The Sword of Ramesses (News from the Field)

The History of Egypt Podcast

Dominic Perry

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Blade of Frontiers (not Wyll). In September 2024, the Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities announced new discoveries including a sword inscribed with the names of Ramesses II, King of Egypt. In this episode, we discuss the weapon and its origins, as well as the larger significance of the fortress in which this discovery occurred. Who did the sword belong to? What was this fortress guarding against? Egyptian swords in museum collections: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/545558 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5425 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA52850 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA36769 The Egyptian army and warfare: The Old Kingdom (c.2500—2200 BCE): Spotify and Website. Grave of the Unknown Warriors (c.2000 BCE): Spotify. The Army of Sety I (c.1300 BCE), Part 1: Spotify. The Army of Sety I (c.1300 BCE), Part 2: Spotify. The New Kingdom (c.1500—1150 BCE): Spotify and YouTube. Ian Shaw, Ancient Egyptian Warfare (Oxford, 2019). C. Vogel, The Fortifications of Ancient Egypt 3000-1780 BC (Botley, 2010). E. F. Morris, The Architecture of Imperialism: Military Bases and the Evolution of Foreign Policy in Egypt’s New Kingdom (Leiden, 2005). B. McDermott, Warfare in Ancient Egypt (Stroud, 2004). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, this is Scott. If you want to learn about the world's oldest
0:05.0	civilizations, find out how they were rediscovered. Follow the story of
0:10.3	Mark Antony and Cleopatra's descendants over 10 generations or take a deep dive into the Iron Age or the Hellenistic era,
0:19.2	then check out the Ancient World Podcast.
0:22.4	Available on all podcasting platforms or go to ancient world podcast.com.
0:28.0	That's the Ancient World Podcast. In the 13th century, B.C.
0:38.0	somewhere between 1290 and 1230 approximately. An ancient Egyptian official
0:46.0	received a gift. The official was a high-ranking military commander overseeing
0:51.3	a fortress on the western edge of Egypt's Nile Delta.
0:56.3	And he received this gift, possibly from the Pharaoh himself, the great king of the two
1:01.4	lands Usir Maatraah, setep enra, known today as Ramesses the second, or Ramesses the Great.
1:09.7	The sword was bronze, made from a single piece of metal from handle to tip.
1:14.7	It had a straight blade and a long ridge or rib running down the center of that blade to provide stability.
1:22.2	And on either side of that rib the metal workers had engraved
1:25.4	hieroglyphs including the cartoos of the great king himself. The official
1:30.7	probably received this gift as a recognition for good service and perhaps an encouragement to greater loyalty and effort on behalf of the crown.
1:41.0	3,000 years later, archaeologists found that sword.
1:45.0	It was buried in the ruins of this particular fortress.
1:48.0	And when the discovery was announced in September 2024,
1:52.0	it ran around the world on headlines and blogs.
1:55.0	The Sword of Ramesses, so-called,
1:58.0	seemed to be a beautiful emblem of ancient military technology
	...

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