Great Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt | King Narmer: The Unification of Egypt (Lecture 1)

12 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture
Taught by Bob Brier, Ph.D.
Professor of Egyptology, Long Island University

This is an introductory course for anyone interested in ancient Egyptian civilization. By presenting this history in terms of the lives of its rulers, it should be easy to assimilate and difficult to forget. We will not worry much about dates—everyone forgets them anyway. Rather, we will trace the rise of Egypt from a scattering of villages along the Nile to the greatest power the world had ever seen, through the lives of the pharaohs.

Egypt ruled the Near East because of its great kings and queens. As the world’s first nation, Egypt’s power was concentrated in the hands of a single person, the pharaoh. If the pharaoh decided a pyramid should be built, it was built. Because of this political structure, the nation could do great things—if it had the right ruler. This course will be a kind of People magazine set in ancient Egypt. By recounting the lives and accomplishments of the great leaders of Egypt, we will present a history of the country spreading over 30 centuries, covering all aspects of ancient Egyptian life. We will begin with Narmer, the first king of unified Egypt, and through his reign, we will show how the seeds of Egypt’s greatness were sown around 3200 B.C. We will see how the government influenced food production and how the people of Egypt benefited for the next 30 centuries.

Lecture 1: We begin by meeting the pharaohs we will discuss in this course and defending our approach to studying Egyptian history, that is, to look at history through the lives of great individuals, rather than to analyze events and circumstances. We then discuss what Egypt was like before kingship, and we see Egypt become the first nation in history. We also consider the first historical document in the world—the Narmer Palette. From the time of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by King Narmer, it would take only a few hundred years to build a power that would dominate the Near East for thousands of years. We show how the political structure of ancient Egypt made this possible and how the Narmer Palette tells the story.

Essential Reading:
Michael Rice, Egypt’s Making, chapter 3.

Supplementary Reading:
Peter Clayton, Chronicle of the Pharaohs, pp. 14–19.

Lecture 2: https://rumble.com/v6ywwcq-great-pharaohs-of-ancient-egypt-sneferu-the-pyramid-builder-lecture-2.html