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Timeline of Ancient Egypt - Dynasties and Kingdoms in Ancient Egypt

From N.S. Gill,
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Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt and Intermediate Period Pharaohs

Following an introduction and explanation of Egyptian kingdoms and dynasties, you'll find the dates and names of the basic periods of ancient Egyptian history. Names and dates of individual kings follow, on pages 2 and 3.

Introduction to the Timeline of Egyptian Pharaohs

In the 3rd century B.C., an Egyptian priest named Manetho listed 30 royal dynastic houses of ancient Egypt. Manetho's work is gone, but a summary (epitome) of it survives, taken from versions of Manetho's chronology that were written in the 3rd-8th centuries A.D. Unfortunately, there are gaps in the chronology and the lengths of many of the pharaohs' reigns are unknown. For the pharaohs of the 2nd millennium B.C. forward, other techniques and artifacts help date the pharaohs; the techniques are more limited for the earlier pharaohs, so their dates are more speculative.

Sources

Dates for the first dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs come from
"Radiocarbon Chronology of Archaic Egypt," by Fekri A. Hassan. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 39, No. 3. (Jul., 1980), pp. 203-207.

Dates for the dynasties, in general, come from
"The Chronology of Ancient Egypt," by K.A. Kitchen. Archaeology, Vol. 23, No. 2. (Oct., 1991), pp. 201-208.

Major epochal events come from BBC History Online.

Major Divisions of Ancient Egyptian History

  • Late Predynastic Period
    3100-2950 B.C.
    First hieroglyphs
  • Early Dynastic
    2950-2575
    Step pyramid built at Saqqara
  • Old Kingdom
    2575-2150
    Great Pyramid at Giza
  • First Intermediate Period
    2125-1975 (alternately: 2160-2055)
    Memphis rules Egypt in the north and Thebes in the south
  • Middle Kingdom
    2055 or 1975-1640
    Egypt reunited and conquers Lower Nubia.
  • Second Intermediate Period
    1630-1520
    The Hyksos
  • New Kingdom
    1539-1075
    Empire in the Near East, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamen and Ramessid Period
  • Third Intermediate Period
    1075-715
    Nubians conquer Egypt
  • Late Period
    715-332
    Assyrians, Persians conquer Egypt
  • Ptolemaic
    332-30
    Greeks conquer Egypt, Rosetta Stone, Cleopatra
  • Roman
    30 B.C.- A.D. 395
  • Byzantine

Next Page: 2 - Predynastic, Old, and Middle Kingdoms | 3 - New Kingdom and Beyond

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