The New Kingdom was the ancient Egyptian nation between the 16th and 11th centuries BC. This period covers the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties.

The New Kingdom followed the Second Intermediate Period and was succeeded by the Third Intermediate Period.

In this podcast Professor Emeritus John Baines, University of Oxford, looks at the changes and continuities between the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms, the innovations and significance of queen regnant Hatshepsut and the legacy of the warrior king Thutmose III, and discusses the religious revolution attempted by Akhenaten and Nefertiti and why their discovery captured Victorian imaginations.

Professor Baines then examines the golden age of imperial power under Ramses II, the gradual decline of the New Kingdom and the flux, disruption and migration that took place in the Near East at the end of this period, before engaging with the legacy and influence that the New Kingdom had on subsequent civilisations.

1. What was the New Kingdom? What period does it cover?
2. What similarities and differences can we see between the civilisations of the New, Middle and Old Kingdoms?
3. What are the key sources historians use when researching this period?
4. Reunification, conquest and expansion.
5. Who was Hatshepsut? How did she establish herself as Pharaoh? What were her achievements?
6. What does Hatshepsut’s life and reign tell us about women and New Kingdom politics?
7. What does the subsequent attempt to erase Hatshepsut from history tell us?
8. Why is Thutmose III considered Egypt’s greatest warrior king? What was his legacy?
9. Can you tell us about the reign of Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti?
10. Why do you think Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s discovery in the late 19th century inspired such public interest?
11. Who was Ramesses II? To what extent did his reign represent the height of New Kingdom imperial power and a golden age?
12. Rameses III. Decline but continuity. The disappearance of Mycenaean states, fall of the Hittites empire and flux in the Near East. Libya and the Sea Peoples.
13. Assassination and Ramses IV. The Harris papyrus. Temple Society and tomb raiding.
14. Literature during the New Kingdom. Interchange with the literature of the Near East.
15. What was the legacy and significance of the New Kingdom? What influence did it have on subsequent civilisations?

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