Kingdom of the Mummies (2020) - full transcript

100 ft beneath the Egyptian
desert, a team of archaeologists

is carefully dismantling
an ancient stone wall.

We are expecting the unexpected.

They're searching for
evidence of a burial chamber,

hidden for the past 2,500 years.

The work is risky.

Is it safe to remove
the wall? Or not safe?

But the potential reward is a
discovery that could help unlock

the secrets of life and
death in ancient Egypt.

Oh, there's stuff in there.

Ramadan, there's stuff in there.



Let me see.

No way.

We thought it's going to
be big, but this is huge.

I think I am a very
lucky egyptologist.

Saqqara, Egypt.

In the shadow of the world's oldest
pyramid, renowned egyptologist,

doctor Ramadan Hussein and
his team of archaeologists

are investigating a ground
breaking new site.

This is one of the most beautiful
mummies I have ever seen in my life.

A 2,500 year old funeral home
where ancient Egyptians, rich and poor,

were mummified and
buried deep underground.

What makes the site so special is that nothing
remotely like it has ever been found before.

Personally, I never thought I
would be making discoveries like this,

we were always collecting
information about ancient Egyptians.



But discovering this
magnitude is absolutely

unprecedented in Egyptian
archaeology.

The first clue
that this is no ordinary

site is a deep pit carved
from solid limestone.

We made a big discovery
in the form of an intact shaft,

it's about 13 meters deep.

At this point I've realised this
shaft is an embalmers cache,

a hiding place that the ancient Egyptian
embalmers used to collect all the tools

and the vessels they used
during mummification.

The team has also
found other deep shafts.

Now it's using the latest
laser scanning technology

to take its investigations
to the next level.

We use a laser scanner to get
the big picture of the whole site.

We're doing the two
scans, put them over there.

To reconstruct the
whole site with all context,

with all objects in
high resolution.

By stitching
dozens of scans together,

the team is mapping the complex
both above ground and below.

The scans reveal a network of shafts and
passageways stretching nearly 100ft down

and leading to a set of burial chambers
untouched for thousands of years.

From the style of pottery
found in the shaft,

the chambers have all been
dated to around 600 BC

when the practice of
mummification was at its peak.

It's Ramadan’s mission to decode
this sprawling site and re-write the book

on mummification and
burial in ancient Egypt.

To reach the burial chambers, the team
has had to clear over 450 tons of sand

from a vertical
shaft known as K.

This is a fabulous shaft, this
one's been cut through limestone

of varying qualities.

You can see that the ancient Egyptians
have shored it up a bit to make sure

that things don't come
collapsing down.

And it's extraordinarily
deep, it's 30 meters.

At the bottom of K, 100ft is a
hallway with five adjoining chambers;

two to the west, two to the
north and one to the east.

Inside these rooms, Ramadan and his
team are uncovering an incredible range

of treasurers, including
the first silver mummy mask

found in Egypt for
nearly a century.

It's very rare, you
don't find it every day.

Grave goods to provide the dead

with everything they
needed in the afterlife,

plus dozens of embalming
cups containing traces

of the actual oils used
during mummification.

And Ramadan suspects that the
complex has even more secrets to share.

Today we're very interested
to explore this area right here.

Where we standing on the first hallway,
we have one burial chamber on the west,

but on the east we have this wall,
the Egyptians were always consistent,

I think there might be another
burial chamber behind this wall.

We're moving one stone so we
can get a better look at what's behind.

Oh, there's stuff in there!

Ramadan, there's stuff in there.

- What's in there?
- There's this

dark stuff that looks as
if it's mummy residue,

resonate substance of some sort.

It's an encouraging start,
but not everyone is happy.

Yes, I’m concerned because
some of these rocks are cracked,

so cracking means
that it is overloaded.

Now what we were discussing, is it
safe to remove the wall, or not safe?

After weighing up the risk,
Ayman gives the okay to continue.

Let me see.

No way.

It does seem to be an opening
of some sort that keeps on going.

This is the
surprise we're looking for.

Oh my god.

This is the hole that
keeps giving.

Oh wow, this is unbelievable.

This looks bigger than
everything we've seen here.

This is unreal.

Ah!

We're just happy because we thought
it's going to be big, but this is huge.

Discovering the
tomb is just the start.

Now Ramadan must investigate
the new chamber to see if it can shed

any new light on the ancient
practice of mummification.

A nine year old me came from
a really humble background,

it's a lot of work.

Everything I went
through is worth it.

I came into this field, a lot of passion
and love but I don't think a lot of people

have my luck and this is
what's so emotional about it.

100ft beneath the desert,
egyptologist doctor Ramadan Hussein

and his team are opening the
newly discovered burial chamber.

For Ramadan, its contents
are a golden opportunity

to learn more about the
mysterious practice of mummification.

We can just have a peak at a really big
room with a number of wooden coffins,

so we have multiple
burials in there.

And I could see already a wooden
box with a calcite canopic jar

that I'm seeing right there.

Canopic jars like this were used
to store the organs of the dead

as a way of guaranteeing
eternal life.

And on one of them, Ramadan, an
expert in hieroglyphics, spots a name.

Now we have a photograph of
the canopic jars and I could see

the name we have here is Didi
Bastet so it's good to find a mummy,

it's good to find a coffin,
it's good to find a canopic jar.

It's much better to be able
to put the name on this.

The name, Didi Bastet is also
significant for another reason.

Across the hallway on the
sarcophagus of a priest

called Tjanimit is a painted
inscription.

It describes not only his titles
but also the name of his mother,

one Didi Bastet

it makes you happy
as a family reunion here,

you get the son and the
mother in the same place

and you don't find this
very often in archaeology.

Armed with this
crucial new information,

the team gets ready to enter Didi
Bastet's chamber for the first time.

We're setting
up some light in here,

'cause the room is quite dark.

2,500 years of heat and
humidity have taken their toll

and the room's contents
are extremely fragile.

So the first job is to
create a carbon copy.

We have seen all the wood inside the
chamber, as soon as someone touches it,

it will just fall apart
and it will fall into dust.

So the only possibility to preserve
it is to have a digital 3D model.

The team is using a digital imaging
technique called photogrammetry.

It involves stitching together
hundreds of overlapping photographs

to create a 3D model.

It's always exciting, it's
always, always exciting to get

inside a burial chamber and
be the first to explore it.

The project is
using technology like this,

to document every inch of the
site and the scans are revealing

that it was much more than
just a handful of tombs.

In their quest for eternal
life, customers like Didi Bastet

weren't only buried here,
they were also mummified.

One of the key parts of having
a good afterlife is to preserve

your body because the
Egyptians believe

that if your body is
preserved and recognisable,

your spirit essence can go
into it and reanimate it.

And mummification was key to that
because that made your body well preserved.

From written records, we
know that Egyptian embalmers

could take as long as 70 days
to produce a finished mummy.

Much less though is known about
where mummification took place.

Just to the north of K is another
shaft leading to an empty chamber.

In it, Ramadan has found intriguing
evidence that it was used for mummification.

Hey. Hi, great to meet you.

- Good to meet you.
- And you, and you.

To test his findings, Ramadan has
invited along mummification expert,

doctor Stephen Buckley.

We're gonna put a
climbing harness on for you,

so it's just like putting
on a pair of pants really,

one foot in each leg
loop, there we go.

Until now, the only archaeological
evidence for mummification

has been above ground.

The reality of mummifying a
body is quite a challenging one

as you need not only the right materials
but the right environment to achieve that.

If Ramadan is right about the
chamber then it would be the first proof

that mummification was also
performed underground.

Don't worry, we're here.

Almost there,

- good, good, good, good.
- Yeah, it's good.

- Good?
- Yeah.

- Okay, so, yeah.
- Okay.

Compared to the glaring heat
above, the atmosphere in the chamber

couldn't be more different.

That's what
you notice straight away,

that it's a lot cooler
and that airflow as well,

very different to up there.

This corridor, this
is what brings fresh air

and keeps the air moving all
the time inside this place.

That's exactly what you need
for successful mummification.

Bodies can start to decompose relatively
quickly, so their special space with airflow

would've been the perfect
place for mummification.

Ans there's another clue that
this air conditioned chamber

might have been used
for mummification.

The interesting thing that I've
noticed here is that large vessel.

First it's in the corner, second
there is a wall that is built around it.

Third is traces of charcoal
burning on the side right here.

I can see that, yeah.

So I’m thinking this is
a large incense burner.

I agree with you completely,
you need a cool ventilated space

for mummification, that's vital.

But you've still then
got the biggest killer

for mummification
which are insects.

So the way to actually deal with them
is to burn incense, so the coolness,

the ventilation combined with this
as an incense burner would mean

that it would be the
perfect environment.

I have one last thing to show you,
that this ledge cut in the bedrock,

it's occupying the entire space of
the eastern wall, but the back of it,

there's a small channel that
runs on the side right here

and then runs on the floor and
you could see it all the way around.

From studying the contents
of canopic jars like Didi Bastet's

we know that one of the key stages of
mummification was the removal of major organs

like the intestines,
liver and lungs.

This ensured that the body
didn't rot from within.

And what's interesting
about the evisceration,

the removal of the internal organs is if
it's done by someone who's very skillful

then they can put their hand
in, perhaps even a large hand

into a relatively small incision
and pull out one by one,

all the internal organs and
they all come out as one.

Could these channels on
the floor be the final proof

that this is where that grizzly
procedure was performed?

It makes perfect sense to me
that this was used to eviscerate

the bodies where you could
take the internal organs out

and any blood would go
down the channels.

This, as a space for mummification,
evisceration, is absolutely perfect.

So amazing to
hear that, it's fantastic.

This remarkable
chamber is the first

evidence of underground
mummification ever found in Egypt,

it suggests that this was no
ordinary funeral home but a place

where the art of mummification
was being reinvented.

To learn more though Ramadan
must inspect Didi Bastet's

hidden chamber for
the first time.

Archaeology is a field of
being a detective on the site,

you're collecting
the information,

you're asking questions until
you reach a conclusion.

And this is what we do.

Beneath the pyramids of
Saqqara, doctor Ramadan Hussein

and his team are carefully excavating
Didi Bastet's hidden burial chamber.

They might look to somebody like
old dusty bones but for US they're not,

they're humans.

To document the chamber, the
team has been creating a digital copy

in 3D and Ramadan is
anxious to see the results.

This is the perspective we have
from there, let's call it the entrance.

Mmm hmm.

But to get like a better
idea what's really going on

we can zoom out and have
like the overview of it.

Mmm hmm.

The first thing he notices
is Didi Bastet's position.

It's separated from
the rest of the burials.

- Yeah and the ledge.
- By this wall.

Yeah, that small ledge.

Looked at from above, the model
shows that separating Didi Bastet

from the other burials
is a low stone wall.

And the other thing
is the elevation of it,

it's higher than everything
in the burial chamber.

Is this careful
positioning significant?

If this is correct it will speak
about the status of this person

and the specialness
of this burial again.

And there's an
even bigger surprise;

the model reveals something very
odd about Didi Bastet's grave goods.

There's one right here.

This is something unique.

Specifically the canopic jars
containing her internal organs.

While it was the ancient Egyptian
custom to be buried with four canopic jars,

the model appears to show two extra jars,
placed either side of Didi Bastet's mummy.

To my knowledge, unprecedented,
I haven't seen something like that,

I haven't heard
something like that.

I've been in contact with
colleagues to ask them,

have they seen a set
of six canopic jars,

so far the answer I’m getting, this
is unheard of, this is something new.

If Ramadan’s interpretation
of the model is correct

then it's a potentially
groundbreaking discovery.

Is it, is it okay?

The only way for him to be sure
is to inspect the jars for himself.

Happy to see a burial that have
not been touched for 2,600 years.

The first thing to catch his
eye is a set of shabti figurines.

Oh, blue as it
could be on the shabtis.

One of the most
popular objects to put

into your tomb were called shabtis and
these shabtis are there to work for you,

so it meant the more
shabtis you had the more

you could have a really
relaxing afterlife.

And lying beside the shabtis,
Didi Bastet's canopic jars.

What is so strange is to have
two sets of these canopic jars,

normally it's just one set of four, but
we have those four; One, two, three, four.

And all of a sudden they have one
here on the western side of this coffin

and then the eastern side
there's another one.

That's a first for me,
that's something new.

That is something new,
this complex is unlike

any other burial chambers
that we have seen.

While there are still questions to
answer such as why Didi Bastet

has six jars, it would appear that the
embalmers from the site were breaking

with thousands of
years of tradition.

What's more, Ramadan thinks that he
may have uncovered yet another first.

This rectangular
structure right here,

I think it has to be connected
with the process of mummification.

Just a few feet
from the burial shaft K,

workers are carefully
excavating a new discovery.

A 2,500 year old mud brick structure who's
unusual layout Ramadan has seen once before.

Some 10 miles to the north of
Saqqara, beneath the pyramids of Giza

is a beautifully
decorated tomb, belonging

to a high ranking
official called Qar

I haven't been here
for almost ten years,

but the scenes and the
decoration of these tombs

are all in my mind all these
years, especially that scene here.

In the middle of the depiction
of Qar's funeral procession

is what's brought Ramadan here.

One of the few surviving illustrations
of an ibu or embalming tent.

An ibu is a temporary tent made
for the deceased for the purpose

of purification during the embalmification
process and we know that this structure

is an ibu because Egyptians
like to label everything.

And here's what we have, is the
word for ibu; The Reed leaf with the,

for an E and then the leg is for the B
sound and then the quill chick is for the U.

So what you can
read here is ibu.

What's so striking about
the ibu though is its shape.

So this rectangular structure
right here is what makes the ibu,

but the main thing in it is
that ramp in the middle

and the two equal
rooms on the side.

And what I have here is a 3D scan of
our new structure with a ramp in the middle

and two equal rooms or
spaces on the sides.

So I am 100 percent sure that
what we have in Saqqara is an ibu.

If Ramadan is right and the structure
at Saqqara is an ibu where the bodies

of customers like Didi Bastet
were purified and preserved,

then the site should
hold more clues.

Back at Saqqara, Ramadan and mummification
expert, Stephen Buckley are investigating.

I mean what interests me is both
the layout and what you've found.

They're looking for
evidence of a crucial process

that it's thought to
place inside the ibu.

Having removed the internal organs
and used the resonance and the incense,

now it's the key aspect of the mummification
which is the use of the natron,

it's special, magical
if you like, salt

that was so crucial to the
preservation of the body.

Natron salt was used by Egyptian
embalmers to stop the body

from decomposing and one theory is that
it was applied using some form of bath.

I think it's interesting, I
mean what intrigues me is,

is that depression there.

From my point of view, this would be the
place where they were treating the body

with natron and I think if this had
been waterproofed at some point,

then a body would fit in
this space very nicely

and that would work perfectly
with the natron bath to produce

a very well mummified
individual.

Music to my ears.

This is fantastic because a
question is often asked of me,

I've done the experiments, I've shown
how it was done, but where was it done.

Where? Yes.

That's always been asked, yeah
and I haven't had an answer until now.

Fantastic,
wonderful to hear that.

This combination
of an underground workshop

for the removal of internal
organs and an ibu,

a tent in which the body was preserved and
embalmed, is a ground breaking discovery.

As it's evidence of a hugely
sophisticated approach to mummification.

We always knew about the procedures of
mummification from text and also scenes,

but this is the first time we have
different structures where mummification

and the preparation of
the mummies took place.

This is very rare.

In fact, it's totally unique
which is why it will allow scholars

like Ramadan to build the
most accurate picture yet

of how ancient Egyptians
buried their dead.

But for now, Ramadan has a
more pressing mystery to solve;

why Didi Bastet was buried
with so many canopic jars.

The ancient Egyptians
wanted to tell US a story,

they wanted to leave everything
they believed in in a burial chamber

like this, on the
floor, around the coffin.

It is our job now to decode this particular
context and explain it to everybody.

Far beneath the desert, Ramadan
and his team are preparing to take away

Didi Bastet's canopic
jars for analysis.

When Didi Bastet passed
away 2,600 years ago,

her body would've been brought
and lowered into this shaft 30m deep,

then put inside a coffin
along with six canopic jars.

This is definitely unusual; We
haven't seen something like that.

But as they're about to enter Didi
Bastet's tomb, they notice a problem.

The high humidity has caused a mould
to appear on some of the mummies.

Being down here in the tomb
now, you can feel the moisture,

the water in the air and that
matters because that water

can re-initiate the bacteria
that would cause decay.

So that's the real
enemy of the mummies.

If left untreated,
the spores could be harmful

to both the mummies
and the team.

So work is put on hold while the
chambers are sprayed with a special mixture

of natural oils, similar to those
used by ancient embalmers.

For centuries, our knowledge of these
oils has come mainly from written text.

But thanks to some remarkable
discoveries, that is beginning to change.

In the mummification complex,
one of the most amazing discoveries

for me is that we found
mounds of pottery pieces,

broken pottery vessels, all these
cups and shards inscribed with labels.

Many of these cups
still contain rare traces

of the actual oils used
during mummification.

One of the cups like this one,
this is my little treasure here,

because it has residue of the
oil trapped inside the walls.

We don't know what this oil is,
we don't know the plant base of it,

but now we have our golden
opportunity to know exactly

what kind of oil was
once inside this cup.

So, a team of specialists
is analysing this residue.

And the first set of results is now
in, from a piece of pot labelled 'entiu',

thought to be the ancient
Egyptian word for myrrh.

So, we studied the first
organic residue on the pot.

And what did you find?

We find some marker of
conifer and this small marker

among the conifer family is
cedar, it will be cedar.

So, you telling me that you have
found residue of cedar by-product

trapped in the walls
of this potshard?

Exactly.

This is interesting because we
normally just translate entiu as myrrh

but now you're giving me a
completely different idea about entiu.

You know if you think of cedar wood
it was very important for Egyptians,

it's fragrant, it's
antibacterial, also insecticides.

All these three properties makes it
really perfect substance for embalming.

What these results show
is that previous assumptions

about the embalming oil
entiu were inaccurate

and that it was derived not
from myrrh but cedar oil,

just as revealing is where
this cedar came from.

Cedar doesn't grow in
Egypt, so it has to be imported.

As you see in the, in, in the
map, if you look for the cedar

there is two kind of
origin, one in Morocco area

and other kind of cedar
from Lebanon and Turkey.

Yeah, so we're talking about
highly expensive product here

and it's not Egyptian product,
it's imported. Probably.

All of which suggests that
mummification was far more than a religious

right, it was also big business.

It's all just putting in this
context that I always think about

is the economics of embalming,
how much do you have to pay

in order to get your body
mummified in a complex like this?

Especially if you have
to use foreign products.

Yeah as you say
its high value products.

So could there also be a business
reason for Didi Bastet six canopic jars?

Now that the chambers have been
sprayed, Ramadan can, at last, find out.

It is very exciting, what will be
in them, this is a big question,

we're waiting for an answer.

Inside the hidden burial chamber,
it's now safe for Ramadan and his team

to start removing some of
Didi Bastet many grave goods.

I have never seen something
like this, this is beautiful.

It's treasures,
you have to be careful.

Among the items
being packed up and hoisted

to the surface are her
canopic jars.

Since it was the norm to be
buried with four jars,

each containing a
different organ,

Ramadan is intrigued to know
why Didi Bastet was buried with six.

Everything must
be slowly-slowly.

So the two extra jars are being
taken to Cairo's Egyptian museum

under armed escort.

So we are on our
way now to the museum.

The canopic jars, they're safe in the
box and also with the high security escort

that we have right now, I’m very confident
everything will go very well today.

Yeah, I'm very excited about it.

Using the museum's ct scanner, Ramadan
is hoping to reveal the jar's contents.

The great power of this
machine is that it gives US an idea

about what is actually
inside the object.

Do we expect to
find a mummy organ?

Can we see a liver?

It's an adventure.

The first jar depicting the
jackal headed god, Duamutef,

is placed inside the scanner.

This is very interesting;
This is such a unique piece.

It's followed
by the falcon headed jar.

We did ct scans of the two
small canopic jars and the first one

is the jackal, what we can see here is
the inside of this is almost totally filled

with this greyish material.

Now we are adjusting the view and
here the material is totally occupying

the inside of the jar and
this is really peculiar thing

that I would say that
this is tissue.

So just to double check with
you that I understand you correctly,

the Grey area which is pretty much the
majority of the content is human tissue,

- is that true?
- It could be

like linen wrappings or so
but this doesn't look like

a wrapping, I don't find the layers
of it, I find a lump, a lump of tissue.

And it's the same story
with the falcon headed jar,

which also appears to contain
human tissue but what type?

We should be thinking about other
organs that we traditionally don't see in

burials in the canopic jars, something
like the brain, something like the kidneys.

It's possibility, why not, but I'm very
happy to know that there's soft tissue

inside the two canopic jars.

The discovery that the two small
jars could contain extra organs

is a fascinating new
piece of information.

We could have all the organs
of Didi Bastet being taken out,

embalmed and put inside
six canopic jars.

There might be the brain of
Didi Bastet and the kidneys,

the two organs that never
been embalmed in ancient Egypt.

We never seen this
happening for any person

but that could be the
situation with Didi Bastet

so why was this done?

We're guessing that Didi Bastet
would have brought an extra package

where her brain and kidney been embalmed
and placed in two extra canopic jars.

It says something about this
business of mummification,

this establishment were willing to move
away from tradition in order to up-sell,

perhaps, or cater to the
needs of a certain customer.

It's not just the discoveries
inside Didi Bastet's chamber

that are helping to rewrite
the book on mummification.

Just as revealing are the finds
from the rest of the complex.

What's interesting to me is
that egyptologists have long

had a reasonable understanding
of how mummification took place,

but what was far less clear was where
these processes of the mummification

took place and this is what
this site provides US with.

We can now very safely talk about
the archaeology of mummification,

about embalming taking place in an
actual real life structures right here.

But most exciting of all is that
the decoding of this unique site

and all that it contains
has only just begun.

Discovering and excavating a site
is only the first step in a very long

journey, it takes a very long
time, sometimes even decades,

to truly understand what
one site has to tell US.

I consider myself lucky because
what we're learning from here,

it's the big discovery and
also what we're learning from it.

But also we're developing this
personal attachment to this site.

That is what keeps US really
wanting to come back every season,

every year to work
in this place.

This site will live for
another 30, 40, 50, 60 years.

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