The Book of the Sky Cow. In the waning years of the 18th Dynasty (the reign of Tut’ankhamun) royal artisans began decorating tombs and funerary equipment with a new text. Sometimes known as “The Destruction of Mankind,” the book tells of a distant age, when Ra ruled on earth. But as the sun-god aged, a group of humans perceived his weakness, and plotted rebellion. Faced with an uprising, Ra marshalled his supporters and sent forth an enforcer. The goddess Hat-Hor (and her alter ego Sakhmet) began to wreak havoc upon the lowly, wayward humans…

The Book of the Sky Cow:

• Part I and Part II, and the Shrines of Tutankhamun, available in Piankoff, The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon. Available at Internet Archive Open Access.
• Part I and Part II available in Simpson, The Literature of Ancient Egypt, pages 289—298. Available at Internet Archive Open Access.
• Part I (the Rebellion) available in Lichtheim Ancient Egyptian Literature Volume II: The New Kingdom. Available at Academia.edu.

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 and interludes by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net.

Music and interludes by Luke Chaos www.chaosmusick.com.

Music and interludes by Luke Chaos www.chaosmusick.com.

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Hathor's temple at Dendera is one of the best in Egypt. Constructed in the late 1st Millennium BCE (but with roots stretching back to the Old Kingdom), Hathor’s house preserves amazing art, hieroglyphs, and secrets. It is a temple that today’s guest, José M. Barrera, devoted a great deal of energy to documenting. The result is a wonderful study of Hathor’s celestial realm…

See José's amazing photography of Dendera's ceiling and learn more about his book Dendera: The Temple of Time (2024) at his website: https://josemariabarrera.com/dendera/

See the video version of this interview at https://youtu.be/7xjUzTcRMH0

Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.

Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.

Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments.

Music and interludes by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net.

Music and interludes by Luke Chaos www.chaosmusick.com.

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Livestream recording. The tombs of Deir el-Medina are some of the most vibrant and beautiful in Waset (Thebes). How did they build them, which artists decorated them, and how did folk like Sennedjem pay for the construction and furnishing?

Video version available at Patreon, with extended artistic discussion.

Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.

Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.

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Intro music by Bettina Joy de Guzman www.bettinajoydeguzman.com. 

Music and interludes by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net.

Music and interludes by Luke Chaos www.chaosmusick.com.

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New Year, New Home. My wife and I are moving to the UK in February 2025. How will this improve / affect the podcast? Details inside.

Next livestream: “How to Make Your Own Tomb,” based on the artists’ tombs at Deir el-Medina. Held on YouTube live: https://youtube.com/live/500MMqMUlH8. 

Date and time zone conversion:

Auckland: Sun, 29 Dec 2024 at 9:00 a.m. NZDT

Sydney: Sun, 29 Dec 2024 at 7:00 a.m. AEDT

Cairo: Sat, 28 Dec 2024 at 10:00 p.m. EET

Berlin: Sat, 28 Dec 2024 at 9:00 p.m. CET

London: Sat, 28 Dec 2024 at 8:00 p.m. GMT

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Sety’s final campaign. In winter of year 8 (approx. December 1296 BCE), the King of Egypt Sety I received news: rebellion in the south. In a land called Irem, now in modern Sudan, locals were resisting Egypt’s monarch. Sety gathered an army of infantry and chariots and set off to war. The story is told by Egyptians participating in the event, and by monuments erected to commemorate it…

Logo image: Captive Nubians in distinctive clothing, accompanied by cattle. From TT40, the tomb of Amunhotep Huy, reign of Tutankhamun, by Kairoinfo4u https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/albums/72157665011702090/.

See the temple of Beit el-Wali at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Temple_of_Beit_el-Wali

Music by Bettina Joy de Guzman www.bettinajoydeguzman.com.

Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.

Music and interludes by Luke Chaos www.chaosmusick.com.

Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.

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Livestream recording. The village of Deir el-Medina first arose in the 18th Dynasty (c.1550—1310 BCE), but the historical records really multiply in the 19th and 20th Dynasties (c.1310—1070 BCE). In this livestream recording, I set the scene for the village and introduce you to some of its inhabitants. We explore houses and families, and a couple of intact tombs that shed light on the inhabitants…

Video version available at https://www.patreon.com/posts/livestream-deir-117598390.

Deir el-Medina Village

• Museo Egizio excavation photos: https://archiviofotografico.museoegizio.it/en/archive/theban-region/deir-el-medina/excavations-at-the-village-temple-and-chapels/?photo=C00949
• Kairo info4u: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/albums/72157615031342678/
• Wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Deir_el-Medina

TT1 Sennedjem and Family

• Kairoinfo4u: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/albums/72157645191206615/
• Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=sennedjem&geolocation=Thebes&sortBy=AccessionNumber&showOnly=withImage

TT8 Tomb of Kha & Merit

• Museo Egizio excavation photos: https://archiviofotografico.museoegizio.it/en/archive/theban-region/deir-el-medina/tt8-tomb-and-chapel-of-kha-and-merit/?photo=C02053
• Museo Egizio objects collection https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/search/?action=s&provenance=Deir%20el-Medina%20%2f%20tomb%20of%20Kha%20(TT8)

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.
• Intro music by Ihab.
• Music and interludes by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net.

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Deir el-Medina’s Golden Age (Part 1). In the age of Sety I, the village of the tomb-builders expanded significantly. Likewise, our evidence for daily life, families, households, and business begins to proliferate. Historians can identify individuals from tombs and connect them with specific houses. We can track their movements, as they form relationships, get married, have children, and pass things to their descendants. Written records tell us about the village’s operations, including their funding from the pharaoh’s government. Around 1300 BCE, we stand on the threshold of some truly detailed stories…

DEIR EL-MEDINA LIVESTREAM, open to the public, see details here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/116333133.

See photos of Deir el-Medina by:

• Kairoinfo4u https://flickr.com/photos/manna4u/albums/72157615031342678/
• Margaret Lucy Patterson https://flickr.com/photos/24729615@N00/albums/72157625707940536/
• Heidi Kontkanen https://flickr.com/photos/plingthepenguin/albums/72157657026077070/

For personal items, including food discovered in tombs, see the collection of the Museo Egizio, Turin (English database).

People and families of Deir el-Medina: Davies, B. G. (1999). Who’s Who at Deir el-Medina: A Prosopographic Study of the Royal Workmen’s Community. Available free from the publisher and author at https://www.nino-leiden.nl/publication/whos-who-at-deir-el-medina and https://www.academia.edu/10955578/Whos_Who_at_Deir_el_Medina.

Music and interludes by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net.

Music and interludes by Luke Chaos www.chaosmusick.com.

Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.

Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.

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Logo image: The Workman Sennedjem and his wife Iy-Nefret worship the sky goddess Nut, who emerges from a sycamore tree (Photo Chris Ward).

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Sety I in the Valley of the Kings (Part 1). Archaeological remains and ancient texts reveal a great deal about tomb-building in the 19th and 20th Dynasties (c.1303—1070 BCE). Records, artefacts, and art all combine to inform us of the workers and their practices. In this episode, we use the sepulchre of Sety I (KV17) as a case-study, to understand an ancient tomb project.

Logo image: The cartouche of Sety I from the ceiling of his tomb (Photo Dominic Perry).

Explore the tomb of Sety I in a 3D Walkthrough by MuseEd https://mused.com/guided/926/tomb-of-seti-i-valley-of-the-kings/

Archaeological information for Sety's tomb at the Theban Mapping Project: https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-17-sety-i

Photos of Sety’s tomb by Kairoinfo4u: https://flickr.com/photos/manna4u/albums/72157687439529835/

For up-to-date studies and discussions of the royal tombs and their history, see The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-the-valley-of-the-kings-9780190052072. Individual articles may be available via their authors if you do a web search of the author + article title.

Music and interludes by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net.

Music and interludes by Luke Chaos www.chaosmusick.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.

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In 1881, a remarkable discovery took place in Luxor, Egypt. In the hills of Deir el-Bahari, a secret tomb held the reburied mummies of Egypt’s famous pharaohs. Figures like Sety I, Ramesses II, Thutmose III, and Amunhotep I lay in rest, in carefully hidden coffins. However, the caskets themselves hold many secrets, which today’s guest has spent years exploring.

VIDEO VERSION available on YouTube.

Interview guest:

• Prof. Kara Cooney (UCLA) presents Recycling for Death:Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches. Part of the UCLA Coffins Project https://arce.org/project/ucla-coffins-project/. Available via AUC Press https://aucpress.com/9781649031280/recycling-for-death/.
• Kara Cooney’s website: https://karacooney.squarespace.com/. 

The Deir el-Bahari cache and the royal coffins & mummies: 

• Coffin of Sety I https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/coffinofsetii. Possible evidence of its origin as a queenly coffin via Dr. Peter Lacovara https://peterlacovara.com/portfolio/coffin-conundrum/. 
• Daressy, G. (1909). Cercueils des cachettes royales: Nos 61001-61044. https://archive.org/details/DaressyCercueils1909.
• Maspero, G., & Brugsch, É. (1881—1887). La Trouvaille de Deir-el-Bahari, 2 vols. https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/maspero1881bd1 and https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/maspero1887bd2. 

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The plan of an honest ruler. Around 1300 BCE, as today, gold was big business. King Sety I personally led an expedition into the eastern desert, to establish a new mining operation. Back in the Nile Valley, high-ranking officials leave monuments testifying to their work delivering, securing, and recording that gold. And thanks to art and artefacts, we can reconstruct the items these gold-workers produced. From the Red Sea Mountains to the Temple of Abydos, we follow the paths of gold…

Logo image: Silver and gold statuette of a New Kingdom pharaoh, possibly Sety I (Louvre).

For records of Sety and his contemporaries, see Kenneth Kitchen. Ramesside Inscriptions, Volume I. Versions: Hieroglyphs; English translations; References and Commentary.

Photos of Sety’s Temple at Kanais in the Wadi Barramiya.

Sety’s monuments including the Abydos and Kanais temples, in P. J. Brand, The Monuments of Seti I: Epigraphic, Historical and Art Historical Analysis (2000). Available free online at Academia.edu.

Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.

Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.

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Music and interludes by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net.

Music and interludes by Luke Chaos www.chaosmusick.com.

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Sety in the Desert. Around 1300 BCE, King Sety led an expedition into the Red Sea hills. His purpose? Gold. The King brought soldiers and charioteers out to mine precious metals for his treasuries. The journey was difficult, traversing a dry and rocky landscape far from the comforts of home. Fortunately, Sety left detailed descriptions of the event; and art and artefacts from this era allow us to reconstruct the journey...

Episode details:

• Logo image: Soldiers make camp, setting up tents for commanders. Tomb of Horemheb at Saqqara (Martin 2016).
• Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.
• Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.
• Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments.
• Music and interludes by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net.
• Music and interludes by Luke Chaos www.chaosmusick.com.
• The Wadi Barramiya, in which Sety’s expedition travelled, by Hakatani Tenfu at Flickr.com.
• The Kanais Temple of Sety I, in the Wadi Barramiya, by Mutnedjmet at Flickr.com.

Select bibliography:

• A. Dodson, Sethy I King of Egypt: His Life and Afterlife (Cairo, 2019).
• H. Gauthier, ‘Le temple de l’Ouâdi Mîyah (el Knaïs)’, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 17 (1920), 1--38. Available online.
• K. A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions Historical and Biographical, I (Oxford, 1975).
• R. Klemm and D. Klemm, Gold and Gold Mining in Ancient Egypt and Nubia: Geoarchaeology of the Ancient Gold Mining Sites in the Egyptian and Sudanese Eastern Deserts (Berlin, 2013).
• G. T. Martin, Tutankhamun’s Regent: Scenes and Texts from the Memphite Tomb of Horemheb (EES Excavation Memoir 111; London, 2016).
• C. D. Reader, A Gift of Geology: Ancient Egyptian Landscapes and Monuments (Cairo, 2022).
• R. D. Rothe et al., Pharaonic Inscriptions from the Southern Eastern Desert of Egypt (Winona Lake, 2008).
• B. M. Sampsell, The Geology of Egypt: A Traveler’s Handbook (Cairo, 2014).
• See website for complete listing.

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