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European Journal of Applied Sciences – Vol. 9, No. 6

Publication Date: December 25, 2021

DOI:10.14738/aivp.96.11189. Giannini, J. (2021). Catastrophic Geological Event Illuminates Egyptian Kings List Anno Mundi Reference. European Journal of

Applied Sciences, 9(6). 89-101.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Catastrophic Geological Event Illuminates Egyptian Kings List

Anno Mundi Reference

Judith Giannini

Independent Researcher/USA

ABSTRACT

The preponderance of catastrophe myths in ancient cultures around the world

indicates the importance of contemplating the ancient beginnings. This paper

considers the legendary Egyptian beginning of the world event, Anno Mundi, to

which Eratosthenes referenced the reign of the first king of the Unification, Menes.

Menes’ identity is still in question, and the nature of the event is left undefined. First,

the dates for the possible candidates for the person Menes as a starting point to

locate AM in time are considered. Next, possible event types that might qualify as

world-defining events are considered. Finally, it is concluded that a geological event

(an unrelenting series of closely spaced eruptions on Mount Erciyes in Anatolia) in

8200 BP is consistent with the expected date for the Anno Mundi, and the reign date

for King Scorpion(I) who is proposed as the most likely Menes based on all of the

considerations. It is believed the identified date and Menes candidate provide a

plausible explanation for the otherwise unsubstantiated legendary event.

Keywords: Egyptian prehistory; 8200 BP event; Anatolian volcanic eruption of Mt.

Erciyes; Anno Mundi; King Menes; Carl Jung and the Collective Unconscious.

INTRODUCTION

Every ancient civilization has tales from the earliest times. Most are accepted as “only”

unsubstantiated legend or myth. Carl Jung, the founding father of analytic psychology, believed

myths reveal the ancient knowledge contained in the “Collective Unconscious” [1]. He proposed

that this knowledge (he termed the “Racial Memory”) is stored as deeply encoded images in the

psyche (physical location unknown), and is recoverable during altered states of consciousness.

It is assumed that, although it is risky to take the recovered ancient knowledge literally, the

underlying factual base is still there and amenable to validation by correlating it with recorded

scientific data. Progress is being made in this area by identifying likely candidates where

natural phenomena can illuminate the possible historical nature of these mythical moments in

the deep past. These hypothesized correspondences demonstrate a possible kernel of truth in

the stories, albeit likely embellished in the retelling of the actual events.

One familiar example of recent efforts includes the incredible voyage of Odysseus in in the

Odyssey [2]. Baikouzis and Magnasco [3] supported the possible reality of the voyage by

considering the astronomical references in Homer – though the validity of his encounters with

the Cyclops and the sirens is left to other considerations. Another example of a story once

accepted as historic, then questioned as not fact-based, is the existence of the Xai dynasty in

China and Yu’s taming of the Great flood [4], [5],

. Wu, et al. [6] discussed new dating of an

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European Journal of Applied Sciences (EJAS) Vol. 9, Issue 6, December-2021

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

outburst flood four thousand years ago as a possible explanation of the Yu event, lending it

credibility.

Giannini [7] correlated the biblical Creation Days events with corresponding recognized

scientific record events using a non-linear-time Kinematic Relativity mapping. This provides a

BCE calibration for the biblical Days, and, demonstrates the possibility that the two

perspectives represent the same physical events – moving the spiritual text from the realm of

mostly myth to more a knowledge of reality.

This paper addresses yet another legendary event the Anno Mundi (the Egyptian beginning of

the world). It is assumed to be a catastrophic moment in Egyptian pre-history. Ancient legends

all over the world speak of great catastrophes. These events, often attributed to the wrath of

the gods, are described as destroying the human population except for a chosen few. For

example, the Bible [8] tells the story of the Great Flood of Noah. Sumerian legends tell of the

Great Flood of Ut-napishtim [9], also noted in their Kings List [10]. Some consider the Sumerian

flood to represent the same event as Noah’s flood.

The Egyptians do not have a specific flood legend paralleling the biblical or Sumerian stories.

However, in his Histories [11], the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 430 BCE) recounted the words

of the Egyptian priest who told of repeated great floods where only those in the right place at

the time survived. The priest did not allude to timing of the events, but, he implied they were

different from the familiar annual flooding of the Nile.

Some legends speak of repeated events that lead to a sequence of New World Ages. For example,

the Mayans of Mesoamerica [12] and the Hindus of the Indus River Valley, have long period

calendars predicting the timing of the repeated arrival of New World Ages [13] – sometimes

even describing the agent of destruction.

Numerous authors have considered the impact of nature on ancient people, and civilizations.

To name just a few, Masse, et al. [14] explored the possibility that the nature of the myths might

reflect verifiable catastrophic events in the ancient past. Barrientos and Masse [15] considered

the effects of cosmic impacts on the hunter-gatherers in the mid-Holocene. Gusiakov, et al. [16]

discuss the effect of oceanic impacts leading to mega tsunamis and rapid climate change,

focusing mostly on the last 5,000 years and discussing particular impacts that some consider

may have been related to the Great Flood.

The early Egyptian Kings Lists referenced each king’s reign to Anno Mundi (AM – year of the

world). It is proposed here that AM indicates a past natural catastrophe that destabilized the

pre-Egyptian people, motivating migration from the homeland to establish dominant rule over

the inhabitants of the Nile area population. The modern BCE dates for the earliest kings are

correlated with geological record events to provide a possible natural explanation for the

civilization-changing AM. Section 2 addresses the expected date-range for the first king and for

AM. Section 3 considers climate and geological events within those candidate dates.

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Giannini, J. (2021). Catastrophic Geological Event Illuminates Egyptian Kings List Anno Mundi Reference. European Journal of Applied Sciences, 9(6).

90-102.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.96.11189

DATING THE ANNO MUNDI EVENT

Dating current events is a well-ordered process that is referenced (at least in the Western

world) to the event about 2000 years ago known as the birth of Jesus Christ which began year

1 AD (Anno Domini –currently Current Era, CE). Prior events are years BC (Before Christ –

currently Before the Current Era, BCE).

The nomenclature of the “before time” and the “after time” around the break-point owes its

relevance to the dominance of the Christian Church in the Western world in political and

religious matters well into the Renaissance. Other long-term calendars from non-Western

cultures (for example, the Mayan, the Hebrew, the Chinese) can be synchronized with the

current Gregorian (Renaissance era) calendar on a point-by-point basis to provide a more-or- less consistent global historical chronology back for thousands of years.

Theologians are studying the historical nature of Jesus and reasons for His importance to

history [17]. The 1 AD date for the birth event is questioned, though it is maintained for

calendar consistency. Arguments, based on astronomical records, correlated with sacred

writings, estimate the actual date is more like 6 BCE [18] – though the timing of the break-point

maintains the originally determined date. After 2000 years, the actual event of the birth has

taken on a somewhat legendary aura in many circles; and, the shift from AD to CE and from BC

to BCE is the recent effort to secularize the break-point – shifting the event even further into

the realm of legend.

Using a common reference so far back provides a timeline that is both relatively consistent, as

well as, calibrated from a global perspective. This convenient state of affairs, however, was not

available in ancient Egypt – an inconvenience that extends to the identification and dating of

the AM event. Without a common and more ancient time reference, events in the ancient world

were dated relative to the particular ruling king in any given country. The order of the kings on

any one list did not necessarily match the order on other lists, making a consistent universal

timeline difficult to achieve.

As a result, the BCE calibrated dates for the kings is a puzzle of comparisons and judgments

about the order of the kings (eliminating co-regents and competitors), the lengths of their

reigns, and a limited collection of ancient astronomical observations and datable artifacts and

writings. Even the names can be uncertain because traditionally the kings had several (such as,

given name, throne name, and others), and, depending on the source, the spelling of any given

name in records varied.

The oldest survivor of historically-based lists of Egyptian kings comes from Manetho’s

Aegyptiaca [19], [20], compiled in the third century BCE. Manetho provided the dynastic

structure that is the main-stay of Egyptian chronologies. He identifies Menes as being the first

king of the first dynasty, but the mystery of the actual identity of Menes makes dating his reign

problematic. This contributes to the dating uncertainty of this first king by making it difficult

to identify appropriate artifacts to date. In the late second century BCE Eratosthenes [21]

compiled an Egyptian Kings List that references each king's reign to Anno Mundi (AM). His list

of kings includes pharaohs from the first to the thirteenth dynasties. There are no dynastic

designations given, but the beginning of Menes reign is given as 2900 years after AM.