The History of Egypt Podcast

By Dominic Perry

Ancient Egypt, from Creation to Cleopatra. This podcast tells the story of pharaonic Egypt "in their own words." Using archaeology, ancient texts, and up-to-date scholarship, we uncover the world of t... more

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Number 1: 155: Ankhensenmun, The Queen's Gambit
A difficult decision. Events in this period are murky. But if Ankhesenamun was the "Daḫamunzu" of Hittite record, then her attempt to find a new husband (of royal blood) had failed. So, she would have to accept a "servant." Whom would she choose? Chapter 2 begins 00:24:10 Episode Details: Date: c. 1334 BCE (debated). King: none (hopefully just temporary). Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music: Keith Zizza https://www.keithzizza.net/. Music: Ancient Lyric http://www.bettinajoydeguzman.com/. Music interludes: Luke Chaos https://twitter.com/Luke_Chaos. Music at 25:10, "Shine for the Show," via Pond5 (licensed). Misc audio clips via YouTube users Sound Effects King and Saraschan Stienwongnusa. Select Bibliography: T. R. Bryce, ‘The Death of Niphururiya and Its Aftermath’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 76 (1990), 97–105. A. Dodson, Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation (2nd edn, Cairo, 2017). M. Gabolde, D’Akhenaton à Toutânkhamon (Paris, 1998). M. Gabolde, ‘L’ADN de la famille royale amarnienne et les sources égyptiennes’, Égypte nilotique et méditerranéenne 6 (2013), 177–203. M. Gabolde, Toutankhamon (Paris, 2015). Z. Hawass et al., ‘Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamun’s Family’, JAMA 303 (2010), 638–47. N. Kawai, ‘Studies in the Reign of Tutankhamun’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Johns Hopkins University (2005). J. L. Miller, ‘Amarna Age Chronology and the Identity of Nibxururiya in the Light of a Newly Reconstructed Hittite Text’, Altorientalische Forschungen 34 (2007), 252–93. P. E. Newberry, ‘King Ay, the Successor of Tut’ankhamūn’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 18 (1932), 50–2. N. Reeves and R. H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings (London, 1996). J. Romer, Valley of the Kings (London, 1981). O. Schaden, ‘The God’s Father Ay’, PhD Thesis, University of Minnesota (1977). A. R. Schulman, ‘The Berlin “Trauerrelief” (No. 12411) and Some Officials of Tutʿankhamūn and Ay’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 4 (1965), 55–68. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
December 21, 202149min
Number 2: 156: Oh, Ay Just Can't Wait to be King
The servant ascends. Considering his background, it's not surprising that King Ay turned out to be quite "conservative." His early deeds continued the policies of Tutankhamun (a regime in which Ay had actively participated). The new pharaoh completed one of Tutankhamun's temples (the Ḥwt-Neb-kheperu-Ra in Waset/Thebes), and evoked Tutankhamun in his art. Ay also started his own monuments, at Akhmim / Akhmin (Khent-Menu). There, colossal statues and sanctuaries for Min would convey pharaoh's agenda... Date: c. 1334 BCE. King: Kheper-Kheperu-Ra, It-Netjer Ay ("Ra is Supreme of Manifestations, the God's Father Ay"). Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music: Keith Zizza https://www.keithzizza.net/. Music interludes: Luke Chaos https://twitter.com/Luke_Chaos. Select Bibliography: A. Ashmawy, ‘The Administration of Horse Stables in Ancient Egypt’, Egypt and the Levant 24 (2014), 121—139. T. R. Bryce, ‘The Death of Niphururiya and Its Aftermath’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 76 (1990), 97–105. N. Kawai, ‘Studies in the Reign of Tutankhamun’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Johns Hopkins University (2005). K. P. von Kuhlmann, ‘Des Felstempel des Eje bei Achmim’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 35 (1979), 165—188. B. Lurson, ‘Ay, Neferti, Nakhtmin and Ameny: Politics and Rhetoric at the End of the Eighteenth Dynasty’, Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 146 (2019), 164–208. P. E. Newberry, ‘King Ay, the Successor of Tut’ankhamūn’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 18 (1932), 50–2. O. Schaden, ‘The God’s Father Ay’, PhD Thesis, University of Minnesota (1977). O. J. Schaden, ‘Clearance of the Tomb of King Ay (WV-23)’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 21 (1984), 39–64. A. R. Schulman, ‘The Berlin “Trauerrelief” (No. 12411) and Some Officials of Tutʿankhamūn and Ay’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 4 (1965), 55–68. K. C. Seele, ‘King Ay and the Close of the Amarna Age’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 14 (1955), 168–80. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
December 28, 202133min
Number 3: 157: Ay & Horemheb vs the Hittites
Keeping up with the Kadeshians. In the past, historians thought the Egyptian government was passive (or even "pacifist") in the days of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ay. However, newer research has proved this wrong. We now have a fragmentary, but fascinating picture of warfare and diplomacy, taking place through Canaan and Syria. The town of Kadesh, on the Orontes River, is prominent. Once a vassal to pharaoh, the city suffered an attack by Hittite forces. It then changed sides, paying tribute to Suppiluliuma, King of the Land of Hatti. In the later years of Tutankhamun, or the early reign of Ay, the Egyptians responded to Kadesh's treachery... Horemheb and Hatti. In the days of King Ay (and Tutankhamun before him) conflicts in Canaan and Syria remained a constant issue. In recent years, scholars have uncovered more information about these events and people. Horemheb, the Overseer of the Overseers of the Troops (aka the General of Generals) seems to have dealt, and fought, with Hittite forces. The records are fragmentary, but the clues are intriguing... Update: Episode updated 21st January, 2021. Added new epilogue, incorporating some academic debate regarding the identity of "Arma'a" and its ramifications for the history. UPDATE 2: Episode 157 was originally released in two parts (157/157b). In 2026, I combined the two versions with minor edits for flow/structure. Same content, just packed in a more narratively satisfying version. Episode details: Date: c.1334 BCE (debated). Kings: Tutankhamun and Ay (debated). Battle scene of Tutankhamun: learn more in a free lecture by W. Raymond Johnson (YouTube). Battle reliefs discussion begins at 51:29. Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Episode logo: A statue, presumed to be Ay, in the Staatliche Museum, Berlin. Image upscaled, cropped, and edited. Music: "War Song," by Bettina Joy de Guzman www.bettinajoydeguzman.com. Used with permission. Music: "King Tut's Song," by Jeffrey Goodman www.jeffreygoodmanmusic.com. Used with permission. Sistrum sound effect by Hathor Systrum www.hathorsystrum.com. Used with permission. Additional music interludes by Luke Chaos https://twitter.com/Luke_Chaos. Select Bibliography: T. Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites (New Edition, New York, 2005). T. Bryce, The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire (London, 2009). T. R. Bryce, ‘The Death of Niphururiya and Its Aftermath’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 76 (1990), 97–105. J. Fraser, ‘Kadesh-on-the-Orontes’, in C. M. Furey et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, 14 (2017), 1203—1205. H. Güterbock, ‘The Deeds of Suppiluliuma as Told by His Son, Mursili II’, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 10 (1956), 41–68, 75–98, 107–30. G. T. Martin, Tutankhamun’s Regent: Scenes and Texts from the Memphite Tomb of Horemheb (EES Excavation Memoir 111; London, 2016). J. L. Miller, ‘Amarna Age Chronology and the Identity of Nibxururiya in the Light of a Newly Reconstructed Hittite Text’, Altorientalische Forschungen 34 (2007), 252–93. S. N. Morschauser, ‘The End of the Sḏf(ȝ)-Tr(yt) “Oath”’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 25 (1988), 93–103. W. J. Murnane, The Road to Kadesh: A Historical Interpretation of the Battle Reliefs of King Sety I at Karnak (Chicago, 1985). W. J. Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt (Atlanta, 1995). W. J. Murnane, ‘Imperial Egypt and the Limits of Her Power’, in R. Cohen and R. Westbrook (eds.), Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations (Baltimore, 2000), 101–11. W. J. Murnane, ‘Kadesh’, in D. B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2001). D. B. Redford, Akhenaten: The Heretic King (Princeton, 1984). D. B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (Princeton, 1992). I. Singer, Hittite Prayers (Atlanta, Ga., 2002). J. A. Wilson, ‘Egyptian Historical Texts’, in J. B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement (1978), 227–64. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
January 11, 202245min
Number 4: 01: The Two Lands (Egypt's Unification)
Out of many... two. Five thousand years ago, a kingdom emerged on the banks of the Nile. The "Two Lands" of Southern and Northern Egypt slowly unified, and rulers like Narmer established their authority. The origins of the kingdom are murky, but archaeology can uncover secrets. In this episode, we meet the first ruler of the land, get a sense of Egypt and its people, and introduce the podcast as a whole. Welcome! Date: circa 3050 – 3000 BCE. Kings: Narmer, Scorpion (epilogue). Episode Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com. Select Bibliography: Kathryn A. Bard, An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 2nd edition, 2015. Eugenia D’Atanasio et al., “The Peopling of the Last Green Sahara Revealed by High-Coverage Resequencing of Trans-Saharan Patrilineages,” Genome Biology 19.20 (2018): 1–15. Gunter Dreyer, “Tomb U-j: A Royal Burial of Dynasty 0 at Abydos,” in Emily Teeter (ed.) Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, 2011: 127-36. A.J. Spencer, Early Egypt: The Rise of Civilization in the Nile Valley, 1993. Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, 3rd edition, 2018. David O’Connor, Abydos: Egypt’s First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris, 2011. John Romer, A History of Ancient Egypt from the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid, 2013. David Wengrow, “Landscapes of Knowledge, Idioms of Power: The African Foundations of Ancient Egyptian Civilization Reconsidered,” in David O’Connor and Andrew Reid (eds) Ancient Egypt in Africa, 2003: 121-36. David Wengrow, The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in North-East Africa, 10,000 to 2650 BC, 2006. Robert J. Wenke, The Ancient Egyptian State: The Origins of Egyptian Culture (c. 8000 – 2000 BC), 2009. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
January 01, 201334min
Number 5: 153a: The Tomb of Tutankhamun (Part 1)
Seek and Discover. In this episode, we begin the tale of the most famous tomb in history. KV62, a small monument, in the lower reaches of the Valley of the Kings. Overlooked for three thousand years, the tomb finally emerged thanks to a persistent excavator and a stroke of good fortune. However, the Tomb of Tutankhamun has built up its own mythology. In this episode, we begin to explore the tomb, and its discovery, including some lesser-known questions... Episode Chapters Chapter 1: A Long-Expected Pharaoh 04:15 Chapter 2: The Stairway to the Past 27:36 Chapter 3: The Door Goes West 46:51 Chapter 4: Candles in the Dark 1:08:40 Chapter 5: The Antechamber Unmasked 1:22:52 Conclusion: 1:38:55 Episode Links Howard Carter and George Herbert (Lord Carnarvon), Five Years' Exploration at Thebes: A Record of Work Done 1907-1911 by The Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter, 1912. Available at Project Gutenberg and Archive.org. Christina Riggs, "Waterboys and Wishful Thinking," https://photographing-tutankhamun.com/2020/06/20/the-water-boy-who-wasnt/ For the full archive of Harry Burton’s photographs, showing the tomb of Tutankhamun in its original state, see the Griffith Institute website. Date: 1922 CE. Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Logo image: A statue of Tutankhamun, from the antechamber of his tomb. Photo by Skip Howard. Music by Keith Zizza https://www.keithzizza.net/ Music by Michael Levy http://www.ancientlyre.com/ Music by Ancient Lyric http://www.bettinajoydeguzman.com/ Sound interludes by Luke Chaos https://twitter.com/Luke_Chaos Select Bibliography: H. Assaad and D. Kolos, The Name of the Dead: Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of the Treasures of Tutankhamun Translated (Missisauga, 1979). H. Beinlich and M. Saleh, Corpus der Hieroglyphischen Inschriften aus dem Grab des Tutanchamun (Oxford, 1989). E. C. Brock, ‘A Possible Chariot Canopy for Tutankhamun’, in A. Veldmeijer and S. Ikram (eds.), Chasing Chariots: Proceedings of the First International Chariot Conference (Cairo 2012) (Leiden, 2013), 29–44. H. Carter, The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen, II (London, 1927). H. Carter, The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen, III (2000 Reprint edn, London, 1933). H. Carter and A. C. Mace, The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen, I (London, 1923). T. M. Davis, The Tombs of Harmhabi and Toutânkhamanou (2001 Reprint edn, London, 1912). E. S. Edwards, ‘Some Reflections on the Tutankhamun Exhibition’, The Burlington Magazine 114 (1972), 202–8. Z. Hawass, Discovering Tutankhamun: From Howard Carter to DNA (Cairo, 2013). Z. Hawass and S. Vannini, Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb (London, 2018). T. Hoving, Tutankhamun: The Untold Story (New York, 1978). T. G. H. James, Howard Carter: The Path to Tutankhamun (Tauris 2001 edn, New York, 1992). N. Kawai et al., ‘The Ceremonial Canopied Chariot of Tutankhamun (JE61990 and JE60705) A Tentative Virtual Reconstruction’, CIPEG 4 (2020), 1–11. N. Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun (Cairo, 1990). N. Reeves, ‘Tutankhamun’s Mask Reconsidered’, Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar: The Art and Culture of Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Dorothea Arnold 19 (2015), 511–26. N. Reeves and J. H. Taylor, Howard Carter Before Tutankhamun (London, 1992). N. Reeves and R. H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings (London, 1996). The Griffith Institute, ‘Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation’, The Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringTut/> accessed . Theban Mapping Project, ‘KV 62 The Tomb of Tutankhamun’. Unknown Author, ‘Work at the Tomb of Tutankhamun’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 33 (1975), 96–108. K. R. Weeks, ‘The Component Parts of KV Royal Tombs’, in R. H. Wilkinson and K. R. Weeks (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings (New York, 2014), 98—117. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
October 19, 20211h 43min