Explanation of dates:

Before year 1, which is the beginning of what we call the Common Era or Current Era (A.D.), we measure dates in the opposite direction. So 3000 B.C.E. (B.C.) means 3000 years before the Common Era, counting backwards, and everything after year 1 is called the Common Era, usually abbreviated as C.E. or A.D.

Many of the records we have are from the Royal Annals, which begin in the Old Kingdom, but there are often a lot of differences between these and the external sources we have found from Egypt’s neighbors. There were not very many written records available at this time, so historians are working with a limited number of sources to date these materials. When you look at timelines from other websites, there might be slight changes in dates from one place to the next, depending on which source they are using. This is why it is helpful to look at several different timelines, especially when learning about ancient history.