Saqqara Tablet

The Saqqara Tablet, now in the Egyptian Museum, is an ancient stone engraving surviving from the Ramesside Period of Egypt which features a list of pharaohs. It was found in 1861 in Saqqara, in the tomb of Tjuneroy (or Tjenry), an official ("chief lector priest" and "Overseer of Works on All Royal Monuments") of the pharaoh Ramesses II.^[1]

The inscription lists fifty-eight kings, from Anedjib (First Dynasty) to Ramesses II (Nineteenth Dynasty), in reverse chronological order. The names (each surrounded by a border known as a cartouche), of which only forty-seven survive, are badly damaged. As with other Egyptian king lists, the Saqqara Tablet omits certain kings and entire dynasties. The list counts backward from Ramesses II to the mid-point of the First Dynasty, except for the Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties, which are reversed. A well known photograph of the king list was published in 1865.^[2] Detailed and high resolution images are able to be viewed online and inside the book Inside the Egyptian Museum with Zahi Hawass ^[3]

Like with other Ramesside lists, the Saqqara Tablet omits the names of "rulers from the Second Intermediate Period, the Hyksos, and those rulers... who had been close to the heretic Akhenaten".^[4] Despite being nearly a slimmed down copy of the Abydos King List, the Saqqara Tablet has some notable changes. For example, both Huni and Sobekneferu are listed in the Saqqara Tablet, despite both being absent in the Abydos King List. Likewise, the early rulers of the First Dynasty (Menes/Narmer, Hor-Aha, Djer, Djet, and Den) are excluded from the Saqqara Tablet for some unknown reason, despite being present in the Abydos King List.