The Palermo Stone (2400s BC) is a piece of black rock in a museum in Palermo, Sicily. On it is carved in hieroglyphics the oldest known history in the world. It lists the early kings of Egypt and what took place in each year of their rule. Not counting the mythological part, it covers the first four and a half dynasties of Egypt, roughly the years -3100 to at least -2471.
Unfortunately:
- we have only about 10% of it;
- not all of what we have is readable;
- historical events are not tied to astronomical ones, so the actual calendar year is a matter of guesswork;
- Ancient Egyptians’s idea of what counts as an important historical event is not the same as that of Western historians.
It goes on and on about what the king did for this or that god at this or that temple, but says little about the building of the pyramids. For Western historians that is frustrating. But for Egyptians, the king was the go-between between gods and humans – so what he did or did not do for the gods was of cosmic importance. As much as the level of the Nile – also recorded.
Excerpt for the year -2601 (give or take) in the time of Sneferu:
Construction of a ship of meru wood [of a type or name] “adoring the Two Lands,” of 100 cubits [52.4 metres] and of 60 royal boats of the “sixteen” type.
Hacking up the Nubians, bringing back 7,000 captives and 200,000 cattle and herds.
Construction of the “mansions of Sneferu” in Upper and Lower Egypt.
Bringing 40 ships full of cedar/pine wood.
[Nile height] 2 cubits, 2 fingers [1.09 metres above baseline].
The height of the Nile was an extremely important fact. If it was too low, it could cause famine. If it was too high, it could lead to vast destruction. Levels in between gave the government a good idea of what to expect in taxes – the higher the Nile, the more land that could be irrigated and farmed.
From the last year of Sahura, -2475 (give or take):
What was brought from:
- The Terraces of Turquoise [Sinai?]: 6,000 pieces of copper (?)
- Punt [Somalia?]: 80,000 measures of myrrh, 6,000 pieces of electrum, 2,900 pieces of malachite, 23,020 measures of unguent.
Which gives you an idea of Egypt’s trade/plunder of the time. It was not all just religious events. Smiting of foreigners was another popular activity.
King lists: One of the most valuable pieces of information on the Palermo stone is its naming of kings and the order in which they ruled. There are some other king lists, none of them complete or entirely accurate or consistent with each other. But from them Western scholars try to reconstruct the true king list, as much as that is possible thousands of years later. And that list in turn becomes their framework for Ancient Egyptian history. Because Egyptian dating was not in terms of a fixed year, like the birth of Christ (AD) or the flight of Muhammad (AH), but in terms of kings, as in the Bible: in the fifth year of King Darius and so on.
– Abagond, +2023 AD.
See also:
- century readings – this is my reading for the -2400s
- Egypt: a brief history
- AD (Anno Domini)
- Nubia
- myrrh
545
Abagond 
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