaohs went by names, not numbers.

mod date: 2007-07-23T03:00:36.000Z