Vintage Egyptology, with Colleen Darnell

So I've been very lucky through Instagram and just because I was on a lot of documentaries before, to be a part of Lost Treasures of Ancient Egypt on the Natio Channel and a lot of other documentaries, and with the lockdowns and COVID, I started a Zoom Egyptology program teaching how to read hieroglyphs in twenty twenty one. I have been doing that ever since and the program has

grown tremendously. Hundreds of people from twenty countries have taken hieroglyphic courses and even more the lecture classes.

as part of their program. So it has actually supplemented some people's actual academic coursework. And then just a tremendous amount of people adults and they're working, they have kids, they want to take Zoom classes, or they're retired. And I love it when sisters, where husbands and wives do it together. It's a lot of fun. It can become a family experience awesome.

or word signs. There are signs that are classifying signs that we called determinatives that have no phonetic value, but the majority that you see in a hieroglyphic inscription, are going to actually write the sounds of the ancient Egyptian language. And what I do in the hieroglyphic classes is take people from that very beginning and then build up bit

by bit by bit. I think sometimes people are a little surprised about grammar because you expect Greek and Asia Latin, you're gonna have to memorize a lot of grammar, and the same is true with the Egyptian although in some ways the grammar's a little bit less complex simply because of the way the conjugation system works. In terms of the lecture classes, something that I try to always stress is the ancient Egyptian civilization was not perfect. No civilization

ever has been or will be. But their ideal was something called mot cosmic justice, define balance and order. And their sense of mot basically right and wrong, is shockingly

similar to our own. And so even if they didn't live up to that idea, it's really interesting and very important, and very rarely emphasized the extent to which the Egyptians wanted to follow this moral code and prided themselves, from kings all the way down to farmers that they acted in a morally upright and compassionate way to both people who were in positions of authority. But they also talk about giving bread to the hungry, taking care of the

orphan and the widow. And then because it's ancient Egypt, they talk about farrying the boatless person. And there's a word boatless that's actually a single word in ancient Egyptian. So in terms of the writing, the phonetic aspects, and in terms of overall ancient Egyptian civilization, emphasizing something that I think the ancient Egyptians themselves would really want us to have as the first thing we know when we are approaching their history and society and religion.

and after the reign of Aughnan and Efertiti. Instead, we see the royal family worshiping Aughten and going about their day to day lives, which are themselves transposed into this ritual setting. What this means then is that not Neverrititi have interposed themselves between people and the gods. And while a king is supposed to mediate between mankind and the

celestial realm, it is to facilitate that interaction. People in ancient Egypt could make prayers, could address the gods directly, even outside temple ritual What's unusual then about Aknan and Evertiti is the extent to which they put themselves in that role of gods to be worshiped, and then they can interact with the ultimate solar deity, who is Atten.

And we diagnose this essentially as a problem with not going back to the primary sources, and that when you do go back to the primary sources, a lot of

scholarship still relies on interpretations of earlier Egyptologists. And one of the best examples of this, and the longest chapter in the book, is there's an inscription from the very beginning of within the first five years of Achnaton's Raim, where all earlier translations, in every single reference to this text was that the gods, the statues of the gods ceased, they stopped. But that doesn't make sense. The ancient Egyptians

know that statues don't move. Now, rituals can stop, statues can fall down, but the Egyptians wouldn't expect a statue to move, So how could a statue just stop? And as it turns out, it's a much more common verb, a homophone that means to desire. And what I'm not is actually saying is that he's doing what the gods desire. Now, ultimately he's only going to do what Aunton desires and deny the existence of other gods. But in that particular text, he's not yet as radical as he's going to be.

But because when you're looking at the rain of Aknaton, almost everybody looks at him through the perspective of what's

happening than in their own time. And that's been true ever since People have discussed doc mount in ebertity or assumptions that have previously been made, and where we thought we could really contribute to the scholarship of achnant in epertity was re examining every single primary source and questioning the exact meaning of every word in order to arrive at new conclusions that might have been missed simply because of the bias of this is how the word has

been translated, this is how it must continue to be translated, and not thinking, wow, there might be a totally different way to view this particular action.

achna tone with an oh at the end. They didn't write the vowels in Egyptian in what sounds like vowels when I say ah, for example, that ah is actually not a vowel. It's an olive, which is a semi vocal consonant, and that that can get a little bit confusing, but that's the best sort of approximation.

European languages, we just fudget and do a vowel. But when you're reading hieroglyphs, you not only look at the hieroglyphs themselves, but before you get to an English translation, we do an extra step, and it's an artificial step. It's not something the Anian Egyptians would have done, which is called transliteration. So there are actually specific characters. A lot of them are just consonants in you know that we have R, B, M and those days the same.

But for these sounds that don't exist, say in English, although they do exist in other Afroisiatic languages, there are particular characters that you use. So when we're actually looking at something written that's mostly agreed upon and consistent, but everyone pronounces it a little bit differently, and it doesn't because it doesn't affect the clarity of what we're actually saying, it tends not to be a big problem.

I've probably seen some depiction, be it realistic or exaggerated, of this, and it may, I guess, be easy to just look at it as being like overly stylized. But what was the purpose of this design and how is it used?

It might have been used more like an axe, not something that would have had as much slicing power as a sword. There are also thinner, rapier type swords that were probably used by chariot tears, but those are relatively uncommon in the archaeological record.

Now you mentioned the chariot, I wanted to ask a question about the chariot as well, because I feel like this is such an icon of ancient Egyptian art and certainly you see it in and depictions of ancient Egypt

be accurate or not. And uh, I often feel like this is a technology that we're very far removed from in the modern world, you know, like how do we how do we look at the chariot and how do we appreciate it, you know, in comparison to things like maybe a person riding a horse on a modern saddle or uh, you know, some manner of kart. Can you tell us just a little bit about how important the development of the cheir it was to ancient Egyptian warfare.

infantry and navy. And because that adoption of the horse around sixteen hundred BC coincides with the expulsion of the foreign dynasty ruling over the northern part of Egypt, the so called Hixos dynasty, they are expelled around fifteen fifty BC, and at that point, with the founding of the New Kingdom, the Egyptians make a decision to expand their empire both

to the north and to the south. They had to the south before, but they go even further to the north, not only to gain resources and greater access to trading routes, but also to have a buffer zone so to prevent further foreign conquest. So there's a number of reasons for that empire, and the chariot is part of that. The big set piece battles of the Bronze Age are battles

bought between chariots with infantry support. You mentioned how we conceptualize ancient battles and ancient weapons through comparisons with what we know, right, and sometimes you will read I don't think this happens as much anymore, but that the chariot was like the tank of the ancient world. And that's not true at all, because horses do not like to crash into one another, nor will they run in charge into infantry, and certainly you don't want to do that

with the chariot because chariots were very expensive. That's another interesting aspect of the move towards chariot work in the Bronze is it's a warfare for highly developed and wealthy civilizations because you have to be able to invest in the horses themselves, the pasturage, the training facilities, training the crews building the chariots. They were the really advanced vehicles, advanced technology of the dead. And the use of a

chariot in battle is as a mobile archers platform. So there are other civilizations, for example, the hit Heights who fight against the Egyptians at this famous Battle of Kotash during the reign of Ramsey's The second, the hit Heights view the chariot, or have outfitted their chariots with three people, essentially more like mobile infantry and moving people from one place to another and then fighting more as ground troops.

The classic Egyptian chariot, which was much lighter, you could carry it a single person and could carry the cab of the chariot. It's remarkable, And with the archers inside the cab and then one person driving, you could essentially deliver projectiles all across the front of the opposing force and then circle back around and then the infantry could be brought in.

Egyptians themselves cast their history in entertaining fictional terms. In a book I wrote in twenty thirteen called Imagining the Past, I identified four works of ancient Egyptian historical fiction, meaning they actually wrote the fiction set three hundred years for example, Rain of Ramsey's the second about twelve fifty, and then they're setting something three hundred years, two or three hundred years earlier. I think the at Egyptians would appreciate, at

least that people are trying now some of those details. Yes, very annoying, and that's actually one of the reasons why I decided to teach the class is not so much enjoying all the movies, but using them as a jumping off point, because the visual nature, the dialogue, the sets, the characters, everything about that gives you a starting point

for them saying, Okay, what about this is accurate? What about this is based on something but has been manipulated in a way that actually works to support the story and doesn't go against generally what we know about ancient Egypt And where is it just flat out wrong and they should have never done it. So that was that was how I approached the class. And the ancient Egyptian

film was so much fun to prepare. We did mummy movies, we did epics so Cleopatra, Tank Commandments, and then some movies that are much less well known, such as the Polish film Pharaoh, which is by far the best in terms of costumes and sets. Costumes especially, it's incredible and those were designed by an Egyptian costume set designer and director named Shadi Afto Salam. And so I highly recommend the Polish film Pharaoh.

Can you tell us a little bit about this film and why it's important.

have been into the movie. Night of Counting the Years is a fictionalized version of what happened in the eighteen eighties with an Egyptian family living on the west bank of Luksor called the Abbetol Russuls, and they had found a royal cache, so not just a single royal tomb, but a place where dozens of mummies from the New Kingdom in early third Interviewedia period had been re ramped and then cashed put into a single burial which is a little bit to the south of the Temple of

Hotch episode at darl Bahri and John and I actually got to go down there. It's not open to the public. It had not been opened, i think for fifteen years. They knocked away the concrete and we got to go down there to film an episode of Lost Treasures of Egypt. It was one of my favorite experiences. So it's absolutely it's based on a real event, although the names are

changed in Shadi albal Salam's movie. And the Egyptologists, the French Egyptologists who were in charge of the antiquity service at the time, had realized that this was going on, that some royal toom have been found because various antiquities were popping up on the market, and two of the brothers turned on one another and that's how everything was

found out. And then the material was taken in much haste from Luxor to the Chiro Museum the Bulock Museum in Cairo at the time, and that was news all over the world, very very dramatic, and the mummies ended

up being the mummies of the New Kingdom pharaohs. So those are the mummies that you can see now beautifully displayed in the National Museum of Egyptian civilization through the movie Night of County in the Years then, Shadiy Alvdala Salam uses this movie as a commentary on the view of the past by the present and doing this through

the lens of neorealism. The other part that I really loved about this movie in the context of my Ancient Egyptian film class, is that there were ancient Egyptian tomb robbers that actually moved the mummies from their original burials into this cash it's called the Deerro Bahri cash. And those tomb robbers weren't working just on their own for their own profit. They were actually sponsored by the Paronic government. At the end of the New Kingdom, the Varonic government,

the king lost control over Nubia. There was a revolt by a Nubian general named pana Hesse, and because of that, Egypt lost control over the main gold mining regions and they needed the gold. There was an economic crisis at the time, and realized that there was lots of gold to be had in the Valley of the Kings. And so we know the names of the ancient tomb robbers.

We have their letters, three thousand year old letters talking about keeping their activities private because even though they were state sponsored, they still didn't want everybody else in their village to know what was going on. So it's this murder mystery scandal, and it's their actual letters. It just blows my mind. We even have one of the men's

houses in a temple. It's a man named Bhutahamen. So the story both of what actually happened in the eighteen eighties with the discovery of the cash and the story from three thousand years previously with how the mummies made it there is incredible.

the ancient Egyptian world? What has changed and what still needs to change?

The Grand Staircase set in this dramatic architectural setting. When you come up to the second floor, you have one of the most beautiful vistas of the Giza Pyramids, and then three entire galleries that takes you through from the pre Dynastic period all the way to the Roman era, but in three different tracks, so you can look at daily life, you can look at religion, and then the

king and the political system. And I just I think that is so brilliant because you can go across them then and look at all three features in the pre Dynastic period or in the Middle Kingdom, or you can essentially go through the chronology of Egypt three different times. So even before the two oncomon material is open and again that should be the last quarter of the years is where it's been announced. It is something that is beautiful and such an amazing presentation of ancient Egyptian cultural

heritage and history. The Tahariir Museum, the Egyptian Museum at Taker Square is also should absolutely still be on everybody's muscy list. Some of the most famous artifacts from ancient Egypt, the normal talent, the burials of YuYu and Tuyas with the gold from the Tanis tombs are still on display. So what I love about fascination with Egypt as it then is bringing more and more people to Egypt, and I love that trend, and I love trying to be just a little bit of a part of that trend.

Knowing so many people who have been in my classes have then gone to Egypt and seen all of this firsthand. But there are more sites being opened every year, and really exciting places and tombs as well as these new museums. And in terms of what needs to change, I think it is the public fascination often with things that are entirely unfounded in facts, and in terms of who constructed the pyramids, how they constructed the pyramids, the date of

the sphinx. We could go on and on, but that I think is the thing about the fascination with ancient Egypt that most needs to change is the primary sources. And I think the story I told just now about ancient tim rubbers, that's way more exciting than anything that

is made up. So getting out there the actual information that is so much more unbelievable in some ways than just imagining, well, people couldn't have built the pyramids, but this much must have happened, even though we have not only the names of the people who build the pyramids, the barracks of the people who built the pyramids, and on other pyramids and temples, the remains of mud brick ramps, which tells us exactly how they built the pyramids, and

a papyrus journal found a little over a decade ago by a French Egyptologist that is actually a diary of the man who brought some of the stones that were the last to put on the top of the Great Pyramid.

of details about ancient Egypt. And I can do that both through my reels where I'm actually explaining hieroglyphs and talking about an ancient Egyptian topic very specifically, or use the visuals of a particular item of vintage fashion, whether it be in nineteen thirties evening down or in eighteen fifteen Empire style dress, and then discuss how this might relate to ancient Egyptian fashion or just a jumping off

point for another topic. My interest in vintage fashion actually comes from a little bit different place than my interest in ancient egypt And it's a coincidence that my favorite silhouette happens to be the same decade that the tumor common was discovered. Through vintage fashion and collecting, that's also given me new perspectives on studying ancient Egyptian fashion and clothing.

And I'm in the process of doing some additional work on how there might be an interaction between the way fabrics are used, for example in the nineteen thirties, and how that might inform the way a single rectangular piece of cloth could be wrapped around the body and maybe have a different silhouette than is often imagined.

degree heat makes a huge difference. So looking for those older fabrics can be really important, But what's mostly about is just the composition of the fabric and that it has to be one hundred percent cotton. Linen is also pretty cool, but cotton cotton is always the best and light colored fabrics, so that that's the connection with the feel. But otherwise it's used clothes, not vintage clothes for the archeological work.

And I decided to pursue it professionally when before I applied to Yale University and then going for my bachelor's and my PhD. And it's been amazing then getting to not only have taught in a university environment, but also now to be able to take that love of teaching and people's love of learning and do it in such a pure way where there aren't any grades, there isn't any pressure, and you just get to have fun. And learn, and I love that about my zoom classes and what I'm able to do now.

a five hour class. It meets one hour a week for five weeks and it goes from the very basics of how to read hieroglyphs all the way to being able to read a funerary formula so that even if you only do five hours of Ancient Egyptian, you can make an Ancient Egyptian spirit happy. I mean, yeah, I teach everyone enough hieroglyphs so obviously, and then you can continue.

I have students who have been doing this for one year, two years, all the way from the beginning of four years ago, and they can read entire literary texts not only in hieroglyphs, and religious texts not only in hieroglyphs, but directly from pup hyarate. So it's not like you just do a couple things and then oh, there's nothing more to move on to you. Really it's a serious program, and when you get to the upper levels, it's the same sort of work you would be doing in a

university setting. In terms of lecture classes. For those people who don't want to dive into or necessarily learn a new language, the lecture classes don't require any previous knowledge. And the next one coming up is going to be on demons and exorcism and magical practices, which will be a lot of fun, and we'll be reading some direct ancient Egyptian spells and talking about what a demon really is in Ansian Egypt because it might not be what everybody thinks.

post production, Colleen asked that we passed this along. If you've ever wondered what is fact and what is fiction about Indiana Jones and his quest for the Arc of the Covenant, well you can tune into her ninety minute webinar Ancient Egypt at the Movies Indiana Jones. This is going to meet live on Zoom on Thursday, August twenty first, from two to three thirty pm and eight to nine thirty pm US Eastern Time. It's going to be a

vividly illustrated presentation. She's going to introduce you to the first recorded Egyptian archaeologist, real ancient tomb robbers and the intact royal tombs that were found at Tennis So it sounds like a good time. You can find out more about that at her website. Just your reminder to everyone out there that's Stuff to Blow your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays

and Thursdays wherever you get your podcasts. On Fridays, we also set aside most serious matters to discuss a weird film on Weird House Cinema. Thanks as always to the excellent JJ Possway for producing the show, and if you'd like to get in touch with us, drop us a line at contact at stuff to blow your Mind dot com.