First published 2000
Egypt's earliest pharaohs built a civilization that produced the pyramids, but their individual reigns remained shadowy until archaeologists discovered fragments of ancient stone inscriptions. These royal annals record the first five dynasties ruler by ruler, year by year. The surviving seven pieces now sit in museums across Palermo, Cairo, and London. Scholars have studied these fragments for over a century, translating and debating their contents to understand Egypt's formative period. Wilkinson presents every fragment together for the first time. He provides the complete texts alongside detailed line drawings of each inscribed stone. The book fills a surprising gap in Egyptology by making all the annals available in one volume. These documents offer the most direct window into how Egypt's early kings ruled and what they accomplished during their reigns.
Genres: history, archaeology, non-fiction, ancient-history
Vibes: academic, informative, thought-provoking
Tropes: academic-research, historical-discovery
Setting: Egypt, Palermo, Cairo, London
Period: Ancient
320 pages · Hardcover · Kegan Paul