Lost Treasures of Egypt (2019) s02e01 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: Egypt, the richest
source of archaeological
treasures on the planet.
AHMED: Oh, wow!
Look at that!
NARRATOR: Hidden beneath
this desert landscape lie the
secrets of this ancient civilization.
(speaking native language)
ALEJANDRO (off-screen): I have
never seen something like this.
NARRATOR: Now, for a full
season of excavations,
our cameras have been given
unprecedented access to follow
teams on the frontline of archaeology.
MYRIAM: This is the
most critical moment.
NARRATOR: Revealing
buried treasures.
SALIMA: Oh!
AHMED: We were lucky today.
NOZOMU (off-screen):
Wow! Lots of mummies!
KATHLEEN: The
smell is horrible!
NARRATOR: And making
discoveries that could rewrite
ancient history.
JOHN: We've never had
the proof until now.
COLLEEN: This is
where it all started.
ALEJANDRO: My goodness,
I never expected this.
NARRATOR: This time we unlock
the secrets of Tutankhamun's
golden treasures.
AHMED: This is for
the first time to see this
NARRATOR: Uncovering the
mysteries buried with the boy
king, almost three-and-a-half-thousand
years ago.
ALEJANDRO: Definitely,
we have something.
NARRATOR: Alejandro searches
for the tombs belonging to the
rulers of the south, who would have served
the great Pharaohs.
ALEJANDRO: It's amazing.
NARRATOR: John and Maria
head into the desert,
hunting for the lost
quarries of Tutankhamun.
JOHN: My heart
is pumping, yeah!
It's pumping.
NARRATOR: And Nozomu pushes
excavation to the limit to
uncover the lost tombs
of Tutankhamun's elite.
NOZOMU: It's really
dangerous inside.
NARRATOR: Egypt.
Birthplace of one of the most
enigmatic civilizations
in history.
The pyramid tombs, and
the Valley of the Kings.
The final resting places
of powerful Pharaohs.
Of the possible 63 tombs in the valley,
there is one that outshines the rest,
and has captured the world's imagination.
The tomb of Tutankhamun.
The boy king was just 18
years old when he died,
but his priceless golden
treasures have made him the
most famous pharaoh of all time.
His funerary riches have been
displayed all over the world,
but now they are all coming back to Egypt.
Cairo, in the shadows
of the great pyramids.
Engineers are building a
one-billion-dollar museum and
research facility.
The grand Egyptian museum will
house all Tutankhamun's
5,000 treasures in one place,
for the first time
in 100 years.
One of the centerpieces of the museum,
will be Tutankhamun's golden coffin.
Ahmed Abdrabou is leading
the research process to
get it ready.
AHMED: I must be very careful
One of the big challenges for me
is to be responsible for the restoration
of one of the masterpieces of
Tutankhamun collection
NARRATOR: The coffin was one
of many priceless treasures
found in Tutankhamun's tomb.
When Howard Carter's team
opened the tomb in November 1922,
they discovered a wealth of
treasures and gifts the king
would need in the afterlife.
Six disassembled golden chariots,
his throne and provisions
of food and wine.
Concealed behind a false
wall was a stone sarcophagus
protecting a gold plated coffin.
Inside it, two more coffins,
the innermost made of solid
gold and covered in gemstones.
And inside that, the mummy of Tutankhamun,
wearing a magnificent death mask,
the most famous find in all of Egypt.
Ahmed needs to discover how
the ancient artisans built
Tutankhamun's golden coffin.
The inside is made of wood,
but the outside is covered
with a thin layer of precious gold.
AHMED: Must be
very, very careful
because I am working with
one of the masterpieces
NARRATOR: Under the
lens, Ahmed discovers an
extraordinary secret.
AHMED: The thickness of the gold leaf
ranged between fourteen and eighteen microns
NARRATOR: The ancient artisans
could craft gold as thin as
shrink wrap, but to get a flawless finish,
they could not apply the
gold directly on to the
uneven chiseled wood.
Ahmed investigates closer and
finds a mystery layer between
the gold and the wood.
AHMED: This is the
first time to see this
NARRATOR: Ahmed finds a
3,300 year old secret,
known only to the top
craftsmen closest to the King.
AHMED: This textile layer
I think is linen
NARRATOR: The ancient
craftsmen used linen bandages
to smooth out the jagged wood
and create a perfect finish
for the thin gold.
Almost three and a half
thousand years later,
we are still solving the
mysteries of Tutankhamun.
Ahmed is on the hunt for more clues.
425 miles south of Cairo is the ancient
stronghold of Aswan.
It's here Tutankhamun would
have positioned his most
trusted governors to defend
the southern border between
Egypt and gold rich Nubia.
(speaking native language)
NARRATOR: Professor
Alejandro Jimenez-Serrano.
(speaking native language)
NARRATOR: Is back
for his 12th season,
at the ancient site of Qubbet El-Hawa,
in search of the elite
that once rule here.
ALEJANDRO (off-screen): What we
have is the tombs of the highest officials
of the province.
Not only the officials,
but also their family
and their assistants.
NARRATOR: For 16
years of his career,
Alejandro has been studying
the tombs of the ruling
families of the south.
They would have served
the powerful Pharaohs,
like Tutankhamun.
In 2017, he found the tomb of
the brother of Sarenput II,
a powerful governor of Aswan.
Now, Alejandro is back, in
search of new evidence about
this powerful clan.
(speaking native language)
It seems that we have
something interesting.
Let's go.
NARRATOR: This could be
the discovery he has
been waiting for.
ALEJANDRO: It is exciting.
NARRATOR: 40 miles
north of Aswan,
sit the sandstone quarries
of Gebel El-Silsila,
used by the great pharaohs.
The enormous temples of Luxor
and Karnak were forged from
rock quarried there.
JOHN: Schol!
GROUP: Schol!
NARRATOR: John Ward and
Dr. Maria Nilsson have been
excavating together here for eight years.
Their home is a houseboat on the Nile.
JOHN (off-screen): Nils,
what about you mate?
NARRATOR: They are working
with a team of archaeologists
to investigate the secrets of
the ancient Egyptian quarries.
This year, John, and Maria,
with their fittingly named
dog, Carter, want to
solve an ancient mystery.
Was Tutankhamun also one of
the powerful pharaohs who used
these quarries?
JOHN: There's always a delay.
NARRATOR: Today, they need to
get to a remote spot in the
vast Egyptian desert with their workforce,
but their morning commute
across the River Nile is
eating into precious sunlight hours.
MARIA (off-screen): 28
minutes late already.
Every minute that we stand
here waiting is a lost
minute on site.
NARRATOR: Workers
finally on shore,
the hunt for Tutankhamun's
lost quarry begins.
JOHN: Another day in paradise.
Sun, sand.
MARIA: Dirt.
JOHN: Dirt. Stone.
Boiled eggs and cucumber.
NARRATOR: Their journey
by road ends here.
To reach their destination,
they will have to carry their
equipment by hand, in 100 degree heat,
and across half a mile
of steep, rocky hills.
JOHN: Okay then
guys, are you ready?
MAN (off-screen): Yeah.
JOHN: Yalla Bina.
MAN (off-screen): Yalla Bina.
NARRATOR: Their late arrival
means John and Maria will
have to split up to cover
the massive site before
it gets dark.
John is going to look for evidence of
quarry workers homes.
MARIA: Ready?
NARRATOR: While Maria hunts
for clues that might date this
site to Tutankhamun's reign.
MARIA: I think the game of
today is to establish that
this is from the time of Tutankhamun.
JOHN: Come on then guys.
NARRATOR: John heads straight
for an ancient settlement
maybe once used by a quarry workforce.
If he can find distinctive
pottery with the tell-tale
markings, it could help him date the site.
JOHN: Look at the amount
of pottery on the floor.
TRISH: This is where
we should excavate.
MARIA: Where's the
safest route down?
NARRATOR: While Maria starts
her hunt for clues at a quarry
face that has been
untouched for millennia.
40 miles south of Gebel
El-Silsila, in Aswan,
workers excavating close to
Governor Sarenput II tomb,
find ancient chisel marks.
ALEJANDRO: Here there is
something that is quite
strange, because we have
a type of carving and
this is smoother.
So this early we have no idea
what we are going to find.
ALEJANDRO (off-screen):
Hey, hey, hey, look!
Sand is going down, probably
indicating that here
we have a, a hole.
I've seen this only when we
have a funerary chamber there.
NARRATOR: It could be a tomb,
but is there any treasure
buried beneath the golden sand?
NARRATOR: Alejandro and his
team have centuries of rubble
to dig through before they can
uncover what is hiding in this
corner of Qubbet El-Hawa.
ALEJANDRO: We can see only
a smooth carving of ten
centimeters and now we
have 30 centimeters.
NARRATOR: If it's a tomb,
it could belong to a leading
member of one of Egypt's
most influential families.
ALEJANDRO (off-screen):
Ah, look!
Yeah!
(Alejandro laughs)
Look at that, it probably
it would be a chamber.
We still have much material to remove,
but sure we have the burial chamber.
NARRATOR: Just 55 yards away
lies the tomb of the head of a
powerful family, Sarenput
II, the Governor of Aswan.
Is it possible that the
tomb Alejandro is unearthing
nearby, could belong to
someone as prominent?
ALEJANDRO (off-screen): This tomb
shows the grandeur of the governors,
they wanted to show their power.
NARRATOR: Sarenput II was a
rich and influential leader.
He was an important Chief from Aswan,
part of a ruling class of commanding and
wealthy families.
From an island on the Nile,
they controlled the gateway to
Africa and guarded important
trade rules along the
Nile into Egypt.
African traders brought in
luxury goods for the pharaohs,
such as ebony, leopard
skins and ostrich eggs.
But most importantly of all,
they brought in gold from
Nubia that filled the tombs
of the mighty pharaohs,
including Tutankhamun.
(speaking native language)
NARRATOR: Just yards away from
Sarenput II burial chamber.
ALEJANDRO: OK.
NARRATOR: Alejandro's team
excavates a tiny hole into
their ancient tomb.
ALEJANDRO (off-screen):
Here we have some termites,
this is good evidence because
they are always looking for
the coffins.
These are the great moments.
NARRATOR: Finally, this tomb
can give up its secrets.
ALEJANDRO (off-screen):
It's amazing.
Some bandages, some bones.
We have the closing slab over there.
ALEJANDRO (off-screen): It's
very well made, it's huge.
NARRATOR: Alejandro can see
just the top of the tomb.
It will take his team
days to excavate and to
discover its treasures.
400 miles north in Saqqara.
Tutankhamun expert,
Professor Nozomu Kawai,
is back for his third
season, excavating the
Saqqara plateau.
NOZOMU: We just keep digging.
NARRATOR: He is looking
for the tombs of the elite,
who would have served Tutankhamun.
An untouched tomb in this area could hold
priceless golden treasure.
NOZOMU: This is at the center
of the administration in
economy, but the tombs of the
high officials who are running
the country, has been missing.
NARRATOR: Nozomu found the
entrance to what he hopes
is a tomb.
This year he intends to
go further and enter it.
NOZOMU (off-screen):
The entrance, it's covered with bricks.
NARRATOR: At the
end of the tunnel,
Nozomu finds a mud brick wall and a stela.
An ancient inscribed stone,
often commemorating the dead.
It's a clue to what could
lie beyond the brick wall.
NOZOMU: If we excavate
underneath we will
probably find doorways.
So actually, the entrance is
pretty much covered with the
sand and rubble at this moment.
NARRATOR: It's a promising
sign Nozomu is on the verge of
a huge discovery.
He knows this whole area
houses burial chambers
of the elite.
And a few hundred yards
away, is a clue from one of
Tutankhamun's trusted servants.
Archaeologists in 1996, found
a rocky ridge buried under
the desert sand.
Inside it, they uncovered a tomb.
When they removed the sand
from the entrance chamber,
they revealed a stunning
image on the wall.
A young King Tutankhamun,
sitting on the lap of a woman.
They identified her as Maia, a
nurse who raised the boy king
and this was her tomb.
How many more of his closest
allies lie undiscovered
inside the ridge?
Nozomu's team carefully remove the stela.
NOZOMU (off-screen): This is the
first find of the project,
we are really excited.
NARRATOR: In the
field research tent,
Nozomu gets a closer look.
The stela shows three gods,
Sokar, Thoth, and Anubis.
They are gods sometimes associated
with the underworld.
And he's seen them somewhere before.
On the back of the famous
death mask of Tutankhamun,
Sokar and Anubis are
engraved in the hieroglyphs.
Could this be another clue
that behind the brick wall at
the end of the tunnel, lies a tomb?
375 miles south in the
quarries of Gebel El-Silsila,
John and Maria are searching
for evidence of the lost
quarry of Tutankhamun.
JOHN: Go into the
fissure, go along it,
leave the big stone in situ.
NARRATOR: But to confirm
it is Tutankhamun's quarry,
they need to date it, and
one way is to look for his
distinctive style of blue pottery.
JOHN: I need that to give
me a definite chronology,
to put this squarely within
Tutankhamun's period.
NARRATOR: Maria searches for
clues at a quarry face that
has been abandoned for centuries.
MARIA: Sometimes an
inscription can just pop out
because the light is perfect.
NARRATOR: She works with
fellow archaeologist,
Dr. Nils Billing.
MARIA: We got an
ankh right into it.
NILS: Yeah. Where?
NARRATOR: Ankh, means
'Life' in ancient Egyptian,
and the sound is the middle
part of Tut-ankh-amun's name.
Maria and Nils need to find
Tutankhamun's complete name,
which they expect to be
displayed on a royal seal,
known as a cartouche.
If it exists here, it's
proof this quarry was once
officially used by the boy king.
MARIA: Okay, so we know
what level to search for,
so let's just scout the area.
NILS: Yo.
NARRATOR: If they find it,
it could mean that the young
Tutankhamun was quarrying here
for massive building projects,
previously unknown to archaeologists.
MARIA: Nils, over here!
MARIA (off-screen):
We got something.
NARRATOR: Maria continues her
hunt for evidence this ancient
quarry, hidden away in the
deserts of the south of Egypt,
was once used by Tutankhamun.
She searches for a cartouche,
used by Pharaohs to
mark their property.
MARIA (off-screen): Yes!
NARRATOR: A cartouche is
not just a royal name
written in hieroglyphs.
Ancient Egyptians thought
they had magical powers.
In 1922, Howard Carter found a
golden shrine in Tutankhamun's
tomb that contained vessels
of mummified organs.
On the inside chest, he
discovered two cartouches,
believed to offer powerful
protection from evil spirits.
Seven hieroglyphs spell
out Tutankhamun's name.
Three more spell:
Ruler of Thebes.
On the second cartouche,
the sun disk and the scarab beetle,
both symbols of immortality and rebirth.
These powerful signs helped
the pharaoh's spirit and soul
find his body and resurrect him.
At the quarry face, Nils
decodes the hieroglyphs.
NILS (off-screen): We have
the name of Tutankhamun.
That is a loaf of bread, it
has the phonetic value 'T'.
The bird is 'UH', then 'ANKH'.
NILS (off-screen): Amun
you can read here.
A feather is the sign for 'A'.
And this sign, which is
the sign of a monument,
and that is spelled 'MEN', 'A-MEN'.
Tut-ankh-amun.
NARRATOR: But something
catches his eye.
NILS (off-screen): This
waterline is an 'N',
but actually they've
added another 'N' here,
which is unusual, and then you
would have expected another
'T' up here to fulfil the word,
to make the word complete, 'Tut'.
NARRATOR: Have the team
found Tutankhamun's name,
or have they found ancient graffiti?
375 miles north in Saqqara.
Nozomu hunts for the tombs
of Tutankhahun's inner
circle of advisors.
His team is excavating what
Nozomu hopes is a tomb from
the time of Tutankhamun.
If he is right, it will be
the discovery of his career.
And just yards away, outside the entrance,
they have a promising discovery.
NOZOMU: We found three
mummies this morning.
NARRATOR: The mummies may
reveal vital clues about
the possible tomb.
So Nozomu works with mummy expert,
Professor Salima Ikram, to
decode what they could be.
SALIMA (off-screen): And the
first thing to look at is this mummy.
It's really very lovely.
SALIMA (off-screen): It's not oriented
in the same way as the other ones.
NARRATOR: At this site, most
of the mummies heads point
to the south.
This mummy's head, points to the north.
SALIMA: Oh!
And now we know why,
because if you see here,
you've got this band, this
tape with these two red strips
on either side, and
this is very typical of
the Coptic period.
NARRATOR: The Coptic period is
Egypt's era of Christianity,
one-and-a-half-thousand years after the
reign of Tutankhamun.
But Nozomu needs to know if
all the mummies here are from
this later period.
The clues may be in how
the mummies are prepared.
Long before the Pharaohs of Egypt,
mummies happened naturally
when dead bodies dried up in
the hot Egyptian desert.
The early Egyptian priests
then started to deliberately
preserve the bodies of
the dead pharaohs for the
afterlife, by covering them
with a mixture of salts and
removing their brains, guts,
and other internal organs.
Mummification grew in
sophistication over centuries,
as priests stuffed the nose
with seeds and replaced the
eyes with onions to make
them even more lifelike.
But after the Romans
invaded Egypt in 30 BC,
more importance was placed
on the appearance of coffins.
As Christianity spread across Egypt,
mummification became more basic.
Salima has a quick way to date this mummy.
If the remains are salty, it
means it could be an early
Egyptian style burial,
when a lot of salt was
used for preservation.
SALIMA (off-screen):
Desiccation was minimal,
but it's hard to tell, because
the, the sand a bit salty.
NOZOMU (off-screen): Yes.
SALIMA: But, not
enough for it.
NILS (off-screen): Yeah,
yeah, we have crystals.
SALIMA (off-screen): To but,
it wasn't very salted.
NARRATOR: The lack of salt
could mean this mummy is from
the Coptic period, when their
simple mummification process
did not use as much salt.
SALIMA: You also in
Egypt and at Saqqara,
have a lot of reuse of tombs,
but they don't throw people
out, because you might
get a curse upon you.
NARRATOR: This mummy shows
that the Saqqara necropolis
was used all the way from
the time of King Tutankhamun,
right up until the Coptic period.
But Nozomu's potential tomb
appears to be unopened and
there is a chance the original occupant,
possibly from Tutankhamun's
reign, is still there.
Getting inside however
is a huge challenge.
AHMED: Too hot inside
with more people it's not
good for the mud brick
'cause already it's very weak
NARRATOR: The ceiling
is incredibly fragile,
and the team worry it will collapse.
NOZOMU: If the humidity
raises it's not good
for the structure.
NARRATOR: If they put
one foot out of place,
the tunnel might collapse on their heads.
NARRATOR: In the lab of the
new Grand Egyptian Museum in
Cairo, an army of specialists
are working around the clock
to investigate and preserve
Tutankhamun's treasures.
All 5,398 are set to go
on display, including a
3,300 year old chair, once
used by the Boy King.
It's down to Ahmed El
Sheikha to restore it,
ready for museum visitors.
AHMED: I have one hundred
and twenty-two pieces
for Tutankhamun restoration
and conservation
This is my dream
NARRATOR: But all
Tutankhamun's treasures were
almost lost forever.
When Howard Carter discovered
the tomb, 100 years ago,
he found it had been
broken into long before,
but why did those first
tomb raiders leave so much
treasure behind?
The robbers may have been
the tomb builders themselves,
breaking in soon after sealing the tomb.
They stole as much as they could carry.
The theft was discovered,
and the shaft was filled with
limestone chippings.
But a second gang of robbers
dug through the rubble and
carried away more of the riches.
Then a flash flood dumped
a thick layer of rocks over
Tutankhamun's tomb, protecting
it for nearly three and a
half thousand years.
In the lab, Ahmed is
trying to save a chair,
once sat in by Tutankhamun and
he's discovered it's made from
a very fragile material.
AHMED: This is the first time you
can see a chair made of papyrus
NARRATOR: After Howard
Carter's team excavated these
artifacts, they hoped to prevent decay,
by coating them with paraffin wax.
AHMED: So the nature of my work
now is to try and remove all
dangerous materials that
were used in the past
NARRATOR: 100 years on, the
once soft wax has hardened,
and the papyrus is starting to snap.
Tutankhamun's ancient chair
could break at any moment.
Ahmed must act quickly to
save this priceless artifact,
but he faces a problem.
AHMED: The nature of the wax
can convert the papyrus from
easy moving to hard moving
NARRATOR: The wax has
made the papyrus brittle.
To save the chair, Ahmed must
carefully remove the wax with
a scalpel, but time is not on his side.
AHMED: The restoration and conservation can
take me one month, two months, three months
NARRATOR: It's a
painstaking task,
but without the museums
army of specialists,
these artifacts would
eventually disintegrate,
and the treasures of
Tutankhamun would be lost
again and this time, forever.
400 miles south in Gebel El-Silsila.
NILS: This was
not done in haste.
MARIA: No.
NARRATOR: Maria and Nils
think they have found
Tutankhamun's name carved
into the quarry face.
MARIA: I find it intriguing.
NARRATOR: But the spelling
mistake has thrown the
find into doubt.
MARIA: If Nils can confirm, then
it is like a claim that says
that this quarry was used during the time
of Tutankhamun.
NILS: It's made in the
size that it actually
should be seen.
NILS (off-screen):
This is official.
NARRATOR: Nils and Maria are
now convinced Tutankhamun's
name was inscribed here officially.
It is vital evidence he used the quarry.
JOHN: Just take this little
bit here and just give a sweep
and see what we got.
NARRATOR: John looks for
flashes of distinctive blue
pottery, pottery made
in Tutankhamun's reign.
JOHN: Start in this area here.
NARRATOR: With this, he hopes
to find a second way to date
the site and prove this
settlement was used by
Tutankhamun's quarry workers.
JOHN (off-screen): This is better,
the smaller fragments is exactly
what I'm after.
Heavy foot traffic within
the encampment itself,
showing that people were coming and going.
NARRATOR: John has found
small bits of broken pottery,
suggesting people once lived here,
but not the tell-tale
Tutankhamun blue pottery.
MARIA (off-screen): Where? Okay,
hold on, follow, go, go!
NARRATOR: But they do find
something astonishing.
JOHN: My heart
is pumping yeah!
It's pumping.
NARRATOR: A rare amulet
shaped like a scarab beetle.
MARIA: Now, the reason why we
are excited about scarabs is
of course that if you turn
them and we got an imprint on
them, then that can give us a firm date.
NARRATOR: The scarab
beetle represented rebirth,
so the ancient Egyptians
made scarab shaped amulets
as lucky charms.
They were made from stone,
metal, or even precious gems.
JOHN: This is what
it's all about.
NARRATOR: Scarabs were often
inscribed with a depiction or
name of a God.
The identity of the
god could help date it.
JOHN (off-screen):
Oh. Are you ready?
I'm gonna let you see it first.
MARIA: Okay, it's got a God.
JOHN (off-screen): Okay.
I gotta see it now!
Yeah! Oh wow!
NARRATOR: Can the scarab
help prove this is
Tutankhamun's quarry?
NARRATOR: John and Maria try
to decode the engraving on the
ancient scarab.
JOHN: We got a bit of glyph.
JOHN (off-screen): Bit
of glyph at the top. Oh.
NARRATOR: They hope it can
help them prove Tutankhamun's
quarry workers once lived here.
MARIA: Probably Horus, so it
lies quite nicely in the time
frame of Tutankhamun.
Look above us.
MARIA (off-screen): Horus
comes flying as we find it.
NARRATOR: An engraving of an
ancient Egyptian god, Horus,
could place the scarab
in Tutankhamun's reign.
His rule brought with it
religious transformation.
Tutankhamun's father, the
pharaoh Akhenaten abandoned
Egypt's old gods and decreed
the worship of just one god,
the sun god.
But at the age of nine,
Tutankhamun became one of the
youngest pharaohs ever.
He abolished the worship of a
single sun god and reinstated
all the old Egyptian gods, like, Horus,
under the rule of their king god Amun.
Maria and John's discovery of
the sky god Horus here is a
clue the site dates to Tutankhamun's time.
MARIA (off-screen):
It is a great find.
Can it get any better?
NARRATOR: But Maria and John
need absolute proof this is a
Tutankhamun site and continue
their search for the tell-tale clue,
Tutankhamun's
distinctive style of blue pottery.
40 miles south in Aswan,
Alejandro is back on site.
He's hoping to discover
more about the family
of Governor Sarenput II.
Alejandro's team has now
excavated the discovered tomb
and he can investigate it properly.
The craftsmanship and location
of the rock cut tomb suggests
this is the burial chamber of the elite.
But there is no mummy.
However, there are clues to who could have
been buried inside.
ALEJANDRO: These are the
only remains that we found.
NARRATOR: The team finds
fragments at the bottom of the
tomb that may hold the key.
These wooden shards are
what's left of a coffin,
but Alejandro discovers
unusual markings on them.
ALEJANDRO (off-screen): I have
just noticed the presence of
a couple of eyes.
Here we have one eye and another eye.
NARRATOR: These eyes
are 'wedjat' eyes,
meant to let the dead see
outside the coffin and they
normally match exactly the
size of the body inside.
The small size and shape of
the eyes tells Alejandro who
possibly occupied the tomb.
ALEJANDRO (off-screen): This
is a coffin of a child.
Very, very young, I
would say, almost a baby.
NARRATOR: With no more
artifacts and without an
inscription to decipher,
Alejandro will never know the
name of the tomb's owner,
but he can still decode
more clues.
ALEJANDRO (off-screen):
Just from the colors and the type of wood,
this coffin was prepared
for a member of the elite.
NARRATOR: Alejandro is closer
to finding more of this
powerful family.
His search for the governing
rulers of Aswan and the
Pharaohs' most trusted subjects continues.
ALEJANDRO: We do not
have here Tutankhamun,
but we have some information
which is something in the end
what we are looking for.
NARRATOR: 400 miles north.
In the labs of the Grand Egyptian Museum.
(speaking native language)
NARRATOR: Ahmed is working on
one of Tutankhamun's greatest
treasures, a golden processional chariot.
But like many of Tutankhamun's
treasures found by Howard Carter,
it has also been preserved in wax.
Ahmed needs to remove all the wax,
but it has hardened
to a brittle and precarious condition.
The delicate gold layer
beneath makes this a
precarious task.
AHMED: We need to use
new technique such as gel
to avoid any damage to the surface itself
NARRATOR: The task falls to
conservation expert Ahmed.
He must make a special
cleaning gel using ethanol
acetate and white spirit.
The slightest error in the
solution risks irreparable
damage to the precious chariot.
AHMED: If we mix this wrong
I think it will damage the
layers of the chariot
NARRATOR: What should
look like a thick gel,
has come out as a watery solution,
which could loosen more than just the wax.
AHMED: I can't use
this to clean the chariot
so I must make another one
NARRATOR: Ahmed cannot
risk damaging the chariot.
All hopes are on the second batch.
AHMED: Now I apply
the tissue paper
Then after five or ten minutes
I will remove the gel
NARRATOR: It's a
nerve jangling wait.
If Ahmed's got the mix wrong,
it could strip the gold from
Tutankhamun's chariot.
NARRATOR: After ten
anxious minutes,
it's the moment of truth for Ahmed.
Has the cleaning solution worked,
or has it caused irreparable
damage to the priceless chariot?
AHMED: I am very
happy about this
The gel is working
NARRATOR: Now, with
a working solution,
Ahmed and the team will be
able to restore the chariot to
sit proudly alongside
Tutankhamun's other treasures.
Almost 400 miles
south in Gebel El-Silsila,
John and Maria search for
blue decorated pottery from
Tutankhamun's reign.
(speaking native language)
MAN (off-screen): Ah!
NARRATOR: One of the workers
spots a flash of blue
in the golden sand.
JOHN: You are about to make me
a very, very happy man, ooh.
Absolutely beautiful.
JOHN (off-screen): Both me and Maria
have always said that this is the quarries
of Tutankhamun, but we've
never had the proof,
until now.
NARRATOR: Maria takes a look
to check for certain if it is
from the time of Tutankhamun.
MARIA: I would place these
in the Tutankhamun period.
Blue signify royalty, the gods as well.
Blue is a very rare color for
them to find and work with.
They do indicate that our
worker's village is from the
time of Tutankhamun.
JOHN (off-screen): Couldn't have
wished for a better piece of evidence.
Excellent.
NARRATOR: John and Maria
have the evidence they need.
They think they can prove this
is the quarry of Tutankhamun.
375 miles north in Saqqara.
It's Nozomu's life's work
to prove Tutankhamun's inner
circle of elite are buried here.
After three weeks he's
discovered the entrance to a
tomb and now it's the moment of truth.
NOZOMU: This is the kind of
moment we archaeologists really enjoy
you know, entering
Isn't it exciting?
The condition of the ceiling is so fragile
It's really dangerous inside
NARRATOR: If the ceiling
collapses, it could be fatal.
But to see what's in there,
someone will have to crawl
down the long corridor inside the tomb.
NOZOMU: Smell of mummies
There are lots of objects inside
I think we have made a
really important discovery
NARRATOR: Despite the fragile
roof and the danger of collapse,
one of Nozomu's team
crawls deeper into the tomb.
The risk is worth it.
Archaeological treasures
are everywhere he looks.
NOZOMU: Lots of mummies
There are two coffins, but undecorated
and pottery, broken
Wow!
It looks like a big statue of a goddess
NARRATOR: The team need to
reinforce the ceiling before
they can all venture inside
and truly examine what
they have found.
NOZOMU: This result
is really tantalizing
so once we start digging inside
we will find more evidence
to tell the story of this necropolis
NARRATOR: Nozomu's team will
be back to uncover more of the
plateau's secrets next year
and see if the elite of
Tutankhamun are hidden below.
In the meantime, Nozomu must
brick up the entrance to
protect the treasures inside.
NOZOMU: I'm gonna dedicate to
excavate here the rest of my life.
You know, this is just
the beginning you know.
NARRATOR: Almost
three-and-a-half-thousand
years after his death and 100
years after his rediscovery,
Tutankhamun continues to
beguile and fascinate.
Inspiring archaeologists from
all over the world to come to
Egypt for the chance to add
their names to history and
find their own lost treasures.
Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.