Similar Karnak king list, Narmer Palette, Great Sphinx of Giza | ||
The Saqqara Tablet, now in the Egyptian Museum, is an ancient stone engraving which features a list of Egyptian pharaohs surviving from the Ramesside Period. It was found during 1861 in Egypt in Saqqara, in the tomb of Tjenry (or Tjuneroy), an official ("chief lector priest" and "Overseer of Works on All Royal Monuments") of the pharaoh Ramesses II.
Contents
The inscription lists 58 kings, from Anedjib and Qa'a (Dynasty 1) to Ramesses II (Dynasty 19), in reverse chronological order, omitting "rulers from the Second Intermediate Period, the Hyksos, and those rulers... who had been close to the heretic Akhenaten".
The names (each surrounded by a border known as a cartouche), of which only 47 survive, are badly damaged. Inaccuracies abound, e.g., the tablet mentions only four kings of Dynasty 3. The chronology is correct only for the kings of Dynasty 12. The only known photograph of the king list was published in 1865.
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.