Ancient Egypt, From the Evidence

A one-minute introduction to Ancient Egypt, From the Evidence: Kemet told through inscriptions, tombs, papyri and the stones themselves. Narration and animation are AI-generated from Moe Osman's research.

Image credits (Wikimedia Commons unless noted; images cropped/resized, with motion added):
Holger Uwe Schmitt, Great Pyramid of Khufu, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%2B146,6_Meter_hoch_war_urspr%C3%BCnglich_die_Cheopspyramide._02.jpg
Eric Gaba (Sting) and NordNordWest, Egypt relief location map, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egypt_relief_location_map.jpg
Tura quarries plate (NYPL scan), public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pyramide_von_Illah%C3%BBn;_Steinbr%C3%BCche_von_T%C3%BBra_(NYPL_b14291191-37553).jpg
CaptMondo, Khufu pyramid casing stone (British Museum), CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KhufuPyramidCasingStone-BritishMuseum-August19-08.jpg
Marsupium, Red Chapel of Hatshepsut, Karnak Open Air Museum, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_Chapel_of_Hatshepsut_in_Karnak_Open_Air_Museum_09.jpg
Diego Delso (delso.photo), Hatshepsut's temple, Deir el-Bahari (crop), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Templo_funerario_de_Hatshepsut,_Luxor,_Egipto,_2022-04-03,_DD_13_(crop).jpg
Head of an Osiride Statue of Hatshepsut, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund 1931, Open Access CC0, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547677
Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, Mask of Tutankhamun (2003), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mask_of_Tutankhamun_2003-12-07.jpg
Harry Burton, steps to the tomb of Tutankhamun, public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vallei_der_Koningen._Tombe_van_Toetanchamon_Trappen_naar_de_tombe,_GDE002073.jpg
Licenses: creativecommons.org/licenses. Title and end cards are our own. Music: original score generated with ElevenLabs Eleven Music.

More at MoeOsman.com.

In the 1920s, Herbert Winlock dug up pits full of smashed statues of Hatshepsut, the woman who ruled Egypt as king, and blamed a stepson's revenge. The evidence tells a slower, stranger story: the campaign against her kingship began about twenty years after her death, in year 42 of Thutmose III. We follow a half-chiseled wall hidden at Karnak, the images that were never touched, and a 2025 study of Winlock's own records showing many of her statues still have intact faces.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Who smashed Hatshepsut's statues? Winlock's pits, 1920s
1:19 Who was Hatshepsut? The story as told
3:35 When was Hatshepsut erased? Year 42
4:05 The half-chiseled wall at Karnak
5:22 Why only her king images were erased
7:01 What was found in Winlock's pit
8:17 Was it revenge? The motive
8:57 Were her statues smashed out of hate? The 2025 study
10:46 Why was Hatshepsut erased?
11:41 Did the erasure work?
12:37 My take
13:44 Her own words
14:06 Books

SOURCES
1. Peter F. Dorman, "The Proscription of Hatshepsut"; Dorothea Arnold, "The Destruction of the Statues of Hatshepsut from Deir el-Bahri"; Ann Macy Roth, "Erasing a Reign"; Cathleen A. Keller, "Hatshepsut's Reputation in History"; all in Catharine H. Roehrig, ed. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005), ISBN 1-58839-172-8: https://openlibrary.org/isbn/1588391728 (free to read on the Met's website, MetPublications)
2. Jun Yi Wong, "The afterlife of Hatshepsut's statuary", Antiquity (June 2025): https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.64
3. Antiquity news, "Reconstructing the shattered visage of Queen Hatshepsut" (2025): https://www.antiquity.ac.uk/news/2025/reconstructing-shattered-visage-queen-hatshepsut
4. Smithsonian Magazine, "The Queen Who Would Be King": https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-queen-who-would-be-king-130328511/
5. The Met collection, statues of Hatshepsut from Deir el-Bahri (e.g. kneeling statue with white crown, 30.3.1): https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544448
Quotes from Herbert Winlock and William Hayes are as quoted by Smithsonian (2006) and Wong (2025).

Image credits (Wikimedia Commons): Marsupium, Thutmose III statue (Luxor Museum) and Red Chapel, CC BY 4.0 · Olaf Tausch, Karnak obelisk cartouche, CC BY 3.0 · Diego Delso (delso.photo), Hatshepsut temple aerial; Ovedc, Sphinx of Hatshepsut JE 53113; LBM1948, Deir el-Bahri cliffs 1999, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kingtut, Red Chapel block, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Bernard Dupont, Karnak erased reliefs (2 photos), CC BY-SA 2.0. Licenses: creativecommons.org/licenses. Other images are CC0 (The Met Open Access, Museo Egizio) or public domain. Full file list: youtube.com/watch?v=cV6Nb_jwgks. Music: YouTube Audio Library.

Disclosure: The narration is an AI-generated voice. Two short animated scenes (the temple being built, and a chisel erasing a relief) are AI-generated reconstructions, marked "Reconstruction" on screen. Research, script and fact-check by Moe Osman.

For a longer listen on ancient Egypt, The Great Courses has lecture series on the subject (affiliate link; I may earn a small commission): https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=25597&awinaffid=3135740

More at MoeOsman.com.

When Lord Carnarvon died in Cairo on April 5, 1923, newspapers shut out of The Times's exclusive deal on Tutankhamun's tomb were quick to blame a curse. We follow the 1923 headlines, Marie Corelli's printed warning and Arthur Conan Doyle's "avenging elemental", and test them against Howard Carter's own journal and a 2002 BMJ study that finally counted the dead. We also name the Egyptian team, around fifty workmen, who did the heavy work of the excavation.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Cairo, April 5, 1923: who started King Tut's curse?
1:07 What is the curse of Tutankhamun? The legend
2:03 What does the evidence say about Tutankhamun's tomb?
2:46 Why were the papers angry? The Times deal
4:00 How did Lord Carnarvon fall ill?
4:50 Did Marie Corelli predict the curse?
5:56 How did the papers report Carnarvon's death?
6:22 What did Arthur Conan Doyle believe?
6:59 Was Howard Carter the curse's next victim?
7:18 Was a curse written in the tomb? (No inscription)
8:07 Did Cairo's lights go out, and did the dog die?
8:26 What killed Lord Carnarvon?
8:48 What happened to Howard Carter?
9:11 What killed the people who opened the tomb? (2002 count)
10:45 My take: who started the curse of King Tut?
12:35 Books

SOURCES
1. Howard Carter's journal, 1st season, Oct 1922 to May 1923 (Griffith Institute, Oxford): http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringtut/journals-and-diaries/season-1/journal.html
2. Carter's later lecture notes with the "wonderful things" wording (Griffith Institute, TAA i.12.08): https://tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/miscellaneous/taa-i12/taa-i1208recto
3. The Times exclusive, January 10, 1923 (University of Washington, Tutankhamun Centenary exhibit): https://www.nelcdh.ds.lib.uw.edu/tutankhamun-centenary/exhibits/show/times-of-london/times-exclusive
4. David P. Silverman, Expedition magazine 29(2), 1987, Penn Museum (article on the Tut curse legend): https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/?p=14511
5. Mark R. Nelson, "The mummy's curse: historical cohort study," BMJ 2002;325:1482-4: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC139048/
6. Ann M. Cox, "The death of Lord Carnarvon," The Lancet 2003;361:1994: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13576-3
7. Museum of Hoaxes, "King Tut's Curse (1923)": https://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/king_tuts_curse
8. Britannica, Howard Carter: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Howard-Carter
9. Griffith Institute, Tutankhamun Spatial Archive, "The Egyptian workforce": https://tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/stories/egyptian-workforce
10. The 1923 newspapers, Library of Congress, Chronicling America (Daily Kennebec Journal, San Antonio Light, Laurens Advertiser, Birmingham Age-Herald, Washington Daily News, Omaha Morning Bee, Beatrice Daily Express, Seward Daily Gateway, Producers News): https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
11. Howard Carter, The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen, vol. II (1927), for the 12,000 visitors between January 1 and March 15, 1926
Silverman gives Carnarvon's death as May 6 and Carter's age at death as 67; Carter's journal, the 1923 papers and Britannica give April 5, 1923 and 64, which we follow.

Image credits: Richard Munckton, Highclere Castle (April 2011), CC BY 2.0 · The Sphere (London, Feb 10, 1923) scan of Harry Burton, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, Mask of Tutankhamun (2003), CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mask_of_Tutankhamun_2003-12-07.jpg; the episode artwork adapts it and is shared under CC BY-SA 3.0. Licenses: creativecommons.org/licenses. Burton photographs and 1923 newspapers (Library of Congress) are public domain. Full file list: youtube.com/watch?v=rghBUwbtogU. Music: YouTube Audio Library.

Disclosure: The narration is an AI-generated voice. Research, script and fact-check by Moe Osman.

For a longer listen on ancient Egypt, The Great Courses has lecture series on the subject (affiliate link; I may earn a small commission): https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=25597&awinaffid=3135740

More at MoeOsman.com.

Not slaves, and not aliens. In 2013, archaeologists at Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea found the oldest inscribed papyri yet known: the logbook of an inspector named Merer, whose crew hauled limestone from Tura to Giza for King Khufu. We read what he wrote and test the old stories against it, along with the lost Khufu branch of the Nile, the workers' town, the builders' tombs and Ankhhaf, Khufu's half-brother and vizier.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Day twenty-six: Merer's logbook
1:13 The story as told: slaves and Herodotus
2:04 The other version: aliens and a retracted radar paper
3:11 What the evidence says: Wadi al-Jarf
4:45 What does Merer's logbook say?
6:19 One name changes the picture: Ankhhaf
7:51 Where did the builders live?
8:44 Where the story breaks
10:57 My take
12:15 Books

SOURCES
1. P. Tallet, Les papyrus de la mer Rouge I. Le "journal de Merer" (Papyrus Jarf A et B), MIFAO 136, IFAO, Cairo 2017. Free English translation and summary: https://www.ifao.egnet.net/uploads/publications/divers/MIFAO136_ann_01.pdf
2. Archaeology magazine, July/August 2022, on Wadi el-Jarf, the harbor and the papyri: https://archaeology.org/issues/july-august-2022/features/egypt-wadi-el-jarf-port-papyri/
3. Herodotus, Histories 2.124, trans. A. D. Godley (1920), Perseus: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126:book=2:chapter=124
4. Biondi & Malanga, Remote Sensing 14(20):5231, 2022: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14205231 and its retraction notice (Aug 10, 2026): https://doi.org/10.3390/rs18162679
5. Retraction Watch, Aug 31, 2026: https://retractionwatch.com/2026/08/31/retraction-corridors-inside-great-pyramid-giza/
6. Sheisha et al., PNAS 2022 (the Khufu branch of the Nile): https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2202530119
7. AERA (Mark Lehner), Lost City of the Pyramid Builders: https://aeraweb.org/projects/lost-city/
8. Zahi Hawass, The Tombs of the Pyramid Builders: https://www.guardians.net/hawass/buildtomb.htm
9. AP via The Guardian, Jan 11, 2010: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/11/great-pyramid-tombs-slaves-egypt
10. Bust of Prince Ankhhaf, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/45982
Khufu's reign is dated differently by different chronologies; "around 2560 BC" is the conventional round date for the finished pyramid.

Image credits (Wikimedia Commons): Olaf Tausch, Khufu ivory statuette, CC BY 3.0 · Jorge Láscar, Great Pyramid, CC BY 2.0 · Holger Uwe Schmitt, Great Pyramid, CC BY-SA 4.0 · CaptMondo, Khufu casing stone (British Museum), CC BY 2.5 · Ahmed Yousry Mahfouz, tombs of the pyramid builders, CC BY-SA 4.0 · MesserWoland, Giza complex map, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Retraction screenshots: MDPI, CC BY 4.0. Licenses: creativecommons.org/licenses. Other images are CC0 or public domain; maps, quote cards and diagrams are our own. Full file list: youtube.com/watch?v=EhKOO--6Cas.

Disclosure: The narration is an AI-generated voice. Research, script and fact-check by Moe Osman.

For a longer listen on ancient Egypt, The Great Courses has lecture series on the subject (affiliate link; I may earn a small commission): https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=25597&awinaffid=3135740

More at MoeOsman.com.