Life was often chaotic in
ancient Egypt, and many times it was overrun by armies from other
lands. Its history was often sketchy,
too, and exact dates when a ruler reigned or even when events
happened are not always known...precisely.
Pick up five different books
on ancient Egypt and you may find five different dates for the
reigns of early pharaohs. In fact, dates up to 663 B.C. are only
approximate and based on the best guesses of many different
researchers.
Dates provided by three
different books are reported below to give you a sense of the
variation possible. (Dates in Column 1
were taken from Ikram and Dodson's The
Mummy in Ancient Egypt; dates in Column 2 were taken
from Silverman's Ancient
Egypt; and dates in Column 3 were taken from
Clayton's Chronicle
of the Pharaohs.)
Here are the main time periods
(and dynasties) in ancient Egyptian history:
