Читать книгу A History of Ancient Egypt - Marc Van De Mieroop - Страница 49

Festivals of this type were considered to be so important that they were recorded in what we call royal annals. From the 1st dynasty on, the Egyptians designated years by identifying a special accomplishment that had happened, using very terse language, such as “Halting at Herakleopolis and the lake of the temple of Herishef.” This had a purely practical side: administrators attached labels inscribed with such designations to goods to make clear the date of their delivery. But the labels also intimate to us what the Egyptians considered to be important royal acts. The authors of the now fragmentary Palermo Stone collected these data to provide a record of the first three dynasties. The events commemorated included cultic acts, such as the creation of a temple or a divine statue and visits to shrines in various towns. Very common was a biennial “following of Horus,” probably a royal tour through the country to interact with the population and judge disputes. Military campaigns, so common in the depictions of the late Predynastic period, are rarely mentioned.