Once Again on the Time-Reckoning After Menophris (A History of a Scholarly Problem and a Search of Its Solution)

The article deals with an important problem of the international and Russian Egyptology, i.e. with the interpretation of a statement by the Alexandrian scientist of the 4th–5th centuries A.D. Theon on an era “after Menophris” (ἀπὸ Μενόφρεως), allegedly started at the beginning of the “Sothic period” in 1322/1321 B.C. The first part of the article analyses the polemic on the identification of the name *Μενόφρις with a specific Ancient Egyptian royal name, with special attention paid to the interpretations by the Russian Soviet Egyptologists V.V. Struve and O.D. Berlev. The former one proposed in the 1920s was largely based on earlier European scholarship and contained a number of errors, which remained unnoticed due to a decline of the scholarly criticism at the time. On the contrary, Berlev’s view (1999) was totally original and in fact trail-blazing for the ultimate solution of the problem. The second part of the article proposes a development of Berlev’s hypothesis. The epithet “Memphite” (*Mn-nfry) that backed the name *Μενόφρις and was originally applied to Zoser, the inaugurator of the “Sothic calendar”, could be transferred on an image of a great king that reigned in Egypt after the catastrophe of the Amarna time. This king could be considered the founder of the “Memphite time” in Egyptian history, the creator of the “Sothic calendar” and respectively the contemporary of the start of a “Sothic period” (Theon’s “Menophris’ era”).

Keywords

Egypt, time-reckoning, Theon, Menophris, Dynasty XIX, Memphis, history-writing, Manetho, Egyptology, V.V. Struve, O.D. Berlev

Received

19.09.2019

Publication date

24.09.2019

Number of characters

59815

Cite

GOST	Ladynin I. Once Again on the Time-Reckoning “After Menophris” (A History of a Scholarly Problem and a Search of Its Solution) // Vestnik drevnei istorii – 2019. – V. 79. – Issue 2 C. 245-265 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/vdi/s032103910005032-8-1-en (circulation date: 26.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S032103910005032-8
MLA	Ladynin, Ivan "Once Again on the Time-Reckoning “After Menophris” (A History of a Scholarly Problem and a Search of Its Solution)." Vestnik drevnei istorii 79.2 (2019):245-265. DOI: 10.31857/S032103910005032-8
APA	Ladynin I. (2019). Once Again on the Time-Reckoning “After Menophris” (A History of a Scholarly Problem and a Search of Its Solution). Vestnik drevnei istorii 79(2), pp.245-265 DOI: 10.31857/S032103910005032-8

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