FWIW:

Briefly, the /sp tpy/ represents the primordial, "die Urzeit", "first time" and "first matter". It is the time before creation and represents a mythical isthmus between total 'negation' of being (in the void of Nun) and 'creation' (the emergence of the primodial hill), thought to be situated in the primordial waters. It does not represent a specific time period (pace Wikipedia), but is a reference to the mythological time when the universe began- in shorts, the creation myth system of Egypt.

The term /sp tpy/ did not originate with Manetho, and is found within a number of ancient Egyptian religious works, which hearken back to a "time before creation." All Manetho did was try and create a "kingship geneaology" for the period before the first actual king appeared on the throne of Egypt, but all he was basically doing was using mythology as a basis for an undefinable period of time.

There is a good discussion of the concept of /sp tpy/ in these works:

Bickel, S. 1994. La cosmogonie égyptienne. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 134. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. (/sp tpy/ is discussed in detail in Chapter 1.)

Contra to what you have read in previoous respoeses, the idea of a /sp tpy/ is prevalent throughout the culture of Egypt, albeit it was expressed in a variety of "creation mythologies" (such the Heliopolitan, Memphite, Esnan, and Hermopolitan forms, for example). So, I'm not sure what "regionality" there is to the term for it does appear in texts throughout Egypt as that time of either "total void" or "total perfection" (the moment of creation.

You may find this work better in the explanation of Manethian concepts of /sp tpy/:

Verbrugghe, G. P. and J. M. Wickersham 1996. Berossos and Manetho: Introduced and Translated. Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

HTH.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom