Читать книгу The dawn of astronomy. A study of the temple-worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians онлайн

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But we already know that probably some of these monuments are nearly 6,000 years old. This has been determined by the convergence of many lines of evidence.

TABLET OF KINGS AT ABYDOS.

One of the many points already profoundly investigated by Egyptologists has been the chronology of the kings of Egypt from their first monarch, whom all students recognise as Mena or Menes. All these inquirers have come to the definite conclusion that there was a King Mena, and that he reigned a long time ago; but with all their skill the final result is that they cannot agree to the date of this king within a thousand years; one reason among many others being that in these early days astronomy was a science still to be cultivated, and therefore the early Egyptians had not a perfect mode of recording; perhaps even they had no idea of a hundred years as we have. We are told that all their reckonings were the reckonings of the reigns of kings. This is difficult to believe, and the statement may be a measure of our ignorance of their method of record. We now, fortunately for us, have a calendar which enables us to deal with large intervals of time, but still we sometimes reckon, in Egyptian fashion, by the reigns of kings in our Acts of Parliament. Furthermore, Egypt being then a country liable to devastating wars, and to the temporary supremacy of different kingly tribes, it has been very difficult to disentangle the various lists of kings so as to obtain one chronological line, for the reasons that sometimes there were different kings reigning at the same time in different regions. The latest date for King Mena is, according to Bunsen, 3600 years B.C.; the earliest date, assigned by Boeckh, 5702 years B.C.; Unger, Brugsch, and Lepsius give, respectively, 5613, 4455, 3892. For our purpose we will call the date 4000 B.C.—that is 6,000 years ago—and for the present consider this as the start-point for the long series of remains of various orders to which reference has been made, and from which alone information can be obtained.