Dr. Campbell Price

Yeah, it's for the first time you see an Egyptian king and his opposite number, essentially the enemy,

on a kind of even footing so it almost emphasises the scale of the challenge and so the relative success of the draw I guess the Hittites in terms of numbers are a big force so to have got that stalemate is a win for Ramesses

Yes, because I think he can come back to Egypt.

Remember, there are no, it's obvious to say, but it sounds a bit trivial.

There are no smartphones.

There are no photographs.

The king has come back and maybe he's captured some booty from the battlefield.

And he says, yeah, great success, guys.

You will believe whatever the returning force says.

You don't have the fact checking.

You don't have the counter narrative.

So for Ramesses to come back after, God, it must be more than a year away.

So the king has been away from Egypt, away from the capital, away from Egypt.

Absolutely.

And I think also there is a sense of it being a stopgap because you could imagine he is still young.

It's only year five, year six.

You could think, right, well, I'll go back and have another go in future and then I'll re-carve the wall.

Or I will achieve the success that I'm claiming on the wall as it stands.

yes i i think he he does think of it as a lesson i mean if we could try and get into his head but it's a start for 10 it's not the end of the story and we'll continue that in the next episode campbell as always such a pleasure to have you on the show great thanks