Page 375 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

establish that nine ‘dynasties’ of these pre-dynastic pharaohs were
mentioned, among which were ‘the Venerables of Memphis’, ‘the
Venerables of the North’ and, lastly, the Shemsu Hor (the Companions, or
Followers, of Horus) who ruled until the time of Menes. The final two lines
of the column, which seem to represent a summing up or inventory, are
particularly provocative. They read; ‘... Venerables Shemsu-Hor, 13,420
years; Reigns before the Shemsu-Hor, 23,200 years; Total 36,620 years’.
31
The other king list that deals with prehistoric times is the Palermo
Stone, which does not take us as far back into the past as the Turin
Papyrus. The earliest of its surviving registers record the reigns of 120
kings who ruled in upper and lower Egypt in the late pre-dynastic period:
the centuries immediately prior to the country’s unification in 3100 BC.
32
Once again, however, we really have no idea how much other information,
perhaps relating to far earlier periods, might originally have been
inscribed on this enigmatic slab of black basalt, because it, too, has not
come down to us intact. Since 1887 the largest single part has been
preserved in the Museum of Palermo in Sicily; a second piece is on
display in Egypt in the Cairo Museum; and a third much smaller fragment
is in the Petrie Collection at the University of London. These are
33
reckoned by archaeologists to have been broken out of the centre of a
monolith which would originally have measured about seven feet long by
two feet high (stood on its long side). Furthermore, as one authority has
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observed:
It is quite possible—even probable—that many more pieces of this invaluable
monument remain, if we only knew where to look. As it is we are faced with the
tantalising knowledge that a record of the name of every king of the Archaic
Period existed, together with the number of years of his reign and the chief events
which occurred during his occupation of the throne. And these events were
compiled in the Fifth Dynasty, only about 700 years after the Unification, so that
the margin of error would in all probability have been very small ...’
35
The late Professor Walter Emery, whose words these are, was naturally
concerned about the absence of much-needed details concerning the
Archaic Period, 3200 BC to 2900 BC, the focus of his own specialist
36
interests. We should also spare a thought, however, for what an intact

31 Ibid., p. 86. See also Egyptian Mysteries, p. 68.
32 Archaic Egypt, p. 5; Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, p. 200.
33 Archaic Egypt, p. 5; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1991, 9:81.
34 Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, p. 200.
Archaic Egypt, p. 5.
35
36 Egypt to the End of the Old Kingdom, p. 12.

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