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Let There Be Darkness: The Dendera Light - Ep 147
1.4k Plays2 months ago
It’s time for yet another old school classic! Today’s topic is the Dendera “light,” which is a carved image on the side of an Egyptian temple that looks like a light bulb. Did ancient Egyptians have electric light bulbs? The full, correct answer to this question is transcribed in capital letters here: “OF COURSE THEY DIDN’T. PLEASE STOP BULLSHITTING ME.”
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- For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/pseudo/147
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Transcript
Introduction to Episode 147
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. You are now entering the pseudo-archaeology podcast, a show that uncovers what's fact, what's fake, and what's fun in the crazy world of pseudo-archaeology.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the pseudo-archaeology podcast, episode 147.
The Dendera Light Controversy
00:00:29
Speaker
And tonight we are talking about the denderelite. Is it a light bulb from ancient Egypt? No, it's not a light bulb, but we're gonna spend a really long time talking about if it is or not, just at the very end to be like, oh wait, it's not.
New Microphone and NYC Adventures
00:00:55
Speaker
So hey, all it is nice to be back. I am recording with a new mic. So who knows who knows if this sounds terrible or if it sounds like pretty good. I don't know. It's more expensive than my old mic, my old trusty mic, which was actually. If we're honest, a total piece of crap that I like just kept going for way too long. My old mic still does work.
00:01:23
Speaker
And I'm sure we'll be in a museum someday, you know, sitting there in a huge museum piece on me because I'm a very important person. So I can't throw it away. I can't throw anything away because I mean, I used it. So speaking of me as a very important person, before we get into our topic of the day, the Dendera light, or it might be Dendera light. I think it's Dendera.
00:01:50
Speaker
I got to say in my personal life for the first time, friends, like two weeks ago, I went to New York City, New York City, man. First time I really liked it. I know that some people like it. Some people don't like it, you know, but but it really spoke to me. I really enjoyed my time there. I do have to tell you that I experienced a total of three, three, count them, three canceled flights.
00:02:19
Speaker
on my way to and from Los Angeles to New York City. I had one flight canceled on the way there, and I was there for a day to do a TV show. Again, speaking of my awesomeness and my place in the historical record, in the archaeological record, let's be honest, where I belong.
00:02:38
Speaker
I had this one day TV shoot thing and I was trying to get there the day before I was supposed to, but that my flight got canceled and I got stranded in Denver. I feel like I canceled because the plane was broken and we figured that out when we were at 8,000 feet.
00:02:56
Speaker
So we had to turn around and I stayed all night at Denver. i So I got to the film shoot at the very last minute. Every cliche at this, I was super tired. I i wanted to do my best to because they were super cool. The people who I was working with, just great, great people. But I was like, damn it, you know, like.
00:03:18
Speaker
total bags under my eyes and stuff like ah just trying to do my best but airlines dude but then on the way back I do my thing spend the night in New York which I again I cruised around New York I loved it on the way back I get to the airport We get in our plane, our plane's grounded, goes back, goes back to the terminal. but About an hour later, we go out again on the tarmac. We sit out there for hours, go back again. Our flight is totally canceled. This is JetBlue. JetBlue is the worst airline to ever. I will never, ever, ever, ever give them a cent for anything. They were awful, awful. Do not take JetBlue ever, ever. They are terrible.
00:04:01
Speaker
So we got canceled. They give us no choice in terms of, oh, there's another flight though tomorrow or in three days. No, just never. You're just screwed. I was shocked. It is the worst, the worst airline experience I've ever had. And they had this total asshole come talk to us, this cog in the machine idiot who just kept telling us to go on the website, which was down or to call in, which that was just a recording and went nowhere. So there were, there were people, the kids, you know, stranded.
00:04:32
Speaker
nothing. It was shocking. So anyway, my flight got canceled. And then I i was able to get extra flight on another airline, which got canceled as well. So that's if we're counting friends up to three cancellations. And then the final one, I finally got a flight home. So like, like two days later. So anyway,
00:04:55
Speaker
I just had to rant. I have this public forum here and I had to become angry about awful, awful, horrendous JetBlue. I hate JetBlue more than any other pseudo-archaeology situation we've ever dealt with on this show. That's how bad. But enough about me. So what are we doing today with the Dendora Lite with my new mic that may or might not be working? Who knows? Maybe I'm talking to no one right now. Hopefully this is working.
Debunking the Dendera Light Myth
00:05:24
Speaker
Okay you guys, this is an old school classic and i'll I'll leave a link probably just to the Wikipedia site on this it's it because it's it's really straightforward, it's really good. There's a couple other places we can go.
00:05:40
Speaker
A couple other links I might I might put down, but this is this is the one a lot of you have probably seen this. It's it's a famous panel from the Temple of Hathor in Dendra, right? This is in Egypt, of course. And on the temple wall, there's this image. And actually, there's actually like four of these. so But there's the one most famous one.
00:06:06
Speaker
which looks like a guy holding a huge light bulb. Right. And this this most famous of these now, this light bulb imagery is used in other places, but it's like you got the big four at Dendora. You basically have if you look at the panel, there's a big guy on the left and he's holding this big ass like light bulb looking thing. And it looks like in the light bulb kind of goes across right from left to right.
00:06:36
Speaker
And then it looks like the light bulb is plugged into some sort of socket and that there's like a wire coming out of the socket. And then if we if we really want to, you know, go go nuts, there's there's some so some other people there that some smaller people. And then there's this other like pillar thing holding it up and you're like, oh, what's it? And it looks kind of like some sort of, I don't know, electrical Nikolai Tesla thing. If you're using the whole idea of early 20th century electrical stuff, right? That's the sort of look if you're putting that in your brain. Now, is this an actual image of a light bulb? Well, how can I how can I break this to you? um
00:07:28
Speaker
No, no, not at all. Not even close. Right. It's, it's one of those classic, this happens in, in suit archeology so much. This is the, but it looks like one, you know, and it's like, it's just not, and it has nothing to do with electricity or the light bulbs or anything like that. It's just, it's something that was actually made up kind of mid later 20th century. And it's one of those things, if you look at it and somebody says, Hey, look, the light bulb, your brain immediately like tries to make it a light bulb, but it's but it's not a little backstory on this.
00:08:10
Speaker
because the backstory is kind of interesting. This image is, again, at the temple of of Hathor at Dendra. There's actually a whole kind of temple complex there. This is not famous places in Egypt, right? This is not in Valley of the Kings. This is not like on Giza. This isn't in like Luxor, or none of that, right? Dendra is a completely different place.
00:08:39
Speaker
further down on the Nile. Now this temple, there are there's obviously been archaeological expeditions focused on the Temple of Dendyrup. And they have little bits and bobs where so some constructions can date back as maybe even as far as the end of the Old Kingdom, and they have some stuff from the Middle Kingdom. But really, when you say Temple of Hathor at Dendra, this construction is very much Greek period, right? This is Ptolemaic kind of stuff. So it's it's very late, right? So I think sometimes we might forget this when we're looking at but the Temple of Hathor.
00:09:19
Speaker
this This is thousands of years newer than the pyramids, right? We have to think that the pyramids were built oh sometime around, let's say, 2500 BC, right? And then King Tut and everything is, oh, maybe 1300 BC, right? Valley of the Kings and all that. This is right around the time of Christ, maybe slightly before, you know, oh, is it 50 BC? You know, it's it's in in that range. So this is so much newer.
00:09:47
Speaker
And as we look at this, we do have to realize that although Egyptian history overall is amazing in how, how little over time it changes. And I'm not saying it's not dynamic and interesting and all that kind of stuff, but it's pretty stable for really long periods of time. Right.
00:10:04
Speaker
There are some changes. So if we're comparing what you find at the Temple of Hathor to something that you find in Giza or something, this is thousands of years newer, right? And we also have to realize that this is during, again, Greek Egypt, the Ptolemaic times. This is after Alexander the Great comes, you know? So this Egyptian culture is infused with Greek ideology. And even this is so late that there's even going to be some Roman stuff, you know, but pushing in here too. So just the, the history of of the temple itself is like just really interesting, right?
Cleopatra's Carving and Egyptian Mythology
00:10:44
Speaker
and The Temple of Hathor is known for all kinds of other things. The the silly dendro light thing. It's just a little tiny piece of of really the cool parts. There's so much there that's just fun to look at and talk about. and In fact, there's so much that you're going to have to wait for the next segment for me to talk about it. Yeah. yeah Deal with it.
00:11:10
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the pseudo-archaeology podcast episode 147 and we have been discussing the dendro light though not really because we haven't even really gotten to the dendro light yet we're still on the temple of Hathor and when I last left you know 30 seconds ago remember that time things were different then a lot of changes I was I was saying you know the temple of Hathor itself has so much cool stuff One of the many things that Temple temple of Hathor at Dendra is famous for is that it actually has a carving of Cleopatra on it. right Cleopatra was so late in Egyptian history
00:11:48
Speaker
In terms of time, we're looking at, she dies in 30 BC, right? So it's actually a bit rare that we have images of Cleopatra. If you don't, you know, know too much about Egypt, but you're interested, you think that Cleopatra is like everywhere or something. Cause she's this famous figure, but it's not, we don't really have like too much of anything. It's a couple handful of stylized stuff, but this is, this is one spot where have we have kind of stylized image of her. And this is her.
00:12:18
Speaker
I believe with the stylized image of Caesar. I can't remember if Caesar's on there or not. um But this is and during the time with Caesar where they have a child, Caesarean, right? Who's going to be Tommy the 15th, although it never really works out. Know your history, friends. It all kind of falls apart there in the end there, kind of a bummer for Egypt. But they they have you know images of this this child Caesarean told me the 15th on ah the Temple of Hathor, which is just that's awesome. It's just an awesome, really interesting moment in history. You also have on the ceiling of the temple, you have an image of the zodiac, right? The the zodiac is we know it with the zodiac signs as we know them. Isn't that cool? Right. The early depiction of, you know, are you are you a Taurus or are you a Pisces? Right. That kind of stuff.
00:13:10
Speaker
I just I don't know. i I love this one. I love the Temple of Hathor. I just find it's such an interesting time in Egyptian history and it's like we don't have.
00:13:21
Speaker
but Most buildings in Egypt, you know when you're when you're looking at them, you're you're not seeing this this period of stuff yeah and and stuff where that where you have Egypt and then you have the the Greek flavorings and even the beginnings of like the Roman flavorings to it too. It's just it's really, really cool.
00:13:41
Speaker
But you're not here to listen to me wax philosophic about how cool I think the temple of Hathor is. No, no, no, no, no. You're here for the dendro light. Why? OK, OK, look, here we go. What is the image of the dendro light actually? Well, let's take it one piece at a time.
00:14:09
Speaker
I think the most important thing to talk about is the bulb thing itself, right? That's the main part of the image. Oh, so you say it's a bulb. It's not what it is. So in the middle, if you look at what would be the filament of the bulb, that's a snake, right? And it's an obvious snake.
00:14:30
Speaker
It's obviously a snake and not a filament. You can see it's like, it's like wiggly. It's got a snake head, you know, it's got a tail that ends in a point. Like it's obvious snake. So, but first, what is that snake? Okay. It's not a filament.
00:14:46
Speaker
they They say it's it's an image of the god Harsumptus. And by by they say, what do I mean by they say? Well, and I'll touch on this in a moment, there's writing on this panel. Yes, the Egyptians are telling us what it is, right? They don't say it's a light bulb. they actually There's text here telling you what the image is. I mean,
00:15:13
Speaker
That's it right where it's over but what I think is interesting is so so the the snake image is of her sumptuous and when I heard that term but The name her sumptuous. I was like what it's I teach Egyptology, right? and I'm not an Egyptologist, but I am like I the world's most interested like armchair archeologists. And I love talking about Egypt because it's it's actually a thing that I don't have personal experience in. you know i I chat all the time about the ancient Maya. And that's stuff where i I've worked in the ancient Maya world for many, many summers right on actual digs. I've done the whole thing. you know And I just know that stuff in my bones. Egypt is something that I just love talking about and love learning about as an outsider.
00:15:57
Speaker
you know But with that, I've learned a lot about it. Again, I teach Egyptology and I really enjoy it. And when I saw the name Harsumptus, I'm like, I've never heard this name. Like, how could I not hear a God name?
00:16:11
Speaker
You know, uh, I should know this and it looked a little deeper and it's just another name for Horace. And I'm guessing that it's just very late. Again, remember that this pyramid is built so late. This is Greek Egypt times, right? So it's just Horace and Horace is the hawk headed God, right? Horace is, is symbolic of the living Pharaoh. Horace is like the main character.
00:16:37
Speaker
in Egyptian mythology. He is like the Jesus figure, right? that The main hero that you follow in the mythology. So this is huge. This is the main guy. What I thought was interesting was that Horus is being depicted as a snake. I hadn't seen that before.
00:16:58
Speaker
You know, that was that's new to me. And and there's I'm like, is this is this a late again, a late version that they just never even did this in like the new kingdom, you know, in the times of like King Tut. like but Maybe this is just a later aspect of it. But it's definitely him because again, the Egyptians say it's him. They're like, this is him.
00:17:20
Speaker
ah So I know that with 100 percent, you know, proof positive that this is hard sumptuous, which I think is just a ah later aspect of Horace in the form of a snake. Now, what's he in?
00:17:33
Speaker
he's inside with this thing but that they, you know, does vaguely look like a bulb. It's a lotus flower, lotus flower. So the lotus flower also has a ton of symbolism in ancient Egypt, you know, as does the snake. Funnily enough, both of them have imagery that goes with lower Egypt, which is which is near to the delta and this kind of thing. I don't know if they're going for that in this image, but it's just just interesting. Anyway, when you look closer, you can really tell that it's a like a lotus flower. The part that they say is like the socket is obviously the lower part of a flower, like it's carved. It looks like a flower. And then as the flower curves around the stem of the flower,
00:18:21
Speaker
What they make it is a barge. It's actually a boat. It's like a very stylized boat. So what you have, the actual image is a snake inside a very stylized lotus flower and the lotus flower as as the stem goes around, they make it into the image of a boat, a very simple boat. I've seen this kind of very simple boat imagery a lot, whether it be in Egypt and actually even the Maya do this sometimes too.
00:18:50
Speaker
I'm not saying there's any relationship between Egypt and the Maya, but you have these simplified images. And how do I know that it's a stylized boat or barge because they write it down because
Hieroglyphs and The Soot Theory
00:19:03
Speaker
they tell us. And then there's one or two other people in the image.
00:19:08
Speaker
who are kind of on the barge as well. And then you have this other thing holding up the light bulb in some of the images. And what that is, it's the thing that they will refer to as like, oh, it's an insulator or some sort of electric again, Nikolai Tesla thing, you know, what is it really? It's the Jed pillar. And I'm not sure if it's pronounced the Jed or just Jed. I'm going to go with just Jed. It has a D in it. The Jed pillar is symbolic of stability, right? It's symbolic of stability. And that makes sense because actually in Egyptian belief stability was a big deal. It has to do with like, you don't want the Nile to go too high or too low.
00:19:53
Speaker
but So what is this stable thing? it It actually relates to the god Osiris and is also seen as a stylized backbone of the god Osiris, which I just think is great, right? You have the stylized backbone imagery, adding the idea of stability to this overall image.
00:20:16
Speaker
And I keep referring again to the, to the writing, right? The right, the, the actual hieroglyphics on this image. I thought I would read to you a chunk of this. Now there's other chunks on some of the other images that have the snake in the lotus flower motif on them, but here's the main, here's the main chunk. I'll just go through it.
00:20:36
Speaker
And then we can talk a little bit about what this maybe means. And I'm quoting out of just straight out of the Wikipedia page that I'll that i'll link. i've I've heard this quote before too. So I know i know this is this pretty good. Here we go.
00:20:49
Speaker
Speaking the words of Harsumptus, the great god who dwells in Dendora, who emerges out of the lotus flower as a living bah, whose completeness is elevated by the kamatsu images of his ka, whose seshamu image is revered by the crew of the day barge, whose body is carried by the jed pillar. Underneath his seshamu image is the primal and whose majesty is carried by the companions of his ka.
00:21:20
Speaker
Well, that's a lot. Now some of these terms, you know, it's, it's a little too much. Like we could spend half an hour going through this and, but, but you can see it's, it's sort of talking about this great God Horace who, who at this point is at Dendora.
00:21:41
Speaker
And they talk about his Baa and Ka, kind of coming out of the lowest lotus flower or how great it is. Both the Baa and the Ka are aspects of the soul, right? that's what That's what we kind of care about there when you hear that. The Ka is sort of just your your overall life force that just kind of stays with you while you're alive. And when you're dead, it just kind of stays in the tomb. Sometimes your your life force is seen as animal related. That's that's the cod. The ba is more of your soul, right? It's your personality. It's yourself.
00:22:23
Speaker
And the Baa is kind of what exists beyond and travels outside right once you're dead. There are other aspects of the Egyptian soul too. The Egyptians went way down deep but with different, you know, parts of the soul and what the soul is for us. We just kind of think of the one thing, right? Like just sort of the personality, but the Egyptians have a whole bunch. So they they talk about that though.
00:22:44
Speaker
in the hieroglyphics, right? That this basically this great, this great God is here and this aspects of his soul are here. And isn't that great? And guess what? His body is supported by this you know super strong Jed pillar. And he's also carried by this barge, which would be, of course, like down the Nile. So it's just this little little paragraph of just kind of interesting
00:23:13
Speaker
Egyptian mythology, right, that goes with this with this little scene. And the other scenes have that, too. They have explanations about, okay, Harsumptus does this, Harsumptus does that, right, otherwise known as as Horus. So when you have the quote there and in archaeology, that's so rare and so awesome when you actually have not only and a carved image, a really finely carved image, you also have The words of the people there telling you what it is, you're good to go. Right. The whole, the whole light bulb thing is just a, is just, well, it's just a waste of time. Let's be honest. And speaking of waste of time, let's come back for the final bits and bobs of the Dendra light.
00:24:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the pseudo-archaeology podcast episode 147 and we are wrapping up the dendro light. And as always, well, there just ain't that much to it and it's pretty straightforward what it actually is.
00:24:16
Speaker
So there's a couple other things that like pseudo-archaeology just say when they're trying to support the stupid, stupid light bulb. I hate even just call it like a hypothesis because it's just, that it's not even that good. that I don't want to call it hypothesis. Let's just call it stupid idea. The dangerous stupid idea. They say like, but you know.
00:24:40
Speaker
In that room, there's a lack of soot on the ceiling, which means they weren't burning wood to see at night in there to just have light. Instead, they were using electricity. No, they weren't. So there's a couple of things there.
00:24:58
Speaker
in terms of yeah how much soot would be on the walls or on the ceiling, burning, you know having a torch of some kind to see see at night. First, maybe they didn't even go in that room that much, so you wouldn't have that much soot on the walls. But let's say they did. Second, you don't need to burn wood.
00:25:16
Speaker
to, uh, have light and actually in ancient Egypt, a place where, where wood is, is always hard to come by. That's one of the things they're always trading. And so what's going to be a premium, right? You're not, as soon as you get wood, you're not going to use it to burn. That would be one of the last things you would do with it. Instead, why not use oil? They would have oil lamps, you know, and we know this because guess what?
00:25:40
Speaker
You find oil lamps, you know, and they're very simple. They're these very simple, just ceramic. Lamps. You just put a little oil in there and you light it and he gives it gives you a little flame on the end. Oil lamps, no soot. They burn very clean. Right. So there's that, that is easily debunked idea there. ah Other, other arguments you have with this, Oh God, friends.
00:26:05
Speaker
I know you're here to really scrape the bottom of the barrel, because you you oddly like doing this, as I do. I guess we're all together in this. you know Just as always, we're we're here sitting at the at the very bottom of this barrel. And when we're at the bottom of the barrel, we also find the Baghdad battery. hu This comes up in tandem with this.
Preview of the Baghdad Battery and Light Humor
00:26:27
Speaker
The Baghdad battery is not from Egypt. It's from well Mesopotamia.
00:26:32
Speaker
And they conflate these because, hey, you need some electricity for your for your light. Why not use the Baghdad battery? You'll never guess what I'm going to talk about in my next episode. That's right. We're doing the Baghdad battery, friends, because we have to. So next time, Baghdad battery.
00:26:53
Speaker
they they hook it up in this silliness, has nothing to do with nothing, you know, because it's from a completely different part of the world, completely different time, you know, it's just a waste of time. If we also want to waste more of our precious resources and brain cells on debunking this, you can also say stuff like, okay, if the Egyptians actually had light bulbs, where's the evidence all the broken light bulbs?
00:27:18
Speaker
We should find broken glass that was once used for light bulbs. We should find a light bulb factory of some kind or some sort of workshop where you're making them. We should find sockets for the bulbs, right? The bulbs might be broken and gone, but shouldn't all these rooms have sockets in them where you put the bulbs in?
00:27:37
Speaker
Where are they? We have never found a single one of those, right? We've never found broken bulbs. We've never found sockets. And we've never found any kind of factory or workshop where you make this stuff. So. You know. There you go again. what You know what else? It's so funny, you know, sometimes when I do. Some of these themes like it it just came to me this one. I just I can't I can't remember what.
00:28:07
Speaker
Made me think about it, but i I think maybe it was on my list, but I was like, oh, dude, I got to do the Dendro Lite. But I sometimes immediately worry. I'm like, what am I going to say? You know, besides the three minute like it's this, but it's actually this. They say this, but it's actually this. You know, I do always seem to make it to the end of the show. I guess I have the gift of gab.
00:28:33
Speaker
But I do worry sometimes, you know, just because it's so thin and so obvious and ultimately such a bummer. I'm so I'm so again for the thousands time, I just have to say I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. But you know what? In this. Destruction of bummerness. There is a phoenix that rises from the ashes, friends, and you know what that phoenix is?
00:29:02
Speaker
It's this. I want a dendro light. So I went online and I've been searching. I want to buy a dendro light, right? I've only found one so far on like Etsy and it was like super expensive, was like 400 bucks or something. But there's got to be somewhere where people are popping out.
00:29:28
Speaker
like $19 dendro lights. You know what I mean? I want one where I can plug into the wall. And it's like a little thing to sit on your desk. And you just screw a light bulb in and you just like turn it on. I would love that. Right. And it has the guy holding up the bulb. And that's where the socket is. You screw it in and just takes like regular bulbs. That's my genius. If I had some sort of if if I had like Patreon accounts and like all that other stuff, if I had swag a Dendro Lite. You guys, I am not kidding. I would have it on my office desk. like i a Dude, I buy two of them. so yeah Man, if anybody knows where to buy one of these cheap, like do get in touch with me. I would love to have one, my own Dendro Lite.
00:30:15
Speaker
And of course, if you've seen this it for the for the true moronic aspects of these, they'll recreate them with Baghdad batteries behind them, right? Like powering the dendro. I need it all. I need a dendro. I need a Baghdad power. I can't say I need a Baghdad battery powered dendro like.
00:30:41
Speaker
I'm laughing at my own jokes. I'm such a oh i'm a loser. I'm the world's worst host, but like. It's a small need, but it's mine, OK? And with that, with that, you know what's coming. I'll see you guys next time.
00:31:02
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the pseudo archaeology podcast. Please like and subscribe wherever you like and subscribe. And if you have questions for me, Dr. Andrew Kinkella, feel free to reach out using the links below or go to my YouTube channel. Kinkella teaches archaeology. See you guys next time.
00:31:24
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his ah RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Cultural Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Rachel Rodin. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.