Timeline of Egyptian history


 * See also:

Dynasties: 1st·2nd·3rd·4th·5th·6th··11th·12th··18th·19th·20th··26th·27th·28th·29th·30th·31st

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Scholarly consensus on the general outline of the conventional chronology current in Egyptology has not fluctuated much over the last 100 years. For the Old Kingdom, consensus fluctuates by as much as a few centuries, but for the Middle and New Kingdoms, it has been stable to within a few decades. This is illustrated by comparing the chronology as given by two Egyptologists, the first writing in 1906, the second in 2000 (all dates in the table are BC).

The disparities between the two sets of dates result from additional discoveries and refined understanding of the still very incomplete source evidence. For example, Breasted adds a ruler in the Twentieth dynasty that further research showed did not exist. Following, Breasted also believed all the dynasties were sequential, whereas it is now known that several existed at the same time. These revisions have resulted in a lowering of the conventional chronology by up to 400 years at the beginning of.

In addition, there are a number of "alternative chronologies" outside scholarly consensus, such as the "" proposed in the 1990s, which lowers New Kingdom dates by as much as 350 years, or the "" (proposed 1978–1982), which lowers New Kingdom dates by as much as 500 years.

First Dynasty
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Known rulers in the for the First Dynasty are as follows:

Second Dynasty
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For the first five pharaohs, sources are fairly close in agreement:

But the identity of the next two or three rulers is unclear. Surviving sources might be giving the or the  and the birth names of these rulers. They may also be entirely different individuals, or could be legendary names. This might never be resolved.

's list of rulers is at odds with those usually given by Egyptologists:

With the last ruler, the sources return to an agreement:

states was the capital, as in the First Dynasty. But the first three kings were buried at, suggesting the center of power had moved to. Beyond this, little can be said about the events during this period as the annual records on the only survive to the end of the reign of  and for parts of 's. One important event possibly happened during the reign of. Many Egyptologists read his name,, as "the Two Powers arise". This might commemorate the union of and.

Third Dynasty
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The s of the Third Dynasty ruled for approximately seventy-five years. The order of the kings is based on Wilkinson. The number of years as king, the regnal years, is based on Dodson and Hilton. They have the dynasty lasting only 64 years.

Fourth Dynasty
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Fourth Dynasty timeline

Fifth Dynasty
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Sixth Dynasty
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Seventh Dynasty
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Eighth Dynasty
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Ninth Dynasty
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Tenth Dynasty
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Eleventh Dynasty
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Twelfth Dynasty
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Thirteenth Dynasty
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In later texts, this dynasty is usually described as an era of chaos and disorder. However, the period may have been more peaceful than was once thought since the central government in near the  was sustained during most of the dynasty and the country remained relatively stable. The period was undoubtedly characterized by decline, with a large number of kings with short reigns and only a few attestations. It is clear that they were not from a single family line, and some of them were born commoners. Unfortunately, the true chronology of this dynasty is difficult to determine as there are few monuments dating from the period. Many of the kings' names are only known from odd fragmentary inscriptions or from. The names and order in the table are based on Dodson and Hilton and Ryholt.

Following these kings, the remaining rulers of the 13th Dynasty are only attested by finds from Upper Egypt. This may indicate the abandonment of the old capital in favor of. Daphna Ben Tor believes that this event was triggered by the invasion of the eastern Delta and the Memphite region by Canaanite rulers. For some authors, this marks the end of the Middle Kingdom and the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period. This analysis is rejected by Ryholt and Baker however, who note that the stele of, reigning toward the end of the dynasty, strongly suggests that he reigned over Memphis. Unfortunately, the stele is of unknown provenance.

The chronological position of a number of attested rulers could not be conclusively determined due to a lack of evidence:

Sobekhotep I and II
Ryholt posits a ruler named "Sobkhotep I Sekhemre Khutawy" as the first king of this dynasty. This is now the dominant hypothesis in Egyptology and Sobekhotep Sekhemre Khutawy is referred to as Sobekhotep I in this article. Ryholt thus credits Sekhemre Khutawy Sobkhotep I with a reign of 3 to 4 years c. 1800 BC and proposes that Khaankhre Sobekhotep II reigned c. 20 years later in 1780 BC. Dodson and Hilton similarly believe that Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep predated Khaankhre Sobekhotep.

Successors
After allowing discipline at the southern forts to deteriorate, the government eventually withdrew its garrisons and, not long afterward, the forts were reoccupied by the rising n state of. In the north, Lower Egypt was overrun by the, a Semitic people from across the Sinai. An independent line of kings created Dynasty XIV that arose in the western Delta during later Dynasty XIII. According to, into this unstable mix came invaders from the east called the who seized Egypt "without striking a blow; and having overpowered the rulers of the land, they then burned our cities ruthlessly, razed to the ground the temples of gods..." Their regime, called, was claimed to have replaced Dynasties XIII and XIV in most of the country.

However, recent archaeological finds at could indicate that the Hyksos 15th dynasty was already in existence at least by the mid-13th dynasty reign of king. In a recently published paper in Egypt and the Levant, Nadine Moeller, Gregory Marouard and N. Ayers discuss the discovery of an important early 12th dynasty Middle Kingdom administrative building in the eastern area of Upper Egypt which was in continual use into the early Second Intermediate Period until the 17th dynasty, when its remains were sealed up by a large silo court. Fieldwork by Egyptologists in 2010 and 2011 into the remains of the former 12th dynasty building which was also used in the 13th dynasty led to the discovery of a large adjoining hall which proved to contain 41 sealings showing the cartouche of the Hyksos ruler together with 9 sealings naming the 13th dynasty king Sobekhotep IV. The preserved contexts of these seals shows that Sobekhotep IV and Khyan were most likely contemporaries of one another. This could mean that the 13th dynasty did not control all of Egypt when Sobekhotep IV acceded to power, and that there was a significant overlap between the 13th and 15th dynasties since Sobekhotep IV was only a mid-13th dynasty ruler; although one of its most powerful kings. Therefore, Manetho's statement that the Hyksos 15th dynasty violently replaced the 13th dynasty could be a piece of later Egyptian propaganda. Rather, the 13th dynasty's authority must have been collapsing throughout Egypt in its final decades and the Hyksos state in the Delta region simply took over Memphis and ended the 13th dynasty's kingdom. However, this analysis and the conclusions drawn from it are rejected by Egyptologist Robert Porter, who argues that Khyan ruled much later than Sobekhotep IV (a gap of c. 100 years exists between the two in conventional chronologies) and that the seals of a pharaoh were used long after his death. Thus the seals of Sobekhotep IV might not indicate that he was a contemporary of Khyan.

was the last Egyptian ruler of the 13th Dynasty who is attested by objects in both Lower and Upper Egypt. Henceforth, his successors, from on, are only attested in Upper Egypt.

Fourteenth Dynasty
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The order of rulers for this dynasty is established by the Turin canon and is widely accepted, except for the first five rulers, which are given below after Ryholt. The names of these rulers is not given on the Turin canon, except possibly for one, and Ryholt proposes that they were mentioned as wsf in the list, which denotes a lacuna in the original document from which the list was copied in the. Rather, Ryholt identifies the first five kings thanks to a of their seals. His conclusions are debated however in Ben Tor's study of the strata levels in which seals attributed to the first five kings have been found. Ben Tor concludes that 's, 's and 's reigns date to the second half of the Hyksos 15th dynasty and are not contemporary with the 13th dynasty. Thus according to Ben Tor, these kings were most likely minor vassal rulers of the Hyksos kings reigning in the Nile Delta.

The following rulers are not controversial, being established by the Turin canon as well as, for a few of them, by contemporary sources:

Finally, several rulers attested by contemporary artefacts and otherwise unknown from the Turin canon may be dated to the 14th or 15th dynasty. Their identities and chronological position remain unclear:

Fifteenth Dynasty
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The 15th Dynasty of was the first  dynasty, ruled from, without control of the entire land.

Sixteenth Dynasty
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Ryholt gives the list of kings of the 16th dynasty as shown in the table below. Others, such as Helck, Vandersleyen, Bennett combine some of these rulers with the. The list of rulers is given here as per and is supposedly in chronological order:

Additional kings are classified as belonging to this dynasty per Kim Ryholt but their chronological position is uncertain. They may corresponds to the last five lost kings on the Turin canon:

Seventeenth Dynasty
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Finally, king may have been a ruler of the early 17th dynasty.

Eighteenth Dynasty
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The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the, the era in which achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty spanned the period from 1549/1550 to 1292 BC. This dynasty is also known as the Thutmosid Dynasty for the four pharaohs named.

Nineteenth Dynasty
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Twentieth Dynasty
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Twenty-first Dynasty
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Twenty-second Dynasty
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Twenty-third Dynasty
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Twenty-fourth Dynasty
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Twenty-fifth Dynasty
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Twenty-sixth Dynasty
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Twenty-seventh Dynasty
From Rulers with gray background were native Egyptian pharaohs whom rebelled against the Achaemenid rule.

Twenty-eighth Dynasty
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Twenty-ninth Dynasty
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Thirtieth Dynasty
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Thirty-first Dynasty
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