Lost Treasures of Egypt (2019) s04e07 Episode Script

1
(mysterious music plays)
NARRATOR:
Deep in the Egyptian desert,
- (unintelligible chatter)
- (stones scraping)
NARRATOR: a team of workers
dig down through the sands
We will keep our fingers
crossed. Then we will see.
NARRATOR:
In the hunt for Queen Cleopatra's Egypt.
- (unintelligible chatter)
- (music continues)
NARRATOR:
They've found an ancient grave.
They are the most
critical part of the job.
NARRATOR: One of the dead is
about to give up their secrets.
BASEM:
It's amazing. Unbelievable.
(music bellows)
(music crescendos)
(thematic music plays)
NARRATOR: From the tombs
and temples of ancient Egypt.
One pharaoh has become not just a name,
but a character that has
captivated the world,
in history books and Hollywood.
Cleopatra.
- (music intensifies)
- She ruled Egypt for 21 tumultuous years.
The last of her murderous and incestuous
dynasty of Greek pharaohs, the Ptolemies.
A woman in a man's world, in a land
and culture, never truly her own.
She overcame it all to achieve greatness.
Today, archaeologists across Egypt
are searching through
the remnants of her reign,
to uncover her path to power.
She had to make
incredibly difficult decisions.
NARRATOR: And how she became one
of the most famous pharaohs of all.
- (music bellows)
- In Taposiris Magna,
next to a colossal temple
from Cleopatra's era,
archaeologist Kathleen Martinez
is hunting for Cleopatra's tomb
and she's fallen under
the legendary queen's spell.
When I study Cleopatra's life properly,
I discover she was the most
charming lady in history.
I came to Egypt and
I decided to search for her tomb.
I came here to Taposiris Magna, and
then the moment I entered this location,
this ancient temple, I knew it was here.
And then it changes everything for me.
NARRATOR:
17 years ago, Kathleen was
a qualified lawyer
in the Dominican Republic,
but gave it up to search for lost
treasures in the land of the pharaohs.
I had to change my career because
it's incredible to be an archaeologist.
When you discover something, you can
change history. You can rewrite history.
NARRATOR:
Taposiris Magna is a temple
to the king and queen of the gods,
Osiris and Isis.
(thematic music bellows)
Last season, Kathleen and her
team followed survey data
to explore part of a tunnel
running beneath the site.
The tunnel has been painstakingly cut
through the bedrock, and even decorated,
so must have had an important purpose.
KATHLEEN: We can see clearly
there are some traces of painting.
NARRATOR: Kathleen hopes it
could lead to Cleopatra's tomb.
KATHLEEN:
Cleopatra's tomb has never been found.
But every season I'm getting closer
and closer to make this discovery.
I feel the tunnels are the clue.
NARRATOR: This season,
her team returns to the tunnel
to resume the hunt for
Cleopatra's final resting place.
What I'm looking for is to find out
in the network of the tunnels,
if there's any branch going to the temple.
NARRATOR: Kathleen gets
the report back from Mohamed Boghdadi,
her chief of workers.
- Is the tunnel dry?
- Yes.
No water. Okay.
- And the electricity?
- Yeah.
Okay, so it's ready for me
to go down. Okay, perfect.
NARRATOR:
Everything is in place for Kathleen
to investigate the tunnel herself.
Her biggest fear is the perilous
30 foot drop down the vertical shaft.
I'm always very concerned about the
rope because if we fall there, that's it.
(mysterious music plays)
NARRATOR:
In Dendera, 500 miles to the south,
American Egyptologist
and vintage fashion fan,
Colleen Darnell, has come
to the temple complex,
one of the best preserved
ancient sites in Egypt.
She's here to find out how
Cleopatra rose to power.
It's hard to overestimate
the majesty of this place
and to see buildings
from all different periods.
This really is like a
history book of Egypt
told through beautiful stone temples.
NARRATOR: One structure dominates the
site. A vast stone temple 140 feet wide,
with an entrance hall
boasting 24 gargantuan columns.
This temple has ancient roots,
but it was modified and added
to throughout the millennium.
(music continues)
NARRATOR: Dendera is a holy site that
dates back to Egypt's Old Kingdom
more than 2,000 years before Cleopatra.
This temple is literally
covered with inscriptions.
Virtually every surface is decorated
with hieroglyphic texts,
scenes of deities and kings, and
above all, the goddess Hathor.
NARRATOR: The temple complex sits
on the west bank of the Nile.
In antiquity, it spread
over 48,000 square yards,
enclosed by a mud brick wall.
At its heart, Egypt's
largest temple to Hathor,
the popular goddess of
birth and motherhood.
To the south, a smaller
temple to the goddess Isis,
and to the west, a sacred lake and more
shrines built under Greek and Roman rule.
For over two millennia,
thousands of worshippers would
gather in this holy site each year
to celebrate a festival
in honor of Hathor.
The temple is covered with inscriptions
of pharaohs from down the centuries.
Colleen ventures inside to
look for evidence of Cleopatra.
This is the cartouche of Ptolemy the 12th.
We have a wonderful portrait of him here.
And this writes his name
Pto-le-my, so Ptolemy,
"living forever and beloved of the
god Ptah and the goddess Isis."
NARRATOR: Ptolemy Auletes was
the 12th in a dynasty of pharaohs
in which all men bore the name Ptolemy,
and he was father to Cleopatra.
Ptolemy the 12th is on
the walls in the crypt
because he's the one
that started this temple
that Cleopatra would then add on to.
NARRATOR: This grand temple to Hathor
was built in large part by Cleopatra
when she was pharaoh.
I think this is amongst the most
beautiful Ptolemaic reliefs I've seen.
It's really incredible.
NARRATOR: Women seldom ruled
as pharaohs in ancient Egypt,
but when Ptolemy the 12th succumbed to
ill health, he made an unusual decision.
At the very end of his life, Ptolemy
appoints Cleopatra as co-regent
probably because he knew how difficult
things were going to become for her.
- (music bellows)
- NARRATOR: When Ptolemy the 12th died,
the 18 year old Cleopatra
was meant to share the throne
with her ten year old brother,
Ptolemy the 13th.
But Cleopatra had different plans.
She minted coins with her likeness
instead of her brothers,
and she signed official
documents as Egypt's sole ruler.
The young Ptolemy's advisers
plotted against her.
And eventually seized power
in the capital, Alexandria.
- (music intensifies)
- Cleopatra was stripped of her crown.
(music crescendos)
Conflict breaks out between
the supporters of Ptolemy the 13th
and those of Cleopatra,
and Cleopatra is forced to flee.
NARRATOR:
The young queen headed east
to hide out in the
Roman province of Syria.
(dramatic music plays)
Cleopatra was now in exile
and an enemy of the state.
Colleen wants to explore
how she retook the throne.
- (music bellows)
- In the ancient city of Philadelphia.
(unintelligible chatter)
Egyptian archaeologist
Basem Gehad and his team
are excavating a vast necropolis
used during the time of Cleopatra.
Basem has spent more than a
decade digging in his native country,
but his fascination with the age of
Cleopatra goes back much further.
When I was a child, there was a lot of
books and stories about Tutankhamun
and, uh, different tombs
with these treasures.
NARRATOR: Basem was more interested
in the end of ancient Egypt.
Now, as a director of
a Ptolemaic era site,
he gets to try and answer all the
questions he pondered as a boy.
I was lucky because nowadays
I'm working on Philadelphia
and it gives me all the things that I was
dreaming. It makes my dream come true.
(unintelligible foreign language)
NARRATOR:
Basem and his team are searching
for the lost tombs of
Queen Cleopatra's subjects.
(thematic music plays)
So from the pottery that
we have found with these graves,
we can date these graves
to the late Ptolemaic period,
which might be corresponding
to the reign of Cleopatra.
NARRATOR:
He believes their graves could be key
to understanding her power in Egypt.
We are trying to understand their
life from digging in their afterlife.
NARRATOR:
His skilled workers dig in
several locations to
maximize their chances.
And it's not long before one team uncovers
the rectangular outline
of a mud brick grave.
The bricks form a stepped roof,
concealing any grave goods below.
Removing the first bricks is a delicate
job. It can easily cause a collapse.
(mysterious music plays)
Before they risk going any further,
Basem uses a miniature
camera to take a first look.
BASEM: It's amazing.
NARRATOR:
It looks like the top of a coffin.
BASEM:
It's an amazing discovery.
(thematic music plays)
NARRATOR:
At Deir El-Bahari, in southern Egypt,
is the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut,
a female pharaoh who was
able to take the throne
as regent for her three year old stepson.
She lived 1,400 years before Cleopatra,
and yet she built a monumental structure
honoring the very same deity Cleopatra
honored at Dendera, the goddess Hathor.
(music intensifies)
When pharaoh Hatshepsut
built her mortuary temple,
she added a shrine on the southern side.
In the entrance, 32 columns
carved from sandstone,
featuring Hathor, goddess of maternity
and symbolic mother of all pharaohs.
At the back of the shrine,
a statue of Hathor in the form
of a cow protecting Hatshepsut.
Something about this
divine maternal figure
appealed to both Hatshepsut and Cleopatra.
- (thematic music plays)
- Polish archaeologist Patryk Chudzik
has been exploring Hatshepsut's
Temple for 12 years.
He believes the shrine to Hathor could
have influenced Cleopatra.
This was possibly the place
which was visited many times,
by the later female pharaoh,
by Queen Cleopatra.
(dramatic music plays)
Coming here and seeing what the female
pharaoh Hatshepsut from the past did,
uh, possibly, she wanted to
follow this path as well.
She wanted to do something
great, like Hatshepsut did.
(music intensifies)
NARRATOR: Patryk has been
given privileged permission
to excavate inside the
sacred Hathor shrine.
He's searching for areas
where the stone flooring
doesn't match the rest of the shrine.
We have here a group of blocks,
which are much smaller than
the floor slabs of the sanctuary.
And this is very curious, you know.
It can mean that this part
of the floor was put here after,
to hid something which
could be explored underneath.
NARRATOR: The strange slabs,
could conceal a hidden chamber.
We are going to start first with
removing one of these small slabs.
Then we start to dig down,
and if we do not find a bedrock,
then it means that something
is hidden beneath.
(music crescendos)
NARRATOR:
Patryk brings in his chief worker,
Ahmed Ibrahim, to help him lift the slab.
- (unintelligible foreign language)
- (dramatic music plays)
- (both grunting)
- (stone scraping)
It's a little bit bigger than we expected.
NARRATOR: There is no bedrock, just sand.
This hole goes further down.
It looks good, but we will see.
NARRATOR: As Ahmed delves deeper,
the sand throws up an unexpected find.
We have a fragment of
a painted cartonnage here.
NARRATOR: Cartonnage is
a material used in death masks.
- It's a promising find for Patryk.
- (music bellows)
This is a very clear sign that it might
be a shaft here beneath the floor.
NARRATOR:
Patryk must bring the rest of his team in
and start a full scale excavation.
I cannot wait to check
what is hidden beneath.
Something is hidden in this place.
(music bellows then crescendos)
(thematic music plays)
NARRATOR:
In Dendera, Colleen is investigating
how Cleopatra returned to power
after her younger brother
had forced her into exile.
Cleopatra completed a lavish
temple here when she was pharaoh,
and dedicated it to Hathor,
making it a key place to look for clues.
It's incredible to turn the corner
and see this beautiful carving
of a man and a woman offering to the gods.
NARRATOR: Images of figures
making offerings like this
were used by ancient
Egyptians to depict royalty.
This is a monumental relief
of Cleopatra and a male figure.
Now, if we look at the cartouche,
it actually tells us
this is Cleopatra's child,
none other than Caesarian,
the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.
NARRATOR: The cartouche, an oval shape
containing the royal name,
reveals Cleopatra's relationship
with Rome's great general.
(music intensifies)
In 47 BCE, Julius Caesar
arrived in Alexandria.
Cleopatra stole into the city to meet him.
The two began an affair, and
she eventually bore his child.
Caesar waged war on Cleopatra's rival,
her brother Ptolemy the 13th,
and eventually got the upper hand.
A defeated Ptolemy pulled his
army back to his fleet on the Nile.
But in the chaos he drowned.
Cleopatra reinstated herself as pharaoh,
this time with the next male heir in line,
Ptolemy the 14th, as co-regent.
The relief makes it clear that
Cleopatra had returned to power.
But there was one more
thing holding her back.
Sharing the throne left her and her
infant son Caesarion vulnerable.
Colleen investigates the hieroglyphs for
clues to how she seized total control.
Here we have Queen Cleopatra,
her son Caesarian.
The second cartouche then, the Horus,
represents the Falcon God of kingship.
She is proclaiming for the world
to see that this is her co-regent.
And this begs the question,
where is her brother?
NARRATOR:
Ptolemy the 14th had ruled Egypt
for just three years as co-regent
with his elder sister, Cleopatra,
when Julius Caesar was
assassinated in Rome.
It was a devastating loss for Cleopatra.
But she acted fast to
consolidate her grip on power.
According to rumor,
she poisoned her younger brother.
Then installed her three year old son,
Caesarion, as co-regent in his place.
At last, she sat unrivaled
on the Egyptian throne.
Cleopatra was ruthless.
But then again, she had to be to
maintain her power on the throne.
She had to make some difficult
decisions and often violent ones.
NARRATOR:
The inscription here heralds her triumph
and proclaims her regal
authority for all to see.
Even though Caesarian is technically king,
we all know that Cleopatra is
the power behind the throne.
She is attaining her right to
be king of Egypt through him.
NARRATOR: Cleopatra had
purged her palace of threats.
The only danger now was
from the people she ruled.
(dramatic music plays)
At the ancient city of Philadelphia,
Basem is investigating a grave.
(unintelligible foreign language)
NARRATOR: Inside, is what looks
like an intact burial.
BASEM: From the hole, we could see
exceptional large painted wooden coffin.
NARRATOR: Basem is searching for the lost
tombs of Queen Cleopatra's subjects.
The unstable period
of Queen Cleopatra drove us
to think about the question of how
a young lady was struggling
to keep the throne with her people
who are living in Egypt
and also to get involved
with the Roman leaders.
It is a big mystery, and one
of the keys to solve it
is to search for the people who
were living during her reign.
NARRATOR: His team needs to
dismantle the mud-brick enclosure
without damaging what could lie beneath.
BASEM:
It's the most critical part of the job,
to remove the mud bricks carefully
and safely from on top of the coffin.
Otherwise, you can destroy it. So it
takes time and it needs a lot of patience.
We keep our fingers
crossed, then we will see.
(dramatic music bellows)
NARRATOR: Hours of painstaking
work by Basem and his team,
slowly reveals a 2,000 year old coffin.
This kind of coffin and
also the information behind it,
is the things that we were looking for
since the beginning of the season.
NARRATOR:
It is almost perfectly preserved,
with a gabled roof lid
made from fine timber
and decorated with a painted
black and white pattern.
BASEM: Finding such a large coffin
from imported wood and painted.
It's a strong indication of the
status of the owner of this coffin.
He should be one of the elites.
NARRATOR: The beautiful coffin
is evidence the wealthy Greek elite
were not confined to
Cleopatra's capital, Alexandria.
They lived across Egypt,
helping Cleopatra and all the
Ptolemaic pharaohs maintain their power.
Now the pressure's on to extract
this wonderful find in one piece.
(mysterious music plays)
BASEM: It is really tight and
very well made and built,
in a way that it makes things
very difficult to
to maneuver even around the mud-bricks.
We have to take it block by
block, and it's really fragile.
NARRATOR: Once the coffin
is completely exposed
(speaks in foreign language)
They're fragile due to damp.
It's clear to me. I'll dig underneath it.
NARRATOR:
The team prepares to lift it.
(mysterious music continues)
BASEM: (speaks in foreign language) Lift
it only slightly and carefully. Get ready!
(music bellows)
NARRATOR:
In Taposiris Magna,
Kathleen is set to continue
her search for Cleopatra's tomb.
She makes final checks
with the ladder crew
as she prepares to climb down
the shaft to the tunnel below.
KATHLEEN: They walk in the edge,
but for me, it's scary.
I can fall and that's it.
NARRATOR:
The shaft is 30 feet deep.
Piece of cake. (nervous chuckle)
Yes. Oh my gosh. Okay.
(music intensifies)
(music continues)
It's, uh, it's really very exciting
to be down here again.
It's not flooded,
which is really important.
NARRATOR:
Kathleen has to check the conditions
before excavation can begin in earnest.
The tunnel runs in two directions,
south towards the temple
and north, towards the sea,
where Kathleen heads first.
I'm very concerned about the condition of
the ceiling in this section of the tunnel.
You can see has been damaged
seriously by the water effect.
Even the plaster is about to collapse
and it's really dangerous for us.
- (ominous music bellows)
- NARRATOR: Kathleen heads back south.
She's searching for a concealed branch
of the tunnel heading under the temple,
and any clue that could lead to
what may be Cleopatra's tomb.
But the further along she goes,
the worse the conditions get.
You can feel the air.
It's so heavy, you cannot stay.
It's not that easy to breathe down here.
It's hurting all my body, my muscles.
It's only two men can start here.
And I have to change them every hour.
- (music bellows)
- NARRATOR: The air quality is so poor,
that each worker can only stay
down here for a limited time.
Kathleen needs to explore further.
But there's a problem.
The tunnels are blocked
by a mountain of debris.
I'm going to go further a little bit,
but then I will bring the workers
and they will start cleaning
this part of the tunnel.
- (music continues)
- NARRATOR: The workers begin digging
and Kathleen heads to the surface
for some much needed fresh air.
KATHLEEN:
This is really hard.
NARRATOR:
But before she reaches the ladder,
she's called back.
They've found something.
(music bellows and intensifies)
KATHLEEN:
Look at this. Oh, full of surprises.
- Wow, it's beautiful.
- (unintelligible chattering)
NARRATOR:
It's an ancient piece of pottery
that could be a clue
to the tomb's location.
But right now, Kathleen
is running out of time.
She'll soon start to suffer
the ill effects of the poor air.
We'll have to take it to the surface
because we need to look at it outside.
But we have to go.
- (grunts)
- (music crescendos)
- (thematic music plays)
- NARRATOR: In Dendera,
Colleen is searching the temple structure
for clues to Cleopatra's rise to power.
She had finally taken
full control of the country,
but she still needed to win support
from her native Egyptian subjects.
Egypt was in a very difficult
state. There had been famine.
There had been all kinds of conflict.
So Cleopatra is facing an uphill battle.
And as a woman, it's going to be even
harder for her to rule successfully.
NARRATOR:
The continued expansion
of the ancient Dendera temple
site was part of her plan.
By funding a temple for Hathor at Dendera,
by tapping into the beliefs of the
Egyptian people outside of Alexandria,
Cleopatra was consolidating her power.
NARRATOR: It made sense for Cleopatra
to pour royal money into a popular cause.
But she had greater ambitions
than just funding the temple.
Colleen examines the carvings for clues.
In this scene, a king is making an
offering to the goddess Hathor.
In between the king and
Hathor is the child god, Ihy.
Ihy is the son of Hathor.
And what's remarkable about this,
this is the theological power that
Cleopatra is channeling for her reign.
She is the goddess and her son is the god.
(thematic music plays)
NARRATOR: Cleopatra was using Egyptian
religion in a way no male pharaoh could.
She was not just claiming
Hathor's approval,
she was assuming Hathor's identity
as a divine mother figure.
(music bellows)
Hathor was the goddess
associated with maternity,
mother to the child god,
Ihy, and other major gods.
She sometimes took the form of a cow,
nursing the young pharaohs or their
heirs, and legitimizing their rule.
Every year at Dendera,
regular Egyptians worshipped and
celebrated Hathor with feasts and dancing.
It was a great use of propaganda
for the ruling pharaoh.
Cleopatra embraced Hathors'
identity as divine mother figure
to legitimize her rule and her own
son as future heir to the throne.
On this wall and
all throughout Dendera temple,
we see a goddess who is a mother
as well as her divine son.
This is what Cleopatra is tapping into.
This is why she chooses to elevate
Caesarian to be co-ruler.
That makes her the goddess
and Caesarian the divine child.
NARRATOR: Cleopatra took her
vulnerability as a female ruler
and used it to her advantage,
portraying herself as Hathor,
the supremely popular mother goddess.
She projected this message for all to see.
The exterior of the temple
became her billboard,
advertising her divine makeover.
Cleopatra made the savvy
decision to put the largest relief,
the largest we know of her,
on the wall of the temple of Hathor.
And by showing herself in
monumental scale,
she too could be worshipped as a goddess.
By very publicly supporting
the traditional cults of Egypt,
Cleopatra is attempting to
reinforce her power as queen,
not just as a Greek ruling from
Alexandria, but as an Egyptian goddess.
NARRATOR:
It was a PR masterstroke.
Cleopatra made efforts to
connect with the Egyptian people
in a way that few
of her ancestors ever did.
Egypt's last great pharaoh had proved
herself to be one of its shrewdest.
(music crescendos and bellows)
In the necropolis of Philadelphia,
Basem and his team prepare to lift the
delicate wooden coffin out of the ground.
BASEM (speaks in foreign language):
Let's go guys!
(dramatic music plays)
(speaks in foreign language)
Slowly and carefully.
Support it from the bottom!
I said support it from the bottom!
(music intensifies)
That's it, thanks guys!
All right, thank you.
- (people clapping)
- (music crescendos)
(unintelligible foreign language)
NARRATOR: The coffin will be
analyzed for its contents later.
Right now, Basem and his team
need to get as much out of the ground
as possible in the time they've got.
And as they continue their dig,
they make an unsettling discovery.
This is a child because
of the size of the coffin.
(dramatic music bellows)
NARRATOR:
Basem examines his team's latest find.
(thematic music plays)
We have here, uh, pottery
coffin in the shape of the tube.
And it has a small
burial of a small child.
And we are trying to maneuver
around the pottery coffin
in order to safely lift
it up from the grave.
NARRATOR: Basem is investigating
the graves of Cleopatra's subjects
to find out more about how
she secured her rule over Egypt.
BASEM (speaks in foreign language):
Gently.
Don't hold it at the top. No! Put your
hand underneath. Your hand underneath!
Take it over there very slowly.
And don't drop it, place it down gently.
Thank you, all right!
NARRATOR: A simple pottery coffin was
common amongst lower class burials,
especially for children and infants.
This child's remains are
little more than dust,
but beside the body, there's a rare find.
A small cloth bag made brittle with time.
One miniature carving
has already fallen out.
(gentle music plays)
BASEM:
This kind of amulet.
I think this was one
of the Egyptian deities, which is Bes.
(unintelligible foreign language)
NARRATOR: Bes was a popular
god in Cleopatra's Egypt,
seen as a protector of small
children and pregnant women.
This seems to mark the
burial as an Egyptian one.
Inside the crumbling textile bag,
there are other trinkets
Earrings, seashells and a carved
hand of the Egyptian god, Osiris,
that also gives protection.
Alongside these, there's an amulet
that Basem can identify as Greek.
This is the shape of the Ptolemaic altar.
And for me, this is pure Greek influence.
It dates to the late Ptolemaic period,
which is the Cleopatra reign.
NARRATOR:
Here in the grave of a small child,
there are Egyptian and Greek
religious artifacts side by side.
(music continues)
The Egyptian god Bes,
was there to provide protection
and the Greek amulet was to reunite
mother and child in the afterlife.
Such a things was
a gift from a mother to a child.
NARRATOR:
Together, they are evidence of a blending
of Greek and Egyptian religious culture.
Such wonderful things during the
Ptolemaic period is really, really rare.
It's an amazing discovery.
Unbelievable.
Uh. We are lucky.
This was a lucky day today.
NARRATOR:
At the beginning of the Ptolemaic era,
there was a clear divide between the early
Greek rulers and their Egyptian subjects.
But Cleopatra embodied both
Greek and Egyptian culture,
and Basem's discoveries in Philadelphia
show that her subjects
were following her example.
Instead of two distinct cultures,
there was integration and harmony.
A hallmark of a successful
reign and a successful ruler.
- (gentle music crescendos)
- (thematic music bellows)
NARRATOR:
At Deir El-Bahari, in Hatshepsut's Temple,
Patryk's hunch that
the floor beneath the Hathor shrine
conceals a hidden shaft-- has paid off.
(music intensifies)
Here in a very small, very narrow niche,
we found the mouth of a shaft,
which we are digging now, at the moment.
NARRATOR: Patryk has spent
three weeks excavating it.
A dig that started with the clue
of a small scrap of cartonnage,
ends 13 feet below ground,
where the team finds a chamber.
This is totally unique
and it's a very big surprise.
They are really quiet, so it means
that probably they found something.
Something really exciting.
(music bellows)
What do we have here? Thank you.
This is part of a mummy.
And still, some paintings remain here, so
we have just the fragments of paintings.
Wow! That's amazing, really.
NARRATOR: They are the legs and feet
of a mummy, more than 1,000 years old.
- It's confirmation of the shaft's purpose.
- (music intensifies)
That's the first mummy from this tomb.
So, we know for sure it was
prepared to store the burials.
That's great.
NARRATOR: The team has to work slowly,
bringing up these historical treasures.
There is a lot of debris down there.
Very dusty as well.
So it means that there is a big
problem to breathe down there.
(speaks in foreign language) Slowly and
carefully. Ok? Then bring it to here.
Place it carefully next to
the mummy close to the wall.
NARRATOR: One of the last things to
come up is the most striking find of all.
PATRYK:
Oh my goodness. That's amazing.
(music bellows and fades)
(dramatic music plays)
NARRATOR: The team has safely
brought the find to the surface.
Now Patryk can examine it properly.
It seems to be, uh, a new mummy.
It's a huge one.
NARRATOR:
The intact mummy completes
a treasure trove of objects beneath
Hathor's shrine.
These mummies here just have
come from the tomb inside.
It's, uh, really amazing because
it's almost completely preserved.
NARRATOR: As the team excavates further,
more and more mummies emerge.
We found at least five
or six individuals until now.
But it's still very hard to say which of
them is the original owner of this tomb.
NARRATOR:
If the mummies can be dated,
they will show how long
this tomb was in use.
In this very early stage of
our research on this material.
We can say that this tomb was re-used
at least one time in later periods.
NARRATOR:
Patryk searches for clues that
will help pinpoint when
the mummies were buried.
This one which is still covered
with linen, painted linen,
the colors and the paintings and the
style of this decoration is very typical
to the Roman period at the end of the
second and early third century A.D.
NARRATOR:
It's an incredible discovery.
200 years after Cleopatra died,
and 1,700 years after
Hatshepsut built her temple,
people still came here to bury their dead
close to the goddess Hathor.
The temple of the female pharaoh
Hatshepsut
in ancient times was called
the Holy of Holies.
So probably that was one of the reasons
why later generations chose this place
as a final resting place for their
mummified bodies, as we can see here.
NARRATOR: These mummies
show that the goddess Hathor
remained popular for thousands of years
and long after Cleopatra's death.
This enduring appeal and
popularity helps explain why
Hatshepsut and Cleopatra's
strategy of portraying themselves
as the mother goddess gave
them power during their reigns.
(thematic music plays)
- In Taposiris Magna
- Oh, I'm so tired.
NARRATOR: A breathless Kathleen,
emerges from the temple's tunnels,
boosted in her search for Cleopatra's tomb
by the unexpected pottery
find, down below.
It's so difficult to be down there.
But those tunnels are the
most important features here.
I'm sure of that.
NARRATOR: Kathleen examines
the pottery fragment in the daylight
to try and identify
what it is and when it's from.
It looks like the
neck of a pottery wine jar, beer jar.
And this is where the handles should be.
And this is the rim.
NARRATOR: This style of wine jar
dates to the late Roman period,
some three centuries after Cleopatra died.
In the minds of the ancient Egyptians,
wine was associated
with the blood of Osiris,
and wine was often used
during temple rituals.
To find it inside the tunnel means
that maybe they use the tunnels
also to transport
the wine jars to the port, to the sea.
NARRATOR:
It's a crucial find.
If the tunnel was used to take wine
jars north to the sea for shipping,
then the south end could
connect to the temple itself.
And it could lead Kathleen closer to any
subterranean tombs beneath the temple.
(thematic music plays)
Egyptian royal graves
were always well hidden.
But Cleopatra had a very compelling
reason to conceal her tomb.
Because she knew it was the end of Egypt,
and she was the last chapter of Egypt,
and she knew that she would be
at the mercy of the conquerors.
NARRATOR: The later Roman Emperor,
Augustus, had Egypt in his sights,
and he was no friend of Cleopatra.
Her armies were overwhelmed. Fearing
public humiliation, she committed suicide.
Her final strategy to protect her legacy
was to make sure her tomb
stayed hidden forever.
For Cleopatra, she was more
afraid of anonymity than death.
So she tried to do something to become
a myth. She died. And she disappeared.
(thematic music continues)
NARRATOR:
All across Egypt,
archaeological investigations are
revealing Cleopatra's path to power.
She outmaneuvered her brothers
to claim the throne for her own.
She ruled a kingdom that was truly
a blend of peoples and cultures,
cleverly using a link to goddess Hathor,
to secure her power and become
a god in the eyes of her subjects.
In death, Cleopatra still evades
an army of archaeologists.
What is remaining about Cleopatra?
It's her personality,
her charm, and her name.
NARRATOR: Leaving behind only myth
and a name that has lasted for millennia.
(thematic music crescendos)