I was highly intrigued by the news reports in April of the discovery by a French mission of a site of a harbour and related constructions at Wadi el-Jarf, a town on the Red Sea shore 180 km south of Suez. In addition to structures, artefacts and the like, there is the incredibly important find of the earliest inscribed papyri know from Egypt, one of which bears the Horus name of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza, fourth dynasty, about 2550 BC.
I give below a number of URLS to stories, and to images of the papyri. What is remarkable also about the papyri is that their style is eminently recognisable to anyone familiar with the Abusir Papyri of the fifth dynasty.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/69024/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Egypts-King-Khufus-harbour-in-Suez-discovered.aspx
http://news.discovery.com/history/ancient-egypt/worlds-oldest-port-and-egyptian-papyrus-uncovered-130412.htm

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/24683

Here's a link to the papyrus with the name of Khufu:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/hieroglyphic-papyrus.jpg
12/6/2013 11:25:16 am

Thank you, this was the most facinating news I have head in a long time. Back to the Pyramid builders time.

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Raimo Kangasniemi
12/6/2013 05:40:17 pm

What I have never seen mentioned anywhere and which I find somewhat odd, is that the newly found papyri shows that Khufu reigned at least 27 years; the previously accepted length was 24 yeas.

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Nigel Strudwick
12/6/2013 06:02:31 pm

Our knowledge of contemporary dating of the Old Kingdom isn't all that great. The 24 years of Khufu is based on the Royal Canon of Turin, a document of the 19th dyn., and there are many disagreements between contemporary sources and this document. The papyrus appears to say the 13th cattle count; these counts typically took place every two years (hence 25/26/27 years depending on how you do the maths), but there are many examples where they didn't. It's not a major discrepancy however.

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21/12/2013 03:28:19 am

I note that Frank Förster in his "Preliminary report on the seal impressions found at site Chufu 01/01 in the Dakhla region (2002 campaign)" that hieroglyphic inscriptions found there mention two expeditions ..."in the reign of Khufu dated to
'the year after the 12th' and 'the year after the 13th time of counting the cattle'". See:
https://www.academia.edu/2102668/Forster_F._Preliminary_report_on_the_seal_impressions_found_at_site_Chufu_01_01_in_the_Dakhla_region_2002_campaign_

28/1/2014 11:25:14 pm

Interesting post, i love to visit your blog everyday

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30/1/2014 02:04:25 am

Bookmarked your blog, it's awsome

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