I really like listening to The Great Courses lectures. Usually the lectures are broken up into pretty bite size pieces, anywhere from 10-30 minutes per lecture. I’m almost always listening to something off and on throughout the day, so those lengths make it really easy to step in and out of the lectures. Some of the Great Courses that I really liked so far:

ANYWAYS!

I was looking for a new lecture series on history and kept getting recommendations from Reddit and Hacker News to check out The History of Ancient Egypt by Dr. Bob Brier. I’ve never really taken an interest in Egypt before, but I’m kind of up for anything. I’ve got a goal of trying to hit a lecture on most parts of history.

I first wanted to check out the lecturer, so I looked up his name on Youtube and found this video:

42 minutes and 29 seconds later and I was hooked.

The pyramids were surrounded by walls to keep out poor people?

They found a perfectly preserved boat under a pyramid wall?

IT WAS MEANT TO FLY A PHARAOH UP INTO THE SKY WHEN HE WAS RESURRECTED?

A MAGIC SKY SHIP?

What the Khufu Boat looked like when it was uncovered

HOW MUCH WAS WOOD WORTH IN EGYPT?

ANCIENT EGYPTIANS DIDN’T USE NAILS?

THEY TIED THE WOODEN PLANKS OF BOATS TOGETHER?

Halsnøy boat, detail of the bow, an example of a sewn boat

Since the discovery of the boat, it has been assumed to be strictly ceremonial, not meant for sailing, but after analysis and testing done by a group at the Webb Institute, they think it’s actually seaworthy. Bob ended the video saying that he wants to recreate the boat, then see if they can sail it on open waters. All in the hopes to learn more about it.

The reconstructed Khufu Boat at The Khufu Boat Museum in Giza

Dr. Bob Brier is an Egyptologist that specializes in paleopathology. In one of his lectures, he states that he mainly focuses on disease and medicine in ancient Egypt. Bob says, often, that he thinks the best way to make discoveries about something you don’t have the whole scoop on, is to do it yourself.

There haven’t been any records found that tell us how the ancient Egyptians did mummification on humans. It’s believed it was a trade secret and the people that performed the mummifications liked to keep a WRAP on how to do it, for job security. The best historical records we have about how to mummify humans is from the written accounts of Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian (484-425 BC). There are some written instructions on how to mummify animals. I think those may have been referenced as well.

Anyways, this man, Bob Brier, got with the state anatomy board of Delaware, obtained permission, and partnered with the director to mummify a human cadaver. Paper here. He tells the entire story in the video below. They made a lot of discoveries while going through the entire process. The sound quality isn’t great, but the content is, so to deal with the quality I put on some brown noise and turned the volume down to low.

As of writing this, I’ve just hit the time period of Cleopatra VII, Julius Caeser, and Marc Antony. I only have about 30 minutes left of the entire lecture series. That’s how old Egypt is… Cleopatra was the last true pharaoh of Egypt and historians think there were 169 Pharaohs before her.

Constantly, throughout ancient Egypt’s history, the civilication was losing and rediscovering things. Somewhere in the middle of the ancient history (1300 BC?) a pharaoh’s son thinks the Great Pyramids need a plaque in order to keep Egypt from forgetting who built them. Again and again, pharaohs were discovering lost obelisks, monuments, and temples that belonged to long lost pharaohs. Those pharaohs would then then rename and claim those findings for themselves. Entire reigns and dynasties were forgotten only a few hundred years after they occurred. The place is ancient… First unified around 3100 BC.

Also, the greatest pharaoh of all time, Ramesses II (1303-1213 BC), had red hair, like me!

So far I’ve really enjoyed the lectures and hope to inspire others to check out ancient Egyptian history. I’m not sure I’m going to jump right into more Egypt after I finish the lectures… I’m wanting to find a new and interesting time period with some good lectures.