Voices of Ancient Egypt

Melinda Nelson-Hurst, Ph.D. (Voices of Ancient Egypt)

Welcome to Voices of Ancient Egypt — the podcast for people who don’t just want to learn about ancient Egypt, but want to understand it at a deeper, more meaningful level. Your podcast host, Melinda Nelson-Hurst, Ph.D., is an Egyptologist with years of experience teaching at the university level, working in Egypt, and training students around the world to read real ancient Egyptian texts. She’s spent decades studying this civilization in a traditional academic setting so you don’t have to — and so you can access knowledge that’s usually locked behind academic walls. With a blend of solo deep-dives and conversations with experts and everyday Egyptophiles, this podcast brings ancient Egyptian history, beliefs, and language to life — and shows you how learning hieroglyphs is possible, no matter your age, background, or schedule. Whether you want to read hieroglyphs in museums, on social media, or on your next trip to Egypt, you’ll find the tools, stories, and encouragement to make it real. Let’s hear the voices of the ancient world — together.

  1. 5d ago

    029: The Question Changes Everything

    In this episode, we dive into the transformative power of questions and how they serve as the ultimate tool for mastering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Whether you are a beginner struggling to identify a "funky" looking sign or an advanced student grappling with complex verb structures, asking questions is the key to breaking through mental blocks. We explore the psychological barriers that keep learners stuck, the technical nuances that differentiate Egyptian from English, and why a community is essential for your success. What You Will Learn in This Episode: • The Two Silent Progress-Killers: Discover the two main reasons students get stuck and how these internal barriers can stall your progress for months. • The Mystery of Amun First: Find out why King Tutankhamun’s name starts with the god Amun in hieroglyphs, even though we say "Tut" first, and the concept of honorific transposition that explains it. • How to Read "Funky" Hieroglyphs: Gain insights into why signs on real artifacts rarely look like the pristine versions in textbooks and how an expert can help you visually trace the artist’s intent. • Breaking the Stuck in Your Head Cycle: Life often interrupts study – whether through illness or busy schedules. Learn how to overcome the difficulty of restarting and why an outside perspective is the ultimate cure for the "big hairy project" feeling. • The Ripple Effect of Curiosity: Discover why there truly are no stupid questions and how your single inquiry can provide an "aha moment" for an entire community of learners. • Your Chance to Ask Anything: Hear about a special, first-ever opportunity to submit your own questions about hieroglyphs, Egyptian history, or the life of an Egyptologist to be answered in a future episode. And here's your chance to ask me anything and I will make a podcast episode answering your questions that come in. Your question could be about anything on your journey with hieroglyphs; it could be something else entirely about ancient Egypt; it could be things you're nosy about in my life as an Egyptologist or about Egyptology in general. It really is the “anything” in “ask me anything.” Submit your question here: https://www.voicesofancientegypt.com/ama _________________________________________ Download my free guide, Half-Hour Hieroglyphs to get started with hieroglyphs now. Learning hieroglyphs is a challenge if you don’t have a tried and true system to follow. This free guide will teach you how hieroglyphs work and how to use them to write names the way the ancient Egyptians did. Grab the free guide at https://voicesofancientegypt.com/guide

    21 min

  2. Jun 23

    028: The person who wrote those hieroglyphs had a name. And a lot of opinions.

    In this episode of Voices of Ancient Egypt, we go behind the brush to discover the real people who recorded history. While we often marvel at the texts themselves, this deep dive explores the identity, training, and status of the ancient Egyptian scribe. You will hear how literacy (a rare gift held by less than 5% of the population) opened doors to the highest offices in the land, from managing local contracts to supervising the construction of massive royal monuments. From the "school of hard knocks" (quite literally) to the specialized apprenticeships that followed, this episode reveals why the scribal profession was considered more precious than a heritage and "pleasanter than bread and beer." What You Will Learn in This Episode: • The Power of the (less than) 5%: Discover why literacy was the ultimate golden ticket in ancient Egypt, exempting professionals from taxes and manual labor while offering a path to becoming a king’s favorite. • From Commoner to Demigod: Hear the inspiring stories of figures like Amenhotep, Son of Hapu, and Imhotep, who rose from relatively simple backgrounds to become so respected they were eventually venerated as saints and gods. • The Scrap Paper of Antiquity: Learn about ostraca – discarded pottery and limestone chips – and how these "ancient sticky notes" were used for everything from school exercises to receipts for donkey rentals. • A Seven-Year-Old’s Nightmare: Imagine the challenge of a student in the New Kingdom trying to master Middle Egyptian, a stage of the language already centuries out of date, making it as difficult as a modern child trying to copy a medieval manuscript. • Discipline and Drama: Explore the "teaching methods" of the time, which often included physical beatings on the back, and why some bored students preferred the adventure of the military or hanging out in brothels over sitting under a shade copying texts. • The Gender Gap in Literacy: Uncover the evidence of literate women in ancient Egypt who, despite being excluded from formal administrative schools, acted as deputies and wrote their own letters. • The Secret to Learning Hieroglyphs: Find out why ancient teachers – and modern experts – recommend learning in word blocks and phrases rather than individual signs. • The Satire of the Trades: Hear about the ancient "propaganda" used to keep students in school by mockingly describing every other job as a miserable, back-breaking nightmare. • A Career for a Lifetime: Follow the 80-year career trajectory of Bakenkhons, who started school as a young boy and climbed the ranks of the priesthood until his 90s. _________________________________________ Download my free guide, Half-Hour Hieroglyphs to get started with hieroglyphs now. Learning hieroglyphs is a challenge if you don’t have a tried and true system to follow. This free guide will teach you how hieroglyphs work and how to use them to write names the way the ancient Egyptians did. Grab the free guide at https://voicesofancientegypt.com/guide

    20 min

  3. Jun 17

    027: The Ancient Egyptians' Own Version of Their History

    In this episode, we dive deep into the evolution of Egyptian timekeeping, revealing the stark differences between how the ancient Egyptians viewed their own history and the modern systems used in museums today. You will discover how the Egyptians balanced linear and cyclical time, the origins of the dynasty system through the historian Manetho, and how the concepts of ma'at and isfet—divine order and chaos—were used to color historical records and royal propaganda. Finally, the episode challenges the idea of "Intermediate Periods" as dark ages, showing how these times of political disunity can actually offer the most fascinating insights into Egyptian society through a unique distribution of wealth and art. What you will learn in this episode: • The Hidden Truth of King Lists: Learn how those neatly ordered ovals of names in temples like Abydos were often politically motivated and full of intentional omissions rather than being purely objective historical records. • Time as a Circle and a Line: Explore how the Egyptians reconciled a modern-style linear history with the repeating cycles of the sun, seasons, and kingly reigns, creating a worldview where every new king was a fresh start. • Manetho’s Mystery: Meet the 3rd-century BCE historian who gave us our system of dynasties, and find out why his groupings sometimes ignore family lines in favor of political unity or the city from which a king ruled. • Ma'at vs. Isfet: Discover how the cosmic struggle between divine order and chaos was used as a powerful tool for royal propaganda, portraying past eras of disunity as "chaotic" to make current rulers look more successful. • The Invention of the Kingdoms: Find out why terms like "Old Kingdom" and "Middle Kingdom" are actually modern conventions from the last 200 years—and why the "Third Intermediate Period" wasn't even recognized until the 1970s. • Redefining the "Dark Ages": Hear how the "Intermediate Periods," often dismissed as times of decline, actually reveal a widening of social access to monuments, allowing more people to commission stone stelae than ever before. • Connecting the Past to the Present: Understand how our modern divisions of Egyptian history actually still align with the ancient concepts of ma'at and isfet, helping us make sense of a complicated and "alive" ancient civilization. _________________________________________ Download my free guide, Half-Hour Hieroglyphs to get started with hieroglyphs now. Learning hieroglyphs is a challenge if you don’t have a tried and true system to follow. This free guide will teach you how hieroglyphs work and how to use them to write names the way the ancient Egyptians did. Grab the free guide at https://voicesofancientegypt.com/guide

    23 min

  4. Jun 9

    026: How the Rosetta Stone Actually Works — And What It Really Took to Crack Hieroglyphs

    After nearly 1,500 years of silence, how did we finally learn to read the "sacred carvings" of the Pharaohs? In this episode of the Voices of Ancient Egypt podcast, we dive into the high-stakes race to crack the code of Egyptian hieroglyphs. From the accidental discovery of a stone hidden in a military fortress wall to the obsessive linguistic rivalry between an English polymath and a French prodigy, we explore the breakthroughs that turned a dead script into a living history. Discover how a single realization about sounds and symbols shattered centuries of misconceptions and reopened the door to the ancient world. In this episode, you will learn: • The Fortuitous Discovery: How a "peculiar stone" reused as building material in a military fort became the most famous key in archaeological history. • The Symbolic Trap: Why scholars were stuck for over a millennium believing hieroglyphs were purely symbolic, and the specific names that finally proved them wrong. • The Battle of the Geniuses: The controversial rivalry between Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion—did the Frenchman truly work alone, or did he "borrow" the key to his success? • The Secret Weapon: How Champollion’s teenage obsession with Coptic provided the final, missing bridge to the language of the Pharaohs. • The "I’ve Done It!" Moment: The incredible true story of the man who worked himself into a five-day coma the moment he finally solved the puzzle. • Decoding History: How a name found at the Temple of Abu Simbel proved that hieroglyphs weren't used for sounds just for foreign kings’ names, but were the phonetic heartbeat of an entire civilization. • Unlocking the Code for Yourself: Why the decipherment of hieroglyphs wasn't just a win for 19th-century academics, but an open invitation for you to read the ancient texts today. _________________________________________ Download my free guide, Half-Hour Hieroglyphs to get started with hieroglyphs now. Learning hieroglyphs is a challenge if you don’t have a tried and true system to follow. This free guide will teach you how hieroglyphs work and how to use them to write names the way the ancient Egyptians did. Grab the free guide at https://voicesofancientegypt.com/guide

    18 min

  5. Jun 2

    025: Three Seasons, No Winter: How the Ancient Egyptian Calendar Divided the Year (And Why It Actually Makes Perfect Sense)

    In this episode of Voices of Ancient Egypt, we dive into the rhythmic cycle of life along the Nile, exploring why the ancient Egyptians organized their world into three distinct seasons rather than the four we recognize today. We’ll journey from the letters of a disgruntled Middle Kingdom landowner to the bustling construction sites of the Great Pyramid to see how the rising and falling of the river dictated everything from farming and taxes to massive engineering projects. Whether you are looking for a sense of historical renewal or want to understand the logistics of moving massive stones, this episode reveals how the Nile’s flood was the ultimate heartbeat of a civilization. In this episode, you will learn: • The Secret of the Three Seasons: Why the Egyptians didn’t follow temperature-based seasons or solar divisions based on equinoxes and solstices, instead adopting an agricultural calendar focused on the Nile’s water levels. • The Mystery of the Five Extra Days: How the Egyptians accounted for a 365-day year using intercalary days, conceptualized as the birthdays of five major gods. • The Drifting Calendar: Why the "Flood Season" eventually ended up happening in the middle of winter and how the lack of a leap year caused their calendar to slowly shift through the solar year. • Ancient Office Drama: What the surviving letters of Hekanakht, a Middle Kingdom priest and landowner, tell us about how seasonal pay and food rations were managed during tough times. • Pyramid Building Logistics: Why the flood season was actually the prime time for transporting massive limestone blocks from Tura to Giza, as confirmed by the groundbreaking discovery of the Wadi al-Jarf papyri. • The Copper Connection: How King Khufu’s massive demand for copper tools led to unprecedented mining expeditions in the Sinai Peninsula during the construction of the Great Pyramid. • A Different Kind of New Year: Why the Egyptian New Year offers a unique perspective on renewal and hope tied to the return of the river's life-giving waters – a renewal that you can still tap into today. _________________________________________ Download my free guide, Half-Hour Hieroglyphs to get started with hieroglyphs now. Learning hieroglyphs is a challenge if you don’t have a tried and true system to follow. This free guide will teach you how hieroglyphs work and how to use them to write names the way the ancient Egyptians did. Grab the free guide at https://voicesofancientegypt.com/guide

    20 min

  6. May 17

    024: "I Almost Didn't Sign Up" — What Held Students Back and What Changed

    In this episode of Voices of Ancient Egypt, Dr. Melinda Nelson-Hurst addresses the common doubts and hesitations that keep many people from pursuing their passion for hieroglyphs. Drawing on her decades of experience as an Egyptologist, she explains why feeling unsure is not a "stop sign" but often a sign that you will be a diligent, detail-oriented student. Listeners will hear inspiring stories of students who, despite having no prior language experience or very little free time, transitioned from feeling intimidated to confidently reading monuments and artifacts. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: •  Why your doubts are a secret weapon: Discover why the most discerning and hesitant students often become the most successful masters of hieroglyphs. •  The Broken Method vs. The Right Way: Learn why traditional textbooks and university courses often fail, and how a brain-friendly, incremental approach makes reading ancient texts achievable for anyone. •  Mastery in minutes, not hours: Hear how you can "sight read" hieroglyphs by committing as little as one hour per week or using short, 15-minute lessons that fit into your morning coffee break. •  Decoding the real world: Find out how to move past obscure textbook quotes to start reading the actual texts found in museums, on social media, and on monuments in Egypt. •  The "Yes” Door vs. the "No” Door: Understand which one leads to a "buzz of achievement and cleverness." •  Why age and experience are just numbers: Hear from student stories why you are never too old and don't need a background in foreign languages to successfully learn this "visually poetic" script. _________________________________________ Download my free guide, Half-Hour Hieroglyphs to get started with hieroglyphs now. Learning hieroglyphs is a challenge if you don’t have a tried and true system to follow. This free guide will teach you how hieroglyphs work and how to use them to write names the way the ancient Egyptians did. Grab the free guide at https://voicesofancientegypt.com/guide

    14 min

  7. May 13

    023: Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs Fast-Track: Class Replay

    Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs Fast-Track: 4 Steps to Learning to Read in Museums or on Trips (WITHOUT overwhelm) [Watch the replay for a limited time: https://scribalschool.com] In the free class, you'll learn my Scribal System: S.E.S.H. With S.E.S.H., learning hieroglyphs is as simple as: 1️⃣ Saving tons of time by skipping the dense grammar books that make your eyes glaze over (I will help you identify what to do instead) 2️⃣ Establishing the simple roadmap will have you reading hieroglyphs in a matter of a few weeks (I’ll show you how) 3️⃣ Shrewdly executing your plan with the roadmap that fits your life (no huge chunks of time needed) 4️⃣ Harnessing your inner scribe to keep up the momentum and walk up to ancient artifacts and read the hieroglyphs there Seriously – it’s that simple, and it can be done, start to finish, in the time you already have. _________________________________________ Download my free guide, Half-Hour Hieroglyphs to get started with hieroglyphs now. Learning hieroglyphs is a challenge if you don’t have a tried and true system to follow. This free guide will teach you how hieroglyphs work and how to use them to write names the way the ancient Egyptians did. Grab the free guide at https://voicesofancientegypt.com/guide

    2h 2m

  8. May 11

    022: Exactly How You’ll Learn Hieroglyphs in 10 Weeks

    In this episode, Dr. Melinda Nelson-Hurst gives you a full, behind-the-scenes breakdown of her signature program, Scribal School. And she addresses the common question many Egyptophiles have: "How and what exactly can I learn to read in hieroglyphs?" In this episode, you will discover the step-by-step roadmap to mastering Egyptian hieroglyphs in just 10 weeks in Scribal School. Scribal School is the robust program that gives you everything you need to walk into a museum or up to tomb and temple walls and read the hieroglyphic texts there. It’s a one-stop-shop for fast-tracking your learning of hieroglyphs. This program is for Egyptophiles who want to read the real Egyptian texts that they see in museums, online, in books, and on trips to Egypt. If you’ve ever wondered whether this program is right for you – or what really makes it different from every other hieroglyphs book or program out there – listen in. What You Will Learn in This Episode: • Real Results: the results that real students with busy, unpredictable lives are getting (we’re taking 3x the results in only 10% of the time). • Who this program is truly for. • The Foundation of the Pharaohs: Master the basics of the writing system and start reading the names of Pharaohs by the end of your first week. • Beyond the Textbook: Discover the secret to recognizing hieroglyphs in the real world – such as Princess Sit-Hathoriunet’s bracelets or female Pharaoh Hatshepsut’s ointment jar. • Decoding the Classics: How to identify the most common texts you will ever encounter. • Secrets of the Afterlife: The key to reading a massive number of Egyptian texts in museums and gaining a deeper understanding of what ancient Egyptians wanted for their afterlife. • The Personal Touch: How to unlock a deeper level of understanding and connection with the ancient Egyptians through reading particular hieroglyphic words and phrases that are rarely taught in books or courses. • Decoding Temples & Tombs: What you’ll learn to read on tomb and temple walls discover what people and gods on the walls are doing, from tending cattle to offering prayers. • The "Tour Guide" Effect: How this 10-week journey can equip you to read massive columns at Karnak and maybe even be mistaken for a professional guide by your fellow travelers (yes, this really happened to multiple people in Scribal School before!). _________________________________________ Download my free guide, Half-Hour Hieroglyphs to get started with hieroglyphs now. Learning hieroglyphs is a challenge if you don’t have a tried and true system to follow. This free guide will teach you how hieroglyphs work and how to use them to write names the way the ancient Egyptians did. Grab the free guide at https://voicesofancientegypt.com/guide

    23 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Welcome to Voices of Ancient Egypt — the podcast for people who don’t just want to learn about ancient Egypt, but want to understand it at a deeper, more meaningful level. Your podcast host, Melinda Nelson-Hurst, Ph.D., is an Egyptologist with years of experience teaching at the university level, working in Egypt, and training students around the world to read real ancient Egyptian texts. She’s spent decades studying this civilization in a traditional academic setting so you don’t have to — and so you can access knowledge that’s usually locked behind academic walls. With a blend of solo deep-dives and conversations with experts and everyday Egyptophiles, this podcast brings ancient Egyptian history, beliefs, and language to life — and shows you how learning hieroglyphs is possible, no matter your age, background, or schedule. Whether you want to read hieroglyphs in museums, on social media, or on your next trip to Egypt, you’ll find the tools, stories, and encouragement to make it real. Let’s hear the voices of the ancient world — together.

Information

  • Creator
    Melinda Nelson-Hurst, Ph.D. (Voices of Ancient Egypt)
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Voices of Ancient Egypt
  • Show Website
    Voices of Ancient Egypt

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