The History of Egypt

Recorded 2024. The daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti were not just "ornaments" for their parents. Like many princesses, they also participated in the religious rituals and royal pageantry of the Egyptian government. In this interview, Courtney Marx (MA, George Mason University) joins us on behalf of the American Research Center in Egypt, to discuss the Amarna princesses and their role as priestesses. We also explore the history of royal women as priestesses and the unique roles they played in the temple rituals. Finally, we explore the aftermath of Amarna: how the visible roles, titles, and imagery of princesses changed following the death of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. The American Research Center in Egypt is celebrating 75 years of work in the Nile Valley. Dedicated to scholarship of the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds, the ARCE supports researchers and students, funds archaeological and scholarly work, and organises many public outreach programs. Learn more about ARCE at their website and follow the ARCE Podcast online and on all podcasting apps. 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.  Logo image: Block fragment showing two Amarna princesses (Metropolitan Museum of Art 1985.328.6). Photo by Courtney Marx. Select Bibliography (provided by Courtney Marx): Ayad, Mariam F. “The God's Wife of Amun: origins and rise to power.” In Carney, Elizabeth D. and Sabine Müller (eds), The Routledge companion to women and monarchy in the ancient Mediterranean world, 47-60. New York: Routledge, 2021. Ayad, Mariam F. God's Wife, God's Servant: The God's Wife of Amun (ca.740–525 BC). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2009. Bryan, Betsy M. “Property and the God’s Wives of Amun.” In D. Lyons and R. Westbrook, eds. Women and Property in Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Societies. Washington, DC: Center For Hellenic Studies, Harvard University, 2005. Pawlicki, Franciszek. Princess Neferure in the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari: Failed Heiress to the Pharaoh’s Throne? Études et Travaux 21, 109-127. 2007. Xekalaki, Georgia. Symbolism in the Representation of Royal Children During the New Kingdom. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2011. Troy, Lana. “Patterns of Queenship in Ancient Egyptian Myth and History.” PhD diss., Uppsala University, 1986. Williamson, Jacquelyn. “Death and the Sun Temple: New Evidence for Private Mortuary Cults at Amarna.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 103, no. 1 (June 2017): 117–123.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the city of Akhet-Aten (Amarna) a small tomb hides a noteworthy story. Here, we find the life and work of a police officer. Mahu, Chief of the Medjay in Akhet-Aten, managed the guards who patrolled the Horizon of Aten. Mahu, and his troops, were responsible for guarding the outposts and apprehending fugitives. Possibly, they were also involved in criminal punishments. Some of those practices were quite cruel… Date c. 1357-1343 BCE Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com Music by Bettina Joy de Guzman www.bettinajoydeguzman.com. Select Bibliography: Norman de Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of El-Amarna, vol. IV, 1903. Aidan Dodson, Amarna Sunrise: Egypt From Golden Age to Age of Heresy, 2014. Barry J. Kemp, The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People, 2014. William J. Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt, 1995. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fatma Keshk is an Egyptologist, archaeologist and researcher in Egyptian heritage. She leads the outreach project "The Place and the People," working to strengthen ties between archaeologists and local Egyptian communities. It is my pleasure to welcome Fatma to the History of Egypt Podcast; I hope you enjoy the conversation. Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Fatma Keshk at the Free University of Berlin https://exoriente.academia.edu/FatmaKeshk, The Place and the People online www.facebook.com/The-Place-and-the-People-2315808581791112, The Tale of Shutb (children's story in English) https://www.britishmuseum.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aaron de Souza is an archaeologist specializing in the material culture of Egypt and Nubia. He earned his PhD at Macquarie University, Sydney, in 2016, and is now a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in Vienna. In the field, Aaron works with ceramics and material culture, particularly in cemetery contexts. He has published several articles and a book, titled New Horizons: The Pan-Grave Ceramic Tradition in Context. Aaron is an insightful researcher, part of the new generation of scholars that are examining (and re-examining) historical material in new ways. Learn more about Dr. Aaron de Souza online at Academia https://oeaw.academia.edu/AarondeSouza, the In Between Nubia website https://inbetweennubia.com/author/amdesouza/, and on Twitter https://twitter.com/aaronmdesouza. Shop History of Egypt merchandise at www.teepublic.com Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com Music by Bettina Joy de Guzman www.bettinajoydeguzman.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heba Abd el Gawad is an exhibition curator, public outreach specialist and researcher in Egyptian heritage within museum contexts. She is the postdoctoral researcher for the project ‘Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage: Views from Egypt’ at the Institute of Archaeology, University College of London, in addition to many other important works. Heba joins the History of Egypt Podcast to discuss public outreach, museum communication and accessibility, and the cultural heritage of Egypt and its people.For more information about the projects discussed in this interview, see the following links: Egypt's Dispersed Heritage project on Twitter www.twitter.com/excavatedegypt and Facebook www.facebook.com/EgyptsDispersedHeritage The Manchester Museum Podcast "Who Owns Egyptian heritage?" Manchester Museum https://www.mmfromhome.com/podcast/episode/39f9e1a5/who-owns-egyptian-heritage-with-heba-abd-el-gawad Arabic Digital Comics during COVID 19 www.al-fanarmedia.org/2020/08/arabic-comics-reach-a-wider-audience-through-digital-projects/ "Fayoum Human Remains Your mummies, Their Ancestors," a webinar on the ethics of displaying and researching human remains in partnership with Egypt Exploration Society and Everyday Orientalist www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC51hWto1J8&t=4603s. 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. Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some good news and some bad news. Before we start the next chapter of Egyptian history, I need to take a break. Fortunately, I also have some help on the next step. In this update, I explain my situation at the end of 2020 and what the future holds for the podcast... Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The final chapters. The last years of Akhenaten's reign (12 to 17) are a litany of difficulties and losses. The King's household suffered challenges, and he responded with extreme policies. Before we leave the King for good, we summarise what had happened, and what it all means... Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Legacy and Summary. Today, we look back at Akhenaten's reign, and I ramble for a while about his importance in history, both ancient and modern... Date c. 1346 BCE and 20th Century CE, Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com. Music by Ancient Lyric www.bettinajoydeguzman.com Select Bibliography: Aldred, Cyril. Akhenaten: King of Egypt. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1988. Arnold, Dorothea. The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996. Assmann, Jan. Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism. London: Taylor & Francis Group, 1995. Blyth, Elizabeth. Karnak: Evolution of a Temple. New York: Routledge, 2006. Boorn, G.P.F. van den. The Duties of the Vizier: Civil Administration in the Early New Kingdom. London: Kegan Paul International, 1988. Cohen, Raymond, and Raymond Westbrook, eds. Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. Davies, Benedict G. Egyptian Historical Records of the Later Eighteenth Dynasty. Vol. IV. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1992. Davies, Norman de Garis. The Rock Tombs of El-Amarna. London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1903. Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunrise: Egypt From Golden Age to Age of Heresy. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2014. Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation. 2nd Edition. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2017. Eyre, Christopher. The Use of Documents in Pharaonic Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Gabolde, Marc. D’Akhenaton à Toutânkhamon. Paris: Institut d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’antiquité, 1998. Haring, B. J. J. Divine Households: Administrative and Economic Aspects of the New Kingdom Royal Memorial Temples in Western Thebes. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1997. Hodgkinson, Anna K. Technology and Urbanism in Late Bronze Age Egypt. Ebook edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Hornung, Erik. Akhenaten and the Religion of Light. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Kemp, Barry J. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. 3rd Revised Edition. London: Routledge, 2018. Moran, William L. The Amarna Letters. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. Moreno García, Juan Carlos. The State in Ancient Egypt: Power, Challenges and Dynamics. London: Bloomsbury, 2020. Morris, Ellen Fowles. Ancient Egyptian Imperialism. Hoboken: Wiley, 2018. Morris, Ellen Fowles. The Architecture of Imperialism: Military Bases and the Evolution of Foreign Policy in Egypt’s New Kingdom. Leiden: Brill, 2005. Murnane, William J. Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. Mynářová, Jana. Language of Amarna – Language of Diplomacy: Perspectives on the Amarna Letters. Prague: Czech Institute of Egyptology, 2007. Redford, Donald B. Akhenaten: The Heretic King. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. Reeves, Nicholas. Akhenaten: Egypt’s False Prophet. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001. Robins, Gay. The Art of Ancient Egypt. London: The British Museum Press, 1997. Spalinger, Anthony John. War in Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom. Malden: Blackwell, 2005. Warburton, David. State and Economy in Ancient Egypt: Fiscal Vocabulary of the New Kingdom. Fribourg: University Press, 1997. Wente, Edward Frank. Letters from Ancient Egypt. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Side-episode. Today we discuss some "extra" items from Akhenaten's tomb. Also, we return to KV55, that elusive monument in the Valley of the Kings, to see some reasons why it *might* be Akhenaten. Date c.1346 BCE Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com Music by Ancient Lyric www.bettinajoydeguzman.com  Select Bibliography: Connolly, R.C. ‘Kinship of Smenkhkare and Tutankhamen Affirmed by Serological Micromethod: Microdetermination of Blood Group Substances in Ancient Human Tissue’. Nature 224, no. 5217 (1 October 1969): 325–325. Davis, Theodore M. The Tomb of Queen Tiyi: The Discovery of the Tomb. London: Constable and Co Ltd, 1910. Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunrise: Egypt From Golden Age to Age of Heresy. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2014. ———. Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation. 2nd Edition. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2017. Dodson, Aidan, and Dyan Hilton. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004. Duhig, Corrinne. ‘Comments on “Biological Age of the Skeletonised Mummy from Tomb KV55 at Thebes (Egypt)” by Eugen Strouhal’. Anthropologie 48, no. 2 (2010): 113–16. Eaton-Krauss, Marianne. ‘Reprise: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Amarna’. Chronique d’Egypte 88, no. 175 (1 January 2013): 64–80. Gabolde, Marc. D’Akhenaton à Toutânkhamon. Paris: Institut d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’antiquité, 1998. ———. ‘L’ADN de La Famille Royale Amarnienne et Les Sources Égyptiennes’. Égypte Nilotique et Méditerranéenne 6 (2013): 177–203. ———. ‘Under a Deep Blue Starry Sky’. In Causing His Name to Live: Studies in Egyptian Epigraphy and History in Memory of William J. Murnane, edited by Peter J. Brand and Louise Cooper. Leiden: Brill, 2009. Habicht, M.E., A.S. Bouwman, and F.J. Rühli. ‘Identifications of Ancient Egyptian Royal Mummies from the 18th Dynasty Reconsidered’. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 159, no. S61 (1 January 2016): 216–31. Harrison, R. G. ‘An Anatomical Examination of the Pharaonic Remains Purported to Be Akhenaten’. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 52 (1966): 95–119. Hawass, Zahi, Yehia Z. Gad, Somaia Ismail, Rabab Khairat, Dina Fathalla, Naglaa Hasan, Amal Ahmed, et al. ‘Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamun’s Family’. JAMA 303, no. 7 (17 February 2010): 638–47. Kemp, Barry J. ‘The Amarna Royal Tombs at Amarna’, 2016. https://amarnaproject.com/documents/pdf/Amarna-Royal-Tombs.pdf. ———. The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People. First paperback edition. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014. Martin, Geoffrey Thorndike. The Royal Tomb at El-ʻAmarna. 2 vols. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1974. Murnane, William J. Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. Redford, Donald. ‘Akhenaten: New Theories and Old Facts’. Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research 369 (2013): 9. Reeves, C. N. ‘A Reappraisal of Tomb 55 in the Valley of the Kings’. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 67 (1981): 48–55. Reeves, Nicholas. Akhenaten: Egypt’s False Prophet. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001. Smith, Grafton Elliot. The Royal Mummies. London: Duckworth, 1912. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A controversy comes to its end. King Akhenaten died in his 17th year on the throne. Surprisingly, we know a lot about his passing and his burial. From the date of his death, to his sarcophagus, shabti figurines and his innovative tomb, we can get a sense of how this controversial ruler finally met his end... Date c.1346 BC. Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com. Music by Ancient Lyric www.bettinajoydeguzman.com  Select Bibliography: Aldred, Cyril. Akhenaten: King of Egypt. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1988. Allen, James P. ‘The Religion of Amarna’. In The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt, edited by Dorothea Arnold, 3–6. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996. Arnold, Dorothea. The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996. Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunrise: Egypt From Golden Age to Age of Heresy. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2014. Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation. 2nd Edition. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2017. Dodson, Aidan, and Dyan Hilton. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004. Eaton-Krauss, Marianne. ‘Reprise: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Amarna’. Chronique d’Egypte 88, no. 175 (1 January 2013): 64–80. Fairman, H. W. ‘Once Again the So-Called Coffin of Akhenaten’. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 47 (1961): 25–40. Gabolde, Marc. D’Akhenaton à Toutânkhamon. Paris: Institut d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’antiquité, 1998. Gabolde, Marc. ‘L’ADN de La Famille Royale Amarnienne et Les Sources Égyptiennes’. Égypte Nilotique et Méditerranéenne 6 (2013): 177–203. Gabolde, Marc. ‘Under a Deep Blue Starry Sky’. In Causing His Name to Live: Studies in Egyptian Epigraphy and History in Memory of William J. Murnane, edited by Peter J. Brand and Louise Cooper. Leiden: Brill, 2009. Hawass, Zahi, Yehia Z. Gad, Somaia Ismail, Rabab Khairat, Dina Fathalla, Naglaa Hasan, Amal Ahmed, et al. ‘Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamun’s Family’. JAMA 303, no. 7 (17 February 2010): 638–47. Hornung, Erik. Akhenaten and the Religion of Light. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Kemp, Barry J. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. 3rd Revised Edition. London: Routledge, 2018. Kemp, Barry J. ‘The Amarna Royal Tombs at Amarna’, 2016. https://amarnaproject.com/documents/pdf/Amarna-Royal-Tombs.pdf. ———. The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People. First paperback edition. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014. Martin, Geoffrey Thorndike. The Royal Tomb at El-ʻAmarna. 2 vols. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1974. Murnane, William J. Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. Murnane, William J. ‘The End of the Amarna Period Once Again’. Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 96 (2001): 9–22. Peet, T. E., and C. Leonard Woolley. The City of Akhenaten, Volume I. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1923. Pendlebury, J.D.S. The City of Akhenaten, Volume III. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1951. Redford, Donald. ‘Akhenaten: New Theories and Old Facts’. Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research 369 (2013): 9. Redford, Donald B. Akhenaten: The Heretic King. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. Reeves, Nicholas. Akhenaten: Egypt’s False Prophet. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001. UCL Web Archive. ‘Stela UC 410’, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/ave/detail/details/index_no_login.php?objectid=UC__410__&accesscheck=%2Fmuseums-static%2Fave%2Fdetail%2Fdetails%2Findex.php. Strouhal, Eugen. ‘Biological Age of Skeletonized Mummy from Tomb KV 55 at Thebes’. Anthropologie 48, no. 2 (2010): 97–112. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices