The Leipziger Weltchronik (German for World chronicle

World Chronicle

World Chronicle was a half-hour news and documentary television program broadcast internationally by the United Nations. The series began production in 1980, and ceased production in 2006, after 1006 episodes.-External links:*...

 of Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

) is preserved in five papyrus fragments in the Papyrus Collection in Leipzig. The fragments were bought in 1913, but were only published in 2010. The chronicle dates to the first half of the 2nd century AD. These are the earliest known fragments of a world chronicle. On the badly preserved fragments events on the founding of Thebes

Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)

See Thebes, Greece for the modern city built on the ancient ruins.Ancient Thebes was a Boeotian city-state , situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain...

 (Boeotia

Boeotia

Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...

) and a list of Babylonian and Egyptian kings are preserved. Hesiod

Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...

 is named. The chronicle is perhaps Christian.

The following events are preserved in the four remaining columns:

• column I: The legend around the founding of Thebes (P.Lips. Inv. 1229).
• column II: heavily damaged, Hesiod
  Hesiod
  Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
  
   and the Ionians
  Ionians
  The Ionians were one of the four major tribes into which the Classical Greeks considered the population of Hellenes to have been divided...
  
   are mentioned, there appears the year 772 v.Chr. (P.Lips. Inv. 1232 + P.Lips. Inv. 1231, Kol. I)
• column III: Babylonian kings are mentioned, the Pythian Games
  Pythian Games
  The Pythian Games were one of the four Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece, a forerunner of the modern Olympic Games, held every four years at the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi....
  
  and there is a list of Egyptian kings (P.Lips. Inv. 1231, Kol. II + P.Lips. Inv. 590, Kol. I + P.Lips. Inv. 1228, Kol. II)

Smende[s ...],

[...]mompsames: 51 years [...]

[..., x years], Amenophris: [x] years [...]

Ous[e]rthos: 11 years ,

Psossam[m]eos: [x years ],

S[...]ites: 1 year, Ouse[r]tho[s]: [x years (?)],

one further S[...]tes [: x years ...].

[...]os:35[x Jahre. ..]

his son: 75 (?) years.

Ous[er]th[os]: 24 years.

Se[s]yngkheis: 14 years.

So[k]ophtheis: 3 years.

Amendesis: 11 years.

Sesongchis: 41 .

Ousorthos: 40[+x] years.

• column IV: list of Egyptian kings (P.Lips. Inv. 590, Kol. II)

Medes 48 years,

Psonsame[s] [x+]1 years,

Amoses 14 years,

Amenophis 9 years,

Ouertho[...] 20 (years?)

Ou[e]rtho[s ...] [x] years,

Sesyngch[eis x yea]rs,

Syphois [x yea]rs,

Zmendas [x yea]rs,

Ouserthos [x yea]rs,

Psonsame[s] [x yea]rs

Literature

• Daniela Colomo, Lutz Popko, Michaela Rücker, Reinhold Scholl: Die älteste Weltchronik, Europa, die Sintflut und das Lamm, In: Archiv für Papyrusforschung 56/1, 2010, p. 1-25
• Alexander Weiß: Die Leipziger Weltchronik – die älteste christliche Weltchronik?, In: Archiv für Papyrusforschung 56/1, 2010, p. 26-37