[MUSIC] Let's start with history and chronology. The names of several of the pharaohs who ruled Ancient Egypt may be familiar to you today, such as Khufu, whose Great Pyramid is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that is still standing. You may also have heard about the boy King Tutankhamun. His vast treasure was discovered just under 100 years ago in a tiny tomb in the Valley of the Kings. You may also know the name Ramses. It appears in the Bible. These are only three of the more than 175 kings known today, who governed the country during its long span of approximately 3400 years, and who fit into a chronological framework with specific divisions and subdivisions. In modern times, historians have partitioned this long, recorded history into several groupings. And the most well known one today consists of three parts. The Old Kingdom, from about 2625 to 2130 BCE. The Middle Kingdom, from about 1980 to 1630 BCE, and the New Kingdom from about 1539 to 1075 BCE. But the concept of such an assemblage, however, existed much earlier in ancient texts. And we can see just such an example in an inscription on the walls of the Ramiseum. This building was the funerary temple of the New Kingdom Pharoah, Ramses II, and this dates to the 13th Century BCE. These three divisions that I just mentioned do not cover all of Egypt's long history. And there are several additional periods. For example, those that occurred immediately before the Egyptian state came into being. Some researchers refer to a predynastic and a protodynastic period. And the latter can include a dynasty zero. What follows is an early dynastic period. And that comprises the first two dynasties. And in addition to these, Egypt had times of sustained internal volatility that we call intermediate periods. And these took place in between each of the three major kingdoms. A first intermediate period occurs after the Old Kingdom. A second intermediate period after the Middle Kingdom. And a third intermediate period after the New Kingdom. There was also a link period that follows. And during some of these times, the country lost control of some of its territory. And then, often, regained it. Eventually, Egypt entered its twilight. In it's final years, a series of foreign lands took over the entire country. In 332 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered it. And then just under 300 years later around 47 BCE, Julius Caesar took control of Egypt, and subsequently named Cleopatra its ruler. In reality, however, Rome was in charge. After his death in 40 BCE, Cleopatra eventually allied herself with Marc Antony, another Roman but their forces succumbed to Caesar's successor Augustus. And he led the Romans to victory over Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. Once Augustus conquered Egypt, he annexed it to the Roman Empire, and then he controlled the greatest empire of the east and the west. A significant number of individuals sat on the throne of Egypt during its long span of time. Their names appear in ancient Egyptian texts, as well as on monuments of varying sizes, shapes and material. Such inscriptions appear on statuary relief, architecture, jewelry, scarabs, vessels and other items. Many of which you can see in the museum. Sometimes they even specify a year or more of the King's reign. In addition, the Egyptians were keenly aware of their own history and they kept records on stone and papyri that periodically listed, and sometimes updated, the rulers of the past. Examples include an early royal canon fragment and then the Palermo Stone. There are later compilations that include the Abydos King List, which was composed during the reign of Ramses II. I've already mentioned that the walls of the Rameseum recorded names of pharaohs. But almost as important, it signaled out three Kings Memes, Nebhepetre Mentuhotep and Ahmose. We now recognize that these three rulers in this order were understood in ancient times to be the kings who began each of the three major divisions that we now call the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. One other important source for royal names in a specific order was the Turin King List. It was written in ink on papyrus and it probably dates from the time of Ramses II.