[3] Aidan Dodson, a prominent English Egyptologist, calls Ryholt's book "fundamental" for an understanding of the Second Intermediate Period[4] because it reviews the political history of this period and contains an updated—and more accurate—reconstruction of the Turin Canon since the 1959 publication of Alan Gardiner's Royal Canon of Egypt.
Ryholt is also a specialist on Demotic papyri and literature and has authored numerous books and articles about this subject.
The book also argues strongly that the Sixteenth dynasty of Egypt was made up of poorly attested Theban kings such as Nebiriau I, Nebiriau II, Seuserenre Bebiankh and Sekhemre Shedwast who are documented in the last surviving page of the Turin Canon rather than minor Hyksos vassal kings in Lower Egypt, as was generally believed.
Among the most significant discussions is Ryholt's evidence that Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep rather than Ugaf was the first king of Egypt's 13th Dynasty,[7] and a discussion of the foreign origins of the Semitic 13th Dynasty king named Khendjer—whose reign lasted a minimum of 4 years and 3 months based on dated workmen's control notes found on stone blocks from his pyramid complex.
[11] The likelihood of New Kingdom intrusions into the Uronarti context was confirmed by Yvonne Markowitz and acknowledged by Reisner.