Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Fry And it has been too long since we've had
Speaker 1: any African history on the show. We know this. It's
Speaker 1: one of those things where you look at the recent
Speaker 1: archive and go, wow, that has been a while. I
Speaker 1: really wanted to do an episode on the land of Poot,
Speaker 1: which is uh spelled p u n t, So sometimes
Speaker 1: you'll also hear people pronounce it Punt, and sometimes it's
Speaker 1: described as a kingdom, sometimes more of a massive trading center.
Speaker 1: But there are some really really big holes in our
Speaker 1: knowledge of Punch that make it hard to do a
Speaker 1: whole episode on it. For example, we don't know exactly
Speaker 1: where it was. There are references to Punt in Egyptian
Speaker 1: writing that span about two thousand years, and there's also
Speaker 1: mentions from elsewhere in the world, but it's not totally
Speaker 1: clear whether all of these references are referring to the
Speaker 1: same place. But one of our biggest sources of information
Speaker 1: on Punt comes from Hatch scheps It, who sent a
Speaker 1: huge expedition there in the fifteenth century b c. E.
Speaker 1: Expedition to Punt is also an important and illustrative part
Speaker 1: of hatcheps its reign. So today we're going to go
Speaker 1: to Punt by way of hatch Cheps and the civilization
Speaker 1: that we call Ancient Egypt expanded and contracted in cycles
Speaker 1: for thousands of years, with periods of prospering and flourishing
Speaker 1: divided by periods of decline and instability. This is part
Speaker 1: of why I have not jumped on any African history recently,
Speaker 1: because I start delving in and then I go whoa wah,
Speaker 1: this water is too deep, and I back up. Egyptologists
Speaker 1: have roughly divided these prosperous eras into the Old, Middle
Speaker 1: and New Kingdoms, separated by intermediary periods. These people knew
Speaker 1: their civilization by a number of names, including the Two Lands,
Speaker 1: the Beloved Land, and Chemmit, which is usually translated as Blackland,
Speaker 1: often interpreted as a reference to the fertile soil that
Speaker 1: sits along the Nile River. Hat Ships It was Pharaoh
Speaker 1: near the start of the New Kingdom, which started with
Speaker 1: the founding of the Eighteenth ruling dynasty. The Eighteenth dynasty
Speaker 1: also included some of Egypt's most well known pharaohs, including
Speaker 1: Amenhotep the Third Act and Too In common, these kings
Speaker 1: did not call themselves pharaoh's though that's a Greek term
Speaker 1: that was coined a little later and then kind of
Speaker 1: retroactively applied to all of the kings of this ancient kingdom.
Speaker 1: The Eighteenth dynasty was founded by Amosa in about fifteen
Speaker 1: thirty nine b C, and after his death in about
Speaker 1: fifteen fourteen b C, Amosa was succeeded by his son,
Speaker 1: a Menhotep the First, But when a Menhotep the First
Speaker 1: died in about fourteen nine three b C, he did
Speaker 1: not have a male heir, so in that case one
Speaker 1: of his general's Tutmosa, was next on the throne. Tutmosa
Speaker 1: may at a woman named Amosa, and it's not entirely
Speaker 1: clear who her parents were. One of her titles was
Speaker 1: king's sister, but it's not totally known whether that came
Speaker 1: from being the sister of one of the previous kings
Speaker 1: or Tutmosa's own sister. In the society, kings had a
Speaker 1: primary wife known as the Great Royal Wife, along with
Speaker 1: other lesser wives and concubines, and for much of ancient
Speaker 1: Egyptian history, it was typical for the king to take
Speaker 1: his sister or half sister as his great royal wife,
Speaker 1: and to marry his other sisters as well. The king
Speaker 1: was the embodiment of the god Horace, and a marriage
Speaker 1: to a sister or half sister herkened back to the
Speaker 1: Egyptian creation story. In this story, the first god a tomb,
Speaker 1: had no partner, so he created the first pair of
Speaker 1: deities by himself. This brother sister pair then produced another
Speaker 1: brother sister pair, and so on. In the eighteenth dynasty,
Speaker 1: in particular, it was required for royal sisters to marry
Speaker 1: their brother kings, and then for daughters of that pair
Speaker 1: to marry the next king. And in addition to the
Speaker 1: religious aspect that connected back to this creation story, this
Speaker 1: also really concentrated the power and the wealth within the
Speaker 1: royal family. So, whether Tutmosa was marrying his own sister
Speaker 1: or the sister of one of the previous kings, his
Speaker 1: doing this strengthened his claim to the throne, and it
Speaker 1: preserved the idea of balance. When Tutmosa died, he and
Speaker 1: Amosa had one daughter, hot Schepsu. Hat Chepsid had been
Speaker 1: trained as a high priestess in the Temple of Ammon,
Speaker 1: who was head of the Egyptian pantheon, as well as
Speaker 1: patron deity of the kings in the city of Thebes
Speaker 1: during the New Kingdom. Tutmosa and Amosa did not have
Speaker 1: a son, but Tutmosa did have a son with one
Speaker 1: of his lesser wives, and that son was Tutmosa the Second.
Speaker 1: Tutmosa the Second followed his father on the throne in
Speaker 1: about fourteen eighty two b c E, and he married
Speaker 1: his half sister, hat scheps It, who was about thirteen
Speaker 1: at the time. Because the new king was very young, inexperienced,
Speaker 1: and chronically ill, the king's great royal wife acted as
Speaker 1: his regent. But Tutmosa the Second did not live long
Speaker 1: after becoming king. He died in about fourteen seventy nine
Speaker 1: b c E. After he had been on the throne
Speaker 1: for about three years. By that point, he and hat
Speaker 1: scheps It had one daughter, Nefarura, and they did not
Speaker 1: have any sons. However, like his father, Tutmos of the
Speaker 1: Second did have sons by other wives, including one by
Speaker 1: a woman named Isis. This was Tutmos of the Third,
Speaker 1: who was about two years old at the time. Of
Speaker 1: his father's death, a marriage was planned between Tutmos of
Speaker 1: the third and his half sister Neferura, and this would
Speaker 1: similarly strengthen his tie to the throne, although at the
Speaker 1: time both of them were way too young to immediately
Speaker 1: get married, so in the meantime, hat scheps It tutmos
Speaker 1: is the third stepmother and aunt was going to act
Speaker 1: as his regent because his mother Isis wasn't a royal blood.
Speaker 1: Up until this point, the line of succession in the
Speaker 1: eighteenth dynasty had progressed in a way that was really
Speaker 1: pretty typical, apart from Tutmosa the first being a general
Speaker 1: who was not of royal birth, and it was also
Speaker 1: pretty common for a woman to act as region if
Speaker 1: her husband died before his heir was old enough to
Speaker 1: rule on his own. It was more common for a
Speaker 1: woman to wind up in such a position of power
Speaker 1: at the end of the dynasty, though, when the late
Speaker 1: king had no male heir. For the first few years
Speaker 1: after her husband's death, hot sheeps Its conduct as regent
Speaker 1: was pretty typical for the time as well. She built
Speaker 1: a memorial chapel to her late husband. She was publicly
Speaker 1: dedicated to preserving his memory and looking after the welfare
Speaker 1: of his sons. She took action on young Tutmos's behalf
Speaker 1: and guided him as he grew into the divine king
Speaker 1: on his own. She ordered the renewal and restorations of
Speaker 1: temples to honor the young king, and she sent an
Speaker 1: expedition to Oswan to quarry a pair of obelisks that
Speaker 1: would be dedicated to him. Writings about her from this
Speaker 1: time referred to her as Queen or with her formal
Speaker 1: religious title as the kingdom's highest priestess, which was God's
Speaker 1: Wife of Amen, and her depictions and carvings were pretty
Speaker 1: typical for a woman in these positions, but by the
Speaker 1: seventh year of her regency that had started to change.
Speaker 1: She reported that the oracle of Amon had delivered a
Speaker 1: message from the God that she should be king, becoming
Speaker 1: co ruler with her stepson. In her account, this happened
Speaker 1: at the Temple of Karnak during a festival when a
Speaker 1: statue of Amon was supposed to perform an oracle or miracle.
Speaker 1: At first, no message came, but when it finally did,
Speaker 1: the statue moved around dramatically and delivered a message to
Speaker 1: her that she was to be both her majesty and
Speaker 1: the God's wife. She started to be depicted in artwork
Speaker 1: with both masculine and feminine traits, and after a while
Speaker 1: she was shown as a man with the skirt and
Speaker 1: the decorative beard and the crown that signified her being king.
Speaker 1: She wasn't disguising her gender, though the language that was
Speaker 1: used to describe her was still feminine most of the time,
Speaker 1: even as the artwork was depicting her as progressively more masculine.
Speaker 1: As was really something that happened over time, with some
Speaker 1: more masculine elements appearing long before the seventh year of
Speaker 1: her regency, and then with her depictions continuing to become
Speaker 1: more and more masculine as time passed, and at some
Speaker 1: point she was formally crowned in a series of rituals
Speaker 1: that took days to complete, as was typical for pharaoh.
Speaker 1: She took a new throne name mat Kare, which translates
Speaker 1: roughly to truth is the soul of Ray. The idea
Speaker 1: of mat or truth in this context also connected to
Speaker 1: justice and order, and was a trait that was established
Speaker 1: by the gods. The role of the pharaoh was to
Speaker 1: mediate between the gods and humanity, preserving the God's mod
Speaker 1: There was also a goddess named mat who was the
Speaker 1: personification of these traits. She also banned construction of her
Speaker 1: mortuary temple, known as Jessera Jasu or Holy of Holies.
Speaker 1: This was built at the dear Elbahari temple complex near
Speaker 1: what's now lux Or. This temple was meant to guide
Speaker 1: her into the afterlife, where as Pharaoh she would trans
Speaker 1: send into a divine being, and it was to make
Speaker 1: sure that she was well provided for there. The tomb
Speaker 1: to actually hold her mummy was built in another location.
Speaker 1: Hatcheps It's mortuary temple was a massive three tier temple
Speaker 1: made from sandstone, full of statuary, including statues of hot
Speaker 1: scheps It as the god o Cyrus. The structure itself
Speaker 1: still stands today. Relief carvings on the temple walls documented
Speaker 1: hot scheps It's biography and her rule as king. This
Speaker 1: included a new story documenting her birth that the god
Speaker 1: Amen had disguised himself as Tutmosa the First and impregnated
Speaker 1: hot scheps It's mother. Both her throne name and her
Speaker 1: new origin story reinforced the idea that she had a
Speaker 1: legitimate claim to be king and that she was connected
Speaker 1: directly to the god Amen, who had authorized her to
Speaker 1: do it. Although she was technically co ruler with Tetmos
Speaker 1: of the Third, for the rest of his life she
Speaker 1: acted as the soul monarch. She also changed his throne
Speaker 1: name from one that meant the man inifestation of Ray
Speaker 1: is enduring to one that meant the manifestation of the
Speaker 1: soul of Ray is enduring, kind of adding a degree
Speaker 1: of separation between him and being a direct manifestation of
Speaker 1: the God. And it's not entirely clear what motivated her
Speaker 1: to do this. When archaeologists first unearthed her tomb in
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, they concluded this she was power hungry
Speaker 1: and conniving and had stolen the throne from her stepson
Speaker 1: for her own selfish reasons. And we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about why they came to that conclusion in just a
Speaker 1: bit were Recent scholars have pretty much dismissed that idea,
Speaker 1: though while simple ambition might have been involved, it's also
Speaker 1: possible that there was some kind of threat to Tutmost
Speaker 1: of the third, and that hat scheps It was protecting
Speaker 1: him by becoming the king herself. It might have been
Speaker 1: just that he had been king under a regency for
Speaker 1: about seven years, and he still wasn't old enough to
Speaker 1: father an air. It would probably be another seven or
Speaker 1: so years before he could actually roll the kingdom on
Speaker 1: his own. That was a lot of time to get
Speaker 1: through in a world where early deaths were really common,
Speaker 1: and it's also possible that her doing this wasn't actually
Speaker 1: her idea, that it was something that advisers or the
Speaker 1: priesthood thought was necessary for some reason. Regardless, she could
Speaker 1: not have done this without significant support among the ruling class.
Speaker 1: She had carefully cultivated relationships and alliances for years as
Speaker 1: regent before taking on the role of king. What she
Speaker 1: did was unprecedented, but the elite in thebes allowed her
Speaker 1: to do it, and the fact that they did suggest
Speaker 1: that she was admired and respected as a leader before
Speaker 1: she took the throne. It's clear that, regardless of what
Speaker 1: the motivations were, she was incredibly savvy to do this,
Speaker 1: and she also proved herself to be a capable ruler,
Speaker 1: which we will talk about after a sponsor break. We
Speaker 1: boked before the break about how before hatch Ups it
Speaker 1: became king. The line of Six had unfolded in the
Speaker 1: eighteenth dynasty in a pretty typical way, but hatcheps It's
Speaker 1: ascension to the throne wasn't typical at all. There were
Speaker 1: other women who had held positions of power in Egyptian history,
Speaker 1: but for one to take the throne in this way
Speaker 1: was really unprecedented. So in addition to her throne name
Speaker 1: and the revised story of her birth, she got to
Speaker 1: work immediately taking steps to try to reinforce the idea
Speaker 1: that she was a legitimate ruler. She commissioned hundreds of
Speaker 1: statues and other artwork depicting her as king, along with
Speaker 1: statues and structures honoring the god Amen. She expanded the
Speaker 1: priesthood and constructed temples all over Thebes and beyond, including
Speaker 1: a bark chapel that French archaeologist named the Chapel Rouge
Speaker 1: after unearthing the blocks used to build it in the
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties. The chapel's original location is unknown. It was
Speaker 1: dismantled after hat Sheps's death, and its blocks were used
Speaker 1: for a pylon in Karnak. She employed craftspeople associated with
Speaker 1: some of the king those most prominent families to do
Speaker 1: all of this, building up her base of support at
Speaker 1: cheps It launched two military expeditions into Nubia, one of
Speaker 1: which she reportedly led herself. She also sent expeditions to
Speaker 1: mind gold in Nubia and in the Eastern Desert. She
Speaker 1: strengthened trading relationships with other parts of Africa and with
Speaker 1: the Levant, possibly as far west as what's now Afghanistan.
Speaker 1: Shortly after taking the throne, she also dispatched a massive
Speaker 1: trading expedition to punt which will be talking about in
Speaker 1: more detail in a bit. And throughout all of this
Speaker 1: she gave favors to prominent men whose support she needed
Speaker 1: to stay in power, but she also made appointments to
Speaker 1: political newcomers which gave her support that did not come
Speaker 1: with as many strings attached. In the fifteenth year of
Speaker 1: her rule had scheps that sent another expedition to ask
Speaker 1: one to quarry a second set of obelisks, with this
Speaker 1: pair being inscribed to her. A year later, she held
Speaker 1: a jubilee festival known as Said, something that was typically
Speaker 1: done in the thirtieth year of a king rule to
Speaker 1: rejuvenate his power. It's possible that she chose this earlier
Speaker 1: date because it was about thirty years since her father
Speaker 1: had died, at which point she had become her husband's queen,
Speaker 1: so in a way that marked the beginning of her
Speaker 1: time on the throne. At some point she had her
Speaker 1: father's mummy moved to a tomb near her mortuary temple,
Speaker 1: again reinforcing her connection to the dynastic line. She also
Speaker 1: increasingly focused on her right to rule as coming from
Speaker 1: being her father's daughter, rather than her having been married
Speaker 1: to Tutmos of the Second. During her time on the throne,
Speaker 1: hatcheps It's most powerful adviser was a man named Senenmut.
Speaker 1: We don't know all that much about him as a person.
Speaker 1: He started out as the overseer of the large hall
Speaker 1: at the Palace and thebes, starting at the very beginning
Speaker 1: of tutmost of the Second's reign. He soon took on
Speaker 1: an increasing number of political appointments and became tutor to
Speaker 1: hatcheps It's daughter. By the time hatcheps It took the throne,
Speaker 1: he had become incredibly powerful and a very important figure.
Speaker 1: He also met le am, asked ninety three different official titles,
Speaker 1: and became chief architect of hatcheps It's mortuary temple. He
Speaker 1: oversaw treasuries and crafts people all over the kingdom, There's
Speaker 1: been some speculation that the two of them were linked romantically.
Speaker 1: Some of it stems from the fact that he was
Speaker 1: very close to hut Sheeps's daughter, leading people to wonder
Speaker 1: whether he was actually her father. He also built his
Speaker 1: burial temple near hot cheps It's mortuary temple. Also, Sentiment
Speaker 1: was a powerful man in the court of a woman,
Speaker 1: which is frequently caused for suspicion. Although it's likely that
Speaker 1: hat cheps had had other relationships after her husband's death,
Speaker 1: she would have had to have been really careful about
Speaker 1: one involving Sentiment. Sentiment disappears from the historical record and
Speaker 1: the nineteenth year of hatcheps It's rule, although he might
Speaker 1: have survived after her death. She died in her early forties,
Speaker 1: after having ruled his king for about fifteen years and
Speaker 1: as most of the thirds regent for about seven years
Speaker 1: before that. This makes her the longest reigning female monarch
Speaker 1: in ancient Egyptian history, and possibly the first to rule
Speaker 1: as a king rather than a regent or other interim ruler.
Speaker 1: As we noted earlier, there were other women who served
Speaker 1: as regents or who grew into having a lot of
Speaker 1: power as queens and There's some debate about whether any
Speaker 1: of these earlier women became kings in their own right.
Speaker 1: After Hatchep's death, Tut most of the Third became the
Speaker 1: sole ruler. It's clear from his time as king that
Speaker 1: had Sheepsad had prepared him to be a skilled leader
Speaker 1: from both a military and a political perspective. He had
Speaker 1: begun marrying and fathering children by his late teens, and
Speaker 1: by the time he was twenty he was commander of
Speaker 1: the military. After hat Shepsa's death, he conquered much of
Speaker 1: what is now Syria, as well as parts of Sudan
Speaker 1: and Iraq. The first of these expeditions took place almost
Speaker 1: immediately after he became the sole monarch. It seems as
Speaker 1: though had sheeps It had started making preparations for it
Speaker 1: before her death. Like had sheeps It had done, tutmost
Speaker 1: of the Third also undertook huge building projects, constructing temples
Speaker 1: and having obelisks quarried in Oswan. He also completed monuments
Speaker 1: to her that were already under way when she died,
Speaker 1: But then about twenty years into his reign that most
Speaker 1: of the Third started construction of a new temple, which
Speaker 1: was next to hat scheps It's mortuary temple, and at
Speaker 1: about this time people started removing all references to hatcheps
Speaker 1: It as king from temples and other buildings all over
Speaker 1: the kingdom. Statues depicting her as king were smashed, relief
Speaker 1: carvings were defaced. Her name was chiseled out of the
Speaker 1: reliefs at Jasu and replaced with the names of Tutmos
Speaker 1: of the First, the Second, and the third. Her mortuary
Speaker 1: temple was reconsecrated, and her obelisks at Karnak were walled in.
Speaker 1: Her name was also removed from the official lists of kings.
Speaker 1: It is generally concluded that Tetmos of the Third ordered
Speaker 1: this purge, but it's not clear how much he was
Speaker 1: encouraged to do so by the priesthood or his advisers.
Speaker 1: She was entirely obliterated from the record, though This destruction
Speaker 1: went on for the rest of tutmost of the Third's life,
Speaker 1: which was for about another decade, but there were so
Speaker 1: many statues and other depictions of hatchep Suit that some
Speaker 1: of them were still intact by the time he died.
Speaker 1: With so much of her record destroyed, hot cheps It
Speaker 1: soon fell into complete obscurity. The people who remembered and
Speaker 1: supported her eventually died, and without her name in the
Speaker 1: list of kings, she seems to have been forgotten within
Speaker 1: a few generations. When her mortuary temple was unearthed in
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, no one knew how to read hieroglyphics yet,
Speaker 1: so all of the smash statues and other defacements were
Speaker 1: interpreted as simple vandalism or the work of grave robbers. Then,
Speaker 1: in the eighteen twenties, John franzwash Employon built on earlier
Speaker 1: work by Thomas Young to decipher the hieroglyphic text on
Speaker 1: the Rosetta stone, and then that paved the way for
Speaker 1: modern people to be able to read hieroglyphics. Champollion personally
Speaker 1: visited hatcheps It's temple and was deeply confused by what
Speaker 1: he found there. In addition to all these replaced names,
Speaker 1: there were pictures of two kings standing side by side
Speaker 1: that was incredibly unusual. There was also writing that just
Speaker 1: didn't make sense, that had feminine word forms when they
Speaker 1: expected masculine ones. Eventually, archaeologists pieced together what had happened
Speaker 1: that hut Sheep said had been Tutmos of the Thirds region,
Speaker 1: but had taken the throne herself, but they erroneously concluded
Speaker 1: that Tutmosa had immediately removed hut sheps It's name from
Speaker 1: the record as soon as she died. They imagined that
Speaker 1: Tutmosa was angry at having had his kingship stolen from
Speaker 1: him for more than a decade, and that his removal
Speaker 1: of his stepmother's name was evidence of both his outrage
Speaker 1: and her character. Based on this assumption, they concluded that
Speaker 1: hat cheps It was a stereotypical evil stepmother right out
Speaker 1: of a Disney movie, wicked and conniving and only interested
Speaker 1: in her own power. But today we know that about
Speaker 1: twenty years passed between hut sheeps It's death and the
Speaker 1: defacement of her tomb and all the other destruction, and
Speaker 1: the interpretation of what led to that defacement is much different.
Speaker 1: That's largely thanks to the work of egyptologist Charles Nimbs
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six, who was the first person to
Speaker 1: pinpoint the date of the defacement as being the forty
Speaker 1: second year of tutmost of the second's reign. According to
Speaker 1: some researchers, it was even later than that, so it's
Speaker 1: more likely that the ruling class became interested in preserving
Speaker 1: the idea that the dynastic line had continued without any
Speaker 1: kind of interruption through Tutmosis the first, second, and the third.
Speaker 1: It's also possible that there was some concern about Tutmos
Speaker 1: of the third successor, a Menhotep the second. Tutmosa did
Speaker 1: eventually marry had chips It's daughter, Nepherrura, and he had
Speaker 1: a son either with her or with another royal wife,
Speaker 1: but both of them died, so his successor was a
Speaker 1: Menhotep the second, whose mother had no royal lineage and
Speaker 1: no connection back to hut sheeps It. It seems that
Speaker 1: Tetmos of the third was concerned enough about the line
Speaker 1: of succession that he had a Menhotep crowned while he
Speaker 1: was still living, with the two of them acting as
Speaker 1: co monarchs. So this removal of hatch ups That from
Speaker 1: the record might have been connected to all this uncertainty.
Speaker 1: And it's also possible that the purge wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: considered necessary if hot chups It's daughter had survived and
Speaker 1: she had become the mother to the next king rather
Speaker 1: than the king's wife. Coming from this totally disconnected lineage,
Speaker 1: the idea of a female king is also an affront
Speaker 1: to the concept of Matt that we talked about earlier.
Speaker 1: The king was supposed to be an intermediary with the
Speaker 1: gods and a living embodiment of Horace, keeping everything in balance,
Speaker 1: so having a woman in this role was basically the
Speaker 1: opposite of this idea of ordered justice. The fact that
Speaker 1: a woman had a relatively peaceful and prosperous reign in
Speaker 1: spite of this affront to Matt may have raised unwelcome
Speaker 1: questions about that divine order and the rule of other kings.
Speaker 1: Hatch Ups that's mummy wasn't placed in the tomb where
Speaker 1: she intended it to be, or if it was, it
Speaker 1: was later moved, but a mummy from a tomb that
Speaker 1: was found in the Valley of the Kings in nineteen
Speaker 1: o two might be hers. That team was fully excavated
Speaker 1: starting in nineteen twenty. During the excavation, archaeologists found the
Speaker 1: mummies of two women, one of which was on the floor.
Speaker 1: One of these was later identified as hut cheps It's
Speaker 1: wet nurse. The other one, the one that had been
Speaker 1: on the floor, was positioned in a way that was
Speaker 1: often used for royal women. A CT scan found that
Speaker 1: it was missing a tooth. Meanwhile, a box marked with
Speaker 1: hut cheps It's cartouche had been unearthed as well in
Speaker 1: a cache of Royal mummies. A scan of that box
Speaker 1: revealed that it contained a tooth, and this tooth appears
Speaker 1: to be a match for the mummies missing one. So
Speaker 1: it's likely that this was hut cheps It's mummy, although
Speaker 1: that is still not proven. Yeah, there is discussion of
Speaker 1: using DNA to try to confirm everything back when these
Speaker 1: initial analyses happened. I don't know what the results of
Speaker 1: that were. I could not find reference to it anywhere,
Speaker 1: but it's also incredibly difficult to get good DNA out
Speaker 1: of mummified samples that are this old anyway. This finally
Speaker 1: brings us to the voyage to Punch that I wanted
Speaker 1: to focus on from the beginning, and we will get
Speaker 1: to that after a sponsor break. The first reference to
Speaker 1: Punt in ancient Egyptian writing is from the Palermo Stone,
Speaker 1: which dates back to about b C. That was more
Speaker 1: than a thousand years before had ships it became king.
Speaker 1: According to the Palermo Stone, King Sahara sent an expedition
Speaker 1: to Punt, which returned with eighty thousand measures of a
Speaker 1: substance that's generally written as N T y W, sometimes
Speaker 1: proceeded by an apostrophe. Some sources translate this word as frankincense,
Speaker 1: and other is translated as mr. Both of these are
Speaker 1: made from aromatic tree resins and are used to make
Speaker 1: perfumes and incense, as well as spices and medicine. This
Speaker 1: expedition also brought back wood in the form of rods
Speaker 1: or staves, which were probably used to make spears and
Speaker 1: other weapons, because the Egyptian Kingdom's territory at that time
Speaker 1: didn't include trees that yielded wood that was good for
Speaker 1: that purpose. There are periodic references to Punt, also known
Speaker 1: as God's Land in Egyptian writing. After that, all of
Speaker 1: the documented expeditions were associated with kings who were known
Speaker 1: for exceptional leadership and good fortune. There are also fictional references,
Speaker 1: including the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor. This story dates
Speaker 1: back to the Middle Kingdom, and in it, a sailor
Speaker 1: washes up on an island in the Red Sea and
Speaker 1: meets the Lord of Punt. The Lord of Punt is
Speaker 1: a serpent who gives him all kinds of gifts including
Speaker 1: mir i paint, baboons, and elephant tusks. Egyptian documents described
Speaker 1: two different routes to punt. One of them is along
Speaker 1: the Red Sea and one is along the Nile. Both
Speaker 1: of them involved sometime on the Nile as well as
Speaker 1: travel over land. For the Red Sea route, ships were
Speaker 1: probably built on the Nile and then they sailed to Coptos.
Speaker 1: From there they were disassembled and then carried along a
Speaker 1: dry riverbed called the Wadi Hammamat, and that went all
Speaker 1: the way to the Red Sea, which was a hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty miles or a hundred and nine kilometers away.
Speaker 1: Then on the return trip, the goods probably would have
Speaker 1: been loaded onto pack animals to be carried back across
Speaker 1: the Wadi Hammamat, and then they would have been loaded
Speaker 1: into different ships on the Nile, rather than deconstructing the
Speaker 1: ships and carrying them again. It was an involved process.
Speaker 1: You would only want to go to this place if
Speaker 1: it took that much effort. If you were going to
Speaker 1: get some really good trade goods out of it, you
Speaker 1: really had to want to do it. To travel along
Speaker 1: the Nile, ships would have used rowers and sails to
Speaker 1: travel south against the current and then followed the current back,
Speaker 1: but it's not clear exactly where the overland portion was
Speaker 1: headed after getting off of the ships. Whether an expedition
Speaker 1: traveled along the Red Sea or stuck mostly to the
Speaker 1: Nile might have been a matter of practicality, with the
Speaker 1: Egyptians traveling farther down the Nile when they had friendly
Speaker 1: relationships with the kingdoms and empires in that area, but
Speaker 1: then crossing over the land and traveling down the Red
Speaker 1: Sea when they didn't. Or it could have been that
Speaker 1: Punt was very large and stretched all the way from
Speaker 1: the Red Sea to the Nile, and the Egyptians visited
Speaker 1: different parts of it at different times. Like we mentioned
Speaker 1: at the top of the show, had ships. It is
Speaker 1: expedition to Punt was one of the most notable acts
Speaker 1: in her time as king, and a lot of what
Speaker 1: we know about Punt comes from her documentation of those expeditions.
Speaker 1: According to the account in the relief carvings in hut
Speaker 1: chips It's Mortuary Temple, this voyage restored trade with Punt
Speaker 1: after an interruption of more than two hundred years. She
Speaker 1: had several probable reasons for wanting to embark on this expedition,
Speaker 1: and one was simply access to luxury goods and aromatic resins.
Speaker 1: The residents in particular were really important for religious purposes.
Speaker 1: This might have been a reward for her supporters when
Speaker 1: she ascended to the throne, like they helped her get
Speaker 1: on the throne, and in return she was going to
Speaker 1: give them access to all of this good trade. It
Speaker 1: was probably also a way to keep the army busy.
Speaker 1: Although it does appear that hot steps that led a
Speaker 1: couple of small military campaigns into Nubia, it wasn't generally
Speaker 1: considered appropriate for a woman to personally lead an army
Speaker 1: into battle. On top of that, there was just a
Speaker 1: lot more risk for her than there would be for
Speaker 1: a man in her position. It would have been just
Speaker 1: catastrophic for an unprecedented female king to lead a military
Speaker 1: campaign that then failed. So hat ships that needed some
Speaker 1: other way to reinforce the idea that she was competent
Speaker 1: and accomplished and capable as king, and she needed something
Speaker 1: to do to keep the soldiers occupied, like having them
Speaker 1: go all the way to poot And as was the
Speaker 1: case with her ascension to the throne, hut chups It's
Speaker 1: relief carving show that this was divinely ordered, saying that
Speaker 1: the oracle had delivered a command that quote the highways
Speaker 1: to the mr terraces should be opened. This is a
Speaker 1: slightly different framing from how other pharaohs documented their expeditions
Speaker 1: to Punt, which more focused on Amun or Amandrae causing
Speaker 1: Punt to send their goods or causing the way to
Speaker 1: Punt to be opened. The by reliefs and hot ships.
Speaker 1: It's temple depict large sailed ships crewed with thirty rowers,
Speaker 1: each carrying goods from Egypt, including fruit, meat, bread, beer,
Speaker 1: and wine. They sail across the water, and based on
Speaker 1: the aquatic life that shown in the carvings, that water
Speaker 1: is probably meant to be the Red Sea. Once they
Speaker 1: arrive in Punt. There are carvings of the region's trees,
Speaker 1: which might be the trees used to produce ebbony, frankincense,
Speaker 1: or myrrh. There are also some fig trees. There are
Speaker 1: also depictions of huts with domed roofs on stilts, which
Speaker 1: might have been houses or granaries. Him there. The relief
Speaker 1: show all kinds of goods being loaded back onto the ships,
Speaker 1: including herbs, wood, resins, gold, incense, and animal skins. There
Speaker 1: are also lots of live animals, including baboons, monkeys, cattle,
Speaker 1: and hounds. Enslaved people and their children are loaded into
Speaker 1: the ships as well, and cross sections of the loaded
Speaker 1: ships show them just packed to the gills with goods.
Speaker 1: Once the goods arrived safely at Karnak Temple and thieves,
Speaker 1: the Egyptians and the Puntite dignitaries who are returned with
Speaker 1: them are shown presenting hapshets that with the goods that
Speaker 1: they had brought. This includes live resentries in baskets meant
Speaker 1: for transplanting and hatch ups that did transplant them around
Speaker 1: her mortuary temple and the carvings hatch ups that also
Speaker 1: consecrates the best of all these goods to the god Amen.
Speaker 1: The people of punt appear in these depictions as well.
Speaker 1: They have dark reddish skin with long hair and goatee
Speaker 1: like beards. The only ones whose names are mentioned are
Speaker 1: King Parah, who and his queen at the queen is
Speaker 1: depicted as being very strikingly large, something that has led
Speaker 1: to a lot of commentary about her body, and a
Speaker 1: lot of it has started with the assumption that there
Speaker 1: was a pathological explanation for her body shape and size,
Speaker 1: but it may have just been how she was built
Speaker 1: or a mark of status and wealth in her culture.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you look her up, be prepared
Speaker 1: to read some really gross and insulting things about her body.
Speaker 1: In almost every single article, including articles that are brand new,
Speaker 1: almost no one had nothing ugly to say about what
Speaker 1: the Queen of Punt looked like. These reliefs are very detailed,
Speaker 1: so it's likely that hat scheps that sent artists with
Speaker 1: the expedition and ordered them to make very careful observations
Speaker 1: for the sake of these reliefs when they returned. And
Speaker 1: the reliefs are definitely our biggest single source of information
Speaker 1: about Punt, but there is still so much that we
Speaker 1: don't know. For one thing, we really don't know how
Speaker 1: the people of Punt referred to themselves. Punt is what
Speaker 1: is in Egyptian writing, but it's also echoed than things
Speaker 1: that came later, like Herodotus is History, which was written
Speaker 1: in the fifth century BC, and we also don't know
Speaker 1: exactly where it was. That's something people have been trying
Speaker 1: to figure out for more than a hundred and fifty years.
Speaker 1: At first researchers focused on the Arabian Peninsula, but as
Speaker 1: archaeologists unearthed more and more descriptions of Punt being to
Speaker 1: the south rather than to the east of the Egyptian Kingdom,
Speaker 1: and more references of the goods being traded, they started
Speaker 1: focusing more on the stretch of the continent between Egyptian
Speaker 1: territory and the Horn of Africa. Many of the goods
Speaker 1: described as coming from Punt were native to this part
Speaker 1: of the African continent, but there's still a lot of
Speaker 1: room for speculation. This is especially true since the ancient
Speaker 1: Egyptians were certainly not Punt's only trading partner, so the
Speaker 1: goods that were available in Punt probably came from other
Speaker 1: parts of the world as well, both on the continent
Speaker 1: of Africa and elsewhere. Also, the domed huts and the
Speaker 1: stilt houses that are shown in the reliefs are more
Speaker 1: soci created with central and western Africa then with the
Speaker 1: parts of the continent that we're most likely to be
Speaker 1: accessed via the Red Sea, and which archaeologists and other
Speaker 1: researchers have mostly focused on in this search. Most, but
Speaker 1: not all, researchers have concluded that Punt was probably located
Speaker 1: somewhere along the Red Sea, but exactly where is still
Speaker 1: a mystery. Researchers have certainly put forth a lot of ideas,
Speaker 1: a lot of them simultaneously contradictory and well supported. Most
Speaker 1: placed punch somewhere in what's now Eritrea, Ethiopia, or Somalia.
Speaker 1: In an article in the Journal of the American Research
Speaker 1: Center in Egypt, Stanley Blanda explores descriptions of Punt as
Speaker 1: on the twin shores of the sea, and he interprets
Speaker 1: the accounts description of where the expedition pitched their tents
Speaker 1: as on both sides of the Red Sea. Based on that,
Speaker 1: he concludes that Punt lay along the balt Al Mandab
Speaker 1: straight with modern Djibouti on one side and Yemen on
Speaker 1: the other in both Eastern Africa and the Western Arabian Peninsula.
Speaker 1: And researchers even tried to use oxygen isotope analysis to
Speaker 1: try to confirm Punt's location by studying the mummy of
Speaker 1: a baboon that had presumably been brought back from Punt.
Speaker 1: That research suggested that this baboon was from what's now
Speaker 1: Eritrea or eastern Ethiopia, and so they concluded that Punt
Speaker 1: might have covered all of that general area. A major
Speaker 1: archaeological discovery could clear all this up, but right now,
Speaker 1: the biggest archaeological fines related to Punt are from the
Speaker 1: Egyptian harbor of Merca. Goasis known at the time as
Speaker 1: Saw would show evidence of trade with Punch regardless, though
Speaker 1: Punt seems to have existed as an important and thriving
Speaker 1: trading partner from roughly b c E to about six
Speaker 1: hundred b C. The last Egyptian expedition that we know
Speaker 1: about took place under Ramsey's the Third in the twelfth
Speaker 1: century BC. AH elusive Punt, Yeah, I'm very that you. Also,
Speaker 1: if you go poking around on the internet, you will
Speaker 1: also find some more far fetched and less well supported
Speaker 1: ideas about it being in many far flung places that
Speaker 1: are not in the immediate vicinity of Africa and the
Speaker 1: Arabian Peninsula, which aren't really supported so much by what
Speaker 1: we know in terms of what's documented about Egyptian relationships
Speaker 1: with Punt and about what we know about Egyptians seafaring capabilities,
Speaker 1: which weren't amazing. They could get up and down the
Speaker 1: Nile pretty well, but they really tended to stick very
Speaker 1: closely along the shore of the Red Sea. They were
Speaker 1: not nearly as good as like getting out into the water.
Speaker 1: Away from that safety of land. They were focusing more
Speaker 1: on architecture and that is fine. Yeah. We should also
Speaker 1: know that in the modern era, there is a place
Speaker 1: called Puntland which is part of Somalia, and we know
Speaker 1: that that was named after the land of punt but
Speaker 1: it's not clear that that was the same physical location. Um,
Speaker 1: do you have a little bit of listener mail for us?
Speaker 1: I do have listener mail for us. This listener mail
Speaker 1: comes from Christopher. Christopher says, Hello, ladies. I am a
Speaker 1: longtime avid listener to your podcast, having listened off and
Speaker 1: on for years. I recently started a new job with
Speaker 1: a longer commute in your podcasts have been a huge blessing.
Speaker 1: I recently listened to your podcast on Chester A Arthur
Speaker 1: and you discussed in passing a church in Boston that
Speaker 1: had a large collection of Tiffany stained glass. I'm an
Speaker 1: amateur stained glass maker and I specialized in the Tiffany
Speaker 1: foil style. I was in Boston for work during the
Speaker 1: recent eclipse, and one of the stops I made in
Speaker 1: my free time was to a church that had a
Speaker 1: large collection of stained glass. Since I gather you may
Speaker 1: be familiar with it, I am not sure if this
Speaker 1: will interest you, but I took high resolution pictures of
Speaker 1: the windows because of how impressive they were, especially when
Speaker 1: compared to my own skill. I'm not sure how familiar
Speaker 1: either of you is with stained glass in general, but
Speaker 1: when you're working on a window, typically, at least in
Speaker 1: my experience, all of the different pieces of glass are
Speaker 1: approximately the same thickness. This is not the case in
Speaker 1: the windows of this church. Although you cannot tell from
Speaker 1: the pictures I took, I was able to get up
Speaker 1: close to the windows themselves, and there's a huge amount
Speaker 1: of variability in the thickness of the different pieces, which
Speaker 1: makes the finished product all the more impressive. I would
Speaker 1: like to second the motion to do an episode on Tiffany,
Speaker 1: either the person himself for the style of stained glass,
Speaker 1: or if I am dreaming, an episode on the history
Speaker 1: of stained glass itself. I'm attaching a link to the
Speaker 1: album I made at the pictures of the windows in
Speaker 1: case you're interested in seeing them for some reason, you
Speaker 1: want to take them or post them, do feel free
Speaker 1: to do so. I am attaching a picture of a
Speaker 1: window I made myself to give some perspective on the
Speaker 1: comparative differences between a master of the craft and a
Speaker 1: dilettante like myself. Again, thank you so much for what
Speaker 1: you do. I tell everyone who will listen about your podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm also about to head on a vacation to Martha's vineyard,
Speaker 1: implant on sending you guys something, so watch for another
Speaker 1: message or postcard from me. Thank you and have a
Speaker 1: great day, Christopher. Thank you Christopher for this email. These
Speaker 1: pictures are great. The make sure that Christopher set of
Speaker 1: his own His own uh stained glass work is of
Speaker 1: a Zelda theme stained stained glass piece, which I was
Speaker 1: absolutely delighted by. Uh. And I'm glad that that we
Speaker 1: got this email because when we talked about that on
Speaker 1: the podcast, I was sort of talking off the top
Speaker 1: of my head and I didn't have written down with
Speaker 1: the name of the church was, or where it was
Speaker 1: or anything like that. And this email gives me a
Speaker 1: chance to fill people in who may be interested. This
Speaker 1: is Arlington Street Church. It is at the corner of
Speaker 1: Boylston Street and Arlington in Boston. It's right across the
Speaker 1: street from the corner um like one of the corners
Speaker 1: of the Boston Public Garden, it is a Unitarian Universalist church.
Speaker 1: And the history of this particular church actually also connects
Speaker 1: to our recent Packard Versus Packard episode, because when you
Speaker 1: look at the chronology of like the church's history and
Speaker 1: what congregations were worshiping at this site, it follows that
Speaker 1: whole progression of having like the very old school uh
Speaker 1: Lutheran Calvinism, and then gradually breaking away from that, becoming dissatisfied,
Speaker 1: and then ultimately becoming a Unitarian church, which is the
Speaker 1: church that's there now. Um So, if you google Arlington
Speaker 1: Street Church, Boston, you will find information about the church
Speaker 1: and when it is available to go and look at
Speaker 1: the windows. There are pictures of the windows there as well.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much, Christopher. If you would like
Speaker 1: to write to us about this or anither podcast or
Speaker 1: a history podcasts of how Stuff Works dot com and
Speaker 1: then we're all over social media at ms in history.
Speaker 1: That is where you will find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Speaker 1: and Instagram, and you can come to our website which
Speaker 1: is at miss in history dot com and find show
Speaker 1: notes for all the episodes that Holly and I have
Speaker 1: done together in a searchable archive of every episode ever.
Speaker 1: And you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts
Speaker 1: and the I heart Radio app and wherever else you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.