WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Tempest Stele 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:08.640 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:12.480 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:15.640 Time for a Vault episode. This one originally aired on 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:20.840 January and it is about a fascinating artifact from ancient 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:26.759 Egypt and how it may interact with climate and geological history. Yeah, yeah, 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:28.400 this is This is a really fun one because of 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.880 course it concerns ancient Egypt. It concerns you know, attempts 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.240 to understand what what ancient people were thinking about and 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:37.440 and ultimately writing about. And it also gets to the 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:39.080 sort of the heart of like what is what is 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:43.640 a written um account of the past four what purpose 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:47.080 does it serve to those who who are in charge 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:53.360 of the inscriptions. Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, 0:00:53.520 --> 0:01:02.800 the production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.400 to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.320 I'm Joe McCormick, and today we're gonna be talking about 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:11.280 an artifact. This is actually a topic that I was 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.080 originally reading about thinking about doing one of our new 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.600 short form episodes, the Artifact about but it kind of 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.440 ballooned in my mind and kept picking up. Weird little 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:22.720 tangents here and there, and I realized it was much 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:24.959 too big of a subject just to be like a 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:27.200 five to ten minute episode. So so now we're talking 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:31.320 about this today, and the subject is an artifact from 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:36.160 ancient Egypt known as the Almost Steela or the Tempest Steela. 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.160 And I already apologize because I know at some point 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:41.839 in this episode, I'm going to forget to pronounce steel 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.640 a with a long E and I'm gonna start saying stella. 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.080 It's that word, you know, it's st e l A 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.559 or st e l e, which I can never get 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.160 the get the sounds right in my brain. Yeah, but 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:55.880 we were rehearsing it before the episode. It's steel a 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.920 as in steel uh, Steely Dan album from the records, 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.200 or uh, and there's some kind of uh. There's some 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.440 kind of other word that's also steel or steely ste 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.200 l e, which I can't figure out if it's totally 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:13.799 interchangeable with Steela or just mostly interchangeable. Anyway, we're not 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.760 gonna deal with that in this episode because we're only 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.200 concerned with one primary Steela here, and it's this almost 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:25.679 Steela or Tempest Steela. So this artifact is at its 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.960 heart a big stone block. It is a slab. It 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.359 is a big slab made of calcite that's currently in 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.200 multiple fragments. I think there are at least three major 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:39.600 fragments um and they were recovered from the temple complex 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.520 of Karnak, which is in the ancient Egyptian city of 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:45.840 Thebes near the modern Upper Egypt city of lux Or. 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.320 And this artifact was recovered by archaeologists I think in 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:53.040 the late nineteen forties or early nineteen fifties. Uh. Karnak, 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.880 of course, is this big, beautiful temple complex. You may 0:02:55.919 --> 0:03:00.200 have seen it represented digitally and like Transformers movies where 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.760 they're big robots slugging around there, or as an actual 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.240 shooting location in the Spy Who Loved Me? Did the 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.960 Transformers really battle here? I think they did at some 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:13.800 point the transform It's part of the the raison dettor 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:18.320 of of Transformers to eventually just slam through and demolish 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.120 every work of human kind, like all artifacts and landscapes 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:26.679 must be ground into sand by the Transformers until only 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:32.440 Transformers remain. Right, just a barren, featureless earth that's completely smooth, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:37.280 but with Transformers with with mac trucks and jeeps, and stuff. 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:39.920 But anyway, what's the deal with this slab, the tempestila. 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:43.760 It originally stood about one point eight meters talls about 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.200 six ft tall, and it bears an inscription text that 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.000 was copied on both sides and these horizontal lines. But 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.440 it also has some imagery at the top. So two 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.200 quote from one of the papers that we're going to 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.680 be referencing today. I think that this description comes from 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.120 this first paper that was published by Karen poland your Foster, 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.960 Robert K. Rittner, and Benjamin R. Foster in the Journal 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:10.559 of Near Eastern Studies in nineteen quote above. The horizontal 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.279 body of each text is a lunette with two addorsed 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.960 scenes and brief vertical labels. Unlike the parallel text, the 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:23.200 two lunette labels display minor variation in wording. Both faces 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.680 preserve dual scenes of the king followed by a female 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:31.159 deity of fecundity carrying offering trays. And these trays have 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.080 like fruits and vegetables on them. So you've got this 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.120 big old text that's on both sides and the image 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.680 of a king and a lady who represents fertility, uh 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.159 carrying up some nice food stuffs, fruits and vegetables, nice 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.520 plant matter, and so here I think maybe we should 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.240 actually just read the full text of the Tempest Steela 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.800 because it's not all that long. Uh. And this is 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:55.719 something that I personally really love. Maybe maybe other people 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:57.760 aren't as interested in it as I am, but it 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:02.560 just reading the text of of texts that are this old, 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.960 like these ancient Egyptian inscriptions, really does kind of put 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.480 me in an altered state of consciousness. You know. It's like, uh, 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:13.600 I feel like I'm inhabiting a mind that is so 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.560 separated from me by time and culture that it's a 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.920 little bit creepy. Yeah, I mean to to a certain extent. 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:23.200 That's that's exactly what's happening, right, the transfer of information 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.839 across the ages. Yeah. And and there's this like weird 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:29.400 tangling down at the bottom of my brain where I 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:31.919 just feel like there's a lot that's really important that 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.679 I'm not understanding, but I'm getting just the slightest hint 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.599 of what it is coming through in the translation. Well, 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:43.920 that's the tangler, you got that, that's the Offensive Price movie. Well, 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:46.320 but I know what you're talking about with this, Okay. 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.719 This English translation is by the American egyptologist Robert K. Rittener, 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.400 who is the one of the authors on a couple 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:55.960 of studies that we're going to be mentioning today. Now again, 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.919 the steel A text is damaged, so there are some gaps, 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.800 and some of these have been filled in with what 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.919 is very likely what their contents were. So there's just 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:08.960 some texts that we don't have, but we feel very confident, 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:10.880 you know, this is what it would have been. And 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.479 other parts are just left blank where there's less certainty. 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:14.960 And I guess when we get to one of those 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.159 blank spots will just sort of pause for a second 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:23.360 in the reading. So here it goes. Long Live the Horace, 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:28.960 great of manifestations, He of the two Ladies, pleasing of birth, 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.320 the golden Horace who binds the two lands. King of 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:37.760 the Upper and Lower Egypt, neb feti Ra, son of Raw, 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:44.360 almost living forever now. Then his Majesty came Raw himself 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:47.520 had appointed him to be king of Upper Egypt. Then 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:51.160 his Majesty dwelt at the town of said Yefa Tawi 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.760 in the district just to the south of Dendera. While 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.120 aman Ra, lord of the thrones of the two Lands, 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:03.120 was in the It was his Majesty who sailed south 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:07.320 to offer bread, beer, and everything good and pure. Now, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:12.960 after the offering, then attention was given in this district. Now, 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.320 then the cold image of this God at his body 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:20.640 was installed in this temple while he was in joy. Now, 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.800 then this great God desired his majesty, while the gods 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:29.400 declared their discontent. The gods caused the sky to come 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:33.480 in a tempest of rain, with darkness in the western region, 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:38.040 and the sky being unleashed without cessation, louder than the 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:42.360 cries of the masses, more powerful than while the rain 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.280 raged on the mountains, louder than the noise of the cataract, 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:51.000 which is at Elephantine, every house, every quarter that they reached, 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:55.040 floating on the water like skiffs of papyrus opposite the 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:59.720 royal residence, for a period of days, while a torch 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.240 could not be lit in the two lands. Then his 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.480 Majesty said, how much greater this is than the wrath 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.240 of the Great God, than the plans of the gods. 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.400 Then his Majesty descended to his boat, with his counsel 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.440 following him. While the crowds on the east and west 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:20.480 had hidden faces, having no clothing on them after the 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.960 manifestation of the god's wrath. Then his Majesty reached the 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.640 interior of thebes with gold confronting gold for this statue, 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:34.119 so that he, meaning amun Rah, received that which he desired. 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.920 Then his Majesty began to re establish the two lands 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:42.440 to drain the flooded territories without his to provide them 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:46.800 with silver, with gold, with copper, with oil, and cloth 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.720 of every bolt that could be desired. Then his Majesty 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:56.360 made himself comfortable inside the palace life, prosperity, health. Then 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.760 his Majesty was informed that the mortuary concessions had been 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:04.200 into by water, with the tomb chambers collapsed, the funerary 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:09.280 mentions undermined, and the pyramids fallen, having been made into 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:13.200 that which was never made. Then his Majesty commanded to 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.280 restore the temples which had fallen into ruin in this 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.720 entire land, to refurbish the monuments of the gods, to 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:25.160 erect their enclosure walls, to provide the sacred objects in 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:29.200 the noble chamber, to mask the secret places, to introduce 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.559 into their shrines the cult statues which were cast to 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.760 the ground, to set up the braziers, to erect the 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.960 offering tables, to establish their bread offerings, to double the 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.000 income of the personnel, to put the land into its 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.720 former state. Then it was done in accordance with everything 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:52.320 that His Majesty had commanded. Oh so there are some 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.480 parts of that that really give me chills. The basic 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:59.040 outline of it being that it introduces this great king, 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.520 the Great Alma those who rises up and he answers 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:07.959 this problem of there's some kind of calamity being described. 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.960 There are rains and a tempest coming out of the sky, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.679 with darkness in the western region, thundering in the sky, 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:20.120 the sky being unleashed without cessation, louder than the cries 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.760 of the masses. There's appear apparently some kind of flooding 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.320 with bodies human bodies floating in the nile like skiffs 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.680 of papyrus and uh, and a torch could not be 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.160 lit in the two lands. But then there is some 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.760 kind of offering made to the gods to fix this problem, 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.440 to make everything right, And it tells us basically that 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.520 almost this guy did a really good job and he 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:47.760 like got everything fixed and now it's under control. Yeah, 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.480 so it's uh yeah, So it's so again, it's a 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.800 story of a disaster occurring and then government responding to 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:59.560 that disaster. But there's some We're not going to take 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:01.520 everything in that and explain it. I know there's some 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.920 some names and some obvious gods and some kings, but 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.600 just to run through a few things that I think 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.360 are are are important or at least halfway important to 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.040 understanding what's going on here. Um, I want to just 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:14.840 call it a few things. So, first of all, Horace 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.240 the Horace is the celestial falcon and the embodiment of 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:23.600 kingship caught in an enduring conflict with Seth. Horace likely 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.840 means the distant one, and there are two distinct versions. 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.280 There's Horace the Elder and Horace the Younger, not to 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:33.199 be confused with Horace the child. Right, So an important 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:37.040 god who's associated with the royal lineage of of Egypt 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.640 in this period. Right, and uh Now, one thing that 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.760 this makes reference to that is geographically confusing to modern 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:48.360 audiences is the concept of upper and lower Egypt, which 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:52.240 are unless you're familiar with how ancient Egyptians talked about 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.840 their geography, it's the opposite of what you would think, right, Yeah, 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.319 it's always worth remembering that the ancient Egyptians saw their 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:02.160 world uh, a little bit differently than we do today. Um. 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:04.800 And not to say they saw the world upside down, 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.280 They just saw it from their point of view. Uh. 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.079 So north and south are totally arbitrary, by the way, 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.160 there's no such thing as objective north and south. Yeah. 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:14.800 So with the way they saw it is with the 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.240 Nile delta at the bottom of their kingdom. So Upper 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.640 Egypt is actually somewhat lower on the modern state of 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:23.719 Egypt that we memorize in school and look at on 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.160 a map. Basically the in the area of Thebes, Lower 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:32.000 Egypt is the delta region that entails Memphis. So Lower 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.760 Egypt is to the north and Upper Egypt is to 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.640 the south. Right. Now, what about the sun god Raw? Right, 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.840 there's reference to Raw yeah, Raw, the Sun god, source 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:43.800 of all light and life. Um, you know. And there's 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:45.320 a lot more to each of these gods, but this 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:48.600 is just the short and simple. Now, there's some references 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:52.640 in here to Amun Raw Yeah. And this, uh, if 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:54.920 I'm correct on this, this is this is also known 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.640 as Almond. This is the mysterious Creator God and his 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.320 name means the hidden one. Yeah. Now, the main character 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:05.440 of the almost Stela or the tempest Stela here is 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:09.199 almost himself, meaning almost the first who was a pharaoh, 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:11.520 and he's the guy who who does all the fix 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:15.160 in here. Yeah. He is the founder of the Eighteenth 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.680 dynasty who reigned well one of the day. The dates 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.920 I was looking at, we're fifteen forty nine through fifteen 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.920 twenty four b C. Right, So the dates of his 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.920 reign are actually somewhat disputed, and that will come into 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.400 that will be in some way the subject matter of 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:33.720 what we're talking about today. Though it does appear he 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:38.120 reigned sometime in the sixteenth century BC, so probably sometime 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:42.640 between sixteen hundred and fifteen hundred BC. The more conventional 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.520 Egyptology chronology dates put put him in the middle somewhere 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:49.120 in there, yeah, like a fifteen you know, the middle 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.920 of the century to sometime in the late three quarters. Yeah. 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.800 But either way, he seems to have been a very 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.800 pivotal ruler at a very pivotal time. He was building 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.480 on his father's military harry success and paved the road 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.560 for the new Kingdom and the beginning of an age 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:09.080 of just Egyptian dominance. UM he reinvigorated and united Egypt. 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.480 And this is key to he completed the expulsion of 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:16.800 the Hicksos. So at this time Egypt, or part of 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:21.760 Egypt anyway, were were ruled by these outsiders, these foreigners 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.400 that invaded um perhaps you know, from Palestine or somewhere 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.400 in that region. Uh. In anyway, basically, what Amos did 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:33.000 is he finished driving them out. He finished a rebellion 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:35.200 against them that had begun by had been begun by 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:39.960 his predecessors, and re exerted Egypt's rule over northern Nubia 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.080 to the south. So it'll be important to think about 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.040 all this as we discussed the details of his rule. 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.800 But he was a pharaoh in an age of growth. 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:51.200 He brought about a new kingdom, a conquest king. He 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:53.680 was like, We're I'm going to conquer the areas to 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.200 the north and the south and bring Egypt together again 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:01.040 under one rule. Yeah. Now, as for the Hicks, they're 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.800 they're very, very interesting, and people have have written and 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:10.880 researched regarding them and made various uh hypotheses and theories 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.000 regarding their exact nature. There's a lot of very speculative 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.840 Bible stuff about that. Yeah, yeah, you. You may have 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.000 you're a Bible reader and a Bible student, you may 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.120 have seen them pop up, I'm sure, and like just 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.240 even the notes in a standard Bible. They were the 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.680 foreign Canaanite or Palestinian rulers of Egypt who took power 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.720 during the seventeenth century b c. They ruled lower in 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.120 Middle Egypt and established a capital at a Varis, which 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.000 was associated with the Egyptian god Seth or set or 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.400 su Tech, which was in turn equated with the Palestinian 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:48.080 god ball Uh. Hicksos called themselves theselves the sons of Raw, 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:53.440 but one of them actually bore the name of Ra's nemesis, Apopus, 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:57.119 the great crocodile or snake of Chaos, which is interesting. 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:01.280 I didn't know that, yeah. Um. In Geraldine pinches the 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.440 Egyptian mythology, she points out that the conflict of the 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.480 time seems to have taken on mythological trappings as well 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:11.040 as their stories related to a quarrel between the followers 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.960 of Horace, the Thebans and the followers of Seth. The Hixos, 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:21.359 and the words seems to be related to just foreign rulers. Uh. 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:26.080 I believe it's heckaal Kasuit rulers of foreign lands, and 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.440 Hicksos is derived from this via the Greek. Okay, right, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.640 so hicksos would not have been what they called themselves 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:35.880 but a sort of ex and m applied by the 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:40.080 Egyptians or even maybe later Greek speaking Egyptians. Right. And 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.480 of course this is where it often gets interesting with 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.960 with ancient history, when you're dealing with outsiders, right, because 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.040 the outsiders are defined by those writing the history not 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.720 only in terms of what happened and you know, what transpired, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:56.560 but but also like who they were, what were these people? Um? 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.240 And so at times you've had people of historians, I mean, 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:02.520 and and try and figure it out and and maybe 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.879 come in with a bit of an agenda. Uh. First 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:09.440 century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus translated this at the time. 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:13.480 Again this is first century Uh see um as as 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:17.840 hicksos meaning king shepherds or captive shepherds. And this was 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.440 an attempt to establish historical evidence for the Jewish people 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.080 in ancient Egypt. And this will come up again. Yeah, 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.560 there there are a lot of um, I don't know, 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:31.640 historical religious apologetics where people try to invoke the Hicksos 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:36.119 as um somehow being descended from uh, say Joseph, like 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.440 the story of Joseph in the Book of Genesis coming 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.880 to Egypt and serving the pharaoh Um as someone who 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:45.040 you know, listeners know that I'm a big fan of 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.560 the Bible, especially at you know, I love the books 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:49.600 of the Torah and all that. So not to denigrate 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.480 the story at all as a as a wonderful uh myth, 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:55.800 but like, I don't think there's much historical evidence that 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.040 these tales are like actual history that would be linked 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.640 to Egyptian chronolog g. Yeah, I mean, very broadly speaking, 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:06.119 there seem to be like different levels of it. I 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.359 mean they're there are are There are certainly people who 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:11.680 look at history and look at things like the hicks 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.480 Sos and try to draw a direct line, uh and 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:19.160 say like these were the Jewish people, or say I've 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.320 seen it before in Bible notes, for instance, saying well, okay, 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:24.600 the Hicksos were foreign rulers in Egypt at the time, 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.040 which would have made it possible for someone like Moses 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:30.119 and outsider to rise up in the ranks enough to 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.240 have the role that he plays in the Exodus story. 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:34.440 And then you have other people who are like that, 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:38.000 that that that make kind of a middle ground argument saying, well, okay, 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:43.760 the the the the Egyptian captivity is um is is 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.200 a myth or or you know, it is a legend, 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.639 but it is based in things that were passed down orally, 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.160 and therefore there could be some connection between these two, 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.879 but the exact threads connecting them are uncertain. So, like 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:57.159 I said, there a whole there's a whole lot of 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:01.480 literature out there about, uh, this topic, and to what 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.040 degree there are any connections here. I would just say 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.320 that anything that tries to get too specific in tying 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.119 these things to specific stories in the Bible is probably 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.400 highly speculative. And we'll come back some of this later 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.000 on in the episode. Yeah, but what actually got me 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.840 interested in talking about the Tempest Steela, apart from just 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.600 being a very interesting text to read, is the question 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.879 of is this referring to something that actually happened in 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:30.320 Egyptian history? All this stuff about you know, the darkness 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.520 and the sky and the and the flooding of the 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:34.960 Nile and the bodies floating in the water and the 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.840 water entering all these temple complexes, and uh, I'm being 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.520 and the thundering and being unable to light a torch 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:45.959 in the two lands. What what is all this talking about? 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.560 Um and so this actually ties into a study from 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:53.159 fourteen actually a couple of studies, the most recent one 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.520 I think was from in the Journal of Near Eastern 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:59.360 Studies that I was reading about that that made an 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:04.439 interesting connection between the events described in this text and 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:10.360 a possible actual geological cause. Or is this text, as 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:14.880 it's been more traditionally interpreted, referring to either some kind 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.119 of natural event that is more I don't know, a 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.879 more regular and less extreme, or is it referring to 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:25.040 something in a in a metaphorical sense, or telling a 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:29.160 kind of fictional narrative to hype up this first ruler 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:33.040 of the eighteenth dynasty Yea. Some have have have have 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:35.880 made that argument that that it may be a metaphor 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:37.680 the storm it felt, they may be a metaphor for 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.600 hickso suppression. Um Ian Shaw writes about this in the 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.560 Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, suggesting that it might have 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:48.320 served as quote an official explanation for the impoverishment of 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:52.399 the Theban region and more importantly, ah MOS's role in 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:55.399 restoring the riches of the Karnak temple and it's God 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.040 in other words, a story to explain why other temple 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:02.920 riches were sold off to pay for to a certain extent, 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:06.480 to pay for the Thevens rebellion of the seventeenth dynasty. 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:09.480 So not to say that there wasn't also a real 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:13.040 storm of some sort, but that quote, these particular events 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:18.240 might have been recounted on the Steeler simply in order 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:22.679 to suit historical religious purposes. Yeah, and that's something that 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:25.480 we see all throughout ancient history, I think is sort 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:29.880 of creative re engineering of events and storytelling to make 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:33.760 certain leaders look good. Yeah. And I mean another thing 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.879 is if this were just describing the flooding, Like the 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:39.760 flooding is one of the major aspects of the calamity 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:44.320 described in on this slab. You know, nile flooding is 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:49.200 a regular occurrence that there's like there's like monsoonal seasonal 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:52.360 flooding of the Nile that occurs every year to varying degrees, 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:54.400 And so that that's something to keep in mind as 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:56.879 we go about this. Yeah, and I think I've mentioned 0:21:56.880 --> 0:21:58.640 before I'd love to come back and just do an 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:02.240 episode on the Nile and it's flooding because it has 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:06.600 such an such an intrinsic role in the world view 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:10.840 of the ancient Egyptians and their entire cosmology. It's fascinating stuff. 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:18.919 Thank you, thank you, Okay. But so to come into 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:22.960 this possible or at least the hypothetical geological connection that 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:27.520 we're exploring today, we need to travel north of Egypt. 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.760 We need to go up into the Mediterranean to a 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:34.800 place that's now known as Santorini, but has also gone 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:36.919 by the name of Theora. And now you may have 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.359 seen that spelled th h e r A, and I 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:45.159 have always said Terra when saying when saying that, but 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:51.040 it's actually apparently Theora and Theora or Santorini was the 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:56.280 site of a catastrophic volcanic eruption in the ancient world 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:01.280 that likely had a really powerful impact act on Bronze 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:04.520 Age history. Uh. This is also known as the Minoan 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:08.640 eruption or the eruption at Theora. Now, I actually found 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:11.520 a really great source on the theory eruption, which was 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:16.680 a chapter in a book by former show guest Clive Oppenheimer, 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:19.960 who was on the show with us when we interviewed 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:24.440 him and Werner Herzog about their documentary Fireball. Clive Oppenheimer 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:27.080 wrote a book that he published with Cambridge University Press 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:30.680 in two thousand eleven called Eruptions That Shook the World 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:33.879 that is about volcanic eruptions all throughout the past and 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:36.840 how they've shaped the course of human events in human evolution, 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:39.280 human history. So he's going to be one of my 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:42.840 main sources on on this eruption here. So uh Theora 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.239 or today Santorini is an island, I guess, really a 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:49.040 group of islands in the south of the Aegean c 0:23:49.400 --> 0:23:53.959