Afterlives of Ancient Egypt with Kara Cooney Kara Cooney

In Part 2 of a two-part episode, Kara and multiple Emmy-nominated Executive Producer and novelist Neil Laird continue their conversation about their experiences making television documentaries about the ancient world, how things get done behind the scenes, whether or not romanticizing the past is a bad thing, and what the future may hold for documentary programs.
About Neil Laird
Neil Laird is a multiple Emmy and BAFTA-nominated creator and Executive Producer on long-running series such as Brain Games, Mysteries of the Abandoned, Border Wars, Through the Wormhole With Morgan Freeman, What on Earth?, How It's Made, Secrets of the Underground, Expedition Unknown With Josh Gates and Survivorman.
Neil has worked extensively on both the network and production side of non-fiction TV since 1996. He has developed, overseen, and produced over 1,000 hours of non-fiction programs and specials in nearly every genre, with a particular passion, expertise, and professional contacts in history, mystery, science, and adventure.
Neil’s novels Prime Time Travelers and Prime Time Pompeii are slated for release in 2024.


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In Part 1 of a two-part episode, Kara and multiple Emmy-nominated Executive Producer and novelist Neil Laird talk about their experiences making television documentaries about the ancient world, how things get done behind the scenes, and what the future may hold for documentary programs.
Secrets of Egypt's Lost Queen
Out of Egypt
Digging for the Truth
About Neil Laird
Neil Laird is a multiple Emmy and BAFTA-nominated creator and Executive Producer on long-running series such as Brain Games, Mysteries of the Abandoned, Border Wars, Through the Wormhole With Morgan Freeman, What on Earth?, How It's Made, Secrets of the Underground, Expedition Unknown With Josh Gates and Survivorman.
Neil has worked extensively on both the network and production side of non-fiction TV since 1996. He has developed, overseen, and produced over 1,000 hours of non-fiction programs and specials in nearly every genre, with a particular passion, expertise, and professional contacts in history, mystery, science, and adventure.
Neil’s novels Prime Time Travelers and Prime Time Pompeii are slated for release in 2024.


Get full access to Ancient/Now at ancientnow.substack.com/subscribe

This week Kara and Amber discuss color (also known as polychromy) in ancient Mediterranean art and how it is studied and understood today. What role did color play in ancient art? How does polychromy affect the way modern audiences view ancient art? What are the origins of the aesthetic preference for plain white marble sculpture in Western art?
The Color of Life exhibition (Getty Villa)
Kelsey Museum (University of Michigan) resources on color in ancient art
Bibliography for color in ancient art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art resources on color in ancient art
Seated statue of Hatshepsut (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Statue of Leda and the Swan (Getty Villa)
Curator and artist jill moniz



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In this episode Kara and Amber talk about the veneration of ancestor kings in the late 20th-21st Dynasties. During this period the coffins of ancestor kings were manipulated, buried, and reburied in caches like that of Theban Tomb 320 (also known as Deir el Bahri 320). Who was reburying and caching these royal ancestors together and why? Using the coffin of Thutmose III as a case study, they discuss the interplay of the religious, political, and economic factors behind these royal caches.
Kara’s forthcoming book, Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse and the Theban Royal Caches
More about Theban Tomb 320
Amber’s post on presidential homes and America’s historical landscape


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CW// self harm and suicide
In this episode Kara and Amber discuss the death of Cleopatra VII and whether or not we should trust the ancient Roman accounts regarding the circumstances of her death. Did she really commit suicide, as Roman historians tell us? Or were the accounts of her death by suicide part of a cunning Roman propaganda campaign?
Read more about the death of Cleopatra and the ancient sources on it here and here.
Listen to our other episodes on Cleopatra:
Episode 57 | Reception, Ownership, and Race: Netflix’s ”Queen Cleopatra”
Episode 60 | Part II: Reception, Ownership, and Race: Netflix’s ”Queen Cleopatra”


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EPISODE 81 | This episode is a recording of a live zoom Q&A with our listeners. Thank you to everyone who attended and submitted questions!
Show notes
* Byblos
* Baal and Seth
* Prof. Dani Candelora – Her research focuses on interactions between Egypt and West Asia.
* Prof. Marian Feldman, Diplomacy by Design
* Amarna Letter 23 – A Goddess Travels to Egypt
* 1 3 - 1 7 Thus Sauska of Nineveh (goddess statue), mistress of all lands: "I wish to go
to Egypt, a country that I love, and then return." Now I herewith send
her, and she is on her way." (Moran 1992)
* Hathor and the Myth of the Heavenly Cow
* Spalinger Anthony, “The Destruction of Mankind: A Transitional Literary Text,” Studien Zur Altagyptischen Kultur 28: 2000, 257–282. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152827
* Amenhotep III’s Mortuary Temple & Sekhmet Statues
* Kara’s Cambridge Elements – Coffin Commerce
* Judith Flanders – “Rites of Passage: Death & Mourning in Victorian Britain”
* Peter Saris – “Justinian”
* Lady Sennuwy, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
* Augustus Meroë Head
* Great Sphinx of Tanis, Louvre
* Vatican Phases of Construction
* Demon Bes – Coptic Magical Papyri
* End of the ancient Egyptian Religion, Christian Erasure
* Egyptian obelisks
* Egyptian object outside of Egypt – Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage Project
* Maat
* Eloquent Peasant – status dynamics, misuse of Maat
* Lichtheim, M. (1992) Maat in Egyptian autobiographies and related studies  / Miriam Lichtheim. Freiburg, Schweiz: Universitätsverlag.
* Teeter, Emily. (1997) The presentation of Maat : ritual and legitimacy in ancient Egypt  / by Emily Teeter. Chicago, Ill: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
* Isfet
* Kemp, B. J. (1995) How Religious were the Ancient Egyptians? Cambridge archaeological journal. [Online] 5 (1), 25–54.
* James C. Scott, “Weapons of the Weak”



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