The History of Egypt Podcast

Five thousand years ago, a kingdom emerged on the banks of the Nile. The "Two Lands" of Southern and Northern Egypt slowly unified, and rulers like Narmer established their authority. The origins of the kingdom are murky, but archaeology can uncover secrets. In this episode, we meet the first ruler of the land, get a sense of Egypt and its people, and introduce the podcast as a whole. Welcome!

• Date: circa 3050 – 3000 BCE.
• Kings: Narmer, Scorpion (epilogue).
• The History of Egypt Podcast website.
• Support the show at www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.
• Episode Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com.

Select Bibliography:

• Kathryn A. Bard, An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 2nd edition, 2015.
• Eugenia D’Atanasio et al., “The Peopling of the Last Green Sahara Revealed by High-Coverage Resequencing of Trans-Saharan Patrilineages,” Genome Biology 19.20 (2018): 1–15.
• Gunter Dreyer, “Tomb U-j: A Royal Burial of Dynasty 0 at Abydos,” in Emily Teeter (ed.) Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, 2011: 127-36.
• A.J. Spencer, Early Egypt: The Rise of Civilization in the Nile Valley, 1993.
• Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, 3rd edition, 2018.
• David O’Connor, Abydos: Egypt’s First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris, 2011.
• John Romer, A History of Ancient Egypt from the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid, 2013.
• Alice Stevenson, “Material Culture of the Predynastic Period,” in Emily Teeter (ed.) Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, 2011: 65-74.
• David Wengrow, “Landscapes of Knowledge, Idioms of Power: The African Foundations of Ancient Egyptian Civilization Reconsidered,” in David O’Connor and Andrew Reid (eds) Ancient Egypt in Africa, 2003: 121-36.
• David Wengrow, The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in North-East Africa, 10,000 to 2650 BC, 2006.
• Robert J. Wenke, The Ancient Egyptian State: The Origins of Egyptian Culture (c. 8000 – 2000 BC), 2009.
• Toby A.H. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt, 1999.
• Bruce B. Williams, “Relations Between Egypt and Nubia in the Predynastic Period,” in Emily Teeter (ed.) Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, 2011: 83-92.

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A crime scene with no crime? In 1925, archaeologists working at Giza uncovered a remarkable monument. The tomb chamber of Queen Hetep-Heres (c.2630-2580 BCE) contained a wealth of beautiful, high-quality items. But the monument itself was strange, the excavation was a serious challenge, and the results were baffling in many ways. In this episode, we explore the discovery, revelation, the life, and the legacy of Queen Hetep-Heres...

Extended version of this episode and digital booklet available at www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.

The Tomb of Queen Hetep-Heres:

• Digital Giza http://giza.fas.harvard.edu/sites/1509/full/.
• G. A. Reisner and W. S. Smith, A History of the Giza Necropolis Volume II: The Tomb of Hetep-Heres the Mother of Cheops (1955). Available online.
• M. Lehner, The Pyramid Tomb of Hetep-Heres and the Satellite Pyramid of Khufu (1985). Available online.

The treasures of Hetep-Heres:

• Ancient objects at Digital Giza.
• Furniture of Hetep-Heres in the Cairo Museum at Wikimedia.
• Exact replicas at Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
• Modern reconstruction and replica of a throne at Harvard University.
• The bracelets of Hetep-Heres – Aegean silver? SCIMEX, ‘Queen Hetepheres’ bracelets reveal new information on trade networks in Old Kingdom Egypt, c 2600 BC’, Scimex, Available online. See also K. Sowada et al., ‘Analyses of Queen Hetepheres’ bracelets from her celebrated tomb in Giza reveals new information on silver, metallurgy and trade in Old Kingdom Egypt, c. 2600 BC’, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 49 (2023), 1—9. Available online.
• The History of Egypt Podcast Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.
• Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.
• Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments.

Select Bibliography:

• M. Baud, Famille royale et pouvoir sous l’Ancien Empire égyptien (1999).
• Boston Museum of Fine Arts, ‘The Tomb of Queen Hetep-heres’.
• V. G. Callender, In Hathor’s Image I. The Wives and Mothers of Egyptian Kings from Dynasties I-VI (2011).
• V. G. Callender, ‘Queen Hetepheres I’, Bulletin of the Australian Centre of Egyptology 1 (1990), 25—30.
• P. Der Manuelian, ‘The Lost Throne of Queen Hetepheres from Giza: An Archaeological Experiment in Visualization and Fabrication’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 53 (2017), 1–46.
• D. Dunham, ‘A Statuette of Two Egyptian Queens’, Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts 34 (1936), 3–5.
• Z. A. Hawass, ‘The Mystery of Hetepheres’, in Z. A. Hawass (ed.), The Treasures of the Pyramids (2003), 152—155.
• G. P. Killen, Ancient Egyptian Furniture Volume I: 4000–1300 B.C. (Oxford, 2013).
• M. Lehner and Z. A. Hawass, Giza and the Pyramids (2017).
• H.-H. Münch, ‘Categorizing Archaeological Finds: The Funerary Material of Queen Hetepheres I at Giza’, Antiquity 74 (2000), 898—908.
• Reisner, ‘The Household Furniture of Queen Hetep-Heres I’, Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts 27 (1929), 83–90.
• G. A. Reisner, ‘Hetep-Heres, Mother of Cheops’, Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts 25 (1927), 1–36.
• G. A. Reisner and W. S. Smith, A History of the Giza Necropolis Volume II: The Tomb of Hetep-Heres the Mother of Cheops (1955).
• SCIMEX, ‘Queen Hetepheres’ bracelets reveal new information on trade networks in Old Kingdom Egypt, c 2600 BC’, Scimex, https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/analysis-of-queen-hetepheres-bracelets-reveals-new-information-on-trade-net...

The war for Ta-Wer. The Thebans had seized the sacred city of Abdju (Abydos) in the district of Ta-Wer. The northern rulers, from the House of Khety, contested this violently. Inscriptions and art reveal the movements of armies, the clashes on field and river, and the sieging of major towns. Soon, things going downright apocalyptic. Also... dogs!

• Music and interludes by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net.
• Music and interludes by Jeffrey Goodman www.jeffreygoodman.com.
• Interludes by Luke Chaos www.chaosmusick.com.
• Logo image: Intef II, from a stela in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Intro: Saruman's Speech from The Two Towers (2002), adapted by Dominic Perry.
• Fawlty Towers excerpts via Britbox Don't Mention the War | Fawlty Towers (youtube.com).

The History of Egypt Podcast:

• Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.
• Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.
• Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments.

Partial Bibliography:

• M. D. Adams, ‘Community and Society in Egypt in the First Intermediate Period: An Archaeological Investigation of the Abydos Settlement Site’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Michigan (2005).
• D. Arnold, Gräber des Alten und Mittleren Reiches in El-Tarif (Mainz, 1976).
• D. D. Baker, Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs Volume I: Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300 - 1069 BC (Cairo, 2008).
• H. Brunner, Die Texte aus den Gräbern der Herakleopolitenzeit von Siut mit Übersetzung und Erläuterungen (Glückstadt, 1937).
• J. J. Clère and J. Vandier, Textes de la Première Période Intermédiare et de la XIeme Dynastie (Brussels, 1948).
• J. C. Darnell and D. Darnell, ‘New Inscriptions of the Late First Intermediate Period from the Theban Western Desert and the Beginnings of the Northern Expansion of the Eleventh Dynasty’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 56 (1997), 241--258.
• W. Ejsmond, ‘The Nubian Mercenaries of Gebelein in Light of Recent Field Research’, Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 14 (2017), 11--13.
• N. Fields, Soldier of the Pharaoh: Middle Kingdom Egypt 2055--1650 BC (2007).
• H. G. Fischer, Inscriptions from the Coptite Nome: Dynasties VI-XI (Analecta orientalia 40; Rome, 1964).
• H. G. Fischer, ‘Provincial Inscriptions of the Heracleopolitan Period’, Varia Nova, Egyptian Studies 3 (New York, 1996), 79--90.
• G. P. Gilbert, Weapons, Warriors, and Warfare in Early Egypt (Oxford, 2004).
• H. Goedicke, ‘The Inscription of Dmi’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 19 (1960), 288--291.
• W. Grajetzki, The Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt (London, 2006 & 2024).
• R. Landgráfová, It Is My Good Name That You Should Remember: Egyptian Biographical Texts on Middle Kingdom Stelae (Prague, 2011).
• M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms (Los Angeles, 1973).
• M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Autobiographies Chiefly of the Middle Kingdom: A Study and an Anthology (Freiburg, 1988).
• D. O’Connor, Abydos: Egypt’s First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris (London, 2009).
• S. Seidlmayer, ‘The First Intermediate Period (c. 2160--2055 BC)’, in I. Shaw (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2000), 108--136.
• I. Shaw, Ancient Egyptian Warfare (Oxford, 2019).
• J. Wegner, ‘The Stela of Idudju-Iker, Foremost-One of the Chiefs of Wawat: New Evidence on the Conquest of Thinis Under Wahankh Antef II’, Revue d’égyptologie 68 (2018), 153--209.
• T. Wilkinson, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt: The History of a Civilisation from 3000 BC to Cleopatra (London, 2010).

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Egypt's earliest monarchs are a curious bunch. Powerful figures like Aha and Merneith left their mark on this "First Dynasty," with lavish tombs and extensive records. Egyptians led campaigns and trading expeditions to foreign lands. Along the way, they achieved a form of immortality...

• Time period: circa 3000-2900 BCE
• Kings: Aha, Djer, Wadjet, Mer-Neith, Den.
• Notable sites: Abdju (Abydos), Nekhen (Hierakonpolis), Saqqara (necropolis of Memphis).
• Gods: Horus, Neith
• Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com.
• The History of Egypt Podcast website www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.
• Support the show at www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.com.
• Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments.

Select Bibliography:

• Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: the One and the Many, 1996 (Amazon).
• John Romer, A History of Egypt: from the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid, 2013 (Amazon).
• Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt, 2001 (Amazon).
• David Wengrow, The Archaeology of Early Egypt, 2006 (Amazon).
• Robert Wenke, The Ancient Egyptian State, 2009 (Amazon).

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