Introduction

As far as the chronology of ancient Egypt is concerned, there are many different sources, but three that provide very different perspectives on the way in which the dating system has been constructed from an elaborate combination of astronomical observations, king-lists, and genealogies are Richard Parker, The Calendars of Ancient Egypt (Chicago, 1950); Kenneth Kitchen, ‘The Chronology of Ancient Egypt’, WA 23 (1991), 201-8, and Donald Redford, Pharaonic King-Lists, Annals and Day-Books: A Contribution to the Egyptian Sense of History (Mississauga, 1986). Eor the idea of the study of cultural and social change during various periods, as opposed to conventional political history, see David O’Connor, ‘Political Systems and Archaeological Data in Egypt: 2600-1780 bc’, WA 6 (1974), 15-38; Stephan Seidlmayer, ‘Wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Entwicklung im Ubergang von alten zum mittleren Reich’, in J. Assmann and W. V. Davies (eds.). Problems and Priorities in Egyptian Archaeology (London,

1987), 175-217; Barry Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (London, 1989); Kathryn Bard, ‘Toward an Interpretation of the Role of Ideology in the Evolution of Complex Society in Egypt’, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, ii (1992), 1-24, and Robert Wenke, ‘Anthropology, Egyptology and the Concept of Cultural Change’, in J. Lustig (ed.). Anthropology and Egyptology (Sheffield, 1997), 117-36.

For Manetho, see Manetho, Aegyptiaca, ed. and trans. W. G. Wadell (London, 1940); for the Royal Turin Canon, see Alan Gardiner, The Royal Canon of Turin (Oxford, 1959), and Jaromir Malek, ‘The Original Version of the Royal Canon ofTurin’,/EA 68 (1982), 93-106; and, for the Palermo Stone, see Heinrich Schafer, Ein Bruchstiick altdgyptischer Annalen (Berlin, 1902), and Georges Daressy, ‘La Pierre de Palerme et la chronologic de I’ancien empire’, BIEAO12 (1916), 161-214.

The complex question of the links between Sothic heliacal risings and Egyptian chronology is discussed in numerous books and articles, including the following: Parker, ‘Sothic Dates and Calendar “Adjustment”’, RdE 9 (1952), 101-8; Jacques Vandier, Manuel d'archeologie egyptienne, I (Paris, 1952), 842-3; Jaroslav Cerny, ‘Note on the Supposed Beginning of a Sothic Period under Sethos F, JEA 47 (1961), 150-2; M. F. Ingham, ‘The Length of the Sothic Cycle’, JEA 55 (1969), 36-40; Laszlo Kakosy, ‘Die

Mannweibliche Natur des Sirius in Agypten’, Studia Aegyptiaca, 2 (Budapest, 1976), 41-6; G. Clerc, ‘Isi-Sothis dans le monde romain’, Hommages d Maarten J. Vermaseren (Leiden, 1978), 247-81: Christiane Desroche-Noblecourt, ‘Isis Sothis—le chien, la vigne—et la tradition millenaire’, Livre du Centenaire, IF AO i88o-ig8o (Cairo, 1980), 15-24, and Rolf Krauss, Sothis - und Mondaten: Studien zur astronomischen and technischen Chronologic Altdgyptens (Hildesheim, 1985).

For Flinders Petrie’s system of seriation for the Predynastic, see his own expositions of the technique: ‘Sequences in prehistoric remains’,JAl, ns 29 (1899), 295-301, and Diospolis Parva (London, 1901), but, for more recent approaches, see D. G. Kendall: ‘A Statistical Approach to Flinders Petrie’s Sequence-Dating’, Bulletin of the International Statistics Institute, 40 (1963), 657-80: Barry Kemp, ‘Automatic Analysis of Predynastic Cemeteries: A New Method for an Old Problem’,y?A 68 (1982), 5-15, and Toby Wilkinson, State Formation in Ancient Egypt: Chronology and Society (Oxford, 1996).

’The ongoing debate concerning co-regencies can be explored by consulting W. Kelly Simpson, ‘Studies in the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty: I-IF, JARCE 2 (1963), 53-63: William Murnane, Ancient Egyptian Coregencies (Chicago, 1977), and David Lorton, ‘Terms of Coregency in the Middle Kingdom’, VA2 (1986), 113-20.

A number of problems relating to the social and political history of Egypt (many relating to the nature of the ‘intermediate periods’) are discussed in the following: Barbara Bell, ‘The Dark Ages in Ancient History: I. ’The First Dark Age in Egypt’, AJA 75 (1971), 1-26, and ‘Climate and the History of Egypt: the Middle Kingdom’, AJA 79 (1975), 223-69: Kenneth Kitchen, ‘TTie Basics of Egyptian Chronology in Relation to the Bronze Age’, in Paul Astrom (ed.). High, Middle or Low: Acts of an International Colloquium in Absolute Chronology Held at the University of Gothenburg 20-22 August 19S7 (Gothenburg, 1987), 37-55; P. James et al.. Centuries of Darkness: A Challenge to the Conventional Chronology of Old World Archaeology (London, 1991); Manfred Bietak (ed.), Agypten und Levante III: Acts of the Second International Colloquium on Absolute Chronology (Vienna, 1992); William Ward, ‘The Present Status of Egyptian Chronology’, BASOR 288 (1992), 53-66, and Leo Depuydt, ‘On the Consistency of the Wandering Year as Backbone of Egyptian Chronology’,/ARCE 32 (1995), 43-58.