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Know_files/FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS.pdf - D Ank Unlimited

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Graham Hancock – <strong>FINGERPRINTS</strong> <strong>OF</strong> <strong>THE</strong> <strong>GODS</strong><br />

establish that nine ‘dynasties’ of these pre-dynastic pharaohs were<br />

mentioned, among which were ‘the Venerables of Memphis’, ‘the<br />

Venerables of the North’ and, lastly, the Shemsu Hor (the Companions, or<br />

Followers, of Horus) who ruled until the time of Menes. The final two lines<br />

of the column, which seem to represent a summing up or inventory, are<br />

particularly provocative. They read; ‘... Venerables Shemsu-Hor, 13,420<br />

years; Reigns before the Shemsu-Hor, 23,200 years; Total 36,620 years’. 31<br />

The other king list that deals with prehistoric times is the Palermo<br />

Stone, which does not take us as far back into the past as the Turin<br />

Papyrus. The earliest of its surviving registers record the reigns of 120<br />

kings who ruled in upper and lower Egypt in the late pre-dynastic period:<br />

the centuries immediately prior to the country’s unification in 3100 BC. 32<br />

Once again, however, we really have no idea how much other information,<br />

perhaps relating to far earlier periods, might originally have been<br />

inscribed on this enigmatic slab of black basalt, because it, too, has not<br />

come down to us intact. Since 1887 the largest single part has been<br />

preserved in the Museum of Palermo in Sicily; a second piece is on<br />

display in Egypt in the Cairo Museum; and a third much smaller fragment<br />

is in the Petrie Collection at the University of London. 33 These are<br />

reckoned by archaeologists to have been broken out of the centre of a<br />

monolith which would originally have measured about seven feet long by<br />

two feet high (stood on its long side). 34 Furthermore, as one authority has<br />

observed:<br />

It is quite possible—even probable—that many more pieces of this invaluable<br />

monument remain, if we only knew where to look. As it is we are faced with the<br />

tantalising knowledge that a record of the name of every king of the Archaic<br />

Period existed, together with the number of years of his reign and the chief events<br />

which occurred during his occupation of the throne. And these events were<br />

compiled in the Fifth Dynasty, only about 700 years after the Unification, so that<br />

the margin of error would in all probability have been very small ...’ 35<br />

The late Professor Walter Emery, whose words these are, was naturally<br />

concerned about the absence of much-needed details concerning the<br />

Archaic Period, 3200 BC to 2900 BC, 36 the focus of his own specialist<br />

interests. We should also spare a thought, however, for what an intact<br />

31<br />

Ibid., p. 86. See also Egyptian Mysteries, p. 68.<br />

32<br />

Archaic Egypt, p. 5; Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, p. 200.<br />

33<br />

Archaic Egypt, p. 5; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1991, 9:81.<br />

34<br />

Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, p. 200.<br />

35<br />

Archaic Egypt, p. 5.<br />

36<br />

Egypt to the End of the Old Kingdom, p. 12.<br />

373

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