Ancient Egypt: Crash Course World History #4

In which John covers the long, long history of ancient Egypt, including the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms, and even a couple of intermediate periods. Learn about mummies, pharaohs, pyramids and the Nile with John Green.

Our friends at Thought Bubble, who do the amazing graphics and animations for the show, are kickstarting a documentary. Check it out and join us in funding it: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sapiencefilm/sapience-the-search-for-wisdom

Resources:

Hieroglyphs, Egyptian gods, and more: http://dft.ba/-egyptA

Mummies!: http://dft.ba/-mummies

Pyramids!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid

Hi there my name’s John Green and this is
Crash Course: World History, and today we’re

going to talk about Egypt.

No, not that Egypt.

Older.

Older.

Older.

Less fictional. Yes, that one.

Ancient Egypt is probably the most influential
of the river valley civilizations.

Like you might not recognize any Assyrian
Kings or Assyrian language,

but you probably do know King Tut.

And you may recognize that the Eye of Horus
is right now staring at me and judging me.

I can feel, I can feel your judgement.

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When we think of Ancient Civilizations, we
think of Egypt. There are a few reasons for

this, like the fact that the pyramids are
the last man standing among the Seven Ancient

Wonders of the World. But more importantly,
Ancient Egyptian civilization lasted from

3000 BCE to 332 BCE. That’s a period that
historians call a long-ass time. And I will

remind you it is not cursing if you’re talking
about donkeys.

So there are many approaches to the study
of history. You could view history as a millennial

long conversation about philosophy or as clashes
between great men or you can see history through

the lens of traditionally neglected populations,
like women or indigenous peoples or slaves.

And we’re going to try to take many approaches
to our study of history during Crash Course.

Mr. Green, Mr. Green, which approach is right?
I mean, for the test.

Oh me-from-the-past. Remember how you spent
all of third year French writing notes back

and forth to that girl and she eventually
agreed to go out with you and you did make

it to second base but now you can hardly parle
un mot de francais?

Historical lenses are like that, my friend:
With every choice, something is gained and

something is lost.

Right, so in discussing agriculture and early
civilizations, we’ve been approaching history

through the lens of resource distribution
and geography.

And just as the violent and capricious Tigris
and Euphrates rivers shaped the worldview

of early Mesopotamians, the Nile shaped the
world view of the Egyptians. Let’s go to

the Thought Bubble.

The Nile was regular, navigable, and benign,
making for one of the safest and richest agricultural

areas in the world. Each summer the river
flooded the fields at precisely the right

time, leaving behind nutrient-rich silt for
planting season.

Planting was so easy that Egyptians just tossed
seeds around the silty earth and then let

their cattle or pigs walk on it to press the
seeds into the ground, and then boom, grain

and figs and wheat and pomegranates and melons
and joy.

Unlike most river valley civilizations, Egyptian
communities existed ONLY along the Nile, which

was navigable enough to get valuable resources
downstream from timber to gold, which the

Egyptians considered the divine metal, thereby
introducing an idea that would eventually

culminate in Mr. T.

The Nile is also easily tamed. While other
river valley civilizations needed complicated

and labor-intensive hydraulic engineering
projects to irrigate crops, the Nile was so

chill that Egyptians could use a simple form
of water management called basin irrigation,

in which farmers used floodwaters to fill
earthen basins and canals for irrigation.

In short, the awesomeness of the Nile meant
Egyptians could create big food surpluses

with relatively little work, allowing time
and energy for some pretty impressive projects.

Also, the Nile may help explain the ancient
Egypt’s general optimism:

While ancient Sumerian religion, for instance,
saw the afterlife as this gloomy, dark place,

Egyptians were often buried with things that
were useful and pleasurable to them in life,

because the Afterlife was seen as a continuation
of this life, which, at least if you lived

along the Nile, wasn’t half-bad.

Thanks, Thought Bubble.

And now, my dear pupils, I shall terrorize
you with the oppression of dates. No. Dates.

Yes. Thank you.

Historians have divided Egyptian history into
three broad categories. Each with their own

numbered dynasties. But only hardcore Egyptologists
know the dynasties, and we’re not trying

to become hardcore Egyptologists.

The Old Kingdom lasted from 2649 to 2152;

The middle kingdom from 2040 to 1640;

And the New Kingdom, so called because it
is only 3,000 years old, lasted from 1550-1070

BCE.

In between you have a couple so-called Intermediate
periods. Okay, OLD KINGDOM.

This was really the glory age of ancient Egypt,
when we get all the stuff that will later

make Indiana Jones possible,

like the pyramids at Giza,

and the sun king Ra,

and the idea of divine kingship.

which seems like a good gig, except that it
meant that he wasn’t expected to act like

a person, he was expected to act like a god,
which in ancient Egypt means acting like the

Nile: calm, cool, benevolent...
There’s no fun it that.

And then of course there are the pyramids,
which aside from remaining impressive to behold

represent a remarkable degree of political
and social control over the population, because

it is not easy to convince people to devote
their lives to building a sarcophagus for

someone else.

The most famous pyramids were built between
2575 and 2465 BCE.

The one with the Sphinx was for Khephren;

the largest, the Great Pyramid, was built
for the Pharaoh Khufu.

These pyramids were built partly by peasants
who were required by Egyptian law to work

for the government a certain number of months
per year,

and partly by slaves, but not by Moses and
the Jews, who showed up on the scene long

before pyramids were ever even a twinkle in
Khufu’s eye.

This leads to an overwhelming question: Why?
Why in the sweet name of Ra would anyone ever

build such a thing?

Well, let’s start with Ra. So, Ra started
out as a regional god, reigning over Heliopolis,

but he eventually became really central to
the entire pantheon of gods of ancient Egypt.

He was the god of the sun, but also the god
of creation.

And the thinking was that if humans did their
jobs then the pantheon of gods would maintain

cosmic order, and since the pharaohs became
gods upon their death, it made sense to please

them even unto pyramids.

Egyptian popular religion also embraced the
belief in amulets and magic and divination

and the belief that certain animals--

especially cats—had divine power.

And yes, I did bring that up just so I could
lolcat.

Old Kingdom Egypt was also remarkably literate:

They had two forms of writing, hieroglyphics
for sacred writing and then demotic script

for recording contracts and agreements and
other boring stuff.

The last thing I want to say about Old Kingdom
Egypt; it was ridiculously rich.

But then around 2250 BCE there were a series
of droughts and Pharaohs started fighting

over who should have power and we had an intermediate
period.

[classic intermission music]

Which was followed by the Middle Earth...

No, what? The middle kingdom? Ohh. Really?
That’s a bummer, Stan. I want it to be the

Middle Earth. How awesome would that be? Like
right in the middle of Egyptian history, there

were Hobbits....

So the Middle Kingdom, which apparently had
no Hobbits, restored Pharaonic rule in 2040

BCE but with some distinct changes:

First, the rulers were outsiders, from downriver
in Nubia. Second, they fostered a new pantheon

of gods, the star of which was Ammun, which
means hidden.

So here’s a little lesson from history:
Hidden gods tend to do well because they’re

omnipresent.

So Ammun eventually merged with Ra to form
the god Ammun-Ra, who was like the best god

ever and all the Middle Kingdom pharaohs made
temples for him and devoted all of their surplus

to his glory.

The Middle Kingdom also developed an interest
in conquering, specifically the new homeland

of Nubia, and they developed a side interest
in getting conquered, specifically by Semitic

peoples from the Levant.

They were able to conquer much of Egypt using
superior military technology like bronze weapons

and compound bows, and chariots of fire. What?
They were just regular chariots? STAN WHY

ARE YOU ALWATS KILLING MY DREAMS?

One group, the Hyksos, were able to conquer
all of Egypt, but rather than like destroying

the Egyptian culture, they just relaxed like
the Nile and assimilated into the Egyptians.

And the Egyptians adopted their military technology.
And then the Egyptians destroyed the Hyksos

and expelled them from Egypt.

And then by 1550 BCE there was again an Egyptian
pharaoh, Ahmosis...

...whose name only sounds like an STD.

Anyway, after all this conquering and being
conquered, Egypt eventually emerged from its

geographically imposed isolationism and, can
you cue the New Kingdom Graphic please?

There it is!

New Kingdom Egypt continued this military
expansion but it looked more like an Empire,

particularly when they headed south and took
over land in an attempt to find gold and slaves.

Probably the most expansive of the New Kingdom
pharaohs was Hatshepsut, a woman who ruled

Egypt for about 22 years.

And who expanded Egypt not through military
might, but through trade.

But most new kingdom pharaohs being dudes,
focused on military expansion, which brought

Egypt into conflicts with the Assyrians who
you’ll remember from last week,

And then the Persians, and then Alexander
the Great and finally, the Romans.

On the whole, Egypt probably would’ve been
better off enjoying its geographical isolation

and not trying to conquer new territory, but
all of Egypt’s friends had jumped off a

bridge, so…

One last thing about the New Kingdom. There
was this crazy New Kingdom Pharaoh named Akehenaten,

who tried to invent a new god for Egypt, Aten.

Akehenaten was kind of the Kim Jong Il of
Ancient Egypt, like he had this feared police

force and this big cult of personality. And
also he was a nut job.

Anyway, after his death he was replaced by
his wife, and then a daughter and than a son,

Tutankaten, who turned his back on the weird
god Aten and changed his name to Tutankhamen.

And that is about all King Tut did before
he died...

...probably around the age of 17. Honestly,
the only reason King Tut is famous is that

most Pharaohs had their graves robbed by ancient
people; and King Tut had his grave robbed

by 20th century British people.

Which brings us to the Open Letter. [scoots
to super sweet chartreuse throne] An Open

Letter to King Tut:

Oh, but first we gotta find out what Stan
left for me in the Secret Compartment. It’s

a pen. [clicks pen] AAHHHH!! It’s a shock
pen! Stan?%@#

That’s a terrible, terrible gift for the
secret compartment.

Dear King Tut,

I know that as Pharaohs lives go, yours was
pretty poor. First, you had to marry your

sister, which hopefully you weren’t that
psyched about, plus you had a cleft palette

and probably scoliosis.

Plus you died before really reaching adulthood.
But dude, you have had the best afterlife

ever.

Since your body was discovered in 1922, you’ve
become probably the most famous ancient person.

There have been lots of books about you, scholars
have devoted their lives to you.

Dude, we’re so obsessed with you that we
used this fancy new technology to scan your

body and establish that you probably died
of an infected broken leg and/or malaria,

So you’ve inspired such seminal works of
art as the Discovery Kids series Tutenstein,

which my son forces me to watch.

Your relics have been to six continents! So
it all works out in the end, man.

Well, I mean, you’re still dead. So that’s
kinda sucks.

Best wishes,
John Green

King Tut leads us nicely to the really crucial
thing about Egyptian culture.

Because King Tut lived right around the same
time as the pyramids right? Wrong.

Remember the pyramids were built around 2500
BCE during the Old Kingdom. King Tut died

in 1322 BCE, 1200 years later!

That’s five and a half Americas. But because
Egypt was so similar for so long, it all tends

to blend together when we imagine it.

Ancient Egypt lasted 1000 years longer than
Christianity has been around, and about 800

years longer than that other super-long lived
civilization, China.

So there was an entire culture that lasted
longer than Western Civilization has existed

and it had run its course before “the West”
was even born.

Next week, we’ll look at the Persians and
the Greeks. I’ll see you then.

Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan
Muller; The show is written by Raoul Meyer

my high school history teacher and myself;
our script supervisor is Danica Johnson and

our graphics team is ThoughtBubble.

Last week’s phrase of the week was “Male
Models.” You can take your guess at this

week’s phrase of the week in Comments and
also suggest future phrases of the week.

And if you have any questions about today’s
video, leave them in Comments and our team

of semi-professional quasi-historians will
endeavor to answer them as best we can.

Thanks for watching and as we say in my hometown:
Don’t forget to be awesome.

[skiddilydiddilies off screen]