00:00 Professor Laurel Bestock discusses the allure of ancient Egypt and how popular portrayals, such as movies like "The Mummy," sparked her interest in Egyptology and archaeology.

04:18 The unifying threads in ancient Egypt's history are the importance of the Nile and its seasonal patterns, as well as the concept of kingship, particularly the king as the incarnation of the God Horus.

08:49 The central question is why kingship was so important in ancient Egypt and whether it mattered to anyone other than the kings themselves, with one possible explanation being that kingship had minimal impact on the lives of ordinary people and therefore could remain static and unchanged over time.

13:13 The new kingdom in ancient Egypt saw a significant change in how kingship interacted with the gods and communicated with people, with a shift in the role of the king, the way things were built, and engagement with the outside world, resulting in both continuity and discontinuity in image, form, and terminology.

17:45 The role of the king in ancient Egypt outside of their own sphere is difficult to determine due to limited evidence, but there are parallels with the Roman Empire in terms of how emperors portrayed themselves and how people engaged with them.

22:32 The absence of a king in ancient Egypt during certain periods did not necessarily result in a decline in the quality of life for most people, as the burden of labor and the lack of royal material production were alleviated, highlighting the disconnect between the big structures of power and the lived experiences of the people.

26:58 The portrayal of royal violence in ancient Egypt was intimately linked to the king's role in maintaining order for the gods, with scenes of smiting and trampling being exclusive to the king and highlighting the disconnect between the claim of the state to have a monopoly on violence and the everyday violence that occurred.

31:23 The fortresses built by the Egyptian kings in lower Nubia during the 12th dynasty were massive and effective military fortifications, controlling the stretch of the Nile and allowing the kings to aggressively maintain control, but the fortresses also had a complex dynamic where the commanders could switch allegiance and the people living there developed their own identity and engaged in ways that challenge traditional notions of ethnicity.

36:06 The building of royal structures in the frontier zone of Ornery and the interactions between the soldiers and the local population challenge traditional notions of ethnicity and highlight the importance of on-the-ground interactions over distant political centers.

40:13 The use of technology in archaeology, specifically digital recording systems, has greatly advanced the field, allowing for precise documentation and analysis of objects and their contexts, although there is still a need for a universally adopted system that can be customized to fit the recording needs of different sites and governments.

44:54 The use of digital recording systems in archaeology is crucial for preserving and analyzing data for future use, and the development of a universally adopted system that allows for customizable recording needs is essential; furthermore, making archaeological data accessible and queryable by others is important for advancing the field and allowing for new interpretations and discoveries.

48:50 The field of archaeology is increasingly engaging with communities and questioning received wisdom, leading to new interpretations and discoveries; there are still many unanswered questions and the ability to say "I don't know" and see it as an opportunity is crucial.