Author Description

Delving into the various chronology issues that divide Egyptologists, this study documents scholarship relating to the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho. Explored is Manetho's account of his country's history, which contained a wealth of information about ancient Egypt with chronological record of all Egyptian kings from the beginning of the first dynasty to the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. No copy of Manetho's original manuscript has been found. This book examines three ancient texts -- one from the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, another from the third-century Christian chronographer Africanus, and another from the fourth-century Christian historian Eusebius -- that claim to be based on Manetho's history. The ways in which these texts are frequently and substantially inconsistent and at odds with the known chronological record for ancient Egypt are detailed. Covering specific dynasties and providing more general overviews, this book documents the history of and the problems facing Egyptian chronological study.