Resources for learning: King Lists and more by Peter Lundström


Section of King List in the British Museum 2016

Here is an example of another great online learning resource for fans of Egyptology.

Check out this great collection of information compiled by Peter Lundström complete with bibliographies of both online resources and traditional media that would be of value to people with a passion for ancient Egypt, students and scholars alike.

Names of the Pharaohs

The names of the pharaohs still live on, despite that the first pharaohs ruled some 5000 years ago. Their names were inscribed with hieroglyphs on the massive monuments they created, yet their commonly used names today has an origin in the ancient Greek transcription.


The site contains a wealth of fascinating information including timelines, introductory hieroglyphs and more.

A good place to start exploring the site is at the sections on the King Lists. There are various versions of the King Lists, created at different times in Egypt's History. These lists often reflect different agendas and different contexts which can lead you into fascinating aspects of research.

For beginners wanting to get a start on learning hieroglyphs there are lots of great resources which I won't discuss here, but Lundström's site can definitely help further your understanding of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs via the thoroughly researched King Lists he has published on his website.

Learning the names of kings is a great way to start gaining a familiarity with hieroglyphs. King's names appear often in scenes on temples, statues and other objects that belong directly to the ruler, but were also used by their subjects to anchor them to the reign of the ruler, and enhance status by 'proving' a relationship with that semi-divine individual.

As a result, these hieroglyphic names appear frequently, and you will see them often when browsing images online or looking at books on the subject. Once you start to gain a familiarity with the names that appear in two cartouches: a ruler's birth name and throne name of some of the most well known rulers you will start to see these names for yourself. Once you get a handle on that, you can even start to understand the chronology of objects via the names that appear on them, that's how I started out with Egyptology as a young person. As an artist I was most taken by the wonderful artwork of Egypt, which led of course to a fascination with pictorial script. A further fascination with languages and history, and I was well and truly 'hooked'!

There's lots to explore on this beautifully designed site beyond King Lists, I know I will be using it for my studies, with citations of course!


Comments