ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Regnal lists of Ethiopia

Imagine you and your friends are playing a game of "King and Queen". One of your friends is the king or queen and they get to make the rules and decisions. But what if your game had been going on for a really long time, with different people taking turns being the king or queen? It might be hard to keep track of who was in charge when, right?

Well, that's kind of what happened in Ethiopia a long time ago. Instead of just playing a game, the people of Ethiopia had real kings and queens who ruled the country. But because the country had been around for so long, it was hard to remember all the different kings and queens who had ruled in the past.

That's where the regnal lists come in. Regnal lists are basically like a big list of all the kings and queens who have ruled Ethiopia over the years. They help people keep track of who was in charge when, and how long they ruled for.

Now, making a regnal list might sound easy, but it's actually pretty complicated. For one thing, some of the kings and queens ruled a long, long time ago, and there might not be very many records or stories about them. So historians have to do a lot of research to figure out who these people were and when they ruled.

Another tricky thing is that some kings and queens might have had different names or titles during their reign. So historians have to figure out how to match up all the different names with the right people.

Despite all these challenges, historians have managed to create some pretty impressive regnal lists of Ethiopia's kings and queens. And these lists help us understand how Ethiopia's history and culture have evolved over time.