History_of_Ancient_Egypt.txt
History of Ancient Egypt
48 lectures | 30 minutes per lecture
Ancient Egyptian civilization is so grand that our minds sometimes have difficulty adjusting to it. Consider time. Ancient Egyptian civilization lasted 3,000 years, longer than any other on the planet. When the young pharaoh Tutankhamen ruled Egypt, the pyramids of Giza had already been standing well over 1,000 years. When Cleopatra came to power, Tutankhamen had been in his tomb more than 1,000 years.
Professor Bob Brier regularly hosts and contributes to programs on ancient Egypt for The History Channel and The Learning Channel. He has served as Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities "Egyptology Today" Program and has twice been selected as a Fulbright Scholar. He is also the recipient of the David Newton Award for Teaching Excellence. He is the perfect guide to take you through the tombs, mummies, and history of Egypt.
Professor Brier combines the precision and care of a scientist with a novelist's feel for plot, action, and character. His approach brings together the best that the narrative and scientific schools of history have to offer.
"Professor Brier's style of presentation is as impressive as it is engaging, and combines the skills of a master teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject. The History of Ancient Egypt is enthusiastically recommended."
"In these lectures on ancient Egypt, the enthusiasm of Professor Brier is so infectious, the material chosen so fascinating, and the presentation so pleasant that any adult listener could enrich his knowledge of history with enjoyment."
The Big Picture
In this course, you chronologically survey the full 3,000 years of recorded ancient Egyptian history. Because Egyptian history lasted so long, Egyptologists divide it into three periods called Kingdoms:
The Old Kingdom saw the beginnings of nationhood for Egypt under one supreme ruler, the pharaoh. During this time, the pyramids were built and the rules of Egyptian art were established that would govern for 3,000 years.
The Middle Kingdom, a period of stabilizing after the Old Kingdom collapsed, saw a nation fighting to regain its greatness.
Professor Brier begins with a note on his approach.
"To a great extent, the fun of history is in the details. Knowing what kind of wine Tutankhamen preferred makes him come alive.
"Knowing that Ramses the Great was crippled by arthritis for the last decade of his long life makes us more sympathetic to the boastful monarch who fathered more than 100 children.
"If we understand what it was like to be a miner sent to the turquoise mines in the Sinai in the summer, we will feel a kinship with our long-dead counterparts.
"As we wind our way chronologically through 30 centuries of history, we will pause repeatedly to look at the details that make up the big picture."
The Base
The Old Kingdom
While you see how the pyramids were built, you learn just what it was that made Egypt great. At the end of these lectures, you see Egypt collapse into a dark age about which little is known, and with Professor Brier, you try to assess what happened.
The Middle Kingdom
The New Kingdom
Hatshepsut, the woman who ruled as king and whose history was systematically erased from Egyptian records
Tutankhamen, the son of Akhenaten, who became the most famous of Egypt's kings when his undisturbed tomb was discovered in 1922
Egyptian medicine and why Egyptian physicians were justly the most famous in the ancient world.
Greatness, but under Greek Rule
Lecture 48 concludes the series with a summary of Egypt's legacy and suggestions for continuing study.
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48 Lectures
1
Introduction
2
Prehistoric Egypt
3
Ancient Egyptian Thought
4
Napoleon and the Beginnings of Egyptology
5
The Rosetta Stone, and Much More
6
The First Nation in History
7
The Rise of the Old Kingdom
8
Sneferu, the Pyramid Builder
9
The Great Pyramid of Giza
10
The End of the Old Kingdom
11
The First Intermediate Period
12
13
14
The Second Intermediate Period
15
Joseph in Egypt
16
17
Queen Hatshepsut
18
Obelisks
19
20
The Fabulous XVIIIth Dynasty Rolls On
21
Akhenaten the Heretic Pharaoh
22
The Discovery of Tutankhamen's Tomb
23
24
25
The End of Dynasty XVIII
26
27
What Mummies Tell Us
28
Making a Modern Mummy
29
Dynasty XIX Begins
30
31
32
33
The Decline of Dynasty XIX
34
35
Ancient Egyptian Magic
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Alexander the Great
43
The First Ptolemies
44
45
Animal Mummies
46
Cleopatra's Family
47
48
The Grand Finale
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