Life and Death in Greco-Roman Egypt

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In its final centuries, Ancient Egypt was conquered by the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, beginning with the invasion of Alexander the Great in 332 BC. But these new arrivals didn't squash the Egyptian way of life - the invaders blended their customs, practices and style with the native Egyptians. This is most notable in the extraordinary Fayum Mummy portraits - Egyptian sarcophagi with realistic Roman portraits painted on the front.

To find out more about life and death in Greco-Roman Egypt, Dan visits the Manchester Museum to meet Dr Campbell Price, curator of Egypt and Sudan. Among the Fayum mummies in the museum's current exhibition 'Golden Mummies' they discuss the last years of Pharaonic Egypt.

You can see the Fayum mummy portraits for yourself at the museum for free until mid-April 2024: Find out more here

Produced by Mariana Des Forges, edited by Dougal Patmore

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi buddy welcome to Dan Snow's History
0:02.8	Head. I've seen them in a few different places I've seen them in the Cairo Museum.
0:07.8	I've seen one in the Sainsbury Center the Art Museum in Norwich, Norfolk
0:11.6	and east of England and I've seen some beautiful examples in the
0:16.2	Manchester Natural History Museum in the north of England.
0:21.2	They are sarcophagi. They're coffins in which it...
0:25.0	All this week on the podcast I'm delving into the mystery and legacy of ancient Egypt.
0:34.8	Discover how this mighty empire grew from nomadic settlers on the banks of the Nile
0:40.5	through its downfall at the hands of the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans.
0:46.0	Learn just how the Egyptians built the awe-inspiring pyramids at Giza millennia ago
0:51.4	and decide if Ramesses the second really was as great as he thought he was
0:55.2	or whether he's a shameless self-promoter.
0:58.2	All this and more. Listen to Dan Snow's history hits on Spotify, or if you hear your podcasts.
1:05.0	I could teach Ramesses a thing or two about shameless self-perotion.
1:10.0	A chilling new chapter of True Detective returns to now.
1:15.0	When the long winter night falls in Alaska, eight scientists disappear.
1:20.0	The night country, it takes us one by one.
1:25.4	Detective Jody Foster and Kaye Reese dig into the haunted troops that lie buried beneath the ice.
1:31.4	She never touched this case.
1:35.0	Start streaming True Detective Night Country with now.
1:39.0	Egyptians were buried. But they look very different to the ones that you might be thinking of,
1:48.0	giant, carved stone, idealized portraits, or even the beautiful golden death mask of Tooten-Karmen.
	...

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