A list of Egyptian kings is known under this name, ranging from the dynasties of the gods to the 16th dynasty. The ancient Egyptian papyrus, 170 cm long, is written in hieratic script.
The papyrus was acquired in Luxor in 1820 by the Italian antiquities hunter Bernardino Drovetti, who was formerly the French Consul General in Egypt. In 1824 he sold it to the Egyptian Museum in Turin. During transportation to Italy, the papyrus crumbled into 164 pieces, some of them less than 1 centimeter long, and many of them died. The first attempt to put the pieces together was made by Jean-Francois Champollion in 1824 … A scrupulous reconstruction of the content based on the analysis of the direction of the papyrus fibers was later performed by Gustav Seyfarth in 1826. The Turin papyrus was originally published by Lepsius without marking the back, and then by Wilkinson with this very important addition.
The exact timing of the compilation of the papyrus is controversial. The papyrus was compiled, probably at the beginning of a new kingdom, a mark on the back with the name of Ramses III (XX dynasty) indicates that the surviving copy is a later copy.
The Turin papyrus contains lists of all mythical and historical persons who reigned in Egypt from the most ancient times until the period, the end of which is not known (the end of the papyrus is lost). The papyrus contains lists of the first fifteen dynasties; no traces of subsequent dynasties have been found. The names are often grouped by ruling dynasty, indicating the length of each king's reign in years, months, and days. Also summed up the years of the reign of each dynasty.
The Turin papyrus begins with the dynasties of gods, of which the first is a list of the Memphis gods, beginning with Ptus; the second list is a list of the Theban gods beginning with Amun; and the third list, corresponding to Manetho's "nekesami" and beginning with Aperu-Anubis, is a list of honored animals, which, however, are symbols of known divine qualities and attributes; among them Anubis, Ibis, Apis, Mnevis and others.
When comparing the lists of the kings of Manetho with the Turin papyrus, one cannot fail to see that both of them came from the same source, and even where the names of the kings of famous dynasties differ, this apparent disagreement can in most cases be explained. Most of the names are identical, although in Manetho they have a Greek form. Despite the fact that the papyrus has not been completely preserved, the document is of exceptional value for verifying the data of the dynastic tables of Manetho. Unlike other lists, the Turin papyrus contains the names of the rulers of the Hyksos and some little-known kings. The Turin papyrus links the stories of the chroniclers with the Egyptian national monuments.
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In 2009, it was announced that several previously unknown fragments of papyrus had been found in the storerooms of the Turin Museum.
A highly fragmented papyrus was found between two sheets of glass in the basement storage rooms of the Egyptian Museum in Turin.
This papyrus, apparently, is a supplement to the famous Turin royal canon - a list of ancient Egyptian kings. He, among several other sources, forms the basis of the constructions of the chronology of Ancient Egypt.
Scientists from the British Museum in 1959 suggested that more fragments of the Turin Canon should be preserved. Sir Alan Gardiner, archaeologist and Egyptologist, said, in particular, that there are fragments of this papyrus that were not included in the final reconstruction of the canon, which is now on display in the museum. And so, at the beginning of 2009, additional fragments of this papyrus, so valuable for the chronological constructions of Egyptian history, were found in the museum's depositories.
This opening took place as a result of the joint purposeful work of specialists from the British Museum. Egyptologists are already preparing a new publication of the Turin Canon.