1
00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:04,640
[DR. KARA COONEY] This work,
and you know, Kate said I've

2
00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:06,399
looked at over 300 coffins.

3
00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:07,920
Really when you put it
with my dissertation

4
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:09,360
work, it's over 400.

5
00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:12,960
And it's rather insane,
and when one gets mired

6
00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:16,239
in coffin studies, you're
dealing with databases and

7
00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:19,680
spreadsheets and copyright
issues, and it's quite

8
00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:22,560
time-consuming morass of data.

9
00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:24,140
And so, it comes

10
00:00:24,140 --> 00:00:24,660
(laughs)

11
00:00:24,660 --> 00:00:28,720
as a great relief, a pause,
a moment of reflection for

12
00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:32,400
me to work on these trade
books instead, to go from

13
00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:34,080
one kind of work to another.

14
00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:36,880
And this has worked quite well
for me as an Egyptologist.

15
00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:39,280
Sometimes I'm deep
in the spreadsheet,

16
00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:41,520
I'm trying to figure
things out and using

17
00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:44,320
academic jargon, many
of you in the audience

18
00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:46,800
know what I'm talking about,
and other times I'm writing

19
00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:50,960
for the public, and I'm trying
to make Egypt relevant,

20
00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:55,760
and I'm looking at the world,
okay, let me put it this way.

21
00:00:55,760 --> 00:00:58,319
An Egyptologist like Kate
and I would never ask each

22
00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:01,360
other why we study Egyptology,
though we both know that it's

23
00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:03,280
the question we've probably
most commonly answered.

24
00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:05,119
When did you decide
to be an Egyptologist?

25
00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:06,640
Why are you an Egyptologist?

26
00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,040
But we both know that
for whatever weird,

27
00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:13,039
cracked, crazy reason,
we see the world around us

28
00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:16,960
better or best through the
lens of the ancient world.

29
00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:19,280
I don't know why,
but I am able to

30
00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:24,240
understand systems of
government, economic systems.

31
00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:27,600
I'm able to understand systems
of power best by looking

32
00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:30,080
at it through the lens of
my beloved ancient Egypt,

33
00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:32,160
and then applying it
to the present day.

34
00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:34,800
Not only that,
Egypt affords us

35
00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:37,679
an amazing gift,
which is 3,000 years

36
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:40,880
of more or less the
same governmental system,

37
00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:44,560
same cultural system, same
religious system, same language.

38
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:47,200
And within those
3,000 years you've got

39
00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:49,280
a series of ups and downs.

40
00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:51,680
You have boom and bust,
you have collapse

41
00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:53,040
and regeneration.

42
00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:56,320
And we can see the human
reactions to all of those.

43
00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:59,520
That is an extraordinary
gift to be able to say,

44
00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:02,479
this is the way human
beings react when X happens.

45
00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:05,600
This is the way humans
react when Y happens.

46
00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:08,400
And so, I am here as
an Egyptologist to tell

47
00:02:08,479 --> 00:02:11,760
you that in this age
of anti-intellectualism,

48
00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:14,959
where people are saying,
'What good is a history degree?'

49
00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:16,640
I'm like, 'Well,
let me tell you.'

50
00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:17,520
(audience members laugh)

51
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:22,400
Egyptology is incredibly useful,
and it's useful for studies of

52
00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:24,720
women, and women in power.

53
00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,440
I teach a course at UCLA
called Women in Power

54
00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:28,239
in the Ancient World.

55
00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:30,480
And I've been doing this
class for the last five years.

56
00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:32,880
And I spend half of
the class on Egypt,

57
00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:35,440
and then I spend a week
on Persia, a week on Rome,

58
00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,640
a week on China, a week on
the Levant and Mesopotamia.

59
00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:42,880
And I'm doing a comparative
study on why we don't trust

60
00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,160
women in the halls of power,
why it is so very hard for women

61
00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:48,880
to attain real political power.

62
00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:52,000
And I'm not interested in this
class or in this book about

63
00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:55,680
women whispering something
to the king behind the throne

64
00:02:55,920 --> 00:02:57,600
trying to get what she wants.

65
00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:00,080
I'm not interested in that
kind of informal power.

66
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,200
I'm interested in formal
expressions of political power.

67
00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:04,720
When do we give it to women?

68
00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:05,680
When do we not?

69
00:03:05,920 --> 00:03:09,600
And Egypt is this strange
and cracked place,

70
00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:12,160
which I will discuss,
that allows women into

71
00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:14,960
power more regularly and
systematically than anywhere

72
00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:17,680
in the ancient world, and more
regularly and systematically

73
00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:20,239
than we allow into power today.

74
00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:23,920
In the longer version of this
talk that I do with the National

75
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:29,040
Geographic Institute Association
group, I don't, what are they?

76
00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:31,600
A society, that's what they are.

77
00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:34,720
I have a whole discussion
about how women do not have

78
00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:38,640
power today, economically,
politically, militarily,

79
00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:40,560
or ideologically,
and then I go into

80
00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:42,320
the anthropological
reasons for that,

81
00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:44,320
what it's like in a
hunter-gatherer society,

82
00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:46,400
what it's like in an
agricultural society.

83
00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:48,300
And then we're all
thoroughly depressed.

84
00:03:48,300 --> 00:03:48,820
(audience members laugh)

85
00:03:48,820 --> 00:03:52,160
And then I go to Egypt and I
say, "But Egypt was able to

86
00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:55,760
"surmount these obstacles
and allowed women to power

87
00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:59,040
in a way that no other
agricultural society did."

88
00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:01,120
And then I asked,
'Why is that?'

89
00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:02,880
And I continue,
and I hope this

90
00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:06,160
haunts you as I go
through six women who

91
00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:09,920
achieved formal states
of power in Egypt, I hope

92
00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:13,840
the question haunts you,
why do we in our society still

93
00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:16,320
not allow women into power?

94
00:04:16,399 --> 00:04:20,560
And why is this our reality?

95
00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:21,839
(all laugh)

96
00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:24,400
This is from before the
last election, right?

97
00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:26,480
You see Paul Ryan and you're
like, 'No, no, this is,

98
00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:27,520
you have to update this.'

99
00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:29,280
And you're right,
I do have to update it.

100
00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,159
But nothing speaks to what
I'm talking about now better

101
00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:33,920
than the last Congress.

102
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,880
Because the last Congress
was incredibly masculine,

103
00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:40,000
incredibly white, lacked
diversity on all fronts.

104
00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:43,440
And it made me realize that
when people are afraid,

105
00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:45,599
because I think this
country, right and left,

106
00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:48,080
the thing that unites us the
most is the fear that we are all

107
00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:49,680
falling over the cliff, right?

108
00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:51,200
That's what we can all agree on.

109
00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:52,800
We may have completely
different ways for how

110
00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:55,840
to heal that problem,
but we all are very afraid.

111
00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:59,039
And when people are afraid,
they often turn towards the

112
00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:02,400
patriarchy, whatever that is,
we can break it down.

113
00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,120
They turn towards what
makes them feel safe,

114
00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:07,440
that decisive masculine power.

115
00:05:07,840 --> 00:05:11,200
They turn towards this
same way of doing things,

116
00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:13,760
or they even turn towards
an authoritarianism,

117
00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:15,599
which is the subject
of my next book,

118
00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:18,080
which I don't have time
to talk about either.

119
00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:22,560
But it interests me that the
way fear makes people turn

120
00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:26,720
towards certain directions
of power and that females

121
00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:28,479
have nothing to do with them.

122
00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:32,480
So, now we come to this topic
of women in power in ancient

123
00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:36,000
Egypt and why this was such a
systematic and regular thing.

124
00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:39,359
Now, keep in mind I'm gonna
be talking about six women,

125
00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:41,919
five of whom became nothing
less than leaders of

126
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,080
state, king, right?

127
00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:47,840
And I'm not talking about the
dozens of other women that acted

128
00:05:47,840 --> 00:05:49,360
as regent for a young king.

129
00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:51,920
Coming in, pulling the strings
of the government, and then

130
00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,560
when that boy is old enough,
stepping back into the shadows,

131
00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:55,760
letting him run the show.

132
00:05:55,840 --> 00:05:59,359
I'll be talking about one
and a half, in a sense.

133
00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:03,920
But I'm leaving those women out
of this discussion and focusing

134
00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:07,520
on the women that were able
to take that kind of power

135
00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:09,919
and move it a step beyond.

136
00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:14,159
But this is a place that allows
women into power so often that

137
00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:16,960
we need to question why that is.

138
00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:19,200
And so, I am led to a map.

139
00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:21,040
In my class,
Women in Power

140
00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:22,640
in the Ancient World,
I usually start with

141
00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:24,320
a map of each region.

142
00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:25,360
And I show the map

143
00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:27,100
And I say, oh,
this doesn't

144
00:06:27,100 --> 00:06:27,620
look so great.

145
00:06:27,620 --> 00:06:29,120
Can you guys kind of
see it, more or less?

146
00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:30,960
The Nile is there,
you get some understanding

147
00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:32,240
of what's going on.

148
00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:36,239
Is this place unitable?

149
00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:39,280
Is this place protected?

150
00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:44,960
Is this place geographically
in tune with the allowance

151
00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:46,080
of female power?

152
00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:48,240
Seems a strange question
for me to ask, right?

153
00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:51,039
How can you look at a map
and know that females will

154
00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:52,719
be allowed into power or not?

155
00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:54,480
Well, you actually can.

156
00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:58,000
And the more I taught the class
Women in Power in the Ancient

157
00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:00,000
World, the more I realized,
oh, my goodness, you know,

158
00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:03,680
you can look at a map and
decide, will women be able

159
00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:04,880
to rule in this place?

160
00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:09,680
Now, Egypt is a very different
and special geographic region.

161
00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:10,960
Unique.

162
00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:13,360
It is protected
on all four sides.

163
00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:16,000
It's got deserts on east
and west, on the east,

164
00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:18,960
you can add the Red Sea just to
make a little harder to invade,

165
00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:22,560
Mediterranean Sea to the north,
and then down to the south

166
00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:25,919
where you have this artery
of the Nile cutting through

167
00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:28,080
the desert, and of course,
the Nile is the only reason

168
00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:31,599
anything exists in Egypt at
all, it's a gift of that Nile.

169
00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:34,400
In the south,
at a place called Elephantine,

170
00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:36,880
and then five or six times
further south, you have

171
00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:39,520
these giant granite boulders
in the middle of the river.

172
00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:42,160
So, even if you wanted to
bring some naval invading

173
00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:44,880
force with all your ships
straight up the river,

174
00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:47,200
you'd hit those granite
blocks and you and your

175
00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:49,039
naval force would have to
take the boats out of the

176
00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:51,680
river, go around and just
carry them around the boulders,

177
00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:54,560
put them back in the water,
and then head up north again.

178
00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:57,120
So, even the South is protected.

179
00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:00,719
This is a place that does not
suffer foreign invasion very

180
00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:03,200
often for most of its history.

181
00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,400
It is a place where
different ethnicities,

182
00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:08,480
and different languages,
and different religious

183
00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:11,280
systems coming into this
place for most of its pharaonic

184
00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:13,440
history, this is quite rare.

185
00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:16,880
Until the invasion of
a series of empires,

186
00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,360
starting with the Assyrian,
going with the Babylonian,

187
00:08:19,360 --> 00:08:21,600
then the Persians,
then Alexander the Great,

188
00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:25,040
this place existed in
a microcosm of safety,

189
00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:27,680
where you can have
the same language,

190
00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:29,440
the same religious system,
the same government

191
00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:31,440
for over 3,000 years.

192
00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:35,440
This is a very special and
protected place, a place where

193
00:08:35,919 --> 00:08:37,679
warlording is not the norm.

194
00:08:37,919 --> 00:08:40,560
Compare this in your minds
to what you hear in the news

195
00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:45,920
about Syria, Mesopotamia, what
we would call Iraq, or Rome,

196
00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:47,520
or Greece in the ancient world.

197
00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:51,520
There you have places that
are much more competitive

198
00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:54,720
and geographically do not
have the same barriers that

199
00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:56,400
this place has protected.

200
00:08:56,560 --> 00:08:58,560
War lording pays dividends.

201
00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:03,680
You will be rewarded for raising
an army, marching into Babylon,

202
00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:06,320
taking out the king,
and claiming that city

203
00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:08,719
as your own, and you know,
you might just win.

204
00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:11,120
Whereas here,
war lording is

205
00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:13,360
discouraged either
geographically from

206
00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:16,480
the outside in, but it's
also discouraged within.

207
00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:20,160
Because within you have
this Nile that floods its

208
00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:22,800
banks when it's doing it
as it's supposed to.

209
00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:24,820
Egyptians would tell us
there's a way it should work

210
00:09:24,820 --> 00:09:25,340
(laughs)

211
00:09:25,340 --> 00:09:26,079
And a way it shouldn't.

212
00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:28,319
Not too much flooding,
not too little flooding.

213
00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:31,360
But every year it floods its
banks and it leaves behind this

214
00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:34,240
thick layer of rich Nile silt.

215
00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:37,120
You sprinkle your seeds on it,
you let your animals and your

216
00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:39,280
children run on it, and just,
you know, a couple weeks

217
00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:42,079
later you have fat, juicy
kernels of wheat and barley.

218
00:09:42,160 --> 00:09:44,800
Herodotus in the 5th century
visited this place and he's

219
00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:46,880
like, 'Damn, this is insane.'

220
00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:50,000
He's like, "In Greece we have
to move the rocks and then we

221
00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:51,840
have to plow and it's so hard."

222
00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:52,800
In Egypt,
you're just

223
00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:54,060
like, la, la, la.

224
00:09:54,060 --> 00:09:54,580
(audience members laugh)

225
00:09:54,580 --> 00:09:56,800
And everyone's drunk and
there's too many people

226
00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:00,560
and nobody has to work
that hard, and it's awesome.

227
00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:03,760
That creates a kind
of society too.

228
00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:06,960
It creates a society where you
don't need to warlord because

229
00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:10,000
you don't have the same kinds
of scarcity that you have in

230
00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:12,880
Mesopotamia, or the Levant,
or Greece, or Rome.

231
00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:16,480
And so, warlording on the
inside is discouraged as well.

232
00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:20,800
And indeed, we compare Egyptian
politics to Greece or

233
00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:22,000
Rome at our peril.

234
00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:24,880
Because regicide in Egypt,
you can count them on the

235
00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:27,360
fingers of one hand, the
ones that we know about.

236
00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:29,600
This is a very rare
and unusual thing.

237
00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:32,320
This is a place that
geographically and

238
00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:35,760
culturally has developed
the most perfected form

239
00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:38,080
of divine kingship the
world has ever seen,

240
00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:42,479
where you might have
problems in the kingship,

241
00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:44,800
there could be an issue
with the succession,

242
00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:47,840
and the king dies early
after only ten years of

243
00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:49,680
rule and he leaves an
eight-year-old son of

244
00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:51,440
his choice behind,
in addition to

245
00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:52,640
many other sons,
but he leaves this

246
00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:53,760
eight-year-old behind.

247
00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:55,520
And in any other
part of the world,

248
00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:57,360
in Mesopotamia or
Greece or Rome,

249
00:10:57,440 --> 00:10:58,960
the guy holding
the bloody knife

250
00:10:59,040 --> 00:11:00,320
who just killed the
eight-year-old and all

251
00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:01,760
of the eight-year-old's
family hold it up

252
00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:02,960
And he's like,
'I'm king next!'

253
00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:04,160
And everyone's like, "You are.

254
00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:04,959
"good for you.

255
00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:05,760
You're king."

256
00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:07,360
And in Egypt,
everyone throws

257
00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:08,320
themselves to the
ground and they're

258
00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:10,960
like, 'Dear eight-year-old,
what would like us to do?'

259
00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:13,680
I have an eight-year-old boy,

260
00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:14,320
(audience members laugh)

261
00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:17,040
Who was born under the
full moon of Taurus.

262
00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:19,600
And I didn't use to believe
in that stuff until I had a

263
00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:21,760
kid who was born under the
full moon of Taurus and now,

264
00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:24,320
trust me, I understand what
willfulness means and how it

265
00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:26,080
is given to us by the God.

266
00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:27,280
(audience members laugh)

267
00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:31,040
But I did not want that
kid in charge of my house,

268
00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:32,800
let alone my nation, right?

269
00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:35,920
So, you have to come up with a
different method that's gonna

270
00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:40,640
keep this divine kingship
safe and fun in Mesopotamia,

271
00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:42,959
the Levant, Greece or Rome.

272
00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:46,880
If you let a kid rule,
you're gonna have somebody older

273
00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:49,280
come in and make decisions on
his behalf and you're probably

274
00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:50,560
gonna have a man do so.

275
00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:54,000
What's gonna happen if an
uncle of the kid comes in

276
00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:55,200
and rules on his behalf?

277
00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:56,720
The brother of the dead king.

278
00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:00,720
I have a saying amongst
my students at UCLA.

279
00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:02,319
It's a very useful saying.

280
00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:03,520
It's very short.

281
00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:05,120
Many of you may have
heard it before.

282
00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:06,240
You've heard me speak.

283
00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:09,760
And the saying is two words,
and it is because testicles.

284
00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:11,440
(audience members laugh)

285
00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:13,440
I say it so much that
a grad student made me

286
00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:15,520
a t-shirt that says,
'Because testicles,'

287
00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:18,400
and then she put the
hieroglyph for the penis on it.

288
00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:19,180
I'm like,
"I can never

289
00:12:19,180 --> 00:12:19,700
wear this shirt.

290
00:12:19,700 --> 00:12:20,220
"What do you expect?

291
00:12:20,220 --> 00:12:20,740
(audience members laugh)

292
00:12:20,740 --> 00:12:21,260
I can't."

293
00:12:21,260 --> 00:12:21,780
(audience members laugh)

294
00:12:21,780 --> 00:12:23,600
So, I just lovingly put it
aside, and it was just in a

295
00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:25,760
drawer, and I can never wear it,
in sparkly glitter

296
00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:26,800
paint, whatever.

297
00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:28,240
(audience members laugh)

298
00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:31,199
But because testicles,
you can't have the uncle

299
00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:33,600
of the young kid come in
and be the decision maker.

300
00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:36,400
I'm not saying he's necessarily
going to assassinate the kid.

301
00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:38,400
But the chances
are higher, right?

302
00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:40,000
It is riskier.

303
00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:43,840
Whereas if you have a woman
come in, mother of the kid,

304
00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:47,439
maybe the aunt, we'll discuss,
it's going to be less risky.

305
00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,640
And this brings up the other
thing I want to haunt you as

306
00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:51,920
we're talking about this.

307
00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:54,400
Do women rule
differently from men?

308
00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:58,959
In some way, and the way I hear
yeses and often I'll hear nos.

309
00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:01,280
And I don't think we as
a society have completely

310
00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:03,680
figured this out yet because
we don't let them rule.

311
00:13:03,840 --> 00:13:06,720
So, we don't know what
the options are yet.

312
00:13:06,800 --> 00:13:09,680
But the Egyptians believed
that women ruled differently.

313
00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:11,600
And the Egyptians,
to keep this system

314
00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:15,600
running and to keep it safe,
systematically allowed

315
00:13:15,680 --> 00:13:18,800
the woman to come in to
keep the divine kingship

316
00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:20,400
safe, to keep it working.

317
00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:22,240
And here's the most
uncomfortable part

318
00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:23,840
of working through
this book, working

319
00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:24,960
through the female power.

320
00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:27,440
I'm not here to write a
revisionist history for you.

321
00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:29,680
I'm not here to make you
feel happy and cushy with

322
00:13:29,680 --> 00:13:32,560
rainbows and puppy love
about the women of the past.

323
00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:35,280
I am here to tell you
the truth as a historian.

324
00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:38,400
And the uncomfortable truth for
me, having gone through all of

325
00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:41,920
these women, is that it is in
the most authoritarian state

326
00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:45,440
on the planet, with the most
perfected divine kingship

327
00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:47,119
that we see female power.

328
00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:48,240
Only there.

329
00:13:48,560 --> 00:13:51,440
It is where female power
is forced upon its people

330
00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:53,200
that it is most accepted.

331
00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:56,079
It is in the most unequal
of social situations,

332
00:13:56,080 --> 00:13:58,160
the most pyramidal of
social situations, that

333
00:13:58,240 --> 00:13:59,760
female power is allowed.

334
00:13:59,920 --> 00:14:02,880
Otherwise, if you go to
Greece or Rome, let's go

335
00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:04,880
to the Greek Democratia.

336
00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:08,080
Very broad
understanding of power.

337
00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:11,200
Everyone who's a citizen has a
say in their assembly, right?

338
00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:13,520
One man falls, another
man takes his place.

339
00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:17,840
Women have no say in this
society and in this culture.

340
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:21,120
Women have so little political
power and men have so much that

341
00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:24,160
there's actually a political
sexual understanding to

342
00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:25,600
male love in Greece.

343
00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:26,740
That true love,

344
00:14:26,740 --> 00:14:27,260
(laughs)

345
00:14:27,260 --> 00:14:29,199
If you read your Greek
texts very carefully,

346
00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:31,280
is male-male, not female-male.

347
00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:34,480
The women are full of deceit,
and witchcraft, and problems,

348
00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:37,200
and read your Pandora's box
discussion and you see it,

349
00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:38,239
Oh, my goodness.

350
00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:41,120
But in Egypt,
the woman is what

351
00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:42,880
keeps this safe.

352
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:45,360
The woman is the
placeholder to allow this

353
00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:47,200
patriarchy to continue.

354
00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:49,680
That's the uncomfortable
reality for me.

355
00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:52,240
And I just wrote a piece in
Time Magazine about this,

356
00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:55,680
that the woman usually
serves the patriarchy

357
00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:57,920
without even thinking,
without even knowing

358
00:14:58,000 --> 00:14:58,640
what she's doing.

359
00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:01,040
It doesn't matter if there's
a woman in power, what is

360
00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:02,560
the agenda of that woman?

361
00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:05,440
So, this is very much
my discussion for today.

362
00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:07,760
If women do rule differently,
what is their agenda?

363
00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:11,440
How are we to understand
their place in this society?

364
00:15:11,680 --> 00:15:14,240
Now, many of you in the audience
might be annoyed that I have

365
00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:16,400
used the word female king twice.

366
00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:17,760
You're like,
"Why did she do that?

367
00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:18,460
"That's stupid.

368
00:15:18,460 --> 00:15:18,980
(audience members laugh)

369
00:15:18,980 --> 00:15:20,480
"She could just
use the word queen.

370
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:21,199
We do."

371
00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:23,439
And I will say,
in the ancient

372
00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:25,440
Egyptian language,
the word queen

373
00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:26,640
connotes no power.

374
00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:29,600
It is a sexual
helpmate of the king.

375
00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:33,360
It is something that is,
it has nothing to do with

376
00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:35,120
politics or decision-making.

377
00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:38,480
When the Egyptians chose a
woman to be king, in this case,

378
00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:39,920
Hatshepsut from our obelisk.

379
00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:41,280
Can you see the
central column there?

380
00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:43,680
Top word, Nesut is used.

381
00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:46,400
They used the word king,
so I'm gonna use the word king.

382
00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:48,160
That's the way I've
decided to do it.

383
00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:49,680
So, just a little
justification there

384
00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:51,439
So I don't get that
question in the Q&A,

385
00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:53,040
which I always do, otherwise.

386
00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:57,520
So, now I want to go
through our six women.

387
00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:00,000
How much time do
I have until 2 40?

388
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:01,520
Who's running the show?

389
00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:02,800
2 50?

390
00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:03,520
Okay.

391
00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:04,880
Alright.

392
00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:08,400
So, we'll go through these,
really five, 'cause I don't

393
00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:10,640
have a whole lot of time for
Tawosret here, and she's

394
00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:12,620
more Game of Thrones than
you can possibly imagine.

395
00:16:12,620 --> 00:16:13,140
(audience members laugh)

396
00:16:13,140 --> 00:16:14,720
So, we're gonna skip over her.

397
00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:17,760
And I can stand here by the
podium and say, 'You can buy

398
00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:19,280
the book,' which is awesome.

399
00:16:19,787 --> 00:16:22,640
But let's start with
Merneith of Dynasty 1,

400
00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:25,680
and gain an understanding
that this female power in

401
00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:28,800
ancient Egypt to protect an
authoritarian patriarchal

402
00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:31,920
regime, yeah, those words
just rolled off my tongue.

403
00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:36,000
The female power is the
other side of the coin of

404
00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:37,440
that patriarchal regime.

405
00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:38,400
It comes with it.

406
00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:40,880
You have to have the
one without the other.

407
00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:43,040
There is no way to
avoid the female power.

408
00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:45,120
You could argue,
and the Egyptologists

409
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:46,560
in the room know what I'm
talking about, that there

410
00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:50,080
are Dynasty 0 examples of
very, very strong female power.

411
00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:52,800
Merneith is just the
most well-documented

412
00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:54,480
for us to start with,
but it could have even

413
00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:55,840
had an earlier beginning.

414
00:16:56,080 --> 00:16:59,360
So, when Egyptologists
found Merneith's tomb,

415
00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:01,920
they found it in a
place called Abydos,

416
00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:06,000
Middle Egypt, along the Nile,
out in the western desert sands.

417
00:17:06,079 --> 00:17:08,720
And they looked at the layout
of the tomb and they looked at

418
00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:11,359
the horizontal stratigraphy,
they're like, king's tomb

419
00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:13,359
there, king's tomb there,
now we're digging here,

420
00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:15,040
must be another king's tomb.

421
00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:17,520
They find the grave
marker, the stela,

422
00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:19,440
and they look at that
and they're like, "Yup,

423
00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:20,240
looks like the others.

424
00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:21,120
"We're all good.

425
00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:22,079
It's a king."

426
00:17:22,079 --> 00:17:24,560
And then they start
to look and compare.

427
00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:26,399
And they're like,
"Wait a minute,

428
00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:27,679
something's missing.

429
00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:29,520
"Something is a little bit off.

430
00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:32,560
There are two things missing
from Merneith's stela."

431
00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:34,560
Merneith whose name
means the beloved one

432
00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:36,000
of the goddess Neith.

433
00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:37,680
The name is not
really gonna help us.

434
00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:38,960
There's not at the end.

435
00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,280
Egyptian names are useful.

436
00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:43,680
It's Smurf or Smurfette, right?

437
00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:44,320
(audience members laugh)

438
00:17:44,320 --> 00:17:46,480
So, it's the same with Merneith.

439
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:48,560
Some would be like, 'No,
there is a t,' some

440
00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:50,320
would be like, 'No,
there's not,' but it

441
00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:51,680
depends on how it's written.

442
00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,399
But the two things that are
missing are the falcon at the

443
00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:59,520
top, porous and carnic, kingship
on earth, and the palace facade,

444
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:04,800
that mud brick walled fortress
that goes around the inner

445
00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:07,360
sanctum where the king
and his court dwell.

446
00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:09,919
Those two things are
missing from her stela.

447
00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:12,879
So, the Egyptologists are like,
'Huh, I wonder what's going on.'

448
00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:16,080
And then they find a tiny
little label, this big,

449
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:20,000
affixed to a commodity
in her, well, I wouldn't

450
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,960
wanna give it away, in one
of the later king's tombs.

451
00:18:23,120 --> 00:18:26,720
And this tiny little label,
they see, okay, we have Djer,

452
00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:30,000
we have Djet, we have Den,
and then what have we got here?

453
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:34,480
We have the king's
mother, Merneith.

454
00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:37,280
So, they're like, oh,
it's not exactly the

455
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:38,879
correct lineup,
but she's named as

456
00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:40,720
the king's mother,
they're like, 'Oh, I got it.

457
00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:42,320
She's there as the regent.'

458
00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:46,240
Djet must have died too early,
leaving Den on the throne too

459
00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,760
young, demanding somebody
to be the decision maker,

460
00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:51,200
somebody to act as regent.

461
00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:52,879
Who better than
the king's mother?

462
00:18:52,956 --> 00:18:54,820
This starts off in Dynasty 1.

463
00:18:54,820 --> 00:18:55,340
(fingers snap)

464
00:18:55,340 --> 00:18:58,000
Soon as they can do it,
they institute this as a

465
00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:00,080
pattern, and as a system.

466
00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:02,560
Now, how did she get there?

467
00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:03,760
How does this work?

468
00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:06,560
I say her father, Djer,
and in the book I talk

469
00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:10,000
about the king, Djer,
as her father, given how

470
00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:11,600
high Merneith's station is.

471
00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:13,280
It is an assumption that
I make, and I'm clear

472
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:14,159
about it in the book.

473
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:17,520
It's possible this guy is
not her father, but we'll

474
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:18,960
leave it there for now.

475
00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:23,840
But Merneith would have been
a girl when this very powerful

476
00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:26,160
and long-lived King Djer died.

477
00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:29,040
And this would have been one
of her earliest memories,

478
00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:31,600
a memory seared into her brain.

479
00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:34,720
Because at Djer's death,
and at the death of any

480
00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:39,440
First Dynasty king, the
courtiers were separated,

481
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:43,440
and it was determined who
among them would accompany

482
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:45,200
the king into death themselves.

483
00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:47,040
So, they were sacrificed.

484
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:48,720
We don't know the method.

485
00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:50,320
I'll show you some
of the skeletons.

486
00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:52,000
They could have been poisoned,
they could have been strangled,

487
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:53,600
they could have been starved,
we've got nothing.

488
00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:54,880
There's very little evidence.

489
00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:56,720
And the archaeologists
who found most of these

490
00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:59,360
skeletons only kept the heads.

491
00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:01,600
Annoying, right?

492
00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:02,480
(audience members laugh)

493
00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,040
I have a graduate student,
Rose Campbell, for those of

494
00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:08,000
you that know her, who's
working on isotope analysis,

495
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,560
and she's heading to London
and Cambridge soon, where there

496
00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:12,399
are hundreds of such heads.

497
00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:15,200
And she's gonna be looking at
these skulls and determining

498
00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:17,439
where these people grew up,
'cause you can tell that from

499
00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:20,240
the isotopes, what kind of
health and nutrition they had.

500
00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:22,400
And this work has
not been done yet.

501
00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:25,360
But the work that has been done
suggests that the people who

502
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:29,760
were sacrificed to surround the
king's tomb were buried at one

503
00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:33,439
time and were wealthy people,
well-nourished people, people

504
00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:36,879
who were probably courtiers,
people with whom you shared a

505
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:40,400
meal, people who were probably
family members of yours.

506
00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:44,879
And when Djer dies,
hundreds of people

507
00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:46,240
met their end.

508
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:47,360
Think of this.

509
00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:50,560
We have this phrase, the king is
dead, long live the king, right?

510
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:52,000
Well, think of it this way.

511
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:53,600
The king is dead,
long live the king.

512
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:55,360
You say it fast like that
'cause you don't want any

513
00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:57,040
vulnerability coming in between.

514
00:20:57,120 --> 00:21:00,399
You know it's a time period
of great potential problems.

515
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,040
You wanna make sure everybody's
safe and everybody's taken care

516
00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:05,280
of, that you go to the next
kingship when you're moving

517
00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:06,880
from one government to another.

518
00:21:07,120 --> 00:21:10,480
And to make this more seamless,
the Egyptians of the First

519
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:13,439
Dynasty hit upon a rather
brilliant but macabre and

520
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:16,720
brutal plan, which is to
show the king's power over

521
00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:18,480
life and death itself.

522
00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:21,919
And to also, I would argue,
take out potential

523
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:23,840
threats from society.

524
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:27,040
So, if you're worried about,
you know, you've got your king,

525
00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:29,360
you place him on the throne,
who are you most worried

526
00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:31,520
about as you do that in that
a most vulnerable situation?

527
00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:33,439
Well, you're worried about
the other guys who could

528
00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:34,879
have taken that position.

529
00:21:35,120 --> 00:21:38,000
Those are the ones who are
most of a threat to the guy

530
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:39,280
who's sitting on the throne.

531
00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:42,080
He's the one, in a sense,
that needs this sacrifice.

532
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:45,040
You put them around the burial
of the king before, but really

533
00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:47,120
the dead do not bury themselves.

534
00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:49,679
This is about the guy
who's sitting on the

535
00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:52,480
throne now and what he
needs in the here and now.

536
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:57,040
And what the guy who comes next,
Djet, after Djer's burial needs

537
00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:01,840
now, is some sacrifice of older
men, but not a whole lot.

538
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:05,280
Djer has more females buried
in his tomb than he has males.

539
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:07,919
And this is based on
archaeological reports

540
00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:10,560
that are problematic,
but we're gonna leave it there.

541
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,000
But he has a great number
of dead that accompany him.

542
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,800
And I would argue that any
threats to the throne are

543
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,320
eliminated in a very quick
couple of weeks as they

544
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:22,240
put this man to death.

545
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:25,040
Each person gets their own
little marker, their own name,

546
00:22:25,120 --> 00:22:26,880
a little designation
of their gender.

547
00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:29,360
Even if you can't tell from a
skeleton what the gender is,

548
00:22:29,360 --> 00:22:32,400
you can use these markers to
determine what the gender is.

549
00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:36,720
Ellen Morris is the person whose
work I follow the most on this.

550
00:22:37,120 --> 00:22:40,080
Laurel Bestock as well,
if you guys wanna follow up.

551
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,760
Now, Merneith is not
slated for sacrifice,

552
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:45,600
but she may have seen
her own mother die in

553
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:46,480
front of her eyes.

554
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:47,680
We have no way of knowing.

555
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:50,160
This is history from
5,000 years ago.

556
00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:52,960
But the burial of the king
would have been accompanied

557
00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,160
by a keening and mourning
that we have no concept of.

558
00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:59,120
Imagine somebody very important
dying and then imagine that

559
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:01,600
they take out 500 other very
important people right

560
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:03,520
in front of your eyes,
and you have to watch

561
00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:04,880
that in a ritual.

562
00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:06,640
Absolutely brutal.

563
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:08,720
Merneith watches all of that.

564
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,520
She marries the next
king, the guy Djet.

565
00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:16,000
She then watches as he dies,
and then the selection

566
00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:17,120
is made again.

567
00:23:17,360 --> 00:23:19,360
Now, he dies a little too early.

568
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:24,080
He dies leaving Den, her son,
to rule before his time.

569
00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:26,560
However this happens,
and this is one of the most

570
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,760
mysterious things about any
authoritarian regime, how is the

571
00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:31,600
successor to the throne chosen?

572
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:33,120
How is this choice made?

573
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:34,639
What is the realpolitik?

574
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:36,640
How is the regent chosen?

575
00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,439
Do they choose the successor
by which regent is best

576
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:40,480
or other way around?

577
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:41,200
We don't know.

578
00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,399
But Merneith is chosen as
regent, her son is the king.

579
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:47,040
And now who's gonna be in
charge of the selection at

580
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:48,080
the death of her husband?

581
00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:50,879
Well, we have to
assume it's her.

582
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:53,120
So, you have to look at
this again as the dead

583
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:54,399
do not bury themselves.

584
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:57,040
The living are the ones
who are doing this.

585
00:23:57,200 --> 00:23:58,720
The kid on the
throne is too young.

586
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:00,320
Let's assume he's 12 years old.

587
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:03,120
Not ready to rule yet,
but not incredibly young either.

588
00:24:03,120 --> 00:24:07,600
And Merneith is the one
saying, 'Him, him, him,

589
00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:10,159
her, and him, him.'

590
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,080
And these people are
all sacrificed in front

591
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:15,200
of everybody else.

592
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:18,320
Merneith doesn't have
to die because she's

593
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,320
there as Queen Regent,
but I imagine she sacrificed

594
00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:25,920
or saw sacrifice many women
her age, who accompanied

595
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:29,680
her husband maybe from the
harem into his burial place.

596
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,480
She's the one that's
calling the shots.

597
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:35,360
Each one gets a little
burial marker of their own.

598
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:38,800
Each one gets a room of
his or her own in a sense.

599
00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:41,280
This is a very
brilliant, if brutal,

600
00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:43,280
plan of making sure that
everyone understands who

601
00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:44,320
has the power.

602
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,520
This is an interesting,
if you look at comparative

603
00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:50,400
anthropology and you look
at incipient states,

604
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:54,159
you look at nascent states,
this is a feature you see

605
00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:57,760
in Africa and Europe and
Asia, in the New World.

606
00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:00,560
That in these states
when a kingship is new,

607
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:04,160
sacrificial burial often goes
along with it for the king.

608
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:07,200
It is a great and quick,
efficient means of showing

609
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:09,520
who has the power and that
you better move along with

610
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,159
this and not rock the boat.

611
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:14,240
Do what you need to do.

612
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:16,640
This is what the dead look
like as they are buried,

613
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:18,480
they're accompanied with
these markers, with grave

614
00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:21,760
goods, sometimes with jewelry,
buried on their side in a fetal

615
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:24,560
position as if they're sleeping,
there are no marks

616
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,360
of murder, nothing.

617
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:31,760
So, even though we have symbols
like little labels like this,

618
00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:34,320
and in the top right corner
you see somebody stabbing

619
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:36,879
somebody in the chest,
that seems to be more

620
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:38,160
of an enemy combatant.

621
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:40,720
This doesn't seem to be what
we're talking about here.

622
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:43,439
Matthew Adams,
the archaeologist who

623
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:45,840
works at Abydos now,
he thinks it's a

624
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:48,000
mass cyanide death.

625
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:50,880
Like a Jonestown
kind of thing, right?

626
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:53,280
A Guyana Punch sort of deal.

627
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:56,400
And that that was a really easy
way to dispatch hundreds of

628
00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:58,560
people in public in one moment.

629
00:25:58,720 --> 00:25:59,680
We don't know.

630
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:01,679
Until we have better access

631
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,320
to the bioarcheological remains,
this is going to remain

632
00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:08,320
a mystery for some time.

633
00:26:09,120 --> 00:26:13,360
Now, Den rules,
he has the best and

634
00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:15,840
greatest rule of all
of the Dynasty 1 kings.

635
00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:18,000
He expands Egypt's borders
the farthest that they've

636
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:19,120
ever been expanded.

637
00:26:19,360 --> 00:26:22,720
Merneith is there alongside
him for much of his rule.

638
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:28,000
And when she dies in his reign,
she is buried like a king.

639
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:32,560
She does not ever receive
the status of a king herself.

640
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:33,680
She's not a co-king.

641
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:34,720
She is just a regent.

642
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:36,640
Her status is
completely informal.

643
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,440
And yet she's buried in
the lineup of other kings.

644
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,320
She's put into the king
list as king's mother.

645
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:45,520
She's afforded an
incredible amount of status.

646
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:49,679
And yet, a pattern, oh,
given a tomb like this as

647
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:53,679
reconstructed, and yet just two
generations later, she's already

648
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:55,520
removed from the king list.

649
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:58,720
This is a pattern that
we will see repeated.

650
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:01,440
The woman is there as a
placeholder in the moment

651
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:03,920
to keep the patriarchal
system going, to link

652
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:07,360
from one king to the next,
from one patriarch to the next.

653
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:09,040
If you need a woman to
keep the system safe,

654
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:10,480
everyone's gonna
be okay with me.

655
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:13,120
They're gonna include her in
the king list during the time,

656
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,160
but then as soon as they move on
to somebody who's disconnected

657
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:17,760
from her, phew, she's gotta go.

658
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:19,120
She doesn't fit.

659
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,960
And so, then we see all of these
kings moving in this direction.

660
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,000
You've got the Djer, Djet, Den,
and then you move on to

661
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:26,800
a different king.

662
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,560
No mention of Merneith
anywhere in the list.

663
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:34,800
So, now we're gonna skip
a number of dynasties

664
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:36,320
and go up to Dynasty 12.

665
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:38,240
Those of you that want me
to talk about Tawosret,

666
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:39,040
it's in the book.

667
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:41,840
There are no contemporary
documents for her during

668
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:45,280
that time period, so we will
not be able to speak about her

669
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:46,960
as an actual living person.

670
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:48,720
But Neferusobek, we can.

671
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:51,520
Some of you may know
her as Sobekneferu.

672
00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:53,840
Much disagreement about
how her name should be

673
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:55,200
pronounced and spoken.

674
00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:57,840
We'll leave it this way for now.

675
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:02,639
This woman was born into
a very formidable dynasty,

676
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:06,320
an incredibly strong dynasty,
a dynasty that begins with a

677
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:10,320
regicide, and then is very
protective from that point on,

678
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:12,720
making sure that it keeps the
money and the power and the

679
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:14,400
influence within the family.

680
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:18,160
Her grandfather was the
formidable Senwosret III,

681
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:21,040
who also expanded Egypt's
borders farther than we've ever

682
00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:23,040
seen, who lived very, very long.

683
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:25,200
And his son is Amenemhet III.

684
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:28,639
This is Neferusobek's father,
also a very, very strong king.

685
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:31,760
Both of them great builders,
both of them making statuary

686
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,960
that was so successful
aesthetically that it was

687
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:37,600
reused for millennia afterwards.

688
00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:40,320
She may have married
Amenemhet IV.

689
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:42,560
This is where the history starts
to get really problematic.

690
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,040
And those of you who know your
end of the 12th Dynasty history,

691
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:46,140
how many of you are there?

692
00:28:46,140 --> 00:28:46,660
(audience members laugh)

693
00:28:46,660 --> 00:28:48,700
That's right, no hands at all.

694
00:28:48,700 --> 00:28:49,220
(audience members laugh)

695
00:28:49,220 --> 00:28:49,760
I like that.

696
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:51,840
Good, because it's
very problematic.

697
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:54,800
Some people think that
this guy wasn't a king's

698
00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,520
son at all and that he's
marrying into the family.

699
00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,520
Other people think
this was a king's son.

700
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:01,120
We're never gonna
know these things.

701
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:03,439
Remember, an authoritarian
regime is not going to

702
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:04,480
give away its secrets.

703
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:08,000
It's going to give away
only perfection, idealism.

704
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:09,760
Everything is the
way it should be.

705
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,879
He's depicted as a king's son,
he names himself as a king's

706
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:14,480
son, I'm gonna go along with it.

707
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:15,840
Not gonna hurt me.

708
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:18,879
Though I do believe as
an Egyptologist it is my

709
00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:21,520
responsibility to try to
figure out what these guys are

710
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:23,679
telling us by not telling us.

711
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:26,160
I'm distrustful of
all of the data.

712
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:28,000
I don't like to drink
the Kool-Aid, as I think

713
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:29,520
most Egyptologists do.

714
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,159
We accept the
authoritarian regime and

715
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:33,280
the information we're given.

716
00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:35,840
And we don't question the data
enough, trying to figure out

717
00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:38,080
what the propaganda is and
what the realpolitik could

718
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:40,159
be behind the propaganda.

719
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:44,159
But here we've got this dude,
Amenemhet IV, who is married

720
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,040
to Neferusobek, may have been
her half-brother, maybe not,

721
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:51,199
we don't know, but oof, he dies,
and there is no heir to the

722
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:54,080
throne in any way, shape,
or form that we can identify.

723
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:56,159
There's nobody,
there's nobody left.

724
00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:59,120
So, what do we have instead
but maybe a problem with

725
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:01,180
incest in ancient Egypt?

726
00:30:01,180 --> 00:30:01,700
(laughs)

727
00:30:01,700 --> 00:30:02,639
I don't know.

728
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:05,600
But I do know that incest
happened in ancient Egypt

729
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:06,399
pretty regularly.

730
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:10,400
Tutankhamun is an example
of it, we have other kings,

731
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,679
Dynasty 19's Siptah had a
club leg and it was probably

732
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:15,120
a product of incest.

733
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,480
The Ptolemies are well known
for their incestuous pairings.

734
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:21,919
Hell, European monarchs
are well known for their

735
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:23,360
own incestuous pairings.

736
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:27,600
I have a picture of Charles II
here with his ginormous head

737
00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:31,040
that needed a special pillow
and his overly large jaw.

738
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:34,159
And we could think of
Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia,

739
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,960
and his hemophilia also being
the product of incest.

740
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:41,440
Incest is a very useful tool,
especially in a dynasty that's

741
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:45,120
trying to keep power inside
of its own system and

742
00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:46,720
not give it all away.

743
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:50,639
This is the best I've got as a
solution for why you can have

744
00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:54,560
such strong kings and then all
of a sudden have nothing and

745
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:56,480
end up with a female king.

746
00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:58,320
How could that possibly happen?

747
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,040
How could the harem
just come up empty?

748
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:04,399
Well, we've seen it
before in ancient Egypt,

749
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:05,680
and we'll see it later.

750
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:08,240
This is the best solution
that I have to this problem,

751
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:10,400
though it's not necessarily
the only one.

752
00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:14,080
But it results in Egypt's
first female kingship.

753
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:15,760
Let me go back to the
incest a little bit,

754
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:17,520
'cause who doesn't
wanna talk about more?

755
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:20,960
Think about it,
'cause a lot of you in

756
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:23,120
the audience are probably
like, "Those ancient Egyptians,

757
00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:24,639
they're so stupid
"and primitive,

758
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:26,720
and why would they even
do something so ridiculous?

759
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:28,639
We would never do that."

760
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:29,760
Well, really?

761
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,120
'cause all this is,
is a short-term

762
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:36,640
decision based on the
opportunism of the moment.

763
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,520
So, let's put it this way,
if you're an elite,

764
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:42,399
a very high-level elite,
a courtier in the palace

765
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:46,080
and you're one of four other
guys who is able to whisper

766
00:31:46,240 --> 00:31:49,439
when the king is sick and the
decision you guys make could

767
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:52,240
actually hold some weight, and
you guys are talking with each

768
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:54,480
other and you're like, "Okay,
we have a couple of choices.

769
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:55,439
What are you guys thinking?"

770
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:56,560
You're not gonna put
this down in writing,

771
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:58,080
authoritarian regimes
don't do that.

772
00:31:58,080 --> 00:31:58,960
You're gonna talk about it.

773
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:00,400
And you're gonna be
like, "Okay, well,

774
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:01,440
we've got a couple of choices.

775
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:04,880
"We've got this strong
strapping lad whose in-laws

776
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:07,040
are from the "South, and they
have their own private army,

777
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:09,760
and they all wanna "have jobs
if we bring him in as king.

778
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:12,640
"or we could get the rather
dim-witted, large-headed,

779
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:15,120
"incestuous product of
the brother-sister kingly

780
00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:17,440
marriage, and all our
jobs would be awesome,

781
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:18,960
and we'd go on as before."

782
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:20,820
And everyone's like,
"Yeah, let's do that.

783
00:32:20,820 --> 00:32:21,340
(audience members laugh)

784
00:32:21,340 --> 00:32:23,360
Let's go with that
short-term solution."

785
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:25,680
And if you think we don't
make short-term solutions,

786
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:28,080
just think of global warming
and climate change.

787
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:29,760
And this being what,
the fourth hottest

788
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:32,720
summer the world has ever,
year the world has ever seen,

789
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:35,360
and we still all have plastic
water bottles in our bags and

790
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,160
there's a plastic island
between here and Hawaii.

791
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:40,879
And yet we never do anything to
change the system because there

792
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:42,800
will be job loss or whatever.

793
00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:45,760
And so, we all continue to make
our short-term decision to keep

794
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:49,040
the can down the road a little
bit more, instead of thinking

795
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:50,560
of the long-term repercussions.

796
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:53,120
Human beings are not good at
long-term decision making at

797
00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:56,880
all, which is another thing that
I've noticed from ancient Egypt.

798
00:32:56,880 --> 00:32:59,260
And it's a good thing to
apply to the modern world,

799
00:32:59,260 --> 00:32:59,780
(laughs)

800
00:32:59,780 --> 00:33:00,880
If a depressing one.

801
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:04,639
Now, the first female kingship
that Neferusobek creates is

802
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:07,919
an interesting one, because
she shows herself as a woman.

803
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,480
She has breasts,
she's wearing a dress,

804
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:13,120
but she layers the
kingship onto her person.

805
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:16,560
She ties a masculine
kingly kilt over her dress,

806
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:18,960
and she puts that Nemes
headdress under her head,

807
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:21,760
the one you know from Tut's
mask in your mind's eye,

808
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:23,360
that's what she puts on.

809
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:26,240
And so, she's not hiding
the fact that she's woman,

810
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:30,639
she is layering these elements
of kingship upon her person.

811
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:33,760
Her kingship lasts
for just a few years,

812
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:36,480
about four at most, though
there's disagreement about

813
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:39,440
this, and she leaves no legacy.

814
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:42,560
One of the most interesting
things to me about Neferusobek

815
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:44,880
is that the Egyptians let
her get away with it all.

816
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:47,200
Because there's no heir to
the throne that we can see,

817
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:48,399
there's only this woman left.

818
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:50,960
They know that Dynasty 12 is
gonna end, and it's gonna go

819
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,040
to the ne-, well, they don't
call it Dynasty 12, right?

820
00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:54,560
But they know it's gonna end,
and they're gonna go to

821
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:57,120
Dynasty 13, why bother?

822
00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:01,600
Well, because in this system
of divine kingship, she is

823
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:06,160
the last holder of that royal
ka, that spirit of kingship.

824
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:07,680
And everyone bows down to her.

825
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,880
She's the last recipient of it,
so she gets to finish it out.

826
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:13,440
That's an extraordinary
thing in and out of itself.

827
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:17,360
But Neferusobek should not be,
her decision making should not

828
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,800
be overlooked, because she also
justifies it in a way that works

829
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:24,159
for the people around her, so
they don't see it as a threat.

830
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:27,840
And the way that she does that
is she justifies her kingship

831
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:32,000
through her father's lineage,
not by mentioning her

832
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:33,200
dead husband-brother.

833
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:35,440
She doesn't go about,
you wouldn't even,

834
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:38,159
this is why we don't know
who Amenemhet IV was, because

835
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:40,159
she gives him so little play.

836
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:42,399
She doesn't talk about
him, she doesn't name him,

837
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:44,399
she doesn't make any
monuments to him,

838
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:46,480
his name is nowhere
connected to her stuff,

839
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:49,520
but her father's name
is everywhere.

840
00:34:49,679 --> 00:34:51,920
And that is useful for her,
and it's something that we

841
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:53,600
actually understand as well.

842
00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:58,160
We trust more those women who
are coming in as leaders in

843
00:34:58,240 --> 00:35:00,080
a strict linear progression.

844
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:03,520
We trust more the woman who's
protecting her son in power.

845
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,080
We trust more the daughter
who's acting for her father

846
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:09,120
in power, than we do the
sister or the wife.

847
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:11,440
And I can give you an
easy political example

848
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:13,040
from the last 20 years.

849
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:15,520
You guys are probably
thinking of it right now, no?

850
00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:18,400
You're thinking of Hillary
Clinton in the 90s when she

851
00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,920
tried to create health care as
wife of the president, informal

852
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:24,400
power appear to her husband?

853
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:26,080
Who the hell does
she think she is?

854
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:27,360
Everybody said it.

855
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:28,720
What is going on?

856
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:31,200
I don't understand how,
and we feel threatened by this.

857
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:33,120
It threatens our
patriarchal system.

858
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,799
But in today's White House,
the base that supports the

859
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:40,560
current president has no problem
with Ivanka having an office

860
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:44,960
in the White House, acting as
an advisor for her father.

861
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:49,040
And this is very cleverly done,
whereas Melania is like, 'No,

862
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:50,480
I'm not getting into
that,' right?

863
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:51,280
She knows.

864
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:52,720
She's there as the wife.

865
00:35:52,720 --> 00:35:54,799
She's learned from
Hillary's mistakes.

866
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:57,759
I am not gonna try to take
power, but Ivanka can do so,

867
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:00,880
and she can do so with impunity,
because we respect that kind

868
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:02,400
of patriarchal lineage.

869
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:07,040
Very interesting way that
female power must be packaged,

870
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:09,839
and Hatshepsut knows
to do this as well.

871
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:11,840
And here we move on to her.

872
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:15,360
So, Hatshepsut of Dynasty
18 is the most powerful

873
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:16,720
of all of our women.

874
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:21,440
She's the one that is really
able to leave Egypt better

875
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,720
than she found it, save her
dynasty, leave a legacy.

876
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:27,760
She rules for about
22 years altogether.

877
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:28,280
And

878
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:32,800
yet most of you maybe,
maybe, maybe you guys.

879
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:34,560
How many can pronounce
her name well?

880
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,240
But everyone's
like, 'I don't know.

881
00:36:38,240 --> 00:36:38,940
Hatshepsut

882
00:36:38,940 --> 00:36:39,460
(unintelligible)

883
00:36:39,460 --> 00:36:41,520
' We'll get to that.

884
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:45,440
She starts out as Egypt's
greatest high priestess.

885
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:47,520
For those of you in the know,
this would be the God's

886
00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:50,720
wife of Amun stationed
at Thebes in the South.

887
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,440
There were maybe other high
priestesses, but for all we

888
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:56,160
can see, this is the most
important of them all.

889
00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:58,720
And she is placed in this
position probably under

890
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:00,400
her father, Thutmose I.

891
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:03,680
She continues in this position
alongside her half-brother

892
00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:05,060
husband, Thutmose II,

893
00:37:05,060 --> 00:37:05,580
(gasps)

894
00:37:05,580 --> 00:37:06,220
Incest!

895
00:37:06,220 --> 00:37:06,740
(audience members laugh)

896
00:37:06,740 --> 00:37:08,720
To to to.

897
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:13,760
She ends up, so, all together,
she is the king's daughter,

898
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:16,720
she is the king's sister,
she is the king's wife,

899
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:18,799
'cause she's married to
her brother, but she never

900
00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:21,440
becomes the king's mother
because she only gives birth

901
00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:23,200
to Neferure, her daughter.

902
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:25,120
She does not give
birth to a son.

903
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,720
So, when Thutmose II,
her half-brother husband

904
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:31,359
dies after only three years
of reign, and trust me,

905
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,080
the Egyptological discussion
about this is very intense, but

906
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:35,360
we'll leave it at three years.

907
00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:37,520
Because if all he produced,
if he had nine years of

908
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:39,760
reign and that's all he
produced in Egypt's temples,

909
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:40,640
then what a sad king.

910
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:43,040
So, we'll give him three years,
I think it's better.

911
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:45,920
So, if he dies after
three years of reign,

912
00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:48,960
he's gonna leave a bunch of
two-year-olds in the nursery.

913
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:51,279
Hatshepsut's not gonna
have a son amongst those

914
00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:52,799
two-year-olds in the nursery.

915
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:55,600
And now we have a serious
succession crisis.

916
00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:58,720
A succession crisis where the
choice of the next king is

917
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:01,440
probably going to be based
on who the regent is,

918
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:04,000
rather than on who the kid is.

919
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:06,000
Because they're a
bunch of toddlers.

920
00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:08,960
Who's gonna choose the
possibility that the toddler's

921
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:12,080
gonna grow up to have a good
ruling acumen in the future?

922
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:13,120
You can't.

923
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,120
But you have to
be very strategic.

924
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:18,160
This is a long regency
with a two-year-old.

925
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:22,240
You're talking about 14, 15,
16 years of a woman ruling

926
00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:23,680
on behalf of this kid.

927
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:25,200
It's a long time.

928
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:28,080
You have to make sure
you choose wisely.

929
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:30,399
It seems that Egypt had
already decided they wanted

930
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:31,840
Hatshepsut to be regent.

931
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:33,920
She's there as the
greatest high priestess,

932
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:36,320
she's there bred for the
position, the most elite,

933
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:37,840
the king's daughter,
the king's wife,

934
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:38,640
the king's sister.

935
00:38:38,720 --> 00:38:39,760
She's ready to go.

936
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:43,840
They have to choose a boy
that won't be threatened

937
00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:46,080
by her or vice versa.

938
00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:48,480
So, they pick a boy
with a nothing mother,

939
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:50,080
from all we can see,
a mother that cannot

940
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:51,759
step in as regent.

941
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:54,720
His name will be Thutmose
III to Egyptologists,

942
00:38:54,720 --> 00:38:56,320
just Thutmose in the moment.

943
00:38:56,400 --> 00:39:00,160
And she is there acting as his
regent for a good seven years.

944
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:02,240
Now, people don't
do anything alone.

945
00:39:02,240 --> 00:39:03,440
This is what I'm
always hammering

946
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:04,319
into my students' head.

947
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:07,280
This is not a history
written by individual people.

948
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:08,880
This is a history of systems.

949
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:11,359
Hatshepsut can't barge
into a system and say,

950
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:12,640
'I'm gonna do it this way.

951
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:14,880
I'm gonna be king,' or
'I'm gonna be regent.'

952
00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:16,080
This is not the way things work.

953
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:18,960
Hatshepsut is going to
be allowed into a system

954
00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:20,800
by the elites around her.

955
00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:24,480
The elites, it seems,
want her to be in this

956
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:25,600
position of power.

957
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:28,960
They demand that she
step forward and do this.

958
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:32,640
And over the next couple
of years that she's acting

959
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:34,960
as regent for this toddler
king, who I imagine was

960
00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:36,240
really hard to crown.

961
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:37,520
"Keep the crown.

962
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:38,400
"No, stop.

963
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:40,960
No, stay there," kind of thing.

964
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:42,160
(audience members laugh)

965
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:44,560
She's there as the,
and their texts say

966
00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:45,920
this, she's the rock.

967
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:49,600
She's the one that's gonna
be clever in her strategies,

968
00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:51,600
she's gonna keep Egypt safe.

969
00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:54,480
But she's already,
or her advisors are already

970
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:55,840
thinking about the future.

971
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:59,440
Because in texts like this
from down south in Egypt,

972
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:01,600
this one happens to
be near Elephantine,

973
00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:05,600
we see Hatshepsut depicted
as a God's wife of Amun,

974
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:08,640
but in the text that only
the top 1% can read,

975
00:40:08,720 --> 00:40:12,160
it says that the sun god Ra
has given her the kingship.

976
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:13,920
She's like a lawyer.

977
00:40:14,240 --> 00:40:16,560
She doesn't go out
and say, 'I am king.'

978
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:17,360
Not yet.

979
00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:19,840
She's laying her
foundation for that.

980
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:22,399
She goes out and she says,
"You know, I'm doing the job.

981
00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:24,160
"I'm doing the kingship.

982
00:40:24,240 --> 00:40:27,440
I may not be king,
but I'm on my way."

983
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,800
And when the elites don't
push back against this,

984
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:35,040
then she and her advisors know
that they've got room to run.

985
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:36,560
They've been given some reigns.

986
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:38,880
They can really
start to move now.

987
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:42,799
And her first image of kingship
we see we another cartouche name

988
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:46,320
added, and she shows herself as
a female wearing a dress,

989
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,760
wearing masculine ram's
horns and a masculine wig.

990
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:52,399
So, she is already,
like Neferusobek,

991
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:55,520
changing her image to
include the masculine in

992
00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:58,799
addition to the feminine,
kind of like the, I don't know,

993
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:00,560
the pantsuit of 1985

994
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:01,120
(audience members laugh)

995
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:03,600
With the shoulder pads, right?

996
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:05,279
Make you look all manly.

997
00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,420
Give you a little fluffy bow
tie to go along with that.

998
00:41:08,420 --> 00:41:08,940
(audience members laugh)

999
00:41:08,940 --> 00:41:12,720
She is crowding year 7, from
what we can tell, and again,

1000
00:41:12,720 --> 00:41:15,680
the Egyptological debate
about this is quite fierce.

1001
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:18,240
The reasons for
this are unclear.

1002
00:41:18,640 --> 00:41:22,240
This is the most frustrating
part of Egyptology for me.

1003
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:25,040
They don't let us
into their secrets.

1004
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:26,960
They're not going to tell us
what's actually happening.

1005
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:29,120
We don't get a view
of the realpolitik.

1006
00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:33,759
She tells us, "My father Amun-Ra
wanted me to be king.

1007
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:38,560
My father Thutmose I bred me
and wanted me to be king."

1008
00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:39,759
Very useful things to say.

1009
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:43,600
She's fitting herself in that
patrilineal lineage, no problem.

1010
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:46,720
But we don't know
why, in year 7,

1011
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:48,959
she felt the need
to formalize this,

1012
00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:50,400
because she had
all the power.

1013
00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:53,120
Was there another entourage
of Thutmose III who's

1014
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:54,080
trying to push her out?

1015
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:56,960
Was there another regent
that was trying to push her

1016
00:41:57,040 --> 00:41:58,879
out with another entourage?

1017
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:01,760
Was there a problem with
Thutmose III himself?

1018
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:04,799
Was he lying on his deathbed
with some sort of disease?

1019
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:06,720
Because in Egypt, it's not,
if you get malaria,

1020
00:42:06,720 --> 00:42:08,080
it's when you get malaria.

1021
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:09,920
Did he fall off his chariot?

1022
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:11,600
Was something going on?

1023
00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:12,799
We have no idea.

1024
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,840
But in year 7 probably
when Thutmose III is

1025
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:17,920
around nine years old,
she is crowned alongside

1026
00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:19,600
him and now it is irrevocable.

1027
00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:21,040
There's no going back from this.

1028
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:24,799
This system is completely
locked down for her.

1029
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:27,920
And yet, this is a pattern
that we'll see again with

1030
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:30,799
Cleopatra, she never goes alone.

1031
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:33,759
She's always got this
kid following her.

1032
00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:36,799
Now, there is a more crass
part of my feminism that I

1033
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:38,240
will share with you right now.

1034
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:42,000
Because there's no woman that,
if a woman rules alone

1035
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:44,080
in this entire lineup,
she rules for a very short

1036
00:42:44,240 --> 00:42:46,879
period of time, one, two,
four years, something like that.

1037
00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:48,560
But if she rules for
a long period of time,

1038
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:51,600
like Cleopatra or Hatshepsut,
or other women we could compare

1039
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,040
her to around the globe,
we see that there's always

1040
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:58,560
a male accompaniment, some
sort of presence alongside

1041
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:01,840
the female on the throne
that allows her to be there.

1042
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:04,480
So, the crass feminist part
of me is like, why didn't she

1043
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:06,480
just have the kid assassinated
and then we could at least talk

1044
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:09,680
about one woman that did it,
that ruled Egypt for a

1045
00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:11,520
long period of time,
and wouldn't that be great?

1046
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:14,880
Well, she knows, and I know,
that if she had Thutmose

1047
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:16,799
III assassinated, well,
however she felt about

1048
00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:19,520
him and maybe she loved him
very, very much, I don't know,

1049
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:23,920
if she had him assassinated,
her means to power is gone,

1050
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:25,280
even as king probably.

1051
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:27,439
She would have been a
swept aside as well.

1052
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:31,760
You need a male at the center of
an authoritarian wheel of power.

1053
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:34,319
You need that,
because just in terms

1054
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:37,600
of biological economy,
the harem exists for

1055
00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:38,560
a reason, right?

1056
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:40,080
I can have one baby a year.

1057
00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:43,120
Two is probably gonna kill me,
though it didn't kill Cleopatra.

1058
00:43:43,200 --> 00:43:44,640
But I can have one baby a year.

1059
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:47,300
A guy can have
365 babies a year.

1060
00:43:47,300 --> 00:43:47,820
(audience members laugh)

1061
00:43:47,820 --> 00:43:49,680
That biological
economy is something,

1062
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:51,040
and I cannot compete with.

1063
00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:54,319
He will always win in
terms of the basics of

1064
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:57,440
power and succession,
keeping the status quo,

1065
00:43:57,440 --> 00:43:58,720
keeping things risk averse.

1066
00:43:58,720 --> 00:44:00,160
A woman can't compete with that.

1067
00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:03,520
She removes that boy,
then they're gonna replace her

1068
00:44:03,680 --> 00:44:05,840
with another boy, another man.

1069
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:08,240
So, she knows she's got
to keep him with her,

1070
00:44:08,240 --> 00:44:09,680
and she never rules alone.

1071
00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:14,080
And by year 16, she starts
to depict him with her,

1072
00:44:14,240 --> 00:44:16,799
almost like twinsies,
as you see here.

1073
00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:19,120
Same crown, same look,
sometimes different crowns,

1074
00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:22,080
but almost the exact same face,
almost the exact same body type.

1075
00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:24,879
So similar that the
Egyptologists, we know,

1076
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:26,960
you look at their statues
and you're like, 'It's

1077
00:44:26,960 --> 00:44:28,080
Thutmosied,' we say.

1078
00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:29,279
We sound very clever
when we say this.

1079
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:31,200
'cause we're like,
"It could be Hatshepsut,

1080
00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:33,200
it could be Thutmose
III, who's to know?"

1081
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:34,720
So, we say, 'Thutmosied.'

1082
00:44:34,720 --> 00:44:38,560
It's a cool Egyptological
speak for we have no idea.

1083
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:41,200
But how Hatshepsut did
this to us, she's the one.

1084
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:43,360
And Thutmose III he
seems to follow along

1085
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:46,160
with this portraiture,
which is interesting

1086
00:44:46,240 --> 00:44:47,359
in and out of itself.

1087
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:50,560
So, now she's got the kingship,
she's got the nine-year-old

1088
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:53,279
who's growing up, becoming
a 16-year-old, and a strong

1089
00:44:53,520 --> 00:44:55,439
man right next to her.

1090
00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:57,840
He's probably training with
the army off to the north,

1091
00:44:57,840 --> 00:44:59,600
maybe she's in the south,
we actually don't know

1092
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:00,720
a lot of these details.

1093
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:03,280
But what we do see
is that more jobs,

1094
00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:05,520
more professions are
created under her than

1095
00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:06,480
at any other time.

1096
00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:09,520
The Egyptologists know that
we have to commit all kinds

1097
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:10,880
of crazy things to memory.

1098
00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:15,680
Statues, stela, tombs,
coffins, what's in what museum,

1099
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:17,040
where is this, where is that.

1100
00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:19,760
And we know that when
Hatshepsut takes the throne,

1101
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:23,600
this stuff explodes in
quantity and quality.

1102
00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:26,880
That means that she
has to give to get.

1103
00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:29,680
That means that when she
takes this power position,

1104
00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:32,000
she and her entourage know
that the elites are like,

1105
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:34,720
"You know, this is great, this
is a very aberrant situation."

1106
00:45:34,720 --> 00:45:37,040
And you're like, 'Yeah, okay,
what would you like?' 'Well,

1107
00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:39,279
my son would love to
be in the treasury.'

1108
00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:40,080
'Okay, got it.

1109
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:40,799
What would you like?'

1110
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:42,240
"Okay, well,
my son would

1111
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,360
love to be one of
the overseers of the

1112
00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:46,880
scribes of the House of Amun."

1113
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:47,600
'you got it.'

1114
00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:50,880
And so, the jobs are created
like candy, in a sense.

1115
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:53,600
There's another Egyptologist
named David Warburton,

1116
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:56,799
who argues that it's during
Hatshepsut's reign when Egypt's

1117
00:45:56,960 --> 00:46:01,040
treasury, Egypt the crown,
loses more power than in any

1118
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:02,880
other time in the long term.

1119
00:46:03,040 --> 00:46:05,759
Because the treasury is
giving out more funds than

1120
00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:07,360
it had ever given out before.

1121
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:11,440
That's a little more debatable,
because Hatshepsut kept such

1122
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:15,279
good control of the money and
created more income streams.

1123
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:17,439
She knew that she needed
to bring in more money,

1124
00:46:17,440 --> 00:46:18,319
so what do you do?

1125
00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:20,880
You start a little war,
you invade a little Nubia,

1126
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:23,440
and you bring a lot
of gold into Egypt.

1127
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:25,520
So, she knew to
do that right off.

1128
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:29,520
She also knew to place people in
control of that money only had

1129
00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:33,839
her to depend on, and who had
no other conflicting interests.

1130
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:38,160
So, she picks a dude like this,
Senenmut, who's not a patrician,

1131
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:41,920
not one of the old families,
and she elevates him to

1132
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:44,560
a station that everyone
is like, 'Whoa, really?'

1133
00:46:44,640 --> 00:46:45,759
She's like, 'Yeah, really.'

1134
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:46,720
And he's like,
'What would you

1135
00:46:46,720 --> 00:46:47,900
like, my lady?'

1136
00:46:47,900 --> 00:46:48,420
(laughs)

1137
00:46:48,420 --> 00:46:50,560
Because he's not gonna try
to work with other people.

1138
00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:52,240
They're all mad that
she's doing this.

1139
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:54,240
And she's picking a
number of new men who

1140
00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:55,760
will answer only to her.

1141
00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:57,360
Very, very cleverly done.

1142
00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:00,160
She has control of the
temple like no one else.

1143
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:03,759
This woman grew up in the
temple, it's in her bones.

1144
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,839
She knew that when she had
herself marked for kingship,

1145
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:10,400
she had to do so in a
way that was overtly

1146
00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:11,920
displayed to her people.

1147
00:47:12,160 --> 00:47:16,320
So, she tells us in the text,
where she is marked for rule,

1148
00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:19,360
that the bark of Amun-Ra is
brought out on a festival

1149
00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:22,319
day in public in front of
all of her elites, and that it

1150
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:24,720
moves decisively towards her.

1151
00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:27,520
And then she throws herself on
the ground, raises up her arms

1152
00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:30,080
and says, 'Oh my father Amun,
what would you have me do?'

1153
00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:32,160
No one can speak against that.

1154
00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:35,440
Once the god Amun-Ra has
chosen her to be king,

1155
00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:37,120
then it is again irrevocable.

1156
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:39,759
It is something that
cannot be overturned.

1157
00:47:40,160 --> 00:47:43,200
She sends out expeditions
to crazy faraway places that

1158
00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:46,879
Egyptologists don't even know
where they are, maybe Eritrea,

1159
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:49,200
maybe Yemen, the debate goes on.

1160
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:51,600
She shows the details
of those expeditions.

1161
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:54,240
She doesn't go herself,
she sends other men, but it's

1162
00:47:54,320 --> 00:47:57,759
still considered a miracle of
kingship that she's doing this.

1163
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:01,279
Incense trees brought back
roots and all, the misshapen

1164
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:04,400
chieftainess of Punt depicted
in all of her glory next to

1165
00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:06,240
her husband, the chief.

1166
00:48:06,320 --> 00:48:10,080
And she builds structures that
are avant-garde and at the same

1167
00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:13,680
time they're conservative
in the most holy places on

1168
00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:16,720
the Egyptian landscape,
not just in ancient Thebes,

1169
00:48:16,720 --> 00:48:18,160
but all over the country.

1170
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:21,759
This was a woman who left
Egypt better than she found it.

1171
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:24,560
And yet, throughout all of this,
she cannot make

1172
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:26,800
Egypt fit to her.

1173
00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:30,320
She has to fit to Egypt and
she has to fit the patriarchy.

1174
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:33,120
So, she starts out
depicting herself as a

1175
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:36,399
female, a female king,
putting the Neme's headdress on,

1176
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:37,759
putting the kilt of kingship on.

1177
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:39,600
Actually here she
just has a dress.

1178
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:41,759
And this is not enough.

1179
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:45,520
So, we see her trying to figure
this out, trying to crack it.

1180
00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:47,120
This is my favorite
statue of hers,

1181
00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:48,640
the Metropolitan
Museum of Art

1182
00:48:48,720 --> 00:48:49,440
in New York.

1183
00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:51,680
And she's androgynous.

1184
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:54,799
She's male, and she's female,
she has breasts, but she

1185
00:48:54,800 --> 00:48:56,960
doesn't have nipples,
so is she wearing a shirt?

1186
00:48:56,960 --> 00:48:58,319
But I don't see any trace of it.

1187
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:02,720
So, she's topless,
but she's this gracile

1188
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:05,040
heart-shaped beautiful thing.

1189
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:06,720
How are we to understand this?

1190
00:49:06,800 --> 00:49:08,800
Male and female simultaneously.

1191
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:12,959
Well, only one such statue was
made, and then she quickly moves

1192
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:15,120
on to statues like this.

1193
00:49:15,200 --> 00:49:17,280
This is what most of
her statues look like.

1194
00:49:17,760 --> 00:49:20,640
Strong biceps,
broad shoulders and

1195
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:24,960
chest, square jaw,
indistinguishable from a man.

1196
00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:26,960
She has to fit,
the patriarchy

1197
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:28,160
cannot fit her.

1198
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:32,160
And as her nephew, Thutmose III,
is getting older and haunting

1199
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:35,759
her steps, she has to become
more masculine, one could argue.

1200
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:38,240
Did she dress like this in
public, in the festivals?

1201
00:49:38,240 --> 00:49:40,640
Did she tie on the royal
beard and strap down her

1202
00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:43,040
breasts and wear a shirt
that's skin-colored?

1203
00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:44,240
Who are we to say?

1204
00:49:44,240 --> 00:49:44,799
Why not?

1205
00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:46,080
This is what she's depicting.

1206
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:47,280
Quite possibly.

1207
00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:49,200
Did she dress like
that in the palace?

1208
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:51,760
From the existence of
this statue, I think not.

1209
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:54,160
But anything is possible.

1210
00:49:54,160 --> 00:49:56,080
Until we get our time
machine invented,

1211
00:49:56,240 --> 00:49:59,040
we will continue to discuss
these things for some time.

1212
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:03,040
So, she depicts herself
as the father, sorry,

1213
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:07,440
as the daughter of Amun-Ra,
building her kingship for him.

1214
00:50:07,600 --> 00:50:10,080
She rules for about
22 years altogether.

1215
00:50:10,240 --> 00:50:12,319
When she dies,
from all we can see,

1216
00:50:12,320 --> 00:50:13,920
she's buried in state.

1217
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:17,440
We have to use a lot of
circumstantial evidence to

1218
00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:20,880
figure this out, but there
is a detritus of her death.

1219
00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:23,359
Even though her tomb was
pretty thoroughly robbed,

1220
00:50:23,600 --> 00:50:26,160
you find little, little
things, a canopic char here,

1221
00:50:26,240 --> 00:50:30,400
a little shabti fragment
there, a sarcophagus here.

1222
00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:33,920
There is enough there to
suggest that Hatshepsut was

1223
00:50:33,920 --> 00:50:37,840
buried in state, as a king,
in the Valley of the Kings,

1224
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:39,759
by her nephew, Thutmose III.

1225
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:42,240
And Thutmose III
finished temples of

1226
00:50:42,240 --> 00:50:44,880
hers, finished chapels,
made sure that everything

1227
00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:46,720
was good for her.

1228
00:50:46,880 --> 00:50:48,399
And so,
everything's fine, right?

1229
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:50,480
She's gonna be our
successful female.

1230
00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:51,840
Well, no she's not.

1231
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:55,920
Because about 20 to 25 years
later, after her death,

1232
00:50:56,480 --> 00:51:00,080
he says, "Come here,
you, chief of artisans.

1233
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:01,200
"Go, send the guys out.

1234
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:03,440
"I need Hatshepsut's names
and images removed from

1235
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:05,200
this temple, this temple,
this temple,' which he

1236
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:06,000
names all the temples.

1237
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:06,960
They're like, 'What?

1238
00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:07,680
Really?'

1239
00:51:07,680 --> 00:51:10,480
"I want you to take plaster
and I want you to replace those

1240
00:51:10,560 --> 00:51:13,359
names with the name of my father
and the name of my grandfather."

1241
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:14,080
'Yes, sir.'

1242
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:15,360
"You, come here.

1243
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:17,120
"Sledgehammers, send them out.

1244
00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:19,360
"I need you to smash these
statues up to tiny bits.

1245
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:20,319
"Throw them out in a hole.

1246
00:51:20,320 --> 00:51:21,600
"I don't want you to
do anything with those.

1247
00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:23,279
"Oh, wait,
but the big colossals,

1248
00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:24,399
"I don't want you
to break those up.

1249
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:25,440
"Those are too valuable?

1250
00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:26,640
Just switch out the names."

1251
00:51:26,640 --> 00:51:29,440
'Huh?' 'Take out her name,
put in my father's name.'

1252
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:30,160
'Got it.'

1253
00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:31,520
And they go out
and they do this.

1254
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:34,080
Now, they don't do a great job
so that we Egyptologists can

1255
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:36,640
come in after the fact and say,
'Oh, look, there's a t there.'

1256
00:51:36,640 --> 00:51:38,080
Remember the Smurfette?

1257
00:51:38,327 --> 00:51:41,520
And then you see the daughter
of Ra is still there even though

1258
00:51:41,520 --> 00:51:42,880
it's talking about Thutmose III.

1259
00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:44,720
You're like, 'Hmm,
something's going on.'

1260
00:51:44,720 --> 00:51:46,480
Or you can see that
there's an erasure,

1261
00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:47,680
and you can see the
traces of what the

1262
00:51:47,760 --> 00:51:48,720
old name could be.

1263
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:50,319
In some cases,
they relied so

1264
00:51:50,400 --> 00:51:53,520
much on plaster
that the old carving

1265
00:51:53,520 --> 00:51:54,480
is as clear as day.

1266
00:51:54,560 --> 00:51:56,480
So, we can put
this back together.

1267
00:51:56,560 --> 00:52:00,480
But the end result is that
Hatshepsut is not a part

1268
00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:01,600
of our cultural memory.

1269
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:03,680
We can't pronounce her name.

1270
00:52:03,840 --> 00:52:05,600
She was too successful.

1271
00:52:06,480 --> 00:52:08,320
Success is a problematic thing.

1272
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:09,520
Think about it this way.

1273
00:52:09,760 --> 00:52:12,080
You have a really
good successful idea.

1274
00:52:12,240 --> 00:52:14,400
It's gonna bring your company
a lot of business and you

1275
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:15,760
tell your boss this idea.

1276
00:52:15,760 --> 00:52:18,480
And then you hear that the
boss went to a CEO meeting,

1277
00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:20,480
and then all of a sudden,
your idea is bandied about

1278
00:52:20,480 --> 00:52:21,760
it as his or her idea.

1279
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:22,879
You're like, 'Damn it!

1280
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:23,520
'that's

1281
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:24,640
My idea.'

1282
00:52:24,720 --> 00:52:26,240
Well, it was successful.

1283
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:28,880
You're doing what people
would expect to work.

1284
00:52:28,960 --> 00:52:31,120
What has worked before,
what will work after.

1285
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:33,520
Success is very transferable.

1286
00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:35,120
It is very abstract.

1287
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:38,080
It's failure that
everyone remembers and

1288
00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:39,279
assigns your name to.

1289
00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:41,980
That's why you guys can
pronounce Cleopatra like that.

1290
00:52:41,980 --> 00:52:42,500
(audience members laugh)

1291
00:52:42,500 --> 00:52:45,600
And Hatshepsut you're
like, 'Hatshe-, Hat-'

1292
00:52:45,600 --> 00:52:48,480
(audience members laugh)

1293
00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:51,680
Okay, Nefertiti, Dynasty 18.

1294
00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:55,839
Her story is being
written right now.

1295
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:59,520
And Egyptologists in the room
know that if we all went to a

1296
00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:03,040
bar full of Egyptologists and
we just threw out and said,

1297
00:53:03,040 --> 00:53:05,120
'Is Nefertiti Smenkhkare?'

1298
00:53:05,120 --> 00:53:06,000
Then people,
like people

1299
00:53:06,240 --> 00:53:07,760
would come to
blows, right?

1300
00:53:07,760 --> 00:53:08,480
(audience members laugh)

1301
00:53:08,480 --> 00:53:11,040
People get really
upset over this stuff.

1302
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:12,640
And indeed,
the evidence is

1303
00:53:12,720 --> 00:53:14,160
coming out of the
ground right now,

1304
00:53:14,240 --> 00:53:15,280
like as we speak.

1305
00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:16,960
They're finding new stuff.

1306
00:53:17,120 --> 00:53:19,120
And so, it's,
just take all

1307
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:20,240
of that with a
grain of salt,

1308
00:53:20,240 --> 00:53:21,360
but that doesn't
mean we can't discuss

1309
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:24,879
Nefertiti as a female
king, because I think we can.

1310
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:27,520
I think most Egyptologists
would accept her as such.

1311
00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:30,240
What's cool and interesting
to me is that when you hear

1312
00:53:30,240 --> 00:53:32,560
the name Nefertiti and you
see her bust from Berlin,

1313
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:33,759
you think of beauty.

1314
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:35,840
She's a pretty face, right?

1315
00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:38,400
You don't think of her
as a ruler, as anything

1316
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:43,520
formidable or something
associated with authority in

1317
00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:47,200
any way, but indeed, she was,
so let's see how this works out.

1318
00:53:47,680 --> 00:53:51,520
She is married to this
guy named Amenhotep IV,

1319
00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:56,560
who is born into Egypt's
greatest success, its

1320
00:53:56,640 --> 00:53:58,640
wealthiest time period,
when you don't even

1321
00:53:58,720 --> 00:53:59,520
have to go to war.

1322
00:53:59,600 --> 00:54:02,960
The tribute just comes to you,
when what can be produced by the

1323
00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:06,400
craftsman is of a quality that
you cannot possibly believe.

1324
00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:08,880
Everyone's eating well,
everyone is getting good

1325
00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:10,960
money, everyone is happy.

1326
00:54:11,120 --> 00:54:13,439
This guy comes into power,
he starts out his reign

1327
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:16,240
depicting himself much like
his father did before him,

1328
00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:18,880
and then all of a sudden,
boom, he starts depicting

1329
00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:19,840
himself like this.

1330
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:22,880
And he changes his
name to Akhenaten.

1331
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:24,720
And he changes the religion.

1332
00:54:24,720 --> 00:54:27,760
And he starts funneling money
away from the other relig-,

1333
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:30,080
like the Amun-Ra Temple,
and the Ptah Temple,

1334
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:31,040
and all these other places.

1335
00:54:31,120 --> 00:54:34,319
He funnels that money to a
new god, a god named Aten.

1336
00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:38,160
And he starts to depict
himself as male and female.

1337
00:54:38,240 --> 00:54:39,360
Do you see the breasts?

1338
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:42,479
You can't see the hips in this
one but there are hips too.

1339
00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:45,200
He starts to depict himself
as animal and human.

1340
00:54:45,200 --> 00:54:47,680
If you saw it from the side,
you would see a prognathism

1341
00:54:47,680 --> 00:54:48,720
of the lower face.

1342
00:54:48,960 --> 00:54:52,080
He starts to depict himself
strangely elongated.

1343
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:54,080
And I would argue that
he's depicting himself

1344
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:55,680
as a being of light.

1345
00:54:55,840 --> 00:54:59,360
He is changing the way
kingship is depicted,

1346
00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:02,400
he is changing the way the chief
priest, that would be the king,

1347
00:55:02,640 --> 00:55:05,920
is connecting with all of the
divinities, and Nefertiti

1348
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:07,600
comes along for the ride.

1349
00:55:07,760 --> 00:55:11,280
He changes her depiction
in very much the same way.

1350
00:55:11,440 --> 00:55:14,480
Same prognathism,
the same elongated features,

1351
00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:19,680
exaggerated eyes and chin,
a very strange visage to behold.

1352
00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:22,880
And here he is with
all his servants now

1353
00:55:23,040 --> 00:55:25,439
bent down around him,
worshipping the sun

1354
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:27,440
god over his head,
giving offerings to

1355
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:30,000
that sun god, the Aten,
and its rays are bathing

1356
00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:31,840
him in its golden light.

1357
00:55:31,920 --> 00:55:33,600
He is the only one
that should have direct

1358
00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:36,080
connection with that sun god.

1359
00:55:36,560 --> 00:55:39,360
Around year 5,
he decides to

1360
00:55:39,600 --> 00:55:43,040
pick up and move
away from Memphis,

1361
00:55:43,040 --> 00:55:45,920
Heliopolis, Thebes,
and go to this out in

1362
00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:48,560
the middle of nowhere
place where he says it

1363
00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:51,520
is sacred to no god or
goddess, and build this

1364
00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:52,960
new city from scratch.

1365
00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:54,799
He calls it Akhetaten.

1366
00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:56,480
His name is Akhenaten.

1367
00:55:56,560 --> 00:55:59,200
It's like king and
city are almost one.

1368
00:55:59,360 --> 00:56:03,440
And in about ten years or less,
he builds from the ground up

1369
00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:07,200
new temples, new palaces,
new administrative structures.

1370
00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:09,359
He makes all of his elites
come and they're gonna build

1371
00:56:09,440 --> 00:56:11,280
all of their estates as well.

1372
00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:14,800
This is an incredibly
energetic and dedicated

1373
00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:16,800
king to his new coat.

1374
00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:19,920
And Nefertiti comes
along for the ride.

1375
00:56:20,080 --> 00:56:22,160
She is his great royal wife.

1376
00:56:22,240 --> 00:56:25,920
And when she comes to Akhetaten,
she is given a new name.

1377
00:56:26,080 --> 00:56:29,520
And her name is
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti.

1378
00:56:29,600 --> 00:56:30,700
There will be an exam after,

1379
00:56:30,700 --> 00:56:31,220
(audience members laugh)

1380
00:56:31,220 --> 00:56:32,560
It's gonna get way worse.

1381
00:56:33,040 --> 00:56:34,080
Way worse.

1382
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:37,600
This is one reason why it's so
hard to find Nefertiti in the

1383
00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:40,080
evidence, because Akhenaten
seems to have renamed her

1384
00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:41,840
each step of the way.

1385
00:56:41,840 --> 00:56:44,160
And she gets to keep a
small part of herself as

1386
00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:45,360
she goes to the next step.

1387
00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:47,440
You'll see what I mean in a bit.

1388
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:50,560
They show these images
of family togetherness.

1389
00:56:50,560 --> 00:56:53,360
Nefertiti is depicted
about the same scale as

1390
00:56:53,520 --> 00:56:54,960
her husband Akhenaten.

1391
00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:56,480
They're cuddling
their daughters,

1392
00:56:56,480 --> 00:56:57,520
they're showing
new and different

1393
00:56:57,760 --> 00:56:58,640
kinds of scenes.

1394
00:56:58,640 --> 00:57:01,040
And Egyptologists for the
longest time have looked at this

1395
00:57:01,120 --> 00:57:05,040
as puppies and rainbows and this
beautiful togetherness and maybe

1396
00:57:05,120 --> 00:57:07,920
even the first monotheism in all
of human history, though that is

1397
00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:09,680
still very much up for debate.

1398
00:57:09,840 --> 00:57:13,600
But there is a much darker
underbelly to all of this.

1399
00:57:13,920 --> 00:57:16,000
Well, he married two
of those daughters and

1400
00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:18,160
had children with them,
and elevated each of them

1401
00:57:18,320 --> 00:57:19,360
to a great royal wife.

1402
00:57:19,360 --> 00:57:20,720
So, that creeps you
out right there,

1403
00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:23,200
though that's not
culturally aberrant for them.

1404
00:57:23,520 --> 00:57:26,240
He also co-ops his elite.

1405
00:57:26,240 --> 00:57:29,279
And here you see the elite
reaching up and the king

1406
00:57:29,360 --> 00:57:31,600
and his queen, Nefertiti,
just throwing down

1407
00:57:31,840 --> 00:57:33,280
solid gold necklaces.

1408
00:57:33,360 --> 00:57:35,360
How do you get a bunch
of people to leave their

1409
00:57:35,520 --> 00:57:38,160
families and their lives in
the traditional capitals and

1410
00:57:38,320 --> 00:57:40,000
move away the middle of nowhere?

1411
00:57:40,080 --> 00:57:41,440
Well, you bribe them.

1412
00:57:41,600 --> 00:57:44,560
And then they coerce other
people to do the same.

1413
00:57:44,640 --> 00:57:49,440
And so, here we see just
this co-option happening

1414
00:57:49,520 --> 00:57:52,880
before our eyes, but in a
more idealistic sort of sense.

1415
00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:55,839
But what's really interesting
in the work that's coming

1416
00:57:55,840 --> 00:57:58,320
out right now by a number
of bioarcheologists,

1417
00:57:58,320 --> 00:58:00,880
one of them a former
student of mine from

1418
00:58:00,960 --> 00:58:04,720
UCLA, Anne Austin,
they're finding graveyards

1419
00:58:04,960 --> 00:58:07,520
filled with the laborers
who constructed the city

1420
00:58:07,680 --> 00:58:08,720
from the ground up.

1421
00:58:08,960 --> 00:58:12,560
And the graveyards for the
skilled laborers are fine.

1422
00:58:12,640 --> 00:58:15,440
They get great goods,
they're just doing okay.

1423
00:58:15,520 --> 00:58:19,360
But the graveyards for those who
are not so skilled, who are just

1424
00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:22,640
hauling stones and doing what
they're told, are horrific.

1425
00:58:22,800 --> 00:58:26,000
They're working wounded, they're
working malnourished, they're

1426
00:58:26,080 --> 00:58:27,680
working with acute fractures.

1427
00:58:27,760 --> 00:58:31,120
And even worse than that, they
have found a graveyard filled

1428
00:58:31,120 --> 00:58:34,480
with hundreds of children,
separated from any sort of

1429
00:58:34,560 --> 00:58:38,000
adult figures of any kind,
also working with all kinds

1430
00:58:38,000 --> 00:58:42,080
of injuries, malnourished,
and with acute injuries as well.

1431
00:58:42,160 --> 00:58:45,040
And the people who work in
this graveyard are emotionally

1432
00:58:45,120 --> 00:58:48,800
affected themselves with each
burial that they find.

1433
00:58:49,200 --> 00:58:52,880
This has been so disruptive
to our understanding of what

1434
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:56,560
Akhenaten's regime was that it's
actually made most Egyptians

1435
00:58:56,560 --> 00:58:57,839
that I know very uncomfortable.

1436
00:58:57,840 --> 00:59:00,560
And when this work was first
presented at a conference,

1437
00:59:00,560 --> 00:59:04,720
at a bioarcheology conference,
Egyptians left, some, not all,

1438
00:59:04,960 --> 00:59:08,080
left the room and said you can't
present the kingship this way.

1439
00:59:08,560 --> 00:59:11,600
This is serious stuff because
it's turning on its head what

1440
00:59:11,680 --> 00:59:15,040
the foundation of Akhenaten's
kingship actually was.

1441
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:19,520
This was a demanding king,
a king who was quite

1442
00:59:19,760 --> 00:59:21,200
brutal to his people.

1443
00:59:21,600 --> 00:59:24,000
And Nefertiti came
along for the ride.

1444
00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:25,520
And indeed,
I think most

1445
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:29,440
Egyptologists now
see this new king,

1446
00:59:29,600 --> 00:59:31,759
co-king alongside
Akhenaten with the

1447
00:59:31,760 --> 00:59:34,560
name, the row's off
the top, Ankhkheperure

1448
00:59:34,800 --> 00:59:38,080
Neferneferuaten, as Nefertiti.

1449
00:59:38,240 --> 00:59:41,040
She's not identifiable as
Nefertiti any longer, but that

1450
00:59:41,040 --> 00:59:42,880
Neferneferure is still there.

1451
00:59:43,040 --> 00:59:45,839
And so, people are like,
'Oh, okay, Ankheperure,

1452
00:59:45,840 --> 00:59:47,440
that's her as co-king.'

1453
00:59:47,760 --> 00:59:49,600
This is a weird and crazy thing.

1454
00:59:49,600 --> 00:59:52,400
And this is a breaker
of all of our patterns.

1455
00:59:52,480 --> 00:59:55,040
She's not stepping in as
a regent for a boy king.

1456
00:59:55,200 --> 00:59:57,520
She's stepping in
alongside her husband.

1457
00:59:57,520 --> 00:59:59,120
I just told you you're
not supposed to have

1458
00:59:59,200 --> 01:00:01,520
those parallel power
structures, right?

1459
01:00:01,520 --> 01:00:03,040
It's supposed to be a linear.

1460
01:00:03,120 --> 01:00:05,200
Well, he must feel
very vulnerable.

1461
01:00:05,760 --> 01:00:08,640
This is potentially the only
person that he can trust.

1462
01:00:08,960 --> 01:00:12,240
He pulls in somebody to help
him to continue this rule,

1463
01:00:12,400 --> 01:00:15,200
happens to be his great
royal wife, now no longer,

1464
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:16,800
and now a co-king.

1465
01:00:17,120 --> 01:00:20,799
And one Egyptologist,
Nicholas Reeves, even

1466
01:00:21,040 --> 01:00:23,520
believes that the mask
and all of the burial

1467
01:00:23,520 --> 01:00:26,000
equipment of Tutankhamen,
including the three nesting

1468
01:00:26,080 --> 01:00:28,799
coffins, was not made for
Tutankhamen, but was made

1469
01:00:28,880 --> 01:00:32,000
for a certain Ankheperure.

1470
01:00:32,160 --> 01:00:34,880
And indeed, he's shown,
and I stood next to the case

1471
01:00:35,120 --> 01:00:36,560
when they opened the glass

1472
01:00:36,640 --> 01:00:39,440
And I got to see the mask and
the shoulder from that far

1473
01:00:39,600 --> 01:00:41,200
away, so I'm a believer too.

1474
01:00:41,280 --> 01:00:44,080
And he's shown this to
Dieter Arnold, Mark Gabolde,

1475
01:00:44,080 --> 01:00:48,000
and Ray Johnson, they also
buy it that this is re-curved,

1476
01:00:48,080 --> 01:00:51,200
and that the traces of the
old name are Ankheperure.

1477
01:00:51,440 --> 01:00:52,720
Which is the coolest thing ever.

1478
01:00:52,720 --> 01:00:55,600
Makes all the
Egyptologists go, 'Ah!'

1479
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:58,640
Because this could have
been made for Nefertiti.

1480
01:00:58,960 --> 01:01:01,520
This that it's burned into
your mind's eye, right?

1481
01:01:01,600 --> 01:01:03,600
That you can see without
even, without me even

1482
01:01:03,760 --> 01:01:04,479
showing you this.

1483
01:01:04,480 --> 01:01:07,040
That could have been made
for Nefertiti as co-king

1484
01:01:07,280 --> 01:01:08,880
for her husband, Akhenaten.

1485
01:01:08,880 --> 01:01:11,520
And I'm not gonna go into this,
but I have interesting ideas

1486
01:01:11,600 --> 01:01:14,960
about the double cobra uraeus,
which is also unusual and

1487
01:01:15,040 --> 01:01:17,279
not something that you see
on other burial equipment.

1488
01:01:17,280 --> 01:01:18,320
What's going on here?

1489
01:01:18,880 --> 01:01:21,600
A graduate student of mine,
Nicholas Brown, we argue

1490
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:22,640
about this all the time.

1491
01:01:23,520 --> 01:01:25,360
We'll continue to
argue about it.

1492
01:01:26,960 --> 01:01:29,279
I encourage my graduate
students to argue with me.

1493
01:01:29,280 --> 01:01:30,480
It makes life more fun.

1494
01:01:30,880 --> 01:01:34,080
Did Nefertiti then
become sole king after

1495
01:01:34,240 --> 01:01:35,520
the death of Akhenaten?

1496
01:01:35,600 --> 01:01:38,000
And this was where the
Egyptologists really start to

1497
01:01:38,080 --> 01:01:39,600
throw the blows at each other.

1498
01:01:39,680 --> 01:01:43,759
Because I would say, you know,
40% believe that, yeah,

1499
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:46,640
Nefertiti is there stepping
in as sole king after the

1500
01:01:46,640 --> 01:01:48,960
death of Akhenaten in a
time period of crisis.

1501
01:01:48,960 --> 01:01:50,160
And other people
are like, 'Look,

1502
01:01:50,160 --> 01:01:51,359
there's just no
evidence for it.'

1503
01:01:51,440 --> 01:01:52,960
I'm not gonna talk
about the tomb.

1504
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:55,600
If you guys wanna talk about
that in the Q&A, we can, but

1505
01:01:56,160 --> 01:01:57,760
I'm gonna leave that for now.

1506
01:01:57,920 --> 01:02:01,680
And I told you I'm skipping
Tawosret because I ain't

1507
01:02:01,680 --> 01:02:04,480
got no time, and she's
all Game of Thronesey,

1508
01:02:04,480 --> 01:02:06,320
so you can read the book.

1509
01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:09,100
This woman was pretty
badass so check her out.

1510
01:02:09,100 --> 01:02:09,620
(audience members laugh)

1511
01:02:09,620 --> 01:02:12,560
Came in as a regent for a
son who was not her own, and

1512
01:02:12,960 --> 01:02:14,960
a kid with a club foot to boot.

1513
01:02:15,040 --> 01:02:18,319
But let's quickly talk
about Cleopatra so we

1514
01:02:18,320 --> 01:02:21,440
can have some questions,
and hopefully answers.

1515
01:02:21,520 --> 01:02:25,200
So, Cleopatra of the
Ptolemaic dynasty also

1516
01:02:25,440 --> 01:02:27,040
does not rule alone.

1517
01:02:27,200 --> 01:02:29,600
She also rules her
almost 22 years,

1518
01:02:29,680 --> 01:02:31,359
like Hatshepsut
before her.

1519
01:02:31,520 --> 01:02:35,680
She rules alongside Ptolemy XII,
who needs a co-ruler and

1520
01:02:35,760 --> 01:02:39,120
brings Cleopatra VII
into the situation.

1521
01:02:39,280 --> 01:02:41,920
She rules alongside,
though in many ways

1522
01:02:42,000 --> 01:02:45,759
quite unwillingly,
her brother Ptolemy XIII,

1523
01:02:45,840 --> 01:02:48,480
and he dies in battle
fighting against her.

1524
01:02:49,200 --> 01:02:53,440
Then she moves on to Ptolemy
XIV, whom she has assassinated.

1525
01:02:53,600 --> 01:02:57,600
So, now that she's killed all
of her Ptolemaic companions

1526
01:02:57,680 --> 01:03:00,320
and has no one else to bed
with and to rule with,

1527
01:03:00,480 --> 01:03:03,759
Cleopatra is so canny,
she still knows she

1528
01:03:03,840 --> 01:03:05,760
cannot rule alone.

1529
01:03:06,240 --> 01:03:09,279
Egypt is no longer happily
ensconced in its own little

1530
01:03:09,280 --> 01:03:11,760
bubble of geographic
protection, however.

1531
01:03:11,920 --> 01:03:15,040
It is now perched on the edge
of the Mediterranean Sea from

1532
01:03:15,040 --> 01:03:17,040
its capital city of Alexandria.

1533
01:03:17,120 --> 01:03:20,080
It is part of a globalized
Mediterranean world.

1534
01:03:20,160 --> 01:03:22,960
So, she's gotta look to
a globalized partner,

1535
01:03:23,040 --> 01:03:25,120
and she launches upon,
or he launches upon

1536
01:03:25,280 --> 01:03:27,280
her, Julius Caesar.

1537
01:03:27,680 --> 01:03:28,960
We all know the story.

1538
01:03:29,120 --> 01:03:32,720
She snuck into his chambers
as he's in the Palace of

1539
01:03:32,800 --> 01:03:36,720
Alexandria in a bedroll,
her brother is sieging

1540
01:03:36,800 --> 01:03:38,640
the city, it's perfect.

1541
01:03:38,720 --> 01:03:40,959
She gets in and they hang
out for a couple of months

1542
01:03:41,120 --> 01:03:44,799
And she's going to give birth to
Caesarion, known as Ptolemy XV,

1543
01:03:44,800 --> 01:03:46,880
the Egyptologist,
sometime after that.

1544
01:03:47,520 --> 01:03:49,280
This works out
quite well for her.

1545
01:03:49,600 --> 01:03:53,040
She's got a Roman warlord
to rule and partner with.

1546
01:03:53,120 --> 01:03:54,720
He's a sperm donor to boot.

1547
01:03:54,720 --> 01:03:56,480
She doesn't even have
to marry the guy.

1548
01:03:56,640 --> 01:03:59,440
He doesn't want to marry her,
she doesn't want to marry him,

1549
01:03:59,440 --> 01:04:00,480
that wouldn't quite work.

1550
01:04:00,480 --> 01:04:04,000
But as a partnership of
rule, this is quite useful.

1551
01:04:04,240 --> 01:04:06,100
But we all know what happens.

1552
01:04:06,100 --> 01:04:06,620
(laughs)

1553
01:04:06,620 --> 01:04:09,120
She's in Rome when
he is murdered on the

1554
01:04:09,120 --> 01:04:10,240
steps of the Senate.

1555
01:04:10,400 --> 01:04:12,880
She has to hightail it
back to Alexandria and

1556
01:04:12,880 --> 01:04:16,160
figure out what to do,
and she needs another partner.

1557
01:04:16,240 --> 01:04:18,240
She knows she cannot rule alone.

1558
01:04:18,320 --> 01:04:21,600
And so, she launches
upon Mark Antony.

1559
01:04:22,080 --> 01:04:24,160
She shows up,
he apparently writes

1560
01:04:24,160 --> 01:04:26,480
her multiple times,
'Meet me in Anatolia,

1561
01:04:26,480 --> 01:04:28,400
meet me at Tarsus,'
and, 'Come and visit.

1562
01:04:28,400 --> 01:04:30,400
'come and,' and she's like,
she's playing hard to

1563
01:04:30,400 --> 01:04:31,439
get, 'No, no, no.'

1564
01:04:31,440 --> 01:04:33,200
And finally,
she shows up

1565
01:04:33,760 --> 01:04:34,960
dressed to
the nines,

1566
01:04:34,960 --> 01:04:36,480
dressed as a
goddess in this

1567
01:04:36,560 --> 01:04:39,520
barge that is covered
with gold, just showing

1568
01:04:39,600 --> 01:04:40,720
her wealth and her riches.

1569
01:04:40,800 --> 01:04:43,600
The Romans go crazy writing
about them, saying, "Look at

1570
01:04:43,600 --> 01:04:46,240
this woman who wastes money,
look at all of the success,

1571
01:04:46,240 --> 01:04:48,799
this is what kingship gives
you, this is horrible."

1572
01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:51,440
Well, Cleopatra knew
exactly what she was doing,

1573
01:04:51,600 --> 01:04:53,680
depicting herself as a goddess.

1574
01:04:53,920 --> 01:04:57,280
Nothing less than a goddess,
as a beholder of great wealth.

1575
01:04:57,360 --> 01:04:59,279
She wants these Roman
warlords to work with

1576
01:04:59,280 --> 01:05:01,520
her and do what she says,
she needs to make sure

1577
01:05:01,600 --> 01:05:04,560
that they see that she's
holding many cards herself.

1578
01:05:04,880 --> 01:05:05,759
They need the money.

1579
01:05:05,840 --> 01:05:07,760
They're constantly fighting
each other in a civil

1580
01:05:07,760 --> 01:05:08,960
war that never ends.

1581
01:05:09,120 --> 01:05:11,680
They need cash,
she's got some cash,

1582
01:05:11,920 --> 01:05:13,680
perfect partnership.

1583
01:05:13,920 --> 01:05:16,800
Better in terms of age
as well, and she launches

1584
01:05:16,960 --> 01:05:18,960
up with Mark Antony.

1585
01:05:19,280 --> 01:05:22,800
Now, Cleopatra,
I say she's a failure.

1586
01:05:22,800 --> 01:05:24,799
She does not leave Egypt
better than she finds it.

1587
01:05:24,880 --> 01:05:27,440
It becomes a province
of Rome after her death.

1588
01:05:27,600 --> 01:05:31,440
However, Cleopatra comes
the closest out of any of

1589
01:05:31,520 --> 01:05:34,320
the women that we're talking
about, in having it all,

1590
01:05:34,560 --> 01:05:37,040
in being the man in a
sense, at the center

1591
01:05:37,120 --> 01:05:38,240
of the wheel of power.

1592
01:05:38,400 --> 01:05:43,520
Because she has such a strong
womb and constitution, whoops,

1593
01:05:43,600 --> 01:05:47,279
she is able to, oh, I hate this
like my, hold on, National

1594
01:05:47,280 --> 01:05:48,560
Geographic made me do this.

1595
01:05:48,560 --> 01:05:49,680
And they wanted
it to be animated,

1596
01:05:49,680 --> 01:05:51,120
and I'm like, "Oh, okay.

1597
01:05:51,120 --> 01:05:52,320
Let's try again."

1598
01:05:52,320 --> 01:05:54,480
And every time,
I mess up the animation.

1599
01:05:54,480 --> 01:05:55,120
Here we go.

1600
01:05:55,120 --> 01:05:56,480
'do I do another?'

1601
01:05:56,560 --> 01:05:58,320
'yes, one more.'

1602
01:05:58,380 --> 01:05:58,900
Boom.

1603
01:05:58,960 --> 01:05:59,520
Okay.

1604
01:05:59,600 --> 01:06:03,040
So, she comes the closest
out of any of our women to

1605
01:06:03,200 --> 01:06:07,360
creating a legacy of her own
genetic lineage that is going to

1606
01:06:07,440 --> 01:06:09,840
pass on to future generations.

1607
01:06:10,640 --> 01:06:14,000
She even creates this big show
where she names each of her

1608
01:06:14,080 --> 01:06:17,279
children as leaders of different
parts of her Eastern empire.

1609
01:06:17,440 --> 01:06:20,960
One kid in charge of Cyrenaica,
Libya, one kid in charge of the

1610
01:06:20,960 --> 01:06:24,400
Levant, one kid in charge of
Cyprus, and so on and so forth.

1611
01:06:24,560 --> 01:06:27,040
And they don't seem to be
fighting with each other.

1612
01:06:27,120 --> 01:06:29,440
She seems to have created a
family that's not trying to

1613
01:06:29,440 --> 01:06:31,839
kill each other constantly,
which for the Ptolemies

1614
01:06:31,920 --> 01:06:33,120
is a serious win.

1615
01:06:33,280 --> 01:06:36,799
And it looks like she has it
all working out in her favor.

1616
01:06:36,880 --> 01:06:38,560
She doesn't have to
marry Mark Antony,

1617
01:06:38,560 --> 01:06:40,400
but he seems to be
staying in Egypt.

1618
01:06:40,640 --> 01:06:44,080
They have a real chance
of creating an Eastern

1619
01:06:44,080 --> 01:06:46,400
dynasty that can work
in opposition to that

1620
01:06:46,400 --> 01:06:48,240
Western dynasty that is Rome.

1621
01:06:48,320 --> 01:06:50,640
And yet,
it all goes

1622
01:06:50,640 --> 01:06:51,840
horribly wrong.

1623
01:06:52,240 --> 01:06:54,080
Mark Antony,
before this happens,

1624
01:06:54,160 --> 01:06:55,440
invades Parthia.

1625
01:06:55,440 --> 01:06:58,720
What do they say about
a land invasion of Asia?

1626
01:06:59,200 --> 01:07:00,240
A land war in Asia?

1627
01:07:00,240 --> 01:07:04,100
Anyone see 'The Princess Bride?'
Never have a land war in Asia!

1628
01:07:04,100 --> 01:07:04,620
(audience members laugh)

1629
01:07:04,620 --> 01:07:05,520
He tries that.

1630
01:07:05,600 --> 01:07:08,560
It goes horribly wrong,
and he never recovers

1631
01:07:08,640 --> 01:07:11,920
from it financially,
emotionally, physically.

1632
01:07:12,160 --> 01:07:14,799
And then they're on the
back foot when they try

1633
01:07:15,040 --> 01:07:19,440
to fight Octavian, soon
to become Caesar Augustus.

1634
01:07:19,600 --> 01:07:21,840
They're on the back foot,
they don't have maybe all

1635
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:23,680
of the allies that they
could or all of the strong

1636
01:07:23,840 --> 01:07:26,400
allies that they could,
didn't prepare for it properly,

1637
01:07:26,400 --> 01:07:28,799
and certainly didn't strategize
well in terms of how the

1638
01:07:28,880 --> 01:07:30,080
battle should happen.

1639
01:07:30,320 --> 01:07:33,840
Should we be surprised that
Cleopatra as the woman hightails

1640
01:07:33,840 --> 01:07:36,160
it out of there as soon as she
sees what's going on?

1641
01:07:36,640 --> 01:07:39,440
The Romans write about this
and say, 'Look at that coward.

1642
01:07:39,520 --> 01:07:40,560
Look at her run.'

1643
01:07:40,560 --> 01:07:43,200
And Mark Antony only stays for
a little bit longer before he

1644
01:07:43,440 --> 01:07:45,680
also flees with his life intact.

1645
01:07:45,760 --> 01:07:48,799
But I guess he let a little
more of his soldiers die

1646
01:07:48,960 --> 01:07:51,760
before and that makes him
strong and powerful, I don't,

1647
01:07:52,080 --> 01:07:53,919
more manly, more noble.

1648
01:07:54,880 --> 01:07:56,319
But anyway,
this goes

1649
01:07:56,320 --> 01:07:57,280
horribly wrong.

1650
01:07:57,440 --> 01:07:59,520
If it didn't go horribly wrong,
I think we would talk

1651
01:07:59,600 --> 01:08:01,600
about Cleopatra very
differently, but we can't.

1652
01:08:01,600 --> 01:08:03,920
I can't write a revisionist
history, I can't make her

1653
01:08:04,320 --> 01:08:05,839
make a different choice.

1654
01:08:06,240 --> 01:08:10,160
As it is now,
she is meant to

1655
01:08:10,560 --> 01:08:12,959
wait out the year
in Alexandria trying

1656
01:08:12,960 --> 01:08:15,040
to save her children,
trying to figure out

1657
01:08:15,280 --> 01:08:18,000
how to get herself out
of this deep dark hole.

1658
01:08:18,000 --> 01:08:20,319
And given that she's had
all of her children with two

1659
01:08:20,399 --> 01:08:24,160
Roman warlords who have now
died in a civil war or some

1660
01:08:24,319 --> 01:08:28,720
other political aggression,
she has a target on her back

1661
01:08:28,880 --> 01:08:31,279
and on her children's backs
that she cannot remove.

1662
01:08:31,359 --> 01:08:33,120
There's nothing that
she can really do to get

1663
01:08:33,200 --> 01:08:34,800
herself out of this situation.

1664
01:08:35,040 --> 01:08:39,520
And the story is that
she then commits suicide.

1665
01:08:39,680 --> 01:08:43,759
It's a wonderful story
for the Romans to give us.

1666
01:08:44,240 --> 01:08:46,960
While this is happening,
her children, all but one,

1667
01:08:46,960 --> 01:08:48,560
are hunted down and murdered.

1668
01:08:48,720 --> 01:08:53,840
Caesarian, known as Ptolemy XV
to us, is heading down south to

1669
01:08:53,840 --> 01:08:55,920
flee and he receives a letter,
'You're gonna be made

1670
01:08:56,000 --> 01:08:57,200
king by Octavion.'

1671
01:08:57,200 --> 01:08:58,240
It's gonna be okay.

1672
01:08:58,319 --> 01:08:59,200
He comes back.

1673
01:08:59,359 --> 01:09:01,840
You may think it's naive,
but the Romans had allowed

1674
01:09:01,920 --> 01:09:04,639
the Ptolemies to rule this
place for some time.

1675
01:09:04,720 --> 01:09:07,040
So, I think maybe he thought
he could get away with it.

1676
01:09:07,040 --> 01:09:08,639
Well, he's murdered
on the way back.

1677
01:09:08,880 --> 01:09:11,840
Other sons and daughters
are murdered as well.

1678
01:09:12,080 --> 01:09:15,520
Cleopatra herself is
said to commit suicide.

1679
01:09:15,680 --> 01:09:18,880
This works very well for
Octavion's propaganda.

1680
01:09:18,960 --> 01:09:22,000
It's the reason that I am so
suspicious of anything the

1681
01:09:22,080 --> 01:09:26,720
Romans tell us about Cleopatra
and her manner of dying,

1682
01:09:26,880 --> 01:09:28,719
because there's no way to know.

1683
01:09:28,800 --> 01:09:30,720
We don't even know what
the manner of suicide is.

1684
01:09:30,800 --> 01:09:33,120
I once listened to a
whole academic discussion,

1685
01:09:33,200 --> 01:09:35,439
a panel discussion, about
whether it was an asp,

1686
01:09:35,439 --> 01:09:36,880
or whether it was this,
or whether it was that,

1687
01:09:36,880 --> 01:09:38,960
and there really is no
way to know how Cleopatra

1688
01:09:39,040 --> 01:09:41,279
committed suicide,
or I would argue

1689
01:09:41,359 --> 01:09:42,559
if she even did.

1690
01:09:42,880 --> 01:09:45,439
It makes the most sense
for Octavion to say, 'Oh,

1691
01:09:45,439 --> 01:09:48,240
she took a hero's way out,
committed suicide.'

1692
01:09:48,399 --> 01:09:52,399
Much the way they say Boudica
left us, or Zenobia left us.

1693
01:09:53,040 --> 01:09:55,440
It works for the hero's way out.

1694
01:09:55,440 --> 01:09:58,320
But for the Egyptian,
it's brutal, because it's

1695
01:09:58,400 --> 01:10:00,879
the mother abandoning her
children to their fates.

1696
01:10:01,120 --> 01:10:04,559
It's the mother not wanting to
have to be walked in chains in

1697
01:10:04,640 --> 01:10:07,440
a triumph, deciding to just,
'Screw it, I'm done with this,'

1698
01:10:07,440 --> 01:10:09,200
and just leave everybody behind.

1699
01:10:09,440 --> 01:10:12,000
From the Egyptian perspective,
to say that she committed

1700
01:10:12,080 --> 01:10:15,360
suicide is one of the most
brutally affected pieces of

1701
01:10:15,440 --> 01:10:17,760
propaganda that Octavion
could ever produce.

1702
01:10:17,840 --> 01:10:20,480
And it is the reason that
I am so suspicious of it.

1703
01:10:20,560 --> 01:10:22,320
Again, until I get
my time machine,

1704
01:10:22,320 --> 01:10:24,480
I'll never be able to
prove it true or false,

1705
01:10:24,560 --> 01:10:26,160
but this is where I fall.

1706
01:10:26,640 --> 01:10:29,200
So, it's 2 50, yah!

1707
01:10:29,440 --> 01:10:32,000
Where else did women
try to rule the world?

1708
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:35,679
Well, nowhere like Egypt,
but there are other women.

1709
01:10:35,760 --> 01:10:39,200
Jezebel, Athalia, her daughter,
who tried to rule on behalf of

1710
01:10:39,200 --> 01:10:41,200
her son, both killed for trying.

1711
01:10:41,360 --> 01:10:44,800
Boudica and Zenobia both
fought Rome and died.

1712
01:10:45,120 --> 01:10:49,440
Empress Lu, Empress Wu Zhetian
fought for extend, sorry,

1713
01:10:49,440 --> 01:10:52,719
ruled for extended periods
of time in Imperial China,

1714
01:10:52,960 --> 01:10:56,719
also never ruled alone,
ruled alongside others.

1715
01:10:56,720 --> 01:10:58,000
And of course,
we know the many

1716
01:10:58,160 --> 01:11:00,799
female rulers of a
fragmented Europe,

1717
01:11:00,880 --> 01:11:02,880
including Elizabeth
I, Catherine the Great,

1718
01:11:02,880 --> 01:11:04,240
et cetera, et cetera.

1719
01:11:05,920 --> 01:11:08,480
Different situation in a
fragmented Europe where you

1720
01:11:08,560 --> 01:11:11,920
don't want a Spanish cousin to
come in just because he's male

1721
01:11:12,160 --> 01:11:15,280
and you would rather have the
female because she's British.

1722
01:11:15,360 --> 01:11:19,760
So, this is more a situation
where the fragmentation of

1723
01:11:20,000 --> 01:11:23,520
Europe works for the females,
in the females' favor.

1724
01:11:23,920 --> 01:11:28,000
In all of these cases, in Egypt
and elsewhere, almost all,

1725
01:11:28,320 --> 01:11:32,480
success is ignored and the
failure is aggrandized.

1726
01:11:32,640 --> 01:11:36,720
We have a cultural memory of
the failures, like Cleopatra.

1727
01:11:36,800 --> 01:11:39,840
Shakespeare writes
plays about Cleopatra.

1728
01:11:39,920 --> 01:11:43,040
We have epic poems
about Semiramis,

1729
01:11:43,760 --> 01:11:46,639
who also was a ruler of
the ancient Near East,

1730
01:11:46,640 --> 01:11:48,959
who apparently epically failed.

1731
01:11:49,040 --> 01:11:53,200
But those women who did it all
right, women like Neferusobek,

1732
01:11:53,440 --> 01:11:57,840
women like Hatshepsut, who left
Egypt better than they found it,

1733
01:11:57,920 --> 01:12:00,160
or the ones that are not part
of our cultural memory,

1734
01:12:00,240 --> 01:12:04,320
whose names were effectively
replaced, and to whom credit,

1735
01:12:04,640 --> 01:12:07,840
from whom credit was taken
away and given to the men

1736
01:12:08,000 --> 01:12:10,559
who who either preceded
them or came after them.

1737
01:12:10,720 --> 01:12:13,920
And so, in the end,
I usually end this

1738
01:12:14,160 --> 01:12:20,240
discussion with this.

1739
01:12:20,240 --> 01:12:20,800
(audience members laugh)

1740
01:12:20,800 --> 01:12:22,960
And I am trying,
so just a quick point,

1741
01:12:22,960 --> 01:12:25,360
and then I'll let you guys
ask me a couple questions.

1742
01:12:25,840 --> 01:12:28,880
I am trying to make this as
topical as I possibly can.

1743
01:12:28,960 --> 01:12:31,600
I'm trying to bring this
back to why do we still

1744
01:12:31,760 --> 01:12:33,280
distrust females in power?

1745
01:12:33,360 --> 01:12:37,120
What is it about the female
that sets us so on edge?

1746
01:12:37,200 --> 01:12:39,280
What was it about,
what is it about the

1747
01:12:39,360 --> 01:12:42,000
possible lies of a female
candidate that are so much

1748
01:12:42,080 --> 01:12:45,440
more powerful than the absolute
untruths of the male candidate?

1749
01:12:45,760 --> 01:12:47,040
What's going on here?

1750
01:12:47,120 --> 01:12:50,000
And why are we still
in this conundrum?

1751
01:12:50,000 --> 01:12:51,759
And this, I think,
is the reason.

1752
01:12:52,160 --> 01:12:55,280
That we assign women
a mercurial nature.

1753
01:12:55,440 --> 01:12:58,400
We assign women ups and
downs of emotionality

1754
01:12:58,560 --> 01:12:59,760
that cannot be controlled.

1755
01:12:59,920 --> 01:13:02,000
Now, I'm not gonna stand
up here and tell you this

1756
01:13:02,080 --> 01:13:04,240
is true, because I actually
don't believe it is.

1757
01:13:04,400 --> 01:13:06,000
I, first of all,
don't believe that we

1758
01:13:06,080 --> 01:13:07,360
only have male and female.

1759
01:13:07,440 --> 01:13:10,400
We are the ones that have
culturally constructed a binary.

1760
01:13:10,640 --> 01:13:13,040
When you talk about a
transgender and you talk about

1761
01:13:13,120 --> 01:13:16,400
the complications of sexuality,
you talk to a biologist and

1762
01:13:16,480 --> 01:13:18,640
talk about all of the sexual
expressions that are allowed for

1763
01:13:19,600 --> 01:13:21,760
us humans, it's extraordinary.

1764
01:13:21,920 --> 01:13:24,960
This is an oversimplified
agricultural system.

1765
01:13:25,120 --> 01:13:27,920
But this is what we live with,
this is what we have, and so,

1766
01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:30,320
then I'll look at this and
I would like to turn this

1767
01:13:30,480 --> 01:13:33,680
on its head and say, if we
assume that females are so much

1768
01:13:33,760 --> 01:13:37,440
more emotional than men, and if
cognitive scientists do tell us

1769
01:13:37,520 --> 01:13:40,639
that on the whole you and I can
read each other's faces better,

1770
01:13:40,800 --> 01:13:43,200
that we actually are more in
touch with our emotions,

1771
01:13:43,280 --> 01:13:46,400
less likely to, I don't know,
stalk an ex-spouse or pick up

1772
01:13:46,400 --> 01:13:48,639
a gun and kill up the whole
family and then kill ourselves

1773
01:13:48,720 --> 01:13:50,800
'cause we're not in touch
with our emotions, right?

1774
01:13:51,040 --> 01:13:53,360
If that is the case,
then I would encourage

1775
01:13:53,360 --> 01:13:55,920
all of us to look at this
emotionality more positively

1776
01:13:56,240 --> 01:13:59,280
and think of that emotionality,
whether wielded by men or

1777
01:13:59,520 --> 01:14:02,320
by women, as the ability
to feel something before

1778
01:14:02,480 --> 01:14:04,960
you decisively act upon it.

1779
01:14:05,120 --> 01:14:08,080
That this emotionality could
be the very thing that got,