Eternal Life Achieved: The inspiring legacies of 4 Ancient Egyptians | Laura Roy | TEDxMcMasterU
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efwr54zeo7g Video ID: Efwr54zeo7g ============================================================ Transcriber: Amina Batsola Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard To achieve eternal life, to live forever. Is it an impossible dream? The ancient Egyptians believed it was possible and they created monuments and a complex religion, monuments of incredible scale and grandeur to make it a reality. Eternal life, did they achieve it? I say yes, and I wish to prove it to you, while also inspiring you with the legacies of four remarkable Egyptians, ancient Egyptians. I am Laura Ranieri Roy, I am an Egyptologist. I began my career as a writer and an actress, performer. But in 2010, I was shot through with a new life purpose. It was a colossal statue in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and I knew I wanted to bring the history of Egypt alive in a fresh and meaningful way. That’s Akhenaten, this strange, mesmerizing pharaoh that looked and ruled like no other. Now, almost 13 years later, an MA degree, and leading tourist to Egypt almost every year, I am perhaps achieving part of my legacy. But let’s look at King Akhenaten and three other remarkable Egyptians and their legacies. We are in 2600 BCE, We’re a generation before the building of the Giza pyramids. Meet King Sneferu. You could call him the Elon Musk of Pyramid Innovation. In his lifetime, he built not one, but as many as four immense pyramids. Can you imagine that? We’re going to look at three of them. Pyramid building had actually begun about a century before Sneferu with the building of the step pyramid of Saqqara, which is the world’s first building in stone. But Sneferu was out to innovate the first true pyramid. He started south of Giza in a remote area called Meidum, and there he erected a stepped structure. But he ran into some building issues and he abandoned it. He wasn’t deterred by what was called the Meidum Pyramid, but he moved north to virgin ground, an area called Dahshur. He started again. There, he chose rather an ambitious angle. And there were problems with stability. It was a bit of a failure. Today, we call it the Bent Pyramid. It’s actually a really cool pyramid. You can go inside it, it’s very fun. Sneferu did not stop in his pursuit of pyramid building perfection. He moved a couple of miles north, and he tried one more time. This time, success. He chose a less ambitious angle and created a better foundation in the shifting sands. And voilà. The first true pyramid was born. It is the Red Pyramid. Also, you can go inside that one, too. So what was Sneferu’s legacy? Well, he certainly created, innovated pyramid innovation but he also inspired his son, Khufu, his grandson Khafre, and his great grandson, Menkaure, to build the wonders that survive on the Giza Plateau, an incredible legacy of pyramid building excellence passed down. “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” The fallen colossal statue that lies in the mortuary temple of Ramses the Great inspired Percy Bysshe’s famous poem. Actually, Ozymandias is a corruption of Ramses the Great’s throne name: “Usermaatre.” The mighties that ruled Egypt after Ramses may well have despaired. No one could match his legacy. Ramses the Great built more colossal statues and more incredible temples and monuments than any other King before or after him. Ramses was born about 1000 years after Sneferu and his pyramid building sons. And he actually ruled at the beginning of the 19th dynasty. His grandfather who started the dynasty, Pi-Ramesses, Ramesses I, I mention him because he spent 150 years, or his mummy did, in Canada. His mummy was brought over in the 1860s by an enterprising band of Canadians who bought him in Luxor in the 1860s. Amazing. Anyway, Ramses came to rule in his 20s and he was leading 20,000 men into battle. Militarily, he is best known for the great Battle of Kadesh, fought in modern day Syria against the Hittites. Poor Syria, always a battlefield, always a calamity going on. Anyway, this was actually considered one of the First World War. It was one of the largest chariot battles in history and one of the first military actions recorded in detail. However, the battle of Kadesh was not an Egyptian victory. At best, it was a draw. Egypt sustained many losses and Hittite sources actually also said it was their victory. However, for Ramses the Great, it was a propaganda victory. He displayed this battle on all of his temples, especially himself as the valiant fighter when he was ambushed fighting alone against the foes. Yes, Ramses was probably the first master of PR, one of the first. There were a few in ancient Egypt, masters of PR, false news, if you may. An early spin doctor. But there you go. The battle of Kadesh immortalized all over his monuments. But actually, incidentally, he was also the first peace broker. A few years later, he negotiated the first peace treaty with the Hittites. We need more of that these days, don’t we? But perhaps, Ramses is best known for his colossal works the great temples of Abu Simbel to the south on the border of Sudan and the incredible hypostyle Hall of Karnak Temple, if you’ve ever seen this, the City of Pi-Ramesses, you may have read about it in the Old Testament. Could Ramses have been the king of the exodus? There is no archaeological proof, but many feel if there was an exodus, he’s a good contender. When Ramses died at 91 or 92 years old, he had fathered more children than any other king. He had 50 sons and 53 daughters. He received the very best mummification. And doesn’t he look good? He looks excellent, doesn’t he? 92. He also left an incredible legacy. So many great building work, so many great deeds, so many kids. Most of the Kings who ruled Egypt after him had descended from him. Ramses the Great was indeed a King of Kings. But I know what you’re saying: did any women actually break the glass ceiling and rule Egypt? There were several, but one in particular. Hatshepsut was born about 200 years before Ramses, and she was the daughter of a great King of Egypt. Her name means “Foremost of the noble ladies”, and she certainly was. Hatshepsut’s husband-brother was Thutmose the second. He was a sickly king. He didn’t last very long, he died. Next in line was not Hatshepsut’s son. It was her nephew and stepson, the great Thutmose III. But he was really young. So Aunt Hatshepsut stepped up and ruled beside him as Queen Regent. This had been done before, but never to the degree that Hatshepsut did. Gradually supported by her highest level of priests and her advisers around her, she assumed the full kingship for herself. She adopted the full panoply of kingly masculine rule depicting herself with bulging muscles, reddish skin and even that traditional pharaonic beard. They even addressed pronoun issues because they were getting confused, his or her Majesty. So they created the term “per-a-a,” meaning “the Great House” garbled by the Greeks into Pharaoh so that she would be known as the Great House. Hatshepsut was the house, Hatshepsut was Egypt. So what did she accomplish in her 15 years? She created this divine myth, this propaganda campaign, to show she was a legitimate ruler. She spread this story about how she had sprung from the limbs of the God Amun himself. Also, buildings absolutely boomed during her time. She was an incredible builder. Great structures across Egypt. She vastly expanded Karnak Temple. She built a north south axis, erected chapels and erected two magnificent obelisks of gleaming granite, symbols of rays of the sun captured forever in imperishable stone, all dedicated to her father Amun. Above all things, Hatshepsut was a very pious and devout lady. So she called it a garden for her father, Amun. It was her great temple of Deir el Bahri, her most magnificent building of all. Its terraces, ramps led up to tree-lined terraces and behind the gardens and flowers were these incredible reliefs documenting important events in her life. One of them was this landmark journey to the land of Punt, - present day Somalia or Ethiopia, we think - where she would gather frankincense and incense trees to sweeten the air of her father’s garden. When Thutmoses III reached his 20s and came of age, Hatshepsut disappeared. Did she die of natural causes? We don't know. Her stepson had her statues smashed to pieces. Her name was erased on her monuments and replaced with his. What was Hatshepsut's legacy? Well, she certainly built magnificent statues just like Ramses and erected incredible monuments. But more remarkably, she set the wheels in motion for a prosperous 18th dynasty, a powerful dynasty. She catapulted the cult of Amun to unprecedented heights. She elevated the priesthood, made them wealthy, took a small local god of thieves, and placed him in a place of prominence, made him symbiotic with kingship for the rest of Egyptian history. Amun was an incredibly important god all the way through to Christian times. Her father Amun, like the late Queen Elizabeth second, who was driven by service and duty to God in her people. So too was Hatshepsut. She loved Egypt and wanted to serve the people and her divine father, Amun. Her memory, her monuments actually exist to this day. And as I say, the cult of Amun still endures. And of all things, her legacy is, she was the first woman who ruled Egypt as king. And that brings us to our last great king that I will discuss today, Akhenaten, that strange, mesmerizing pharaoh who looked and ruled like no other. He was born at the apex of Egypt’s power and glory under the reign of Amenhotep III the Magnificent. He was a great diplomat who had great relations and reputation across the Near East. That was a bit intimidating for a poetic, introspective, creative young prince. How could you top that? Initially, he was crowned Amenhotep IV and ruled quite normally beside his father. Then his father died and everything changed. He wanted to elevate the art and this aspect of the sun to a very prominent position above all other gods. The priesthood of Amun did not like this at all. These are the ones promoted by Hatshepsut. There was immediate conflict by this creative new king and the priesthood. He changed his name from Amenhotep to Akhenaten, meaning one who is beneficial to the Aton. And then in a dramatic move, he left Thebes. He started a new capital in a remote area of middle Egypt where he could worship this spidery sun disk. He abolished all of the colorful God processions beloved by the people. This was not a popular religion with commoners. It was not fun. He actually had to bribe his elites to support his revolution and to enforce this new religion with lavish gifts and the promise of a prestigious burial. Narcissist tyrant, yes, but he was also an astoundingly creative thinker. He changed the art, the language, and the image of kingship himself. He had himself portrayed as a man-woman king, elongated face and neck, round hips and fleshy belly. Was he deformed? No. He was portraying himself as mother and father of the nation, the first gender fluid King. So Akhenaten also worked with his writers and artists to usher in incredible revolutions in art from rigid and stately. It went to flowing and naturalistic, from scenes of kings stiffly striding forward. You have gardens and flowers and beautiful little domestic scenes of the King and Queen Nefertiti playing with their daughters, the King kissing his tiny daughter. Amarna Arts still resonates today very strongly. It’s so beautiful. And perhaps its apex is the beautiful bust of Nefertiti that’s in the Berlin Museum. Was he a mad tyrant or a tragic hero? It was an extraordinary period of history, his whole revolution lasted just 17 years. He was gone. His religion is gone. His city was gone. He was stricken from all the king’s lists. He was labeled the criminal for the rest of history. And yet, his memory, his works, his name is not forgotten. Today, a great team of archaeologists led by the great Barry Kemp is resurrecting his lost kingdom, his great temple of Aton. I actually worked there with the team in 2012. I was really honored, resurrecting this temple. So many great discoveries have been made about this dramatic era of history over the last few years and vestiges of Akhenaten shine out in museums around the world. None more wonderful, glorious and inspiring than the great treasures of his son, King Tutankhamun. Yes, some of these were his as well. All of these great ancient Egyptians indeed achieved eternal life. We are still saying their names. We’re still gazing on their works. Their spirit lives on in our words, in our minds, in our ideas and our imaginations. To the ancients, that is eternal life. How can we shape legacies like these? We may never be able to match these titans of ancient history, but we can be inspired by their stories. How will your TEDTalk, your story, be told in a TEDTalk 3,000 years from now? Will you be remembered as a manly man who built empires, as a scientist, an architect, an innovator? A courageous woman propelled by faith, who changed the world, or a bold, creative individual unafraid to pursue a controversial idea that goes against the current narrative? How will you shape a remarkable life so that your name, your reign as the ancient Egyptians called it, will not be forgotten and you too live on for millions and millions of years. Today it may be through advances in AI-driven technology rather than limestone or granite, building in limestone or granite. It may be in being a leader of communities or companies rather than nations, in being a writer, an artist, or a filmmaker instead of a rebel King unafraid to pursue a controversial idea. May we all dig deep to find that Sneferu, Ramses, Akhenaten and Hatshepsut spirit in all of us and be unafraid to shape a lasting legacy in these modern times. Thank you very much. (Applause)