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.
Voices of Ancient Egypt
How Jen Accelerates Her Hieroglyphs Progress with a Group
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Jen shares her remarkable transformation from a childhood fascination with ancient Egypt and its hieroglyphs to actively reading and understanding complex texts today.
She recounts how she moved beyond simply recognizing individual glyphs to confidently dissecting and translating ancient Egyptian as a living language -- reading texts like stelae, tomb walls, the Book of the Dead, historical texts, and stories, like the Shipwrecked Sailor.
Jen shares how she's reached a level a personal achievement and satisfaction with learning hieroglyphs that she once thought was only possible through a restrictive academic path.
We dig into:
• Accessible Learning for All: Hear how Jen found a path to learning to read Egyptian hieroglyphs seriously that's entirely possible outside of traditional academic programs, making a lifelong dream achievable.
• Flexible and Adaptable Learning: Discover why it's so important to learn in a way that fits into busy lives, a way with flexibility and the ability to learn at your own pace—whether fast or slow, or with breaks for travel or life events.
• From Glyphs to Language: Learn how Jen progressed from merely identifying individual hieroglyphs to interpreting them as a coherent language.
• The Power of Supportive Community: Find out how Jen gets even more out of her studies by being a part of a vibrant online group, like the Master Scribes Slack community, where students collaborate, ask questions without judgment, and collectively work through grammar and context issues.
• Enriched Cultural Context: Discover how Jen has enriched her language studies with a deeper understanding of ancient Egyptian history and culture through discussions on diverse topics like medicine, magic, and literature, enhancing her understanding of the ancient texts she's reading.
• Embrace the Learning Journey: Hear how Jen has come to realize that having questions and making mistakes is a normal and essential part of learning a new language, fostering a mindset of continuous growth and personal satisfaction
• Groups are Better than 1:1: Discover why Jen finds a group format, like Master Scribes, even more effective than one-on-one tutoring.
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My 6-month, next-level hieroglyph reading program, Master Scribes, is opening for enrollment very soon. In this program you'll go from reading the basics to reading next-level texts, like literature, letters, and the Book of the Dead, with confidence.
Space is very limited due to the high level support with me, so jump on the waitlist now to be ready for applications to open: www.masterscribes.com