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00:08Their names are etched in stone, their stories carved into the very fabric of history to live
00:14on forever. This is the true story of Egypt's greatest rulers, from their meteoric rise to
00:22absolute power to their ultimate downfall. This is the rise and fall of the pharaohs.
00:50Ancient Egypt in the third millennia BCE. The glory of the Pyramid Age has given way to
00:57division and chaos as the last pharaoh of a united Egypt has died.
01:03We start to see Egypt coming apart at the seams, literally, and we have all these little warring
01:09factions. But in the chaos, a new order is emerging in the southern city of Thebes, and a new dynasty
01:17is taking root. Egypt enters a renaissance. We have new art, new literature, and new ideas.
01:24But the quest to reunify Egypt is a difficult one. Only a ruler with strength and vision can
01:31reunite this shattered land into one. This is the story of Egypt's middle kingdom.
01:39At this time, Egypt is split among local rulers known as the nomarchs. These nomarchs are locked in
01:46struggle, each trying to become the man on top. The pharaoh is at the top of a hierarchy, and he
01:53is
01:53way above everyone else because he's on a completely different level. To become pharaoh is to be
01:59transformed into the god Horus. Horus is the god of kingship, and once the king becomes Horus,
02:06he then becomes a living god. So the pharaoh has three roles. He is the head of the military,
02:13he's the head of the government, and he's the head of the priesthood. With no pharaoh on the throne,
02:19what happens to all these institutions? Without a king, Ma'at is no more. Egypt exists in a state of
02:27chaos. Ma'at is a really important kind of all-encompassing concept in ancient Egypt. It's really
02:35cosmic order. It's the way the universe is supposed to work. And the pharaoh's ultimate role was to
02:42ensure that that happened, to maintain Ma'at. While the pharaohs perhaps seemed extreme,
02:50we're now seeing the downhill progression of what happens to the society that has always known only
02:59the pharaoh. In this high-stakes game of politics, the fate of Egypt is on the line.
03:07The Gnomarchs are setting their own rules. They're creating their own laws, running things the way
03:11they want them to be run. And these regional rulers were constantly vying for territory and making
03:17alliances with each other against others. And it's a period of civil unrest and open warfare between the
03:23different gnomes or regions of Egypt. Through decades of warfare, two factions consolidate power.
03:30These two factions are centered in the city of Thebes in the south and Hierachonopolis in the north.
03:36This war between Thebes and Hierachonopolis lasts for years. Finally, a king warrior arises from Thebes
03:44with the ruthless drive to unite all of Egypt under his rule, Mentuhotep II.
03:52Mentuhotep is named after the Theban god of war, Montu, and he lives up to his name. The nomarchs of
03:58lower Egypt are no match for him, and he smashes their power base. Mentuhotep is going to recreate
04:04the office of pharaoh and unite the lands of Egypt once more. The office of pharaoh is historically
04:09passed down through the family line. Mentuhotep II needs a way of selling himself to the people of
04:16Egypt as a legitimate pharaoh. He wants to claim the rule of pharaoh, but he is not in the line
04:23of kings.
04:24He is the son of a Theban king. The family name was Inteph, but he changed the family name.
04:31Mentuhotep means Montu is content. So by linking himself with the god Montu and saying he was chosen,
04:38it means he's been divinely selected in order to restore the office of pharaoh and reunite Egypt.
04:45By 2060 BCE, Egypt is united under Mentuhotep II, and Thebes is made the new national capital.
04:54Showing the importance of Thebes in this new age, many prominent Thebans are appointed to major
05:00offices of state. This marks a new era of Egypt, one that will have long-lasting effects on the nation,
05:07and the office of pharaoh. Mentuhotep understood that he needed to reform the nomarch system,
05:14so what he did was place the governor who only answered to him above all of them. This is a
05:19greater stratification of society, but also it's pulling power back into the centralized control of
05:25pharaoh. Mentuhotep's reforms not only strengthen the office of pharaoh, but also strengthen Egyptian
05:32society as a whole. With this sense of flourishing that came with the stability of the new rulership,
05:41came the creativity of what signified the Middle Kingdom. Literature, art, and architecture become
05:48very important during Mentuhotep II's reign, and one of the most important manifestations of this new
05:54outlook is Mentuhotep's mortuary temple at Deir al-Bahari. Mentuhotep II built his mortuary complex
06:02using a series of terraces and pillared halls that derives from Theban burial traditions,
06:08not something that you would see up in the north from the Old Kingdom. His beautiful temple at Deir al
06:13-Bahari
06:14will end up being a model that other kings in later periods will use to align themselves with the
06:22founder of the Middle Kingdom, building their own temples close by, mimicking the style, really trying
06:28to show that they're part of this line of kings, whether or not they're related at all in blood.
06:35During his reign, it's kind of interesting, you're going to see more goods that show things associated
06:42with war, models of the army and things like that, which is showing the emphasis of his administration.
06:48He even has, next to his mortuary temple, a burial of a bunch of, we presume, elite warriors of his,
06:56who must have done something great, we don't know what it was, but he appreciated them so much that
07:00they are buried near him. There were, I think, two officers and maybe 50 men, mostly archers,
07:07because they've still got their guards on their wrists. They weren't mummified, they were just wrapped up
07:13in Montuhotep's linens, linen from the royal palace, the good stuff. They were wrapped up and put in a cave
07:19there, and their bodies have lasted pretty well. That temple is a magical place where the goddess Hathor
07:26is there all the time to comfort them, where the god Amun comes to visit, where there are all kinds
07:31of
07:31festivals. So those soldiers, those ordinary guys, they get to enjoy all that for all eternity.
07:40Mentuhotep came to the throne at a time when Egypt was divided. While he unified the nation politically,
07:46the pharaonic institutions, such as a centralized workshop for the royal artisans, had been diffused
07:52or lost during the decades-long civil wars. These royal artisans were the ones who built the pyramids
07:58and the beautiful statuary of the old kingdom. Because of this loss of a centralized pharaonic art style,
08:05new styles based on local customs would arise. A great example of this can be found in the statuary
08:11of Mentuhotep II, which is strikingly different in style than those of the old kingdom.
08:18Some people have said the carving looks crude, it looks unprofessional. I think it looks different
08:23from what we've come to expect from the workshops of Memphis, but that doesn't mean it's worse. I think
08:28it's just emphasizing different things. This statue is quite unusual. The king is depicted with very,
08:35very black skin. Now, I suspect he was a very dark, complexioned man, but the blackness of it is to
08:42show
08:42that he has joined the god Osiris. He is now an underworld deity himself. Black is often caused by
08:49rubbing senetcher incense and ointment onto statues to make them even holier. Senetcher means to make
08:55divine. He's wearing a very short white cloak, which is the cloak you wear for a said festival.
09:01It's a festival you have after 30 years on the throne to celebrate your longevity. And then he's
09:07wearing the red crown. And it's very imposing. You know, it's very large and muscular, but we don't have
09:16these beautiful finite features and these lovely smooth carvings that we were seeing before. Unlike
09:24the old kingdom kings like Menkaure and Kafure, who have beautiful elegant statues showing you they've
09:31got muscles, but they are also gentlemen. And he doesn't really look like a gentleman.
09:39The 11th dynasty does not last long. After the death of Mentuhotep IV,
09:45he had no known heirs and a new dynasty would rise. A dynasty that was famous for using an
09:51innovative tool as their source of power and persuasion. So now we have this interesting figure
09:57called Amenemhat, who, from an inscription that we have, appears to have been the vizier of
10:04Mentuhotep IV. And then suddenly later, he's now king.
10:09Amenemhat's name means Amun is at the forefront. Amun was the primary god of Thebes,
10:15and Amenemhat closely tied his new dynasty to Amun and the priesthood of Amun.
10:21Here is a man who wants to aspire to the office of the pharaoh, but he has a problem, and
10:28that is
10:29lack of legitimacy. He is not a descendant through dynastic succession. He is not linked to the major
10:36institutions of power in Egypt. But what he does have are influential priestly supporters and the power
10:43of prophecy. During his time period, there's a lot of really wonderful literature written, including that
10:50nice story about King Sneferu and the old man Neferti.
10:55Then a king will come from the south, Emeni, the justified by name, son of a woman of Tarseti,
11:03child of Upper Egypt. He will take the white crown. He will wear the red crown. He will join the
11:09two
11:10mighty ones. Well, if your name is Amenemhat, the short form for your name is Emeni. So the prophecy
11:16seems to be telling us that this very same Amenemhat is going to come and save us all,
11:22and everything will be swell. And the only problem is that it probably wasn't written during the time
11:28of Sneferu, and it was probably written in the time of Amenemhat or in the time of his son,
11:33Senwazut I. Amenemhat's use of the prophecy of Neferti would begin a tradition of his dynasty to use the
11:41written word to further a pharaoh's political agenda. During the Middle Kingdom, we see an absolute
11:48golden age for the efflorescence of literature in ancient Egypt. We see so many different styles
11:57of literature being developed. We see poetry, we see narrative tales, and many of those tales
12:02are told and retold into the Ptolemaic and even Roman periods. And you shouldn't think of it as just
12:09like, oh, these independent authors wanted to write a story like it is today. A lot of this literature is
12:15sponsored by the government, and a lot of this literature is there to make the government look good.
12:21These narratives not only entertain, but also offer a window into the values, beliefs, and everyday life of ancient
12:28Egyptians. One of the most celebrated literary works from this time is the tale of Senyuhay.
12:35It's a story about somebody who grew up in court with the king, and he hears about the assassination
12:42of the king, Amenemhat I. And for whatever reason, he's terrified when he hears that the king has been killed,
12:48and he decides to run away. And he runs and runs and runs until he ends up in Syria. And
12:53in Syria,
12:53being an Egyptian, of course, he's smarter than everybody and braver and stronger and tougher.
12:57And before you know it, he's a sheikh with a big family, beautiful wife. Everything is fine.
13:03But then he starts to get old and he thinks, oh, no, what's going to happen to me when I
13:08die?
13:08I won't be able to get to the afterlife. The Egyptian belief system said that if you were buried in
13:14Egypt, you had a chance at eternal life. But this led to a problem for Egyptians abroad. If they were
13:20buried
13:20outside of Egypt, would they reach the afterlife? Many Egyptians believe, no, they wouldn't.
13:26So he writes to the palace in Egypt.
13:30All the gods who ordained this flight, may you be merciful and bring me home. Perhaps you will let
13:36me see the place where my heart dwells, that you reproached me for without me knowing it. I am truly
13:42despised. What matters more than my corpse being buried in the land where I was born?
13:49The king says, come back to Egypt. Don't allow yourself to be buried, wrapped up in a goatskin.
13:53I will welcome you back. There won't be any hard feelings. So Sinui leaves this life he made for
13:59himself and he goes back to Egypt and everybody is very happy to see him and things play out just
14:06as
14:06he had hoped. This tells us a lot about the Egyptian belief system and what this kind of literature is
14:11trying to say. It's saying, no, the pharaoh is benevolent. You don't need to leave Egypt. You want
14:17to be here in the fold with us. It shows us kind of how the Egyptians defined their own identity
14:24in
14:24contrast to these groups, right? Settled urban dwellers as opposed to nomadic pastoralists
14:29with certain beliefs and practices around death and the transition to the afterlife.
14:35Sinui can't really let go of this hope of, you know, being buried like an Egyptian. He can live
14:40like a Syro-Palestinian, but he doesn't want to die like one. The tale of Sinui, as well as being
14:45perhaps a piece of entertainment, is also a bit of political messaging and it's quite savvy because
14:50it positions everyone back within the province of the pharaoh. The other famous story of this age is
14:57one of the first action-adventure stories in human history, the shipwrecked sailor.
15:03It's the tale of a sailor who finds himself shipwrecked upon a deserted island where he
15:09encounters this enormous serpent, but it's a serpent with a beard and it can speak. It's a divine
15:15serpent and the serpent has his own sad tale to tell, but the two work together and eventually the
15:22serpent returns the man to Egypt in a beautiful ship filled with all sorts of exotic fineries,
15:29fabulous animals, gold, silver. It's a delightful tale which tells us a great deal about what the
15:36ancient Egyptians thought the wider world might be like, about the fact that there was still divinity
15:43in that wider world, a divinity that was understood by the ancient Egyptians.
15:50In ancient Egypt, this writing could be found on temples or tomb walls, but also on papyrus. Papyrus
15:59was made from strands of dried wreaths which were bound, hammered together and dried under pressure to
16:04form something similar to paper. Papyrus allowed scribes, literate Egyptians, to communicate stories,
16:12but also administer the pharaoh's orders in a portable format. The writing system used by these scribes
16:19is known as hieroglyphics.
16:22Hieroglyphs are a combination of several different types of signs. They're all pictures, but the way they
16:28use those pictures is a little bit different and they combine these to make the script. So you have
16:34signs that represent sounds. You have some of those representing a single sound, some representing
16:41a syllable or multiple sounds strung together. And then you have signs that don't have a phonetic
16:48value. They're just there to kind of reinforce the meaning of the word or to stand as an entire word
16:56in
16:56themselves. For sun, you might have the sun sign, which is just a circle with a dot through it and
17:02a
17:02little stroke underneath to show that, yeah, we actually literally mean the sun. Some basic tips
17:08on how to read hieroglyphs. Look at where all of the animals are facing. They're all facing to the head
17:14of the line. So you're reading sort of towards the faces of the animals. Hieroglyphics allowed the
17:21Egyptians to communicate not only stories in the will of pharaohs, but also complex philosophical and
17:28political works. And one of the most important of this style of work from this period is the so-called
17:34teachings of Amenemhat I. This is typical where you have a wise father giving instructions to his son.
17:42In this case, it's Amenemhat giving instructions to his son Senusret. And this came out during Senusret's reign.
17:48And in the document, there's a prologue that describes how Amenemhat was assassinated in the palace.
17:57So here he is saying, oh, I was in my room. I was sleeping at night and I heard some
18:02commotion in the
18:02palace and I woke up and you were not there, my son. You know, and then he apparently dies. Then
18:09there's
18:10another bit of this in the tale of Senuhe. And in that, it is said that when King Amenemhat was
18:16assassinated,
18:17Senusret was far away on a military campaign. Now think to yourself, why are these stories coming out
18:23telling us that, oh, you know, Senusret was nowhere near the palace when this was, and obviously had
18:30nothing to do with this. That makes you wonder if he did have something to do with the assassination.
18:36The Middle Kingdom was a time where the power of the written word reached a new level of relevancy,
18:42giving the pharaohs another tool of power. You know, one of our conceptions of ancient
18:47Egypt is that they had very low literacy rates. But what we discover, especially by the Middle Kingdom,
18:53is that in fact, there are people, even people of non-high status, peasants, artisans, who can read and write.
19:03This literacy is evident in a famous group of letters from a farmer to his son.
19:08They're called the Hekenacht letters. And Hekenacht is a grumpy old man. And he's gone to the north of
19:15Egypt to try and get grain. Hekenacht is writing letters back to his oldest son. And he must have
19:21been driving the poor fellow crazy. He tells him which fields to sow, which fields to rent. And it's a
19:26big
19:26household. And so we learn about all the people in the household. His old mother is there and her best
19:32friend. And they've got to feed them too, even though they're useless. There's also Hekenacht's
19:37new wife, whom nobody likes, oddly enough, and her spoiled little son. And old Hekenacht wants to make
19:45sure that she is treated properly and the boy is treated properly, or else it is just some of the
19:52best
19:52stuff that ever survived from an ancient civilization. And these letters are in very good condition.
19:58These letters bring into focus the everyday life of Egyptian farmers and the importance of the Nile
20:04in their lives. In the Middle Kingdom, as in generations in the past, the Nile is the key to
20:11Egypt's agricultural bounty and the nation's very existence. The Nile is the lifeline of ancient Egypt.
20:19It could not have survived without it. Egypt is essentially a giant oasis.
20:24There's desert on both sides, but you have this river that not only provides water,
20:29but in flooding every year, it's depositing this rich silt onto the land. And that's what
20:35provides the nutrients that you can farm with. If you were working the land in Egypt, you are used to
20:41a steady procession of seasons. But their seasons aren't determined so much by the weather as they are
20:47built by the Nile. So there are three basic seasons in ancient Egypt. There's Achet, which is the
20:53inundation. There's Peret, which is the growing season. And then there's Shemu, which is the dry season.
20:59And this is essentially the cycle of the Egyptian calendar year after year. The Nile is the
21:06manifestation of Egyptian conceptions of order, of Mahat.
21:12The ancient Egyptians used an ingenious yet simple method for measuring the flow of the Nile's flood
21:17waters. The Egyptians required a way to predict the Nile flood. And to this end, they created
21:24nilometers. These were made of stone and they measured the height of the Nile along various points
21:30of the river. It was very important for the Egyptians to know when the Nile was going to flood,
21:35and also if it was going to be a good flood or not. It takes a couple of weeks for
21:39the flood to reach the
21:40whole country. So down at Aswan, that's where you notice it first. And down at Aswan, there are these
21:47things called nilometers. And they're basically sets of stairs going way down. And there are numbers on
21:52the wall. And a scribe or a priest could go down there every day and count. Okay, we're up to
21:57five
21:58palms and three fingers of water. They could send word on ahead to the people up in the north and
22:04say,
22:05the flood this year doesn't look like it's going to be enough. We're going to be in trouble. Or,
22:10the flood is already too high this year. Be careful. Warn the people.
22:14And during the inundation, this was a period where the Egyptians would actually do something
22:18other than farming. The land was completely waterlogged. So this was actually a time during
22:24the Great Pyramids when the pharaoh would use this workforce to build the pyramids.
22:31Thanks to the bounty in agricultural produce, ancient Egypt is the bread basket of the ancient
22:37Mediterranean world. And in the Middle Kingdom, as in previous ages, most Egyptians were farmers who
22:44work the land. This created a societal structure that looked much like the pyramids, which this
22:50land is so famous for. At the bottom of this pyramid are the great throngs of agricultural workers,
22:57the peasants, the people who kept Egypt fed, the people who allowed Egypt to flourish.
23:03At that time, the pharaoh owned everything. There was no land ownership by the general populace.
23:10You were essentially a serf under the pharaoh. You grew the crops. You harvested the crops. And your
23:19payment was a food supply. Working in the field was a family endeavor. Everyone had their role to play.
23:26The fathers and the sons would go out into the field. If they had oxen, they would till the fields
23:31with the oxen. If they didn't, they did it by hand. To follow them, their wives and daughters would come
23:38with baskets of seeds. And they would sprinkle the seeds in these newly tilled furrows. And then they
23:46would release the sheep or goats that they kept into the fields so that they could trample all of the
23:54seeds down into the soil. Even little kids as young as three and four were out there scattering seeds and
24:00mom was carrying the younger ones on the front or the back and you were just out there doing your
24:05work.
24:06They would mainly rely on bread, barley, fruits and vegetables. Equally, they would depend on the
24:13animals that they would be domesticating and slaughtering for food or for offerings to the gods as well.
24:20Grain was so important to the ancient Egyptians, it was even considered their currency,
24:25as workers were often paid in it. Another form of currency was Egyptian beer.
24:31Beer isn't just a nice drink to have on a hot day in ancient Egypt, it's actually a staple food.
24:38The beer that they had in ancient Egypt wasn't really like the beer that we're used to
24:42today. It was lower in alcohol, it was much stodgier, more like a porridge or a soup, if you will.
24:51It was served up in clay containers and often drunk with a form of reed or straw.
24:55You put a lump of bread or bread dough in the bottom of a jar and then you put in
25:01something sweet,
25:02like a puree of dates, and then just cork it up and it will ferment on its own.
25:08It was safer to drink than water, which could become contaminated, but it also provided a number of
25:13vitamins and minerals that the everyday Egyptian would need to stay healthy.
25:16Egyptians only ate twice a day. They ate in the morning, quite a substantially large amount of
25:23food, and then they ate at the end of the day when they were finished and everything in between
25:28was beer. It was a drink that little children would have that wasn't seen as something, you know,
25:35alcoholic per se. Ancient Egyptian beer was to bring in as offerings to the deities because it was
25:42crucial for the deceased to be able to sustain themselves for the journey of the afterlife.
25:47So it did have a sacred religious significance, but it equally had a social aspect to it.
25:55There's also festival beer, and festival beer is really made to make you drunk as a skunk.
26:00There were festivals where you deliberately went and got smashed.
26:06Agriculture was incredibly important for Egypt, and to sustain greater yields,
26:11the pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom undertook great construction projects.
26:15The pharaohs very early realized that control of the water of Egypt was control of Egypt.
26:21So the state took over control of irrigation. What irrigation meant was that you could move water
26:27around the country so that you could control where agriculture would work and wouldn't work.
26:32That meant that you could control the grain supply. But once you've got concentrated control of the land
26:37and the grain, you've got control of all of Egypt because that is their currency.
26:42These canals were not only for agriculture, but also for trade.
26:47One of the earliest canals existed linking the Nile to the Red Sea, and the main function for this
26:54canal was land expansion, but equally commerce and trade to explore new land and to expand,
27:01building what one can call an empire. And it was not just canals that the 12th dynasty was building.
27:09In this Middle Kingdom renaissance, we start to see the building of pyramids once more.
27:15This is indicative of a few things. One of those is that pharaoh's in charge again.
27:21We have centralized power. We have organization of labor. Egypt is almost back on top.
27:26These kings want to show us that they are the equal of those old kings from Memphis back in the
27:31old
27:31kingdom. But they've got other things to do. They've got wars to fight. They've got explorations.
27:36They've got all those waterworks to do in the Fayyum. So they really can't waste all those resources
27:42on building a silly pyramid. And they do something brilliant instead. They make an interior structure
27:49of stone. And they have it filled up with mud bricks. And then the outside is cased with beautiful white
27:55tour limestone. And when you walk past, it looks exactly like an old kingdom pyramid. Never quite as
28:01big, but very, very big indeed. They are tombs, but they also increasingly are sites of civic engagement
28:08in a much more immediate way for everyone living in that society. So in that sense, they are once again
28:16re-tailoring the conception of the pharaoh and his relationship with society.
28:21Middle Kingdom pyramids have been stripped of their beautiful stone coating. So most of them look
28:27like big lumps. Unfortunately today, we're not seeing a lot of these left due to the erosion of the
28:34mud brick in the wind, the temperature drops, all of the same things that they were experiencing
28:40in the very first pyramids that they were building from mud brick.
28:45While the pharaohs of this age were buried in pyramids, the common people could also have their
28:51chance at being reborn in the afterlife. During the first intermediate period,
28:56there was chaos in Egypt and tombs were being robbed. For the first time, people were able to
29:02enter the tombs of their kings and see the writings that were inscribed on the walls.
29:08This led to a question in the mind of the Egyptian. What is this writing? And they learned these are
29:14spells that help you in the afterlife. Every Egyptian wants to reach the afterlife. And so from these early
29:21pyramid texts in the Middle Kingdom, we start to see coffin texts. All of a sudden, eternal life is not
29:28just reserved for the pharaoh, but it's actually accessible to anyone who can have a scribe put the
29:34spells of what would later be known as the Book of the Dead on their coffins.
29:39You know, I'll give you so many bags of grain. Will you please write this incantation for me?
29:47And these were texts that had the magic spells that the deceased would need to overcome the many dangers
29:53that he or she would find on their way to the afterlife or to eternity.
29:58The Egyptian afterlife is often depicted in real life scenes of Egyptians working fields or the river
30:05in bright white clothes. The afterlife is always summer. People are always able to wear their fine
30:10linen garments and, you know, be comfortable. It's always harvest time. They're always harvesting.
30:15It's ideal. It's not really probably representing the full spectrum of clothing that people actually wore
30:21throughout the year. Wool was worn because there are times when it does get a little chilly in Egypt
30:27and so they use wool as well. The fashion of ancient Egypt was not only functional but also stylized.
30:35Men were wearing something known as a shanty and it was essentially a fold of fabric that was wrapped
30:42around the body like a skirt of sorts and then it had a sash to hold it in place. And
30:49this was often
30:50all that men wore. Women were long, normally down to the ankle length, white linen dresses. White,
30:57obviously, because it reflected the sun's rays. Linen comes from flocks which they grew locally.
31:03It is breathable and it allows someone living in a hot climate to still be able to function outdoors.
31:10The difference between upper and lower class people was really just the texture of the fabric.
31:18They were wearing the same type of fabric. It's just that on the sort of lower level of society, the
31:25weave
31:25would have been a little less fine. It would have been a little bit rougher against the skin,
31:31whereas the pharaohs and the queens and the court, it was all about the beautiful transparency of this fabric.
31:41It is said that Egyptian women had fabric so diaphanous that you could literally see everything.
31:51During the Middle Kingdom, Egyptians would wear elaborate jewelry made of gold,
31:56bronze, copper, and semi-precious stones. Common items include necklaces, amulets, bracelets,
32:03and rings, often featuring intricate designs, symbolizing protection, status, and divine favor.
32:11These adornments are worn by both men and women alike.
32:15Both men and women wore makeup in ancient Egypt. Pigment for lips, for example. Some of it was for
32:21around the eyes, like coal. Coal was very important in Egyptian culture. Coal is a naturally plant-based
32:29derivative, often pounded into a powder and mixed with some sort of carrier, whether it's a fat or a
32:36beeswax. And while it's beautiful, it also had a function. It helped the eye in the bright sunlight.
32:44Much like you see a football player putting dark patches underneath, it helped to actually dispel the
32:50sunlight away from the eyes. They used two different colors. So they'd use lead galena, which is black,
32:56or malachite for green. Both of those minerals have antiseptic and antibiotic properties. Parasite-borne
33:03eye disease is a big problem in Egypt still today. It would have been in ancient times. So antiseptic
33:09antibiotic properties might have helped protect people's eyes. Those in the upper echelons of society
33:15depilated, so the men and the women shaved their heads. They all wore hugely expensive, very ornate wigs.
33:23And it just depended on who you were and what your role was, was the style of wig that you
33:30wore.
33:30So we often see these very elaborate, hard helmet-looking hairdos, when in reality those are wigs,
33:38most often made from horse hair and or perhaps human hair if it was cleaned and braided. But tiny little
33:47micro braids, thousands of them would make up these wigs. Maybe because it's cooler and because then you
33:53don't have to have your hair dressed every day. Lice was something that nobody wanted, and certainly
33:59in hot climates it would have been prevalent. So keeping the body hair-free and using wigs as an
34:06adornment was a huge part of their aesthetic. In ancient Egypt, fashion is an outward representation
34:14of your status in society. From dress to adornments, the pharaoh is set apart from the rest of society,
34:22placing them closer to the divine than their fellow humans. This is especially true in regards to facial hair.
34:30Ancient Egyptians are not that big on facial hair. Once in a while you'll see a gentleman with a
34:37very neatly trimmed mustache, but they weren't like the Assyrians and Babylonians and Near Eastern
34:43cultures were. They really emphasize a nice beard. That wasn't as much of a fashion statement in ancient
34:49Egypt, but a person who is portrayed with a beard is the king. This may have been a ceremonial beard,
34:55not something that the king actually grew. It was part of the regalia of kingship. You also see it on
35:01gods. And it is kind of a marker of his divine status. Like all aspects of society, fashion was also
35:10tied to the gods. Religion was deeply intertwined with daily life for all Egyptians. They worshipped a
35:17pantheon of gods who controlled every aspect of existence. Festivals were core to the rhythm
35:25of Egyptian life. These were times when they were free from work, where they could offer offerings to
35:32their gods. They could celebrate together and create social bonds. And also at the same time,
35:38these were moments where pharaonic power could loom large because often the pharaoh was the patron
35:44of these festivities along with the temple complexes. And the king is going to pay for the beer and the
35:51food,
35:51lots of beef, lots of cakes, and dancers and singers. This all adds to the idea of the middle kingdom
35:59being prosperous, looking towards the future, taking the country with the king, with the court, into
36:08halcyon days. These festivals are also the chants where people have more direct contact with their gods.
36:17Typically, the ordinary Egyptian didn't see the statues of their gods, for example, that were kept
36:24in all the temple complexes. Temples were inaccessible to the public. This was a restricted area, so only
36:31those who were working inside the temple and equally the nobles or the members of the royal court were
36:36allowed in. But during festive times, those statues of the gods were brought out and they were processed
36:41through the streets. And so here they are made visible, they are rendered palpable as part of the
36:49local community and objects of adoration. The Egyptian reverence of the gods can be seen
36:55in the names of the pharaohs. For example, Amenemhat, the founder of the 12th dynasty's name,
37:01means Amun is at the forefront. Amun is the chief deity of Thebes. And while the middle kingdom is an
37:08age of
37:09great cultural advancement, war is always on the horizon. Because of this fact, the pharaohs of
37:16the middle kingdom use their great resources to create a string of defensive structures that are
37:21so large they rival the pyramids in size and scope. In the early days, Egypt's relationships with its
37:28neighbours were somewhat hostile. To this end, they decided to build fortresses. These places were
37:36impenetrable, huge structures, mostly of mud brick. They weren't built to stand the test of time in the
37:41way that the pharaoh's tombs were, but they were extremely sturdy. This was a show of military might
37:48all the way along the Nile, at every border, especially with the Nubia. Egypt had an interesting
37:53relationship with the Nubians because on the one hand, there were Nubians that were living in Egyptian
38:00territory. They were even hired by the government. Some were working as mercenaries for the government.
38:04But then the independent Nubians to the south, there were constant battles with them. And Nubia,
38:11you have to keep in mind, was a rich country. They had a lot of gold there, and the Egyptians
38:14wanted
38:15gold. They loved gold. The very name Nubia means land of gold in the Egyptian language. Originally,
38:21they would go into Nubia to raid. They would take their gold. They would kill their soldiers. Over the years,
38:27and over different dynasties, we see this relationship switch from an adversarial rivalry
38:33to almost a trade partnership. And so if you're collecting gold, you're going to collect it in these
38:39fortresses. And every now and again, when the Nile is right, you send it downriver into Egypt. They look a
38:45lot
38:45like medieval forts. They have loops for arrows, for shooting arrows. They have fosses. They have
38:50ditches in front of them. Inside, there are little towns. So inside, there'll be a couple of little
38:56temples, the houses of the important people, smaller houses for the poor people. These fortresses
39:02are within running distance of each other. They're only a few miles apart. And if I get attacked, I can
39:07light fires on my bastions, and your men will come running. So this chain of fortresses along the Nile is
39:14very, very strong. But as the 12th dynasty continues, the threats from outside Egypt mount. During the
39:23Middle Kingdom, there's starting to be an organization, and a nation is being built. It's a city called
39:29Kerma that is going to be the heart of a really powerful empire. And the Sumasra and the Mennonite
39:36kings, the 12th dynasty, they are trying to stop that from happening. They're trying to make sure that
39:41everybody in Nubia stays in a little tribe and very scattered, and that you don't get a real nation
39:47state being built. While the pharaohs of this age conducted military campaigns in the north and the
39:53south, the Middle Kingdom was mostly a peaceful period for the Egyptians. It is during this long
39:59lasting period of stability that we see the rise of the pharaoh Amenemhat III. He is the first pharaoh
40:06since the Old Kingdom to build two pyramids in his lifetime. But Amenemhat III's long reign is a
40:13double-edged sword. The problem of reigning for a long time is that you outlive many of your
40:18successors. Amenemhat III only has one successor, and when he dies, that king isn't on the throne
40:24for a very long time. Egypt is suddenly in danger. They are left without a pharaoh. Without the pharaoh,
40:30there is no centralized authority. What are they going to do? There's no way that they want the
40:37country to fall back into the chaos that was, so they actually appoint a woman. Her name was Sobek
40:47Nofru, daughter of Amenemhat III, and she is Egypt's first woman king. This is unheard of anywhere else in the
40:55ancient world. You saw succession of sons as kings, but never daughters. But the royal blood in Egypt
41:02is unique in that it can be carried by the women of the family. Sobek Nofru, it's interesting because
41:08you can see that she really was struggling with how to depict herself both as a traditional ruler,
41:14with masculine characteristics, but also with a nod to her feminine physique. There's a lovely statue of
41:22her in the Louvre, which unfortunately is not complete, but she is wearing the king's Neme's
41:27headdress, a woman's dress, a man's kilt over the dress, and a dagger in the belt.
41:34She would be still referred to as the king rather than a queen, as a para, as a pharaoh.
41:39She's a woman, but in the eyes of her position, she is a man. She is able to construct herself
41:48as
41:49pharaoh based upon the same rules and pillars of authority that her father and predecessors have
41:57been able to do. She was the head military commander. She assumed the role of high priestess
42:02and also the role of king. What does that tell us? Well, it tells us, first of all,
42:08that because she was the daughter of the previous pharaoh, that had some legitimacy attached to it.
42:14But secondly, she must have been able to work with the head authorities in the military
42:22and at the temple complexes, the priests, in order to gain their support.
42:27This really is testament to the progressive nature of Egypt and its perhaps unique view of gender
42:34and a greater sense of equality amongst men and women in ancient Egypt.
42:38Ancient Egypt is a patriarchy. Men do still hold most of the power. But it's, I think,
42:46much more of a level playing field in terms of legal rights, for example,
42:51than it is in other places in the ancient world. So for example, if you were a woman,
42:57you could divorce your rotten husband and disinherit your awful children,
43:02and that was perfectly legal. You had those rights.
43:06Egypt, even at this very early stage during the Middle Kingdom, was quite progressive compared
43:11to other cultures when it came to women rights and the position that they could hold in society.
43:16They could have very important priestly titles, for example, and, you know, they could run businesses,
43:24they could run their own household. And if you're running an estate, then that's, you know,
43:30quite a lot that you're in charge of.
43:32Sobek Neferu only rules for a handful of years. It is unclear what caused her reign to be cut short.
43:39Sobek Neferu dies, leaving Egypt with no pharaoh once again. To complicate matters,
43:44it seems there may have been a period of low flood inundation by the Nile.
43:49This series of weak Nile floods caused food insecurity for the Egyptians, which was intensified by an influx of new
43:57migrants.
43:58The Middle Kingdom was a period of dramatic change within the kingdom itself, and one of the greater
44:04forces of it was migration. There's a lot of evidence that climactic change was affecting the ability of
44:13people to survive in many of the regions around Egypt. They're coming from Palestine, from Libya,
44:20from Asia more generally, hoping clearly for a better life.
44:25Stability that was offered through the Middle Kingdom has made it quite attractive for others
44:32who lacked the stability where they come from. What is interesting is the ability of the Egyptian society
44:38to absorb these cultural differences, but equally the ability of the migrants to adapt to the Egyptian
44:45cultural beliefs and traditions, and this has led to a fusion of multiculturalism that existed very early
44:52in Egyptian history. By the late 12th dynasty, the migrants from the Levant are a significant element
44:59in the population, and these migrants begin to rise through the ranks of Egyptian society, even winning
45:06promotion to government positions. While the early migrants from Asia were seeking a better life,
45:12a true threat emerged by the 18th century BCE. There's squabbling happening amongst the different
45:18governors once more. There's no pharaoh to report to to keep all the no marks in check. Between all of
45:24these
45:24economic factors, agricultural factors, and political factors, Egypt is starting to splinter. There are some
45:31enemies on the horizon who will take advantage of the weakness of Egypt in this period, and they would
45:36come to be known as the Hyksos. The chariot-driven Hyksos storm Egypt, sweeping southward to conquer the
45:44ancient capital of Memphis. Within a few years, lower Egypt is Hyksos territory. The Hyksos chariot was
45:51devastating military technology, and it was something that Egypt couldn't match at that time. They also had
45:58weapons of metal, curved copesh-like swords. The Egyptian army at the time was mostly comprised of
46:04people with spears and perhaps more rudimentary weapons. Some swords were used, but often expensive
46:11metal weapons were outside the reach of the everyday foot soldier. The Hyksos were well armed and well
46:17trained, and with a somewhat divided Egypt more than a match. But who are these mysterious would-be
46:24conquerors of Egypt? The peoples of Upper Egypt depict the Hyksos as these vile invaders who stormed
46:32Egypt with their chariots and their wicked blades. However, there are other theories about who the
46:38Hyksos were. It's possible that these were Levantine people who were already settled in Lower Egypt,
46:44who rose up through the ranks and eventually took control of certain areas. We really can't be sure
46:50on the origin of the Hyksos. What we do know is they cause big problems for the native Egyptian rulers
46:56of the time. They have no respect for the centralized structured order that you find in Egypt,
47:02or the office of Pharaoh as the source of order of Mahat. And then we go through a lengthy period
47:10where there is a Hyksos king in the Delta at Avarus, and we have the king of Egypt in Thebes.
47:20For the Egyptians to have half their homeland conquered by foreigners leaves a deep scar on the
47:26national psyche. To them, the Hyksos represented an overthrowing of Mahat. This was a time very much of
47:34fear and paranoia amongst the native Egyptians of what these foreign rulers really had planned for
47:39them. When the Hyksos come into Egypt, they bring their own pantheon of deities. And that's very
47:46different to the Egyptian pantheon. There's almost no overlap. One of the few areas of overlap is the
47:52storm god Baal. And Baal, in some respects, overlays quite nicely with the Egyptian god Set.
48:00Set was seen in an adversarial role to Osiris, the father of Horus. Because the Hyksos are associated
48:07with Set, they are naturally the enemy of Horus, who is the pharaoh.
48:13And if you can play into that, you can say, well, look it, we are the representations of Horus,
48:20we are his followers, and they are the followers of Set, so this is like the battle between the two
48:25sides. Then you have a reason to go to war with them. While the elite of Egypt marked the battle
48:30with Hyksos as a war for the soul of the nation, the situation in the south is worsening. The Nubians,
48:37one of Egypt's oldest competitors, are on the march. The Hyksos are descending from the north.
48:44The Nubians are coming from the south. Can Egypt survive when it's surrounded? It seems from all sides.
48:50Enter Kemose, the leader of Thebes, a powerful warlord who is set to reunify Egypt and drive out the invaders.
49:00Kemose is a local Egyptian king operating out of Thebes. His main goal is to reunify Egypt,
49:09to kick out the Hyksos, make sure that Nubia stays under the thumb, and to bring all of the disparate
49:18parts of Egypt, the Nile Valley, back together again under one ruler, and Kemose wants to be that ruler.
49:26In 5040 BCE, in only his second year on the throne, Kemose led his forces southward.
49:33Their immediate mission is to retake Nubia and secure Wawat against Nubian attack,
49:39therefore creating a buffer zone on the Theban southern flank.
49:43The problem with trying to deal with an enemy in the north and an enemy in the south,
49:47is if they get together, you're in big trouble.
49:50Apepi, the king of the Hyksos, has sent a secret delegation to the Nubians.
49:55Apepi wishes to coordinate attacks against Kemose and take Egypt once and for all.
50:01So the letter that Apepi sent to the Nubians never got there because Kemose intercepted it.
50:07Kemose learns that the Hyksos plan to split Egypt with their Nubian foes.
50:12Everything is on the line here.
50:13Considering that, Kemose must do something, right?
50:17Because there's an existential threat to the upper Egyptian kingdom.
50:20He takes his forces and marches north to catch the Hyksos whilst they're off guard.
50:25His strategy was to go north first and hit the Hyksos as hard as he possibly could.
50:31And he was successful. He drove them all the way back to their city of Avaris.
50:37But in the siege of that city, he was killed.
50:42He's taken back to Thebes, held as a hero, but now no one is leading the army.
50:48The Hyksos have been driven back, but they haven't crucially been driven out of Egypt yet.
50:53Egypt is at a crossroads. While the Theban resistance has gained a foothold against the Hyksos,
50:59the death of Kemose has set back the reconquest. The Thebans are once again on the back foot.
51:06With Kemose out of the picture now, what's going to happen? Are the Hyksos going to come back
51:11and drive the upper Egyptians back out of the delta? Or is Kemose's successor going to come
51:19with the force and finish the job?
51:22And he's taken back. Luckily, Kemose has a brother, Amose. This son of Thebes has one mission,
51:29to retake Egypt and usher in a new golden age of Egyptian civilization.
51:59even though he's been a master of depth, he was given as a peace as a warrior.
52:04The story of the Thebes has an honor and a new golden age of time is coming back.
52:04But the science of history and the businesses have been created by the city and the city,
52:05in some ways, in the system of knowledge, as long as its resistance,
52:05in some ways, from the state of gravity and others,
52:05in the system of the geocaching civilization.
52:06The one is a new generation of theazis of muttaureans
52:06the city of the city, and the city of the city in the world.
52:06You have and the city of the city of the city and the city of the city of the city,
52:06and the city of the city of the city of the city of the city.
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