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Tides of History

Egypt’s Middle Kingdom

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.86.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2021

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Middle Kingdom, beginning around 2000 BC, was the second of ancient Egypt’s classical ages. Powerful pharaohs ruled from the cataracts of the Nile to the Mediterranean, building enormous monuments and patronizing exceptional art and literature. But on either side of the Middle Kingdom lay two ages of chaos, the Intermediate Periods, when the pharaoh’s rule - the defining feature of ancient Egyptian history - essentially disappeared.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The King was dead. The first rays of the morning sun shown over the dry ridge to the east,

0:16.1

illuminating a shattered landscape. The king hadn't died alone. Corpse's littered the

0:22.0

battlefield, scattered among broken spears, discarded axes, spent arrows and shattered javelins.

0:27.6

His subjects in life had followed him into death. A small group of those subjects, still living,

0:34.8

unlike their erstwhile comrades and their king, picked their way through the ruins of the previous

0:40.0

days fighting. One of them limped, using a spear shaft to support his weight. Another stopped to

0:46.3

retie the bloody bandage wrapped around a gash in his heart. It was quiet now, but they remembered

0:51.6

the clash of bronze on bronze, cracking shields, the meaty thud of weapons and flesh, and the

0:57.8

cries of injured men and beasts. The memories of those sounds haunted the dry basin near the Nile,

1:04.4

ghosts winding their way around the restless souls of the newly dead.

1:09.0

They found the king at the center of the battlefield. Second end of the tower was lying on his left

1:14.7

side, his hands bound behind his back. One quick glance at what remained of his face left the

1:20.5

men wishing they hadn't looked. The king was dead, and he, like the other bodies scattered around him,

1:26.5

was starting to stink. Death made no exceptions for kings only a step removed from the divine.

1:33.1

The survivors would make sure their armies dead received the proper treatment,

1:36.8

enough to ensure that their souls would find their way to the afterlife in due time.

1:41.5

They were Egyptians, and the correct steps had to be followed.

1:44.6

Pisting the king's corpse up off the ground, the men carefully hefted the decomposing body

1:50.1

back toward their camp, where it would begin its last journey. To the south, to the capital city of

1:55.7

Thieves, where second end of the tower's mummy would reside in its final resting place for all

2:00.3

eternity. The king had failed to defeat his rival, but his sons would carry on the fight.

2:06.2

They too would be kings, and other kings would follow them, from then until the end of time.

...

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