S01 E04: Birth of the First Pharaohs

Hello everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode about Narmer, the first pharaoh of Egypt. So, as I mentioned during the episode, our source for this week was Manetho. He was a historian from Ptolemaic Egypt, and, as an indigenous Egyptian, spoke Egyptian and was familiar with the region's history. He wrote one of the most extensive histories about the early pharaohs of Egypt, but is also responsible for some of the confusion we face in Egyptology today, as he used many Greek names from ancient Egyptian pharaohs in his writing. For example, in this episode I state that Narmer had two nicknames, Scorpion and Menes. The name Menes is used by Manetho to identify the great pharaoh who united Egypt. Some scholars though argue that Aha, not Narmer, is the true Menes. I personally don't think this hypothesis holds much water, but it's interesting nonetheless so I figured I'd talk about it on the blog. 

As promised, here's the comparison image of Scorpion, as depicted on the macehead, and Narmer, as depicted on the palette. I whipped this up in photoshop to show some features of their depictions that make them look incredibly similar. Though, again, as noted in the podcast, this could potentially be due to artistic motifs when depicting ancient kings of Egypt, rather than an actual similarity of appearance between the two men.

Finally, as always here's the donation link to help support the show. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode, and I hope you'll enjoy next week's episode on Narmer.

To support the podcast and receive access to premium content, click here. This week's premium episode focuses on Neithhotep, the wife of Narmer, and the first female monarch in human history. Enjoy.

S01 E03: Egypt Before the Pharaohs

Here's some accompanying images for this week's episode, as well as some bonus content.

So, avid Egyptian history buffs might be disappointed that I didn't mention Crocodile, another powerful nomarch from the Protodynastic period. Crocodile was purported to have ruled in the city of Tarkhan, a city near modern Cairo, shortly after Scorpion's rule, or may have been a pretender who attempted to usurp the rule of Ka in Nekhen. The reason that I didn't include Crocodile on my list of important predynastic nomarchs is due to the lack of information known about him, even to the standards of predynastic Egypt. Every other king I referenced has a spotty biography, but fairly decent evidence to corroborate his existence. Crocodile's existence, on the other hand, is supported by the existence of one sloppily written inscription on a few jars in Tarkhan. Given the lack of evidence surrounding his rule and lack of corroborating evidence for his existence, I thought it would be better to just leave him out of the podcast's narrative.

Here's an accompanying map of Egypt with relevant locations labeled, in case you felt lost during this episode.

Finally, as always here's the donation link to help support the show. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode, and I hope you'll enjoy next week's episode on Narmer.

To support the podcast and receive access to premium content, click here

S01 E02: Languages and Prehistory

Hello everyone. As promised, here's the accompanying image for this episode. This is Ge'ez script, a system of writing still used today in Ethiopia in the Amharic and Tigrinya languages.

Also, I'd like to issue a quick correction about a small error in the episode. I listed Tigrinya as the official language of Eritrea. However, this is not true. Eritrea has no official language, but rather several nationally recognized languages. Tigrinya is the most widely spoken and is thus generally used as a working language throughout the country, followed by the closely related Tigre language, so I incorrectly assumed that it was official. Another small error was that I incorrectly stated that the rainshadow in Ethiopia moves East-West, while the correct statement is a bit more complicated. Moist winds blow across the southern coast of Arabia, then curl southwest. This new southwestern wind is absorbed by the highlands of Ethiopia and contributes to the dry climate of northern Somalia. 

I'd additionally like to comment on my use of the word Pygmy to describe the peoples of Central Africa. I'm aware that generally people from these groups prefer not to be called pygmy, and prefer to be referred to by their individual ethnic group. However, I couldn't find a better term to be used to describe these peoples collectively. If anyone has a better term, please submit a comment with a suggestion. Until then, have a splendid day everyone!

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S01 E01: Where Are We?

Hey everyone, here's the accompanying post to this week's episode.

Here's a climate map to help you follow along with the locations in the podcast.

The Sahel is the semiarid band that stretches to the South of the Sahara desert in the North.

Here is the flag of the kingdom of Benin. Pretty sweet, huh? Imagine you're riding into battle and your enemy's flying a bunch of these bad boys. Again, when and why it was used is unclear, but still, pretty badass, huh?

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