Join Greg Jenner for a fun homeschool history lesson exploring the many Gods and belief systems of Ancient Egypt. In a world of hippo-crocs and party cows (yes really!) discover how the path to the after-life was determined by the goodness of your heart and how mummification was really all about transformation and not preservation.
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Hello and welcome to Homeschool History.
I'm Greg Jenner, the historian behind tv's horrible histories and the host of the BBC Radio Four podcast.
You're dead to me.
I'm here to deliver a snappy history lesson to entertain and educate the whole family.
Who says that homeschooling can't be fun?
Today we are traveling back over 3000 years to ancient Egypt to learn about religion, magic, gods and not so yummy mummies.
And when we say ancient Egypt, we're talking about a civilization that lasted over 3000 years, which is massive.
So today we'll just cover the era known as the New Kingdom, which lasted from 1550 BCE to 15 BCE.
We'll start with the ancient gods because they were super important in the new kingdom, Egyptians believed in many different gods which were grouped into families.
For example, Amun, the king of the gods, was married to Mut, the vulture goddess, and they had a son, Khonsu, who was the moon God.
And Egyptians also thought two gods could join together and become a new mega powerful fusion God.
Kind of like in Power Rangers or the crystal gems from Steven universe.
Amundez joined up with Ra, the sun God to become Amun Ra, the big boss God.
And speaking of bosses, during the new kingdom, Egypt was ruled by a pharaoh.
And these were usually powerful men, like the mighty Ramesses II or the teenager Tutankhamun.
But there was also hatshepsut, the most successful woman pharaoh to ever rule with full power.
And that power was huge.
Whatever they said was the law and power sometimes went to their heads a bit.
Pharaohs didnt just say they were all powerful kings, they said they were also partly gods.