Lost Treasures of Egypt (2019) s01e06 Episode Script

1
Egypt, the richest source of
archaeological
treasures on the planet.
Oh, that's a fabulous one.
Beneath this desert landscape,
lie the secrets of this
ancient civilization.
Wow, you can see why
the pharaohs chose this place.
Now, for a full
season of excavations,
our cameras have
unprecedented access
to follow teams on the
frontline of archaeology.
I'm driving so fast
because I'm so excited.
It's an entrance,
we can see an entrance.
Revealing buried secrets
I have just been told that
they have found something.
Oh my gosh.
A sphinx!
And making discoveries that
could rewrite ancient history.
This time, egyptologists are in search
of the secrets of the afterlife.
Alejandro's team discovers a 4000
year-old sealed burial chamber
- Oh my god!
- Bingo!
John and Colleen decode an
ancient guide to the underworld
The texts and the
scenes and the hieroglyphs,
all make this tomb a
resurrection machine.
And Suzanne
makes a shocking discovery.
Someone put their fist through
in order to get into the cavity.
Ancient Egypt.
One of the most sophisticated
societies in history.
The Egyptians built the great
pyramids and giant temples,
driven by one obsession:
They dedicated their entire
lives to preparing for death.
For centuries, archaeologists
have been trying to decode
the rituals and techniques that
the ancient Egyptians used
to enter the afterlife.
Dr. Colleen and professor John Darnell
are heading to the valley of the kings.
We're interested in the study
and the understanding of the past
and bringing it into the present,
really making it live again.
There is as of yet no real
substitute for the field work.
For the past
250 years, the valley
has attracted generations
of archaeologists.
The 19th century
was a prolific time.
Archeologists discovered
over 40 tombs, each revealing
more clues about the
ancient Egyptian afterlife.
The sky is so blue today.
In 1817, one explorer
uncovered something remarkable,
the tomb of king SETI the first.
To understand the
ancient Egyptian afterlife,
you have to study the
hieroglyphic text and scenes.
And the tomb of SETI the first
is perfect for understanding the
foundations of the Egyptian
belief in the afterlife.
Beneath the valley of the kings,
SETI's tomb stretches 450
feet down into the mountain.
It's the deepest
tomb in the valley.
Artists decorated ten chambers,
and seven ornate corridors,
with elaborate scenes.
These paintings, combined
with this immense tomb,
played a crucial role
in the survival of
the pharaoh's soul after death.
Wow!
It's incredible to see how well
preserved all the hieroglyphs are.
The discovery of SETI's tomb was
a turning point in Egyptology.
At the time, experts were just
learning to decode hieroglyphic text,
and this tomb gave up
a wealth of secrets.
They found the structure of
the tomb itself played a role
in guiding the pharaoh
down to the underworld.
This descending
passageway is probably
one of the most important
elements of the tomb.
We have depicted on the walls
a text that shows and describes
the sloping passage down
that would propel the dead
into the other world.
The tomb of SETI the
first is so deep in the cliffs,
it perfectly mimics the
architecture of the netherworld.
SETI the first reigned for 11
years, expanding his empire by
crushing middle eastern
and African rivals.
He died unexpectedly in
his 30s, but despite this,
SETI's preparations for the
afterlife were exceptional.
He poured his wealth and power into building
the most elaborate tomb in the valley,
and quickly too.
It's really important to keep
in mind that this entire tomb
was excavated, decorated,
painted in 12 years.
Scribes wrote
entire books on these walls,
instructions that would help SETI
make it through the underworld.
"Calling this great god by
the netherwordly gods."
And that's exactly what we
see depicted here, the sun,
this great god as they refer
in the hieroglyphic text,
being hauled by, and the
hieroglyphs are even repeated here.
The netherwordly gods.
The images on these walls reveal SETI
the first's map through the afterlife.
The ancient Egyptians believed
immorality could be achieved
by following the sun god, Ra,
who was born in
the east every day,
and died every night and
entered the underworld.
If SETI's soul could successfully
navigate the treacherous underworld
with the sun god, he too would be reborn
again every morning in an eternal cycle.
So, his tomb contained
all the tools and detailed
instructions for the
perilous journey.
We have arguably
one of the best examples
of transitioning
into the afterlife.
Hidden in the inscriptions,
Colleen finds evidence that it's not only
pharaohs who can make this
journey into the netherworld.
Here people from
the north east of Egypt,
Nubians from the south
Libyans from the west.
Apparently, no matter
where you came from,
you could enjoy the
same blessed afterlife
as even the pharaoh of Egypt.
But to find out how SETI would
transition into the afterlife,
the Darnell's will
need to decode
the inscriptions inside
the burial chamber itself.
140 miles south of the
valley of the kings in Aswan,
a Spanish archaeological team
is excavating another
ancient necropolis.
Qubbet El-Hawa was a burial site
for elite members of society.
These 4,500 year-old tombs offer
vital clues into burial rituals,
and how the ancient Egyptians
prepared for the afterlife.
It's the team's tenth
season working here,
but egyptologist
Martina Bardñová
is still getting used to
the 5:00 am starts.
I go to bed about midnight or
1:00 am and now I have to switch.
It's another kind of jet lag
about it, the working jetlag.
You are here because you
love the job, so that's it.
You wake up.
This season, Martina
is focusing on a new tomb.
She hopes this shaft might
lead to a burial chamber.
Termites are only found near a food
source, usually wood.
So, these insects are a sign there
may be something behind the rock wall.
Across the hill, Martina’s mission director,
professor Alejandro Jimenez-Serrano,
is taking a break.
It probably is one of the
best moments of the day.
Bingo!
It seems that we have, uh, another intact
chamber, uh, where Martina is digging.
Let's go!
Robbers have ransacked
Egyptian tombs for millennia,
so finding an untouched tomb
would be an exceptional
discovery for the team.
Ah-ha-ah-ho.
Can I step on here?
Yes, you can.
This is okay.
If this is an intact chamber,
it could contain mummies
and burial offerings.
Nobody in the last 4,000 years
has seen what is behind this wall.
Alejandro now faces a challenge:
He can't risk smashing open
the wall to the burial chamber,
there may be precious
artifacts behind it.
Tell Jose to bring
the computer and the camera.
But he does have a plan!
This big drill we use to inspect
before opening any inter-chamber
because we do not know
what we are going to find.
He thinks it's
about 16 inches thick.
It seems easy but it's not.
Uh, Jose.
Yeah.
Alejandro can't see
how far this chamber extends,
there could be tons
more debris to remove.
In the valley of the kings,
Swiss egyptologist
professor Susanne Bickel
is returning for her
tenth dig season.
Today, the team is
reopening a tomb
last excavated in the
1970s, tomb number 61.
There's a certain excitement,
a certain expectation.
Susanne hopes to find the
original owner of the tomb.
It could shed new light
on how ancient engineers
tried to propel the dead
into the underworld.
Oh, this one is not very good.
Extremely small, and
clearly not finished.
It is just in the middle
of being prepared.
Now why did they not finish it?
As long as you don't touch it,
it doesn't move by its own.
But erm, err, oops, oh it does.
But I think getting out
would be a good thing.
The whole package
will come down.
It's really bad.
The team must now
try to make the tomb safe,
before they continue
excavations.
Professor Bickel has excavated
11 tombs across the valley.
In the onsite lab, her team is
documenting and analyzing their finds,
including human remains.
Now that's great.
That's a fabulous one.
Professor Salima Ikram,
from the American university in Cairo,
is an expert in mummification.
She's investigating how
Egyptians prepared for
the afterlife by
performing this technique.
There are certain things that we
already know about mummification from
different periods,
but of course it's a learning process.
1, 2
Yeah.
And see over
here how this goes under.
I think they wrapped the toes
separately and then they put
a bigger piece of textile on it,
and then they
wrapped it together.
Yeah.
These body parts
provide vital new evidence
on how mummification
techniques evolved over time.
The embalmers didn't always
stick to hard and fast rules
because sometimes things
would be trendy for a while,
they'd die out,
then they'd come back.
You would get different
styles of mummification.
The ancient Egyptians
believed that after death,
the soul needed to
return to the body.
But if the corpse decayed,
it would become unrecognizable and
the soul would be lost for eternity.
So, the embalmers mummified
the elite of Egypt.
They ritually washed the deceased,
then removed internal organs,
and used bundles of salt
to dry out the corpse.
They removed the brain through the
nose, but they left the heart in place,
where they believed
the soul would live on.
Finally, they wrapped the mummy in
linen, and coated it in resins,
to ensure its features would
remain recognizable for eternity.
So, this is an excellent
example of mummification
where you can see
that this leg looks,
you know like a living
fat leg and that's because
they made cuts into the
flesh and then stuffed it.
They were making a
statue of yourself,
so after you're dead and you
were being disembodied,
you're all hollow
cheeked and sunken,
and this gives you your
full body back and
to make you in a more permanent
and more statue-like better way.
After a day of excavation,
tomb 61 is now clear of rubble.
It's safe for egyptologist
Elina to examine it up close.
I think they started
and then they realized no,
it's not safe to
put any coffins in.
And so, they haven't done, and they went
away and looked maybe for another place.
Tombs needed to last
for eternity in the afterlife.
In some parts of the valley, the fine-grained
limestone was the perfect material,
but flaky limestone
like this is unstable.
As sophisticated engineers, ancient
tomb builders would have soon realized
the site was unsuitable.
With their excavation
of the tomb complete,
the Swiss team packs up and moves
on to another site in the valley.
In Aswan, Martina’s spent two
days digging out this shaft,
in the hope of finding
an intact burial chamber.
I've got down
No, no, no because
its small, you are big.
Beyond the rocky debris,
something catches Martina’s eye.
What Martina first
thought was a corridor,
is actually the burial chamber.
This is the burial chamber.
Yes its
So, we have to proceed in a
different way with much care.
Congratulations!
It's a very nice discovery because you
have not documented any kind of err,
burial like this.
And he's not eaten by termites.
The coffin is extremely fragile.
Moving the rocks surrounding
it could make it collapse,
but it's the only way to see
if there's a body inside.
Okay, let's continue.
North of Qubbet El-Hawa is
the necropolis of Qurna.
It dates from 1500 BC.
There are over 300 tombs here,
the resting place of high-ranking
ancient Egyptian officials.
Egyptologist, Laurent Bavay has been
excavating this tomb for the last eight years.
At the bottom of a
60 foot deep shaft,
he's made a
remarkable discovery:
A rare document called a papyrus,
vital for the deceased in the underworld.
Some of the fragments of this papyrus
have been found in the room here.
Other fragments have been found
along the wall in the first room.
The papyrus sat next to the body
of the deceased in the coffin.
The tomb is now empty, and Laurent
is piecing together the fragments,
so he can analyze this
mysterious text.
We have here one of the, of the most
interesting and exciting discoveries.
A papyrus that is actually
a book of the dead.
The book of the dead is an ancient
travel guide through the underworld.
This is the document
that is placed in the coffin
next to the mummy
to be ready for use,
like a GPS for a car, it will lead you
through the way to your destination.
The images in this 3,500 year-old book
of the dead depict crucial spells.
These helped the deceased
pass tests and challenges
on their journey through
the underworld.
In life, ancient Egyptians
could buy chapters of the book,
to make up their
own personal copies.
There were workshops
producing books of the dead,
and then leaving
in the column of text,
they were leaving a blank,
where the person would complete his name.
This example is written for a
woman, the title and name, Renena,
mentioned here which in
itself is very exceptional.
She must have had a very important
role in this, in this family.
You never know what
you will discover,
and this makes the thrill of
the work here in the field.
For Laurent, the most exciting
phase is just beginning as
his team prepares
to analyze the text
and publish their findings.
In Aswan, at a cemetery
for the rich and powerful,
Martina is preparing to open
her newly-discovered coffin.
Well now I will
take this, and I will see.
We've pulled part of the
coffin on the floor and so on,
we don't want to
break or whatever.
But first, Martina
has to get to the tomb.
A Saharan sandstorm is
blowing in from the south,
these can last up to five days.
The windspeed is picking up,
so Martina makes the call to leave now.
As the sandstorm
reaches Gale-force,
even the 600 foot journey to
the burial shaft is a battle.
Ouch!
Oh no!
We are in a
very risky moment because
we have to extract
the human remains
and we want to continue.
In the shelter of
the tomb, the team can now
carefully remove the lid
of the terracotta coffin.
It's very heavy.
Oh my god!
Careful, ay.
Careful.
This is the first time anyone has
seen inside the coffin for 4000 years.
Careful.
Oh my god!
A very ugly mummy.
Well it's not mummy, it looks that it
was simply put, but not well bandaged.
The terracotta
coffin contains no mummy,
but a skeleton shrouded
in black material.
As the sandstorm blows over,
the team removes a single pot,
the only object
discovered with the body.
The team will now analyze the
pot, to identify its contents.
It may reveal crucial
information about this
person's preparations
for the afterlife.
It's amazing.
This body's tattered remains
suggest it was not fully mummified.
So why in this necropolis for the rich and
powerful, is there such a modest burial?
Just outside the valley of the
kings, in Dra" Abu El-Naga,
American egyptologist
Suzanne Onstine
hopes studying mummification
methods will reveal how the
physical body would play a
vital role in the afterlife.
Every day when
I come into the tomb,
I'm reminded of my responsibility
for it so that we can
consolidate and preserve what's
there for future generations.
So far, Suzanne has found the
remains of over 200 bodies here.
When a man named
Paneshy and his wife Tarenu
built the tomb they
intended it just for them.
But what we found is that about 1000
years of other people used the tomb
for their place of
burial as well.
Suzanne spots something
remarkable in the body parts:
They've been skewered
with wooden dowels.
The stick has been inserted
into the spinal column in order
to help them to stand up
straight in the afterlife.
Arthritis would have been a problem, so the
afterlife they wanted to be free of that,
and this is how they
address that situation.
But it wasn't only corrective surgery
that was performed after death.
This is a false limb.
These are prosthetics
for the afterlife.
What they've done is they've mummified a
bundle of sticks in order to replace an arm.
In the afterlife you wanna be whole and complete,
that's the whole point of mummification,
is so that your body can be recognized by
your soul and so that it's free of ailments.
This is a really good example of how far
they're willing to take this practice.
Perhaps this person had a congenital
birth defect and was missing an arm,
but for the afterlife
he has one.
Suzanne's discovery reveals the lengths
that the ancient Egyptian's went to for
an improved life after death.
You know that the embalmer talked to the
family and the family said, you know,
'dad had some really bad
arthritis, could we do something
to help him out
in the afterlife?'
they're taking care
of their loved ones.
- Oh
- That fits.
Very nice.
Suzanne has found another burial
ritual that aided the deceased.
The tombs were filled with objects that
would come to life in the underworld,
magical servants
called Shabti's.
When you go to the afterlife you
want it to be easy and beautiful,
but if there's work to be done,
someone has to do it and that's this guy,
the Shabti figure.
It was the custom to include about 365 of
these figures, and all of these figures then
would have been part of a
regular burial assemblage.
Shabtis would often be inscribed
with the name of the departed.
This made them the eternal
servants of the deceased.
They also have working implements
for doing the agricultural labor.
So, this guy is ready to go to work
at a moment's notice in the afterlife.
But almost every one of the Shabti
figurines has been smashed to pieces,
along with the
mummies themselves.
This can only mean one
thing, grave robbers.
In Aswan, Martina is investigating the
burial of an unknown ancient Egyptian.
The grave is small and unadorned,
highly unusual for burials on this site.
She's hoping a forensic analysis of the
skeleton will reveal more information.
So right now, the work, taking off the
bandages, registering what's there.
Yeah.
Can you tell me the age?
Wow.
The average age or life
expectance was about 25,
and because far more many women
died during the childbirth.
When you have someone
who's over 70 it's
I don't want to say a surprise,
but it's nice to know and it's nice to get
finally someone
who was really old.
This woman lived
an exceptionally long life,
but it's a mystery why she's
not been properly mummified.
They carefully remove the
bones, so experts in the lab
can continue to
analyze the skeleton.
Now the team must find more clues to
figure out why in a cemetery for the
rich, this lady had
such a simple burial.
Back at base, it's a rare
opportunity to relax.
For Alejandro, it's a
chance to call home.
Each year, Alejandro spends
four months away from home.
You miss home,
obviously but I have the privilege, err,
to work in something that
many millions would like to,
to work, and I'm not
going to complain,
but at the same time it's hard.
I missed the birth of my eldest daughter
and this is something that my wife will
not forgive me, and I
will not forgive myself.
Just outside
the valley of the kings,
Suzanne and her team are
cataloging a collection of
mummies that have been ripped
apart by ancient looters.
There would have been probably up to
200 individuals who were buried here in
coffins and very nicely laid out and
cared for by their families, err,
and in the, the looting process
this was all dismantled.
Ancient Egyptians believed that to
enter the afterlife, the body must
survive whole, but for tomb
robbers nothing was sacred.
The looting process
is really, really devastating.
Bodies were destroyed, ripped apart,
unwrapped and left higgledy-piggledy
everywhere in the tomb.
These tomb raiders were hunting
for something very precious.
The ancient Egyptians believed
magical amulets could help
the deceased's soul
reach the afterlife.
One of these was shaped
like a scarab beetle,
vital for surviving the
trials of the underworld.
Here, the god Anubis would
test the dead's worthiness,
weighing their heart
against a feather.
If the heart was heavier, it was evidence
of an evil life, and would be devoured by a
crocodile-headed monster,
trapping the soul forever.
But the scarab
amulet could help.
If priests placed it inside
the mummified body,
it would ensure success in
the heart-weighing trial.
In trying to protect
the body for the resurrection,
they would have put all these
magical symbols inside.
But for robbers, this made the
mummies highly-profitable targets.
They know exactly what should be
inside, and they went right for it.
Suzanne has evidence of an
especially gruesome looting attack.
This individual demonstrates the
looting process in a very personal
way, and you can see it's the torso of an
individual just with part of the leg attached,
and there's no
bandages left on him.
This jagged side is where someone put
their fist through in order to get into the
cavity and take out any amulets.
This poor soul may no longer have protection
in the afterlife, but for Suzanne
the looting has created
a unique opportunity.
While its devastating,
the amount of information that we can get
from bodies that are already unwrapped is far
greater than if they are wrapped because it
allows us to have a really good
chance at visual examination.
Her remarkable discovery of
corrective surgery after death, and
mummified prosthetic limbs,
is one of the biggest of its kind.
It reveals new levels of obsession
with living a better life after death.
In the valley of the kings,
deep within the tomb
of SETI the first,
experts in ancient inscription,
John and Colleen Darnell,
are examining the
elaborate hieroglyphs.
They want to find out how pharaoh
SETI planned to reach the afterlife.
This is a great text here.
Each text plays a
specific role on the journey.
Yeah that's great.
Yeah, then those who are in this gate
scream when they hear the door slam shut.
They've found one of the most important
texts for safe passage through the
netherworld, called
the "book of gates."
This is one of the
gates in the book of gates,
and this shows something of how
Egyptian religious
texts really often work.
Absolutely crucial for literally
navigating the netherworld.
The images of the afterlife
texts reveal just how treacherous
SETI's voyage through the
underworld could be.
The journey was split into 12 gates,
representing the 12 hours of the night.
Each held a challenge
the dead must overcome.
The pharaoh's soul used spells and
passwords inscribed on the walls,
to continue his journey.
Without the right guidance, SETI's
soul could be cast into a sea of fire,
to endure an
eternity of torment.
Everything that these
texts are talking about is
ensuring the eternal
existence of the king.
They've now made it to the most sacred
of all the chambers in the tomb,
where the pharaoh's body
was finally laid to rest.
So here we're in the sarcophagus
room in the tomb of SETI the first.
We're in the final major
architectural element of the tomb.
This, for the ancient Egyptians
is the equivalent for the soul
of sort of a spacecraft, it gets
you out of the terrestrial realm and
puts you beyond into
this other reality.
Pharaoh SETI the first,
built his tomb deep underground,
so his soul could
traverse the netherworld.
Religious texts carved on
the walls of the tomb,
ensured the king had
the passwords he needed
to travel into the afterlife.
Inside the burial chamber,
a giant stone sarcophagus.
This was inscribed with the book of
gates, and held SETI's mummy and amulets.
These gave him the guidance
needed to pass through the gates,
and achieve immortality.
For the Egyptians you have to know all
of this information but then you have
to use it, you have to say the spells,
you don't just read the book, you enact it.
And you don't just have the amulet,
you use it in the right way,
to get the dead king
into the afterlife.
And the text and the
scenes and the hieroglyphs
all make this tomb a
resurrection machine.
The ancient Egyptians would love
the fact that modern people were so
interested in what they
did and what they thought.
They really believed that
the memory of the dead,
thinking about the dead would improve
the future existence of the soul.
As a pharaoh,
Egyptians spared no expense
to Grant SETI safe
passage to the afterlife.
But even ordinary Egyptians
made sure they were prepared.
In Aswan, Martina and the
team have finished analyzing
the contents of the pot
discovered with the elderly lady.
We found little stone chips,
and fragmented insects and that's all.
The insect remains indicate
it could have contained food,
as an offering to the deceased.
The offerings were
usually placed near the head.
It can provide the deceased with the
liquids for its use in the afterlife.
The remains of bone and fabric show this
person was only partially mummified.
Alejandro has a
theory about why,
in a graveyard for the rich,
there was such a modest burial.
Royal tombs are
In the valley of the kings are fully
decorated with rich and great goods.
But the absence in this burial seems to
indicate that this person did not belong to a
high position in
the, in this society.
She might be a person who worked for important
people and perhaps her position was
to continue assisting those
people after the death.
This elderly lady may have
been a servant or a nurse
for one of the powerful
families buried here.
We are working
to understand the past.
The discovery of the intact chamber,
it's always a moment to remember.
But now we have to study all
the material that we have,
and this is exciting,
at least for me.
Rich or poor, ancient Egyptians
did everything they could
to prepare for the afterlife.
The relics, rituals and
remains they left behind
are now giving archaeologists
an insight into this
extraordinary society,
unraveling the mysteries
of the afterlife to this day.
Captioned by cotter
captioning services.