The Saqqara Tablet, now in the Egyptian Museum, is an ancient stone engraving surviving from the Ramesside Period of Egypt which features a list of

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until th ...

s. It was found in 1861 in

Saqqara Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memph ...

, in the tomb of

Tjuneroy Tjuneroy (also Tjenry) was an Ancient Egyptian official under king Ramses II in the 19th Dynasty. Tjuneroy is mainly known from objects found in his tomb at Saqqara. He came from an influential family. His father Paser (I) was royal scribe and w ...

(or Tjenry), an official ("chief lector priest" and "Overseer of Works on All Royal Monuments") of the pharaoh

Ramesses II Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded a ...

. The inscription lists fifty-eight kings, from

Anedjib Anedjib, more correctly Adjib and also known as Hor-Anedjib, Hor-Adjib and Enezib, is the Horus name of an early Egyptian king who ruled during the 1st Dynasty. The Egyptian historian Manetho named him "Miebîdós" and credited him with a reign ...

and

Qa'a Qa'a (also Qáa or Ka'a) (literal meaning: "his arm is raised") was the last king of the First Dynasty of Egypt. He reigned for 33 years at the end of the 30th century BC. Identity Manetho calls Qa'a Biénechês and gives him a reign of 26 ...

( First Dynasty) to Ramesses II ( Nineteenth Dynasty), in reverse chronological order, omitting "rulers from the Second Intermediate Period, the

Hyksos Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC). T ...

, and those rulers... who had been close to the heretic

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth D ...

". The names (each surrounded by a border known as a

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...

), of which only forty-seven survive, are badly damaged. As with other Egyptian king lists, the Saqqara Tablet omits certain kings and entire dynasties. The list counts backward from Ramesses II to the mid-point of the First Dynasty, except for the Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties, which are reversed. A well known photograph of the king list was published in 1865. Detailed and high resolution images are able to be viewed online and inside the book ''Inside the Egyptian Museum with Zahi Hawass'' SaqqaraKingList

Kings in the list

The names are listed in reverse chronological order from the upper right to the bottom left, as they were meant to be read.

Other New Kingdom royal lists

* Abydos king list * Karnak king list * Turin King List * Medinet Habu king list

References

{{reflist

Bibliography

* Auguste Mariette: ''La table de Saqqarah'' in ''Revue Archeologique Vol 10'', Paris 1864, p. 168-186, Pl. 17 * Emmanuel de Rougé: ''Album photographique de la mission remplie en Égypte'', Paris 1865, Photographs, No. 143-145 * Auguste Mariette: ''Monuments divers recueillis en Égypte et en Nubie (Tables)'', Paris 1872, Vol. II, Pl. 58 * Eduard Meyer: ''Ägyptische Chronologie'', Pl. 1, (Berlin 1904) 13th-century BC works 1861 archaeological discoveries Ancient Egyptian King lists Egyptian Museum