The Turin King List

The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is an ancient Egyptian hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II. It is the most extensive list of kings compiled by the ancient Egyptians and serves as a primary source for chronology before the reign of Ramesses II.

The papyrus lists the names of rulers, along with the lengths of their reigns in years, months, and days for some kings. 
It groups rulers together by family, which corresponds roughly to the dynasties identified by Manetho, another historian of ancient Egypt. 
The list includes ephemeral rulers and those ruling small territories who may be absent from other sources.
The papyrus also contains mythical kings such as gods, demi-gods, and spirits. 
Notably, it includes rulers from the Hyksos Dynasty, foreign rulers of Lower Egypt, although typically not included in king lists.

The papyrus is currently in fragments, with approximately 50% missing. 
 It is 1.7 meters long and 0.41 meters wide, broken into over 160 fragments.
In 1997, Egyptologist Kim Ryholt published a new and improved interpretation of the list, and a further update is expected.
Despite reconstruction efforts, the absolute reliability of the document for pre-Ramesses II chronology is debated due to discrepancies with other sources.

The papyrus is divided into eleven columns, with the names and positions of several kings still being disputed due to the damage. 

The first two columns list gods, spirits, and mythical kings.
Columns 3-11 list human kings, likely starting from Dynasty 1 and continuing through Dynasty 19/20. 
A twelfth column containing Dynasties 18-19/20 is believed to have existed but is now missing.
The report includes a table representing rows from the original papyrus, translated into hieroglyphs. 
This table provides the name, transliteration, and corresponding hieroglyphs for each king listed.

The Turin King List remains a valuable resource for understanding ancient Egyptian history, despite its fragmentary state and ongoing debate regarding its accuracy. The ongoing efforts to reconstruct and interpret the list will likely continue to shed light on the chronology and rulers of this fascinating civilization.

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