And could they *see* their imaginary kings??? ;’)
Quirke’s book on the list of pharaohs includes only those names actually found on monuments, although he discusses some of the ephemeral kings. It’s little known, for example, that Khufu (of Great Pyramid fame) was succeeded by his son Djedjefre, who started his own pyramid a few miles north, at Abu Roash. Djedjefre apparently died young, and was succeeded by his own son, who was then supplanted by Khafre, builder of the second of the big pyramids at Giza. One of the granddaughters of Khufu had a pretty nice burial chamber of her own in the largely unmapped catacombs underlying the Giza plateau. In the carving she seems to have had no body image problems or self-esteem shortfalls.
The king lists which gave us the entire dynastic structure were compiled (and possibly invented, at least in part) by Manetho, an Egyptian who lived late in the New Kingdom era (the division into three “kingdoms”, grouping dynasties into three eras, with some grouped in “intermediate periods”, is a modern convention). His list survives in three slightly later variant and (overlapping) fragmentary forms.
Manetho gives the dynasties in sequential order, whereas it is known that a number of these dynasties (including 17) ran concurrent with others.
Egypt did *not* spend its entire history as one undivided state with a single ruler and capital, with beginnings 5000 years ago. A fair assessment yields the view that Egypt’s history consists of continual breakup, struggle, and reunification after periods of years or even generations and sometimes centuries. Even when there were no upstarts in this or that region, there were schisms in the ruling families, and those often resulted in the end of a dynasty.
The temple of Seti “the Great”, which was completed by his better-known son, Ramses II “the Great”, has a wall showing many generations of unbroken kingship back to Menes; a fair number of the kings in that list — including Menes himself — don’t appear on any other monuments anywhere. Ramses II, who was descended from his father (rather than female-line kingship) had lots of wives, lots of kids, and it’s not entirely unlikely that he’s the ancestor of 100s of millions of people today, including most of the population of modern Egypt.
Extremely interesting. Thanks for pinging me to that.
“it’s not entirely unlikely that he’s the ancestor of 100s of millions of people today, including most of the population of modern Egypt.”
Since they now think they have the mummy of Ramses identified and might be able to get DNA from it, how cool would it be for modern Egyptians to have a plaque on their wall certifying a relationship to their great,great, great, great,great, great, great, etc.
“it’s not entirely unlikely that he’s the ancestor of 100s of millions of people today, including most of the population of modern Egypt.”
Since they now think they have the mummy of Ramses identified and might be able to get DNA from it, how cool would it be for modern Egyptians to have a plaque on their wall certifying a relationship to their great,great, great, great,great, great, great, etc.