This lecture video focuses on noun phrases, i.e., two or more words used to express a relationship. In Medu Netcher, noun phrases are used to express three different relationships: possession (i.e., direct or indirect genitive), apposition, and connection (i.e., conjunction and disjunction). In addition to explaining these noun phrases, the video also highlights a special type of noun phrase referred to as "honorific transposition." This video prepares you to complete the exercise on noun phrases at the end of Chapter 4 in Allen's book.   

This lecture video introduces you to major prepositions in Medu Netcher as a building block for understanding a prepositional phrase (i.e., a preposition + a noun or noun phrase). With the understanding of the prepositional phrase, the lesson provides you with a brief glimpse of what is called the Adverbial sentence in Medu Netcher where the Subject is a noun or noun phrase and the adverbial predicate that follows is a preposition + a noun.  

This lecture introduces you to suffix pronouns and describes their three major uses: 1. as a genitive after a noun with our sense of possessive adjectives; 2. after prepositions; 3. as a noun with the simple tense of the verb. Please note that these uses are taken from Gardiner's Egyptian grammar book because Allen's grammar book does not provide enough clarity in Chapter 5 for the learner. The lecture concludes by highlighting a couple of examples from Allen's grammar book that show suffix pronouns in the context of adverbial.

This lecture introduces you to adjectives and focuses on two major uses: 1. adjective as modifier; 2. adjective as predicate. When adjectives are used to modify nouns in Medu Netcher, they follow them and agree in gender and number. When adjectives are used as predicates they are positioned before the noun (i.e., subject) and do not agree in number and gender with the noun. When adjectives are used as predicates, only the masculine singular form is used. In Allen's grammar book, these two uses are actually found in two different chapters, 6 and 7, but I think it is much easier to explain them together at the same time so that you can see the contrast. As I have indicated on a number of occasions, my approach transcends going chapter by chapter in Allen, but we will eventually cover everything.  

This lecture introduces you to apparent adjectives (i.e., words that are not really adjectives in Medu Netcher, but are usefully translated as such in English). This video focuses on apparent adjectives that are really nouns from the standpoint of Medu Netcher. After beginning the discussion on apparent adjectives, the lecture introduces our first Egyptian scene for translation which is a ritual libation scene between a deceased mother and daughter.     

Using small examples taken from Sir Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar, this lesson focuses on introducing you to basic translations of primarily verbal sentences. It also provides you with initial conceptual tools to analyze sentence structure. Key terms discussed are main and subordinate clauses, marked and unmarked clauses, and the 3 types of subordinate clauses in Medu Netcher: adverb clauses, noun clauses, and relative clauses. This lesson highlights the adverb clause, the most dominant clause that you will encounter in reading Middle Egyptian.

This lesson begins by translating the third line of the upper lintel on the Ka Door of Mehu. Phrases and Titles found on Ka Doors are often given greater context in more narrative form in other parts of the tomb. In translating the third line, I highlighted a phrase that asks for offerings to be provided to Mehu during "every festival and every day." Referencing part of the handout that was originally provided on the Ka Door of Mehu, I cite and explain the specific festivals that Mehu makes reference to in another part of the tomb. This provided us with another opportunity to discuss the historical complexity of the Kemetic Calendar(s), civil, lunar, and eventually civil-based lunar, and situating important festivals within them. The second part of the lesson focuses on translating and explaining all of the titles on the Ka Door of Mehu that integrate the element of pr "house" within them in some way.

This lesson focuses on continuing our discussion of the third line of the upper lintel on the Ka door of Mehu by examining the important concept of Djet time which is commonly translated as “eternity.” Djet time is often contrasted with Neheh time which is also commonly translated at “eternity.” The major work by the prominent German Egyptologist Jan Assmann entitled The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, pp.73-80 was used as a starting point not only for our discussion, but to also provide a sense of major issues in orientation and perspective in examining Djet and Neheh time. Although Assman rightly asserts that these two concepts do not have one word equivalents in English translation, he is on less solid ground in arguing that the Ancient Egyptians had no concept of “space” as part of the cosmic totality, but only of “time.” Since Assmann used Chapter 17 of the Book of Coming Forth By Day in the New Kingdom to emaphasize this view, I presented two visual images from the shrines of Tutankhamun in the New Kingdom to ground an alternative view. Since an understanding of Maat is also inextricably linked to this discussion, I also highlighted Assamann’s view that Maat in the New Kingdom in the post-Amarna period was stripped of its central importance as a moral code as texts begin to emphasize a closer relationship to divinity. The work by Emily Teeter entitled The Presentation of Maat critiques the fundamental inaccuracies and limitations of Assmann’s interpretations and conclusions regarding this period. In attempting to define Djet time, Assmann also attempts to grapple with the dominant aspectual framework of Medu Netcher to contain the interpretation of Djet and Neheh time within an exclusive temporal environment. I present an alternative view that argues that Djet time that speaks to the timeless, permanent, expansive, metaphysical and unchanging essence of creation where Atum-Ra emerges from the primeval waters on Nun at the Sep Tepy “the first occasion” implies an inherent atemporal aspect that is part and parcel of the temporal environment. Assmann attempts to solidify his interpretation of Djet time by contrasting the divinities of Ra and Osiris. He links the sun divinity Ra to Neheh time and Osiris to Djet time. I argue against this rigid separation and assert simply that Osiris is not only considered the “Ruler of Djet time” as Assmann argues, but he is also commonly referred to as Neb Neheh, “the Possessor of Neheh time.” I conclude with the imperative for comparative studies to be done on this issue between Kemet and other African civilizations and to think deeply through the problems of orientation, evidence, perspective, and interpretation.

This lesson focuses on completing our discussion on the Ka door of Mehu through highlighting and examining major remaining titles and issues. Two major issues highlighted in the discussion centered on Mehu's judicial titles and his titles dealing with the regalia of the Ruler, especially the Crowns of Upper and Lower Kemet. The next lesson will focus on Lady Peseshet, a Director of Female Physicians in the Old Kingdom. In the readings you will find the original description of Peseshet's Ka door in Selim Hassan's Excavations in Giza and an excerpt on her importance by Theophile Obenga in preparation for next week.

This lesson focuses our attention on the importance of the Ka door of Lady Peseshet who was the Director of Female Physicians during the 4th dynasty. She is the first recorded female physician in world history and evidenced by her title, she was not alone. Her Ka door is in the tomb of Akhethotep, who is probably her son and she is positioned beside a man named Kanefer on her Ka door who scholars think is probably her husband and thus, Akhethotep's father. Her tomb was initially published in Selim Hassan's Excavations at Giza, 1929-1930. Her Ka door provides us with an opportunity to contextualize her identity within the broader Kemetic social order and medical profession. The excerpt on "Male/Female Relations in Ancient Egypt" by Theophile Obenga is used to provide some necessary context on the importance and power of women in Kemet. In the discussion, I also made reference to a work by Barbara Lesko entitled The Remarkable Women of Ancient Egypt that can be utilized to expand and amplify some of the ideas in Obenga's work. The work by Paul Ghalioungi on The Physicians of Pharaonic Egypt is used to discuss the debate surrounding the essence and meaning of the Kemetic word "swnw" "physician,"; the education of the physicians in the House of Life; the various important medical titles and specialization within the broader organzational structure that was, at once, national, regional, and local. 

This lesson seeks to provide deeper context to our discussion of Peseshet and the vocation of the role of the physician in Kemet by investigating and exploring the importance of the divinity Djehuty (Thoth). I begin with a brief excerpt from the late period Book of Thoth (2005) edited by Richard Jasnow that reads like an initiation text between a Master Teacher and a student disciple who is named mer rekh "one who loves knowledge," a phrase that some scholars argue as the source of the Greek word "philosopher." A Kemetic phrase of greeting, ankh, udja, seneb (life, prosperity, and health) is used as a starting point to discuss the deep origins of the cosmos and the role that marshaling these forces and energies plays in healing, especially in highlighting the importance of the eye of Heru (Horus).

The divinity Djehuty (Thoth) is the inventor of Medu Netcher and thus, the divine patron of scribes, priests, physicians, etc. who seek to investigate, explore, and acquire knowledge from the depths of the mysteries of the cosmos in all areas of life. Djehuty is prominently shown in the form of a sacred ibis bird, a bird that frequents aquatic environments, especially the papyrus swamps in Kemet. The word papyrus, from which our word "paper" is ultimately derived, has no known etymology in Greek because this was not an indigenous plant in their environment. It is theorized that the word papyrus may come from the phrase pa per aa "that of the Great House," a phrase referring to the central role of the Greek government in production and distribution of this product when they ruled Kemet. In addition to Djehuty's central importance in terms of both language (oral and written), and writing, Djehuty was also over the sacred city of Khemenu (Hermopolis), a city that refers to the Eight Infinite divinities that collectively form the essence and substance of the primeval waters of Nun that precede what is called the sep tepy "the first time" that creation happens, and the sun divinity Ra emerges.

Djehuty, in the form of the ibis and a reflection of the reactive activity within the primeval waters of Nun, lays the primoridal egg from which Ra emerges to give light and life. The principle of Heka (magic) is also a force that animated and permeated the cosmos, it was not separate from it, and it couldbe both productive and destructive. Djehuty in the form of the moon is also seen as the son of Ra. The Kemites viewed the sky or heaven as a face having two sacred eyes referred to as Udjat eyes of Heru (Horus), the right eye viewed as the sun and the left eye the moon. As a divine healer, Djehuty lessens the injury inflicted on the eye of Heru (Horus) by Seth and initiates divine healing. This archetype becomes critical for grounding what it meant to be physically and spiritually whole and healthy in Kemet. This lays the foundation for a detailed discussion in the next lesson on further explaining illness, healing, and the myriad treatments that physicians engaged in to help restore a person's wholistic health.