Palermo stone
Palermo stone,
ancient Egyptian stone of black diorite engraved toward the end of the 5th dynasty (2565–2420 B.C.) and containing the earliest extant annals. The stone is only a small fragment of what was once a large slab. It is a hieroglyphic list of the kings of ancient Egypt before and after MenesMenes, fl. 3200 B.C., king of ancient Egypt, of the first dynasty, the first Egyptian ruler for whom there are historical records. According to tradition, he seems to have united the southern and northern kingdoms and to have settled on a new capital, later known as Memphis.
..... Click the link for more information. , with regnal years and notations of events, and also includes such information as the height of the flooding of the Nile in various years. The stone was so named because it is housed in a museum in Palermo, Italy; small pieces of the stone are also in Cairo and in London.
Palermo Stone
a fragment (43.5 X 25 cm) of a diorite slab inscribed with the text of ancient Egyptian annals. Since 1877 it has been in the Museum of Palermo (Italy). The entire slab was, apparently, greater than 2 m wide and more than 60 cm long. Several unimportant fragments of this slab are in museums in Cairo and London.
The text was inscribed during the Fifth Dynasty (Old Kingdom, 25th century B.C.) and covers a period of six or seven centuries, beginning with the predynastic period; evidently, it was compiled from documents. The Palermo Stone represents a most important source for the chronology of ancient Egypt and contains valuable data on the economic, military, and religious policies of the pharaohs.
PUBLICATIONS
Schäfer, H. Ein Bruchstück altägyptischer Annalen. Berlin, 1902.In Russian translation:
In Khrestomatiia po istorii Drevnego Vostoka. Moscow, 1963. Pages 14–26.