The Palermo Stone or the "Old Kingdom Annals" (the text) is a fragment of an ancient Egyptian stela of black basalt that was engraved toward the end of the fifth dynasty during the twenty-fifth century B.C. It is probably the earliest known Egyptian historical text. The stela was much larger, but has broken into a number of fragments and many portions are missing. This is the largest portion that has been found.

It details the reigns of the first Egyptian kings through the middle of the fifth dynasty. Manetho may have used it to construct his dynastic chronology in the third century B.C. He was Egyptian and his topics dealt with Egyptian matters, but he wrote in Greek for the Ptolemaic period.

Unfortunately, most of the information on the stone concerning the first and second dynasties has not survived.

Archaeological history

This largest fragment has been in Palermo since 1866, although it was discovered by a visiting French archaeologist in 1895 and first published, by Heinrich Schäfer, in 1902. It is currently in the collection of the Palermo Archaeological Museum in Sicily.^[1] There are further sizeable pieces in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, one discovered in 1910, another purchased on the market as recently as 1963, and in the museum of University College London that was given by Sir Flinders Petrie.

The original engraved stela must have been about 2.2 m long, 0.61 m wide and 6.5 cm thick, but most of it now is missing. There is no surviving information about its provenance, although a further fragment was excavated at Memphis.^[2]

Significance

The stela is a hieroglyphic list-(formatted as a table, or outline)—of the kings of ancient Egypt before and after Menes, with regnal years, and notations of events up until its carving in the fifth dynasty. It also tabulates such information as the height of the flooding Nile, the Inundation for some kings (see nilometer), information on the festivals-(such as sed festivals), taxation, sculpture, buildings, and warfare.

Many king lists that exist from later dates, such as the Turin Canon (13th century BC) and the Karnak List of Kings, identify Menes (c. 3100 or 3000) as the first king of the first Dynasty and credit him with unifying Egypt. However, the Palermo Stone, which is substantially older, lists rulers who predate Menes. It seems to indicate that the unification of Egypt occurred earlier than Menes' rule and that he simply reunited the nation after a period of fragmentation. The works of Manatho indicate that he used the information contained on this stone as a source for his history of Egypt prior to his time. Scholars are divided on how to interpret the implications of the stone. Some believe the earlier kings existed historically, while others believe that their inclusion in the king list has only ideological value (i.e., there must have been disorder before order).

Translations and Monographs

• A partial and dated English translation of this text can be found in J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. I sections 76-167.
• A picture of the so-called annals fragment of the stele that the Palermo stone belonged to, with translations of the hieroglyphs.
• A description of Toby A. H. Wilkinson's study that combines for the first time all seven of the fragments.
• A reconstruction of the Palermo Stone and its assorted fragments J.D. Degreef

Further reading

• St. John, Michael, 2003. The Palermo Stone : An Arithmetical View (London:University Museum London).
• Wilkinson, Tony A. H., 2000. Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt, (New York: Columbia University Press). [ISBN 0-7103-0667-9]

See also

• List of pharaohs

External links

• The Palermo Stone
• Extract of a lecture given by T.A.H. Wilkinson, University College London2000

Notes

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