| In traditional theory Egyptian king celebrated his first sed-festival normally in histhirtieth regnal year. This is the so-called "thirty-year principle" of the sed-festival.According to this theory, records of the sed-festival have long been taken as evidence for aking who enjoyed a reign no less than thirty years. Nevertheless, numerous exceptions thatkings celebrated their sed-festivals earlier than year 30 have posed great challenge to thelegitimacy of the thirty-year principle and the qualification of the jubilee records used aschronological evidence.In this thesis, a survey is carried out concerning primarily the dated records of thesed-festival as well as those undated but involved in certain chronological problems. Bythis survey I would like to illustrate how the thirty-year principle and the sed-festivalrecords have been applied to the chronological studies of ancient Egypt. At the same timedetailed evidence and controversies on this subject would also be laid out.A further step is taken, on the grounds of the survey, to re-examine the thirty-yearprinciple. Various suggestions and hypotheses, for or against the principle, are cited here.In conclusions, it is pointed out that: 1. although not all the exceptions can be wellexplained, the thirty-year principle has its root of tradition in Egyptian history and cannotbe totally rejected;2. in practice, the principle are often neglected for various reasons;3.the mere records of the sed-festival are not sufficient or decisive evidence for assessing aking's reigning length. |
