The History of Egypt Podcast

In regnal year 5 (c.1194 BCE), Ramesses III got his first taste of military success. After some intriguing (but failed) diplomacy, a coalition of Libyan tribes marshalled in the western lands. The Egyptian army duly went forth to fight them, and they took some novel allies along for the ride...

Music: Intro & Outro by Ancient Lyric / Bettina Joy de Guzman. Interludes by Luke Chaos.

Bibliography

Černý, J. (1975). Egypt: From the death of Ramesses III to the end of the Twenty-First Dynasty. In I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, E. Sollberger, & N. G. L. Hammond (Eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History. Volume II, Part 2: The Middle East and the Aegean Region, c. 1380-1000 B.C. (3rd revised, pp. 606--657).

Cline, E. H., & O’Connor, D. (Eds.). (2012). Ramesses III: The Life and Times of Egypt’s Last Hero.

Cooney, K. M. (2022). The New Kingdom of Egypt Under the Ramesside Dynasty. In D. T. Potts, N. Moeller, & K. Radner (Eds.), The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East, Volume III: From the Hyksos to the Late Second Millennium BC (pp. 251--366).

Dodson, A. (2019). Ramesses III King of Egypt: His Life and Afterlife.

Grandet, P. (1993). Ramsès III: histoire d’un règne.

Grandet, P. (2022). Egypt’s New Kingdom in Contact with the World. In The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East (Vol. 3, pp. 367--454).

Kitchen, K. A. (2012). Ramesses III and the Ramesside Period. In E. H. Cline & D. O’Connor (Eds.), Ramesses III: The Life and Times of Egypt’s Last Hero (pp. 1--26).

Nelson (1930). Medinet Habu, Volume I. Earlier Historical Records of Ramses III. https://isac.uchicago.edu/publications/medinet-habu-volume-i-earlier-historical-records

Peden, A. J. (1994). Egyptian Historical Inscriptions of the Twentieth Dynasty.

Redford, D. B. (2018). The Medinet Habu Records of the Foreign Wars of Ramesses III.
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Setnakht & Ramesses III, c.1201--1198 BCE. The 20th Dynasty began in conflict, and the new ruler Setnakht ("Sutech is Victorious") needed to reunite Egyptian society. Reconciliation, and recrimination, both followed his accession. Shortly after, Setnakht's son Ramesses III ascended the throne...

Music: "Thoth" by Siamun, used with permission.

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Compilation of previously released mini episodes (2015-2018). New Kingdom poems are a delightful genre, full of playful and evocative imagery. In this compilation we explore some love poems told from male & female perspectives, and the story of a scribe desperate for a holiday in the big city...

Guest voice: Anya Banerjee.

Bibliography

Foster, J. L. (1992). Echoes of Egyptian Voices: An Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Poetry. University of Oklahoma Press.

Foster, J. L. (1995). Hymns, Prayers, and Songs: An Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Lyric Poetry (S. T. Hollis, Ed.). Scholars Press.

Kitchen, K. A. (1999). Poetry of ancient Egypt. Paul Åströms Förlag.

Landgráfová, R., & Navrátilová, H. (2009). Sex and the Golden Goddess I: Ancient Egyptian Love Songs in Context. Czech Institute of Egyptology.

Parkinson, R. B. (1997). The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems (1940—1640 BC). Oxford University Press.

Simpson, W. K. (2003). The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry (3rd ed.). Yale University Press.

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In 2025 I did an interview with the AskHistorians podcast, a reddit-based show where specialists discuss history and major questions about their fields.

In this interview, we discuss the history of Egyptology, stories from ancient Egypt, the situation of the field today, and why Hollywood can't seem to make any stories about Egypt that don't involve Cleopatra.

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Siptah, Tausret, Setnakht. Between 1205--1202 BCE, the royal house of Ramesses II crumbled into illegitimacy. After Siptah, the queen Tausret declared herself pharaoh. Her reign leaves tantalising traces. But shortly after, a man named Set-Nakht ("Seth is Victorious") seized the throne and inaugurated the 20th Dynasty. Subsequently, he and his successors declared the late 19th Dynasty a period of "empty years," lacking legitimacy, with no true ruler.

What went wrong?

Logo image: The "charioteer ostracon," depicting a female ruler charging against a male, both firing arrows (Daressy 1909).
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