Afterlives of Ancient Egypt with Kara Cooney cover art

Afterlives of Ancient Egypt with Kara Cooney

Afterlives of Ancient Egypt with Kara Cooney

By: Kara Cooney
Listen for free

About this listen

 History isn’t repeating itself; history is now

ancientnow.substack.comPatina Productions World
Episodes
  • Sex and Succession: Interpreting an Amarna Royal Family Scene

    Sex and Succession: Interpreting an Amarna Royal Family Scene
    Sep 14 2025

    CW: This episode includes discussion of sexual themes, including incest and child sexual abuse. Listener discretion advised.

    In this episode, Kara and Amber take on one of Amarna’s most famous images—the so-called “house altar” showing Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their three daughters beneath the Aten (Ägyptisches Museum/Neues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Inv. no ÄM 14145). At a glance, this relief seems to show a sweet private scene of domesticity and familial affection, but taking the time to do some close-looking reveals how the scene might covey so much more. Kara unpacks how—to initiated elite eyes, at least—the piece encodes theology, court politics, sexual and reproductive power. What might Nefertiti’s unique blue crown signal about containment of solar power? Why are the girls’ bodies shown the way they are, like tiny women but with the heads of infants? And how might a palace loyalist use such an altar to telegraph succession hopes—and anxieties—without writing a word? It’s all here, encoded in the stone.

    Along the way Kara and Amber also explore ancient Egyptian ideas of divine conception, the harem as a political machine, why Amarna “realism” isn’t exactly realism, but an idealized magical end goal, and how royal bodies carried the burden of sustaining royal legitimacy and succession.

    Show notes

    Object entry on Google Arts & Culture

    For more on the commodification of women’s and girl’s bodies, see:

    Episode #69 - Bodies and Power in the Ancient World

    Cooney, Kathlyn M. 2025. Body power in the ancient world: patriarchal power and the commodification of women. In Thompson, Shane M. and Jessica Tomkins (eds), Understanding power in ancient Egypt and the Near East, volume I: Approaches, 104-135. Leiden; Boston: Brill. DOI: 10.1163/9789004712485_006.

    For more on harems in ancient Egypt, see:

    Episode #41 - Power and Politics in the Egyptian Harem

    Cooney, Kathlyn M., Chloe Landis, and Turandot Shayegan 2023. The body of Egypt: how harem women connected a king with his elites. In Candelora, Danielle, Nadia Ben-Marzouk, and Kathlyn M. Cooney (eds),Ancient Egyptian society: challenging assumptions, exploring approaches, 336-348. London; New York: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003003403-31.

    For the Amenhotep III conception scene discussed in the episode, see:

    Krauss, Rolf. “Die Amarnazeitliche Familienstele Berlin 14145 Unter Besonderer Berücksichtigung von Maßordnung Und Komposition.” Jahrbuch Der Berliner Museen 33 (1991): 7–36. https://doi.org/10.2307/4125873.



    Get full access to Ancient/Now at ancientnow.substack.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 35 mins
  • Being a Priest in ancient Egypt: Power, Ritual, and the Divine

    Being a Priest in ancient Egypt: Power, Ritual, and the Divine
    Sep 4 2025
    Egyptian priests didn’t just waft incense and mutter incantations; they had to run the cosmic machine, make sure the sun rose and set, the Nile rose and receded as appropriate. From feeding the gods to managing temple estates, priesthood sat where divinity, money, and monarchy intersected. It’s not that the Egyptian priests were so simple-minded as to believe humans were needed for grand actions of cosmic continuance, but rather they realized pleasing the gods would bring the best version of divine power into the human world—whether that best version was copper (Hathor), wheat and barley (Osiris), inundation (Sobek), healthy children (Isis), or miraculous craft (Ptah). The Egyptians thus knew they had to create a perfect habitat to pull the gods into their human spaces. First the god needed a body, a sacred statue made of precious things like gold, silver, electrum, precious stones, glass. Then that body needed a grand house, the temple. And the divinity would have to be carefully cleaned and anointed, fed the best bread and beer, wine and beef, duck and lettuce. The gods had to be dressed in fine linens, entertained with dancing and music. Without such magnificent bribery, they wouldn’t be pulled into the realm of the human, we are told, and they wouldn’t bestow their gifts. This was a give and take world, after all. Divine-human quid pro quo. When you tug on the priestly thread of religion in ancient Egypt, the garment unravels into issues of restricted knowledge, kingship, patriarchy, money, land, and power. Let’s start with the basics: what was a priest in ancient Egypt? When you think of an Egyptian priest, think of a specialist, someone set apart and equipped with bespoke and unusual knowledge of how to connect with the divine. He could read and write; he had thousands of incantations memorized. He knew the movements to make in front of the shrine, how loudly or quietly to speak, when to raise or lower his eyes. He held restricted knowledge that few had—spells that woke the god, calmed them, provided the conditions for their transformations—because in the end every god was representative of a life and death cycle that had to be renewed. Osiris had to be transformed seasonally, the sun god daily, the goddess yearly. Never forget that his knowledge of texts and spells made him privileged. It gave him power and access to those with political, economic and military power. And in ancient Egypt, these worldly powers were combined with religious powers such that the pharaoh was the highest of high priests atop a hierarchy descending down to his chief priests, lector priests, and on to the lowest wab priest, all of them helping to run the whole sacred-human game. But alongside the rituals that sustained the gods and the cosmos came bureaucracy, taxes, the constant search for income to keep the temple open. Priests didn’t just chant incantations and carry out their religious duties—they managed vast estates, redistributed offerings, and, in many cases, enriched themselves. They also needed to pay / feed their employees, other priests. When the state pulled their financial support, they invented a number of income creating schemes, including animal mummies and votives available for purchase. Selling a couple thousand of those a year would set a Late Period temple up well. So, were the Egyptians devout? Absolutely. But not in the way we think of “belief.” They didn’t sit around wondering if the gods were real. Divinity was everywhere—the sun on your skin, the river rising or not, the fate of your harvest. You got up in the morning and did your rituals because if you didn’t, the whole system might collapse. It wasn’t a question of faith. It was survival—pull the gods into your man-made temples or suffer the consequences. So go hug a tree, light a candle, pull a tarot card—make your own connection to the spirit world. The Egyptians would tell you it’s not about belief. It’s about participation.Show Notes* Forshaw, Roger. The Role of the Lector in Ancient Egyptian Society. Archaeopress, 2014. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvqc6jxb. Accessed 1 Sept. 2025.* Sauneron, Serge. 1960. The priests of ancient Egypt. Translated by Ann Morrissett. Evergreen Profile Book 12. New York: Grove.* Wilkinson. 2000. The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. * Lazaridis, Nikolaos. 2010. Education and apprenticeship. Edited by Elizabeth Frood and Willeke Wendrich. UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010 (October), 14 p., 2 figs [ills].* Haring, Ben. 2007. Ramesside temples and the economic interests of the state: crossroads of the sacred and the profane. In Fitzenreiter, Martin (ed.), Das Heilige und die Ware: Eigentum, Austausch und Kapitalisierung im Spannungsfeld von Ökonomie und Religion, 165-170. London: Golden House.* Haring, B. J. J. 1997. Divine households: administrative and economic aspects of the New Kingdom royal memorial temples in western Thebes. Egyptologische Uitgaven 12. ...
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Tutankhamun, Nefertem, and the Lotus of Rebirth

    Tutankhamun, Nefertem, and the Lotus of Rebirth
    Aug 19 2025

    [Content Warning: This episode includes discussions of sexual themes(!), power(!!), and the exploitation of bodies(!!!).]

    Join Kara Cooney and Amber Myers Wells for a deep dive into one of the most peculiar and beautiful objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun (we think!)—a painted wooden head emerging from a blue lotus. Was it meant to show the child god Nefertem? A cosmic birth scene? A sensual drug trip? Or all of the above? In this episode, we explore the sculpture’s religious symbolism, Amarna influences, sketchy findspot, and what it tells us about birth, rebirth, and the power of divine femininity. One object, endless meanings.

    Don’t miss Kara’s companion post to this episode on Ancient/Now!

    Show notes

    Tutankhamun Head of Nefertem, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Tutankhamun, ca. 1332-1323 BC. Found at the entrance of his tomb (KV62). Valley of the Kings, West Thebes. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 60723

    Howard Carter’s object card (Griffith Institute)

    Wikipedia

    Blue lotus flower

    References

    Hawass, Zahi. 2007. The Head of Nefertem. In King Tutankhamun. The Treasures of The Tomb. Thames & Hudson, London 2007, p. 16.

    Hoving, Thomas. 1980. Tutankhamun: The Untold Story. Rowman & Littlefield (reprint, 2002).

    James, T. G. H. 2000. Tutankhamun. White Star: Metro Books.

    Munro, Peter. 1980. "Tutanchamun als Sonnengott." In the exhibition catalogue Tutanchamun in Köln. von Zabern, Mainz, p. 140–141.

    Schlögl, Hermann 1977. Der Sonnengott auf der Blüte: eine ägyptische Kosmogonie des Neuen Reiches. Aegyptiaca Helvetica 5. Genève: Éditions de Belles-Lettres.

    Seton-Williams, M. V. 1980. Tutanchamun. Der Pharao. Das Grab. Der Goldschatz. Ebeling, Luxembourg, p. 120.



    Get full access to Ancient/Now at ancientnow.substack.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    59 mins
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.