Briana C. Jackson
EGYPTOLOGIST - WRITER - VIDEO CREATOR - ARCHAEOGAMER - DIGITAL HUMANITIES
Ancient Lives on the Nile
Ancient Lives on the Nile
About
Briana Jackson founded Per-Hay Studio ("house of rejoicing") in order to bring ancient Egypt to life with Ancient Lives on the Nile. This is a series of approximately 30-minute thematic videos about ancient Egypt. Inspired by television documentary formats, specifically Mysteries of the Bible from the 1990s, this series incorporates narrations, interviews, and readings from ancient sources (in translation). This series aims to interest the general public and scholars alike, as well as to grow and include interviews with other scholars for well-rounded perspectives concerning ancient Egypt. Furthermore, the series intends to present ancient Egyptian personhood, focusing on interpersonal relationships and the Egyptian voice.
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The first three episodes, "Egyptianizing and Othering", "The Tragedy of Tushratta", and "The Chaos Corridor", each concern international relationships of the Bronze Age, from the perspective of ancient Egypt, which is one of Briana's primary research interests. The next three episodes will look at the private lives of ancient Egyptians, and how the non-elite engaged with one another, sometimes in rather dramatic ways.
Upcoming Episodes
Episode 4: The Servants in the Place of Truth
The site now called Deir el-Medina was a village founded and funded by the ancient Egyptian government to house the artisans and workmen who built the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings. The site was occupied during the New Kingdom, as early as the 18th Dynasty. The expert tomb builders lived there with their families, and we learn about them through numerous papyri and ostraca. The daily events so vividly match our lives today, revealing scandals, excuses for missing work, methods of tomb building, labor strikes, and events surrounding the tempestuous foreman named Paneb.
Premiere date and time: TBD
Click here to watch (not yet available)
Click here to view the bibliography for further reading (not yet available)
Episode 5: The Letters to the Dead
The ancient Egyptians were not only deeply religious, but also they were very superstitious. Egyptians practiced multiple cults, including participating in limited ways in state cult, engaging in private worship of personal patron gods, ancestor worship, and the Letters to the Dead. This latter belief was important because it allowed the ancient Egyptians to invoke deceased individuals, not necessarily those related by blood, to help them in different ways, such as curing illnesses and guiding the living in legal matters. The deceased were not only believed but also expected to assist the living under the threat that the living would not continue to leave offerings for the deceased in their afterlife.
Premiere date and time: TBD
Click here to watch (not yet available)
Click here to view the bibliography for further reading (not yet available)
Episode 6: Love and Lust
Some of the most interesting non-royal texts are the love poems, most of which were found at Deir el-Medina. This genre of literature could be composed by either men or women and often focused on attraction to specific body parts or characteristics that were compared with foods or scents, often with understated erotic overtones. Some art among the non-elites could also contain explicit erotic elements. Were these only scandalous fun, or was there a deeper meaning?
Premiere date and time: TBD
Click here to watch (not yet available)
Click here to view the bibliography for further reading (not yet available)
Previous Episodes
Episode 1: Egyptianizing and Othering
The inaugural episode of the series introduces the ancient Egyptians as they viewed themselves, and also introduces their international neighbors and how the Egyptians viewed them. The episode includes various types of ancient texts, such as victory stelae of kings who conquered foreign enemies and fictional stories about how Egyptians interacted with foreigners.
Premiere date: July 9, 2021 - 5:00pm Eastern Time
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Episode 2: The Tragedy of Tushratta
In collaboration with Digital Hammurabi, this video is premiering as part of the YouTube Ancient History Day that will feature 12 hours of content about antiquity from several different scholars. The Tragedy of Tushratta examines the Amarna Letters sent between the Mitannian king Tushratta and Egyptian kings Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, and the dramatic events that unfold.
Premiere date and time: July 24, 2021 - 9:45 am Eastern Time
Episode 3: The Chaos Corridor
During the time that Egyptologists call the Second Intermediate Period, ancient Egypt was experiencing political turmoil. Foreigners who called themselves Aamu (Greek term Hyksos) took control of northern Egypt while the Kerma kingdom in Nubia threatened Egypt from the south. Battles that lasted generations ensued until the Hyksos were expelled. But in other parts of the Aegean and Near East, other events were taking place that shattered the Minoan, Hittite, Levantine, and Babylonian civilizations during what I call the "Chaos Corridor".
Premiere date and time: July 9, 2022 - 12:00 pm Eastern Time
The Chaos Corridor (Episode 3, Ancient Lives on the Nile)
The TRAGEDY of TUSHRATTA (Episode 2, Ancient Lives on the Nile)
