Professor of Egyptology and director of the Yale Egyptological Institute John C. Darnell delves into the history of Ancient Egypt from the Predynastic Period through the end of the New Kingdom. In these lectures, Professor Darnell shows that, despite common perceptions, Pharaonic Egyptian civilization existed within a multicultural society subject to disparate geological environments-and that its strength lay in the balancing of contrasting groups and goals.
Lecture 1 Forgetting and Rediscovering Ancient Egypt
Lecture 2 Northeast Africa and the Land of Egypt-Origins of Pharaonic Culture
Lecture 3 Unity in a Multicultural Society
Lecture 4 The Old Kingdom-the Pyramid Age
Lecture 5 The Narrow Door of the Desert-War in the South and the Birth of the Middle Kingdom
Lecture 6 The Belly of Stones-Reunification and the Fortresses of the Southern Frontier
Lecture 7 "Of What Use if this Power of Mine?"-the Rise of Thebes
Lecture 8 Thutmosis I and the Rise of the New Kingdom
Lecture 9 The King as Sun, the Sun as King-the Amarna Period of the Late Eighteenth Dynasty
Lecture 10 Diplomacy and Buffer States in the Near East
Lecture 11 The Catastrophe-Ramesside Egypt and the End of the Bronze Age
Lecture 12 Civil War and Governmental Ghouls-the Collapse of the New Kingdom
Lecture 13 The Napatan Kingdom and the Resurgence of Nubia
Lecture 14 Saite Renaissance, Persian Invasion, and the Coming of Alexander