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