Tutankhamun in Colour (2020) - full transcript

[narrator] It is the most sensational
archaeological discovery ever made.

The first time anyone
laid eyes on the incredible

treasures of a pharaoh.

The tomb of Tutankhamun,

containing over a ton of gold and jewelry.

For nearly a century
images of this amazing event

were confined to ghostly black and white,

but now, for the first time,
with cutting edge colorization

we can bring these scenes back to life
and witness this event

just as it was, in color.

The characters in an
extraordinary story of endeavor,



the recovery of over
5,000 precious objects,

and the lavish but tragic life
of a pharaoh who died young.

[theme music plays]

The Valley of the Kings.

Over 3,000 years ago this was
the burial place of the pharaohs.

When the Valley is
rediscovered in modern times,

adventurers unearth
dozens of magnificent tombs.

But they're all empty of
their royal treasures,

stolen long ago.

In the early 1900s the Valley of the Kings
is declared exhausted,

with nothing more to find.

But one man refuses to believe this.

His name is Howard Carter.

The secrets of how this English
archaeologist found Tutankhamun's tomb



are held here, in Oxford, England

in the vaults
of the University's Griffith Institute.

Since Carter's death, the university
has held his personal papers.

Carter kept detailed records

and this incredible collection
includes his diaries,

maps, plans of the tomb...

and hundreds of photographs.

To bring Carter's quest
to find King Tut back to life,

we're using the latest
cutting edge colorization techniques.

Paris-based art director,
Samuel François-Steininger

and his international team
is famous worldwide for

transforming historical black and white
film and photographs into color

and with unparalleled accuracy.

[Samuel] I truly believe
that to understand history,

the people and the evidence of the past
should be real to us.

Our ambition always
with black and white photos or film

is to put back the colors,
to make historical characters feel real

and to make events feel
like they happened yesterday.

[narrator] Even colorizing this simple
photograph of the young Howard Carter

takes days of research
into contemporary fashions and colors.

It reveals Howard Carter as a teenager,

relaxing before leaving
on his first journey to Egypt.

In 1891, Howard Carter, still just 17,

lands his dream job as an artist

copying the painted reliefs
in Egyptian temples and tombs.

This is one of his early works.

Carter copied this falcon
representing the god Horus

from a doorway in the mortuary temple
of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut.

[Cat] It's certainly one of our favorites.

It's just such a beautiful
amazing painting.

You can see there's pinholes

where he just basically
pinned a piece of paper to a board

and sat in front of the wall
and drew this freehand.

As far as we know it's pretty accurate.

[narrator] Just as Carter makes his way
in Egypt in the late 19th century

a new medium is created.

Film.

This footage from the 1890s
of camels carrying animal feed

is amongst the earliest film
ever recorded in Egypt.

Colorizing still photographs
is already challenging,

but Sam's team faces an even tougher task,
to do the same to film.

With film in particular
you face a number of difficulties.

Footage is often
damaged, dirty, scratched.

The original frame rate
can be different from film today.

All these issues we need to fix
before we can even start adding the color.

[narrator] The original film is cleaned
and converted into digital files.

Then sharpened up, film grain and damage
removed from each shot.

The color of the clothes and buildings
is researched.

Then each object is carefully colored and
the colors animated to follow the objects.

The texture of the temple wall.

The light on people's clothing
and their faces,

Gradually the Egypt
of Howard Carter's time comes to life.

Carter is entranced
with Egypt's ancient history

and soon becomes an archaeologist.

Within 10 years,

he's one of the most successful
archaeologists working in Egypt.

Then in 1909 Carter meets a man
who will transform his life

and sets him on course

for the most famous
archaeological discovery of all time.

This is Highclere Castle,
location of the TV series Downton Abbey.

In the early 1900s
it is home to the 5th Earl of Carnarvon.

Like Carter,
Carnarvon is an Egypt obsessive.

He is wealthy enough
to pay for his own excavations,

but he needs an expert who knows
where to look and how to excavate,

so he hires Howard Carter.

He was not an easy man, Howard Carter,

but he discovered in Lord Carnarvon

a man who was equally passionate
about Egyptian works of art,

about the country, about the wildlife,
the experience of being in Egypt.

So they found they had a lot in common

and they were both very dedicated.

[narrator] They both dream of finding
something which had never been seen before

an intact tomb of a pharaoh,

and Carter knows
exactly where he wants to look.

The Valley of the Kings.

By 1912 the Valley is declared exhausted.

But Carter has good reason
for thinking otherwise.

From his research into lists
of the Egyptian kings,

recorded for example on temple walls,

Carter knows that not all
of the Pharaoh's tombs have been found.

One of the missing tombs is Tutankhamun's.

One of the things
that Carter was conscious of

is that nobody had ever done
anything systematically.

All the digging had been here, there,
back over there.

And the case he put to Carnarvon

was that the project he wanted to do
was to clear everything down to bedrock,

everything which had not been
cleared down to bedrock would be.

So that at the end of everything,
if they didn't find anything,

they knew there was nothing to be found.

[narrator] There is something else
that gives Carter confidence,

objects known to be used in a royal burial
are unearthed in the valley.

Some bear the name of Tutankhamun.

Carter is convinced that his tomb
does lie somewhere in the Valley.

[narrator] In 1914, Carnarvon decides
to back Carter's hunch

to excavate in the Valley of the Kings.

The timing was extremely bad

because just the moment when they got
permission to work in the Valley

the First World War started.

[narrator] Troops arrive in Egypt
from across the British Empire,

preparing to fight.

Most archeology in the country
is suspended.

It's another three years before at last

Carter and Carnarvon
can begin the search for Tutankhamun.

Carter decides that

in order to have any chance of finding
the tomb that everyone else has missed,

they'll need a rigorous approach.

So this is Carter's map
of the Valley of the Kings

that he drew in 1917.

So he's drawn a section of the Valley

and then he's divided it up
into grid squares.

And the idea was that
they dug down to bedrock in every square

so that they could be sure
that they weren't missing anything.

[narrator]
Each sector is around 100 feet wide.

Carter's plan is to remove all the stones
and debris one section at a time.

It is a massive task.

But by 1917 a large and experienced
Egyptian workforce is available.

Each one of them knows exactly
what they are meant to do.

There are some who receive,

some who would take the sand
in the baskets, move away,

others who would move the rocks away.

We would usually see
the boys taking the sand away

and it's usually the men digging.

[narrator] Carnarvon employs
hundreds of men and children.

They remove thousands of
tons of earth and stones.

But by 1922,
after five exhausting seasons,

they have found virtually nothing.

And following a devastating war,
even Lord Carnarvon's finances are tight.

Income tax in England in 1914 was 6%,

in 1918 it was 60%.

There was no revenues
really from agriculture.

In June 1922, Lord Carnarvon
was reviewing his overdraft

and he had said to Howard Carter,

"I can't continue to finance
these concessions in Egypt."

[narrator] It could spell disaster
for Carter's excavations.

With just two sectors left to explore,
he begs for one more chance.

I wonder what Howard Carter said
to Lord Carnarvon.

I mean, I think he really did love Egypt,
he loved spending the winters out there

and I think it was
probably quite easy to persuade him

to have one more final season.

[narrator] Carter begins his final season
of searching, on November 1st, 1922.

Clearing the last two sectors of the grid
will be a delicate job.

His team must dig around
a popular tourist attraction,

the Tomb of Ramesses VI.

And excavate and clear the remains
of ancient huts

left by the builders of Ramesses's tomb.

But after just a few days

one of Carter's team makes
an amazing discovery.

The story goes that it is a young boy
called Hussein Abdel-Rassoul.

His job is to supply the team with water,
carried in round bottomed clay pots.

He digs a hole
in which to stand his water pot,

but hits a hard flat surface.

Hussein reports his discovery immediately.

As the team starts
carefully removing rocks,

they reveal a flight of steps
descending deep into the bedrock.

At the bottom of the steps
is blocked entranceway.

Carter is convinced he's finally found
what he's been looking for.

[narrator] Howard Carter is sure

that he's discovered a tomb
in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.

He immediately sends a message
to his financial backer,

Lord Carnarvon in England.

And Lord Carnarvon opened it and it was
a telegram from Howard Carter saying,

"At last, have made wonderful discovery
in Valley.

A magnificent tomb with seals intact,
recovered same for your arrival.

Congratulations."

I mean, I'm not sure he knew
exactly what it would lead to

and they'd had so many false starts.

[narrator] Carnarvon arrives
with his daughter, Lady Evelyn,

to see what Carter has found.

Carter takes a quick photograph,

and we can now see it in color
for the first time in a century.

[Aidan] What we've got here

is what Carter saw when he got down
to the bottom of this cleared stairway.

This is a sealed wall,

a wall which has been covered over
with mud

and then impressions
have been made in it with oval seals,

each of which contains an inscription,

and one of the things in that inscription

was another oval called a cartouche,

which is what an Egyptian king's name
was written in.

[narrator]
From the hieroglyphs in the cartouche,

Carter reads the name of Tutankhamun.

[Aidan] That confirmed
a long-standing hunch,

because one of the things
he'd been saying to Carnarvon,

"We know there must be another tomb
which hasn't been found

and of the options, Tutankhamun
seems to be the hottest one."

He was able to stand in front of this wall
and he could know he was right.

[narrator]
Carter's research had convinced him

that the tomb
was in the Valley of the Kings.

But there's something he wasn't expecting.

The left side of the doorway looks like
it's been broken and sealed up again.

It's evidence
the tomb has been entered before.

In ancient times,
tomb robbers probably broke in

and the door was patched up afterward
by the priests.

Carter's team nervously
breaks the door down.

All they find is a passageway
packed with more rubble.

[hammering sounds]

[Aidan] As they worked in
through the rubble-filled corridor,

it was clear that

the robbers had certainly penetrated
quite deep into the tomb.

The question was
exactly how far they'd gone

and what damage they'd done
at the other end.

[narrator] On November 26th,
they finally reach a second doorway.

Carter takes an iron rod
and makes a small hole.

"With trembling hands
I inserted the candle and peered in.

At first I could see nothing,

the hot air escaping from the chamber,
causing the candle to flicker.

Presently details of the room
emerged slowly from the mist,

strange animals, statues and gold.

Everywhere the glint of gold.

I was struck dumb with amazement,

and when Lord Carnarvon inquired anxiously
"Can you see anything?"

it was all I could do
to get out the words,

"Yes, it is wonderful."

No-one in modern times has seen inside
an intact Pharaoh's tomb.

The incredible experience
is captured in fantastic detail

with black and white photographs.

Now with colorization,
we can see this extraordinary discovery

just as Carter would have seen it.

On the left are four dismantled chariots,

the most beautiful is covered in gold

and inlaid with brightly-colored glass
and stone.

It was likely driven by the king
in formal processions.

Through the pile of chariot parts,

colorization reveals
a wooden painted bust of Tutankhamun

peeking through.

On the wall in front of them,

three gold-covered ritual beds.

One is in the form
of the mother goddess Taweret,

with the head of a hippopotamus.

Taweret protects the sleeper,
the dead king,

and assists in his re-birth
in the next world.

Another bears the head of a cow,
the goddess Mehet-Weret.

Many of the objects
are connected to the king's death.

Underneath the bed there's a pile
of oddly-shaped wooden boxes.

They contain offerings of meat and poultry

to sustain the king
on his journey through the afterlife.

There are unguent vessels, exquisitely
carved from Egyptian alabaster.

Other objects were surely used
by Tutankhamun during his life.

Such as this child's chair
in ebony, ivory and gold.

To the right, a pair of
life-size wooden statues,

likenesses of Tutankhamun
with golden headdresses.

The black color of their skin
is a symbol of fertility

after the black soil of the Nile.

At their feet,
an intricately painted chest

depicts battle scenes and Tutankhamun
in the form of a Sphinx,

trampling his enemies underfoot.

Everywhere there are signs of the robbery,

a knocked over chair,
damage to the chariots.

Luckily for Carter though,
with the room still packed with treasures

it seems the thieves were disturbed before
they had a chance to finish their heist.

[Carnarvon] It was extraordinary,

all of them to look through
and see what they saw,

these extraordinary strange animals,

the gold glinting everywhere

and the sense that somebody
had last stepped inside there

3,000 years earlier.

Suddenly finding something which you never
dreamt would be possible to find,

must have just blown his mind.

[narrator] Carter now has to work out how
to approach a massive and puzzling task.

He'd found something really spectacular,
but what was it?

Because this isn't
what you'd expect to find at this point

in a royal tomb.

You'd normally expected a further corridor
more chambers and things.

The objects here was designed
for a tomb far far larger.

So initially he was wondering is this
some kind of dumping ground for objects?

[narrator] The find is already incredible,

but if it's really a tomb,
there should be a mummy somewhere.

Close inspection of the wall
behind the wooden statues

reveals a discolored area
made from mud plaster,

it's stamped with more seals.

It could be the entrance
to the burial chamber of Tutankhamun.

[narrator] It's like nothing
the world has ever seen,

a few precious moments were caught on film

of treasures emerging from
Tutankhamun's tomb after 3,000 years.

Now, for the first time we can transform
these back into color.

The child's chair, made of ebony,

inlaid with ivory and gold
appears under armed escort.

Carter assembles a crack team
to help him with conservation.

Among them archaeologist Arthur Mace
and chemist, Alfred Lucas,

here stabilizing the surface
of a golden chariot.

The change in atmosphere
from the tomb to the desert air

makes some objects crack,

needing to be stabilized
with paraffin wax.

Here they clean one of the gold and black
painted wooden statues of Tutankhamun,

delicately removing dirt
with an air puffer.

Then the objects are carefully packed,

and loaded onto railway trucks.

It takes 50 men
to push the trucks by hand.

The first leg
on the long journey to Cairo.

The journey would take nearly two days to
arrive to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

But what was interesting is how the
journey of all the crates for the objects

was followed by
I would say a procession on the sides.

Any of the Egyptians
who would see like the barge in the Nile,

there were ladies
who were mourning the death of the king

as if he had a second funeral.

[narrator]
Carter's amazing discovery goes global.

[John] The discovery of the tomb
comes at the perfect moment.

The world has been involved
in a massive global conflict

and then hot on the heels
of that conflict,

we have a global pandemic

which kills more than 50 million people.

And then suddenly there is good news
from the ancient world.

It's exciting, it's engaging,
it's thrilling

and everyone can get on board with it.

[narrator]
Lord Carnarvon, Carter's backer,

is besieged by reporters,
hungry for details.

How do you deal with it?

You simply cannot manage, you know,
with the press from America,

from England, from South Africa,
from Australia, from Japan.

So he ended up choosing The Times.

[narrator] Carnarvon quickly agrees
an exclusive deal with The London Times.

Which meant that all the rest of the press
and particularly the local press,

felt they were being hard done by,

they were being short changed.

[narrator] As excitement about the tomb
spreads across the world,

Egypt becomes a major tourist destination
for rich Westerners.

Many take home movies which we can now
bring back to life with color.

After a pleasant trip
across the Mediterranean,

they'd spend a few days in Cairo
to take in the sights.

They might even climb right to the top
of the Pyramid of Khufu.

Then sail up the Nile to Luxor...

to visit the temples, and other sites,

such as the towering Colossi of Memnon.

The climax is the bumpy ride
to the Valley of the Kings.

They join the crowds waiting around
the newly-discovered tomb of Tutankhamun.

If they're lucky they may see
ancient treasures emerge from the tomb,

perhaps even catch a glimpse
of Howard Carter himself.

It takes two months to clear
the first room of some 700 objects.

Now Carter can investigate
what lies behind the sealed wall.

On February 16th, 1923,

in front of assembled dignitaries,

Howard Carter and
Lord Carnarvon knock it down.

[hammering]

As the dust clears, they see
a dazzling screen of gold and blue,

part of a shrine in a room
with vividly painted walls.

Now there's no doubt.

It is exactly what they dreamed of,

the king's burial chamber.

Carter makes his way around the shrine
and discovers a gilded doorway...

but it is already open.

Could the tomb robbers
have removed the king's body after all?

He tentatively looks inside.

There is a second door,
but its clay seal imprinted

with the name of
Tutankhamun is still in place.

Carter himself describes what happens next
in an early recording for the BBC.

[Carter] When we came to a golden shrine
with doors closed and sealed...

we realised that we were in the presence
of the dead king.

[narrator] Breaking the seal reveals
yet another shrine.

And another.

In total there are four shrines,
each within the next.

[Carter] With intense excitement, I went
forward and unbolted the inner doors...

and there, filling the entire area within

stood an immense yellow
quartzite sarcophagus.

[narrator] And leading
off the burial chamber,

Carter discovers another room.

Guarding it is the jackal deity, Anubis,

a god of mummification and the afterlife.

Amongst the treasures that Anubis guards
are boats for transport in the afterlife.

And a row of beautifully decorated boxes.

Inside one they discover
an exquisite bejeweled pendant necklace.

To thank him for helping find the tomb,

Carter allows
one of his Egyptian team to try it on.

[Heba] So you've got here
Hussein Abdel-Rasoul,

the famous water boy
of the discovery of King Tutankhamun tomb,

wearing the pictorial pendant
of the king himself

and the pendant is quite heavy.

This can explain the way his face looks
a bit strained and he looks a bit tense,

so maybe because of
the heavy weight of the pendant.

[narrator] And we can now see
that moment in color

for the first time in a century.

Revealing scarab beetles
made of blue lapis lazuli,

adorned by solar discs
in gold and deep red carnelian.

Every new discovery
amazes the watching world.

But before Carter
can reach Tutankhamun's mummy

tragedy strikes.

[narrator] In April 1923,
less than two months

after the triumph of breaking into
the burial chamber of Tutankhamun,

Lord Carnarvon dies suddenly.

[Aidan] The death of Carnarvon
was a tragedy for the whole process.

He was bitten by a mosquito on the face,

and what he should have done was simply
not shaved for a few days while it healed.

[Carnarvon]
I think the stress and the pressure,

he had no rest,
that definitely compromised his health.

He cut himself shaving,

in a sense he was so tired and forgetful
he forgot to put some iodine on it

and, you know,
it did in the end lead to his death.

[narrator] The cut becomes infected,

Carnarvon develops sepsis
or blood poisoning and dies.

For a hungry press,
starved of information,

this is irresistible.

The curse almost certainly comes from the
exclusive deal with The Times of London,

because we have journalists standing about
outside the tomb with nothing to report

and two of those journalists would appear
to have developed this idea between them.

And the curse is,

"Death will come on swift wings
for he who disturbs the tomb of the king."

[narrator] The curse of Tutankhamun
is totally made up,

largely to sell newspapers.

For years after every time
one of Carter's team dies,

it's blamed on the curse.

For Carter, Carnarvon's death
is a devastating personal blow.

[Carnarvon] Howard Carter who, for a month
more or less went into complete mourning,

and he was not and never really had been
best suited to the role of a diplomat,

that was Lord Carnarvon.

Nor did he know all the Egyptians
and the Ministers of State

who Lord Carnarvon did know

so that's where there
was a little bit of difference.

[narrator] All Carter can do is what
he always does and get back to work.

To reach Tutankhamun's mummy,

his team first removes the entrance wall
to the burial chamber,

then carefully raises
the gilded roof of each shrine

and finally removes
the surrounding gilded screens.

And now at last, Howard Carter
can look inside the sarcophagus.

[Carter recording] None of us
but felt the solemnity of the occasion.

In a dead silence, the huge lid,
weighing over a ton and a quarter,

was raised from its bed.

Light shone into the sarcophagus.

But the contents were completely covered
by linen shrouds.

But as the last shroud was rolled back,

a gasp of wonderment escaped or lips,

so gorgeous was the sight
that met our eyes.

A golden effigy of the young king
of magnificent workmanship,

filled the whole of the interior.

Laid on that golden outer lid
was a tiny wreath of flowers.

As it pleased us to think,

the last farewell offering
of the widowed girl queen to her husband.

Amid all that regal splendor

there was nothing so beautiful
as those few withered flowers.

[narrator] Carter now prepares
for the climax of the excavation,

the opening of the coffin itself.

But before he can start,
trouble is brewing.

Ever since it was discovered,

the tomb has attracted powerful elites
from across the world.

They want to see Carter's
amazing discovery for themselves.

In 1924 Egypt
has a Nationalist Government.

For its leaders,

Tutankhamun is becoming an important
symbol of independent Egyptian power.

So we got here
one of the "official" visits

to the site of the discovery, Tutankhamun.

It also takes the shape
of a massive Egyptian party,

we see like the tent that is built in it,
this is a very Egyptian way.

You would have it either for a funery
or for a wedding.

[narrator] The famously moody Carter

finds these constant visits
and interference unbearable.

There is an argument with the authorities,

Carter and his team walk out.

Work on the tomb is suspended.

It takes a year of diplomacy

before Carter and his team are eventually
invited back to finish their work,

and finally they hope come
face-to-face with Tutankhamun.

[narrator] At last in October 1925,

after three years of excavating
Tutankhamun's tomb,

Howard Carter and his team
begin to open the king's coffin.

Lifting its lid exposes another shroud.

When Carter carefully peels that back,

he discovers a second gilt coffin,

even more magnificent.

It has to be hoisted out of the first...

revealing decorations of iridescent blue,
green and red glass inlay.

And inside that...

a third coffin.

But this one is covered with a thick black
perfumed resinous material.

With hammering,
chemical solvents and heat,

Carter's team gradually cleans it.

What this reveals is incredible.

While the two outer coffins were crafted
from wood and covered in gold,

this one is made of solid gold.

Winged goddesses protect the king,

who holds the crook and flail,
symbols of royal power.

It takes eight men to lift its lid to
reveal the most incredible sight of all.

Tutankhamun's mummy is covered in jewels

and crowned with an exquisite mask

of solid gold, glass and precious stones.

[Aidan] And colorization
really brings out something.

There is this amazing
helmet mask of solid gold,

inlaid with glass.

There's this great scarab on its breast,

there are gold hands,

there are inlaid strips with magical
formulae all over the whole thing.

Nobody had ever seen this before.

A pharaoh laid exactly as he had been

by the priests 3,500 years ago.

[narrator] The image of the gold mask
shoots around the world,

but nowhere is its impact greater
than in Egypt itself.

[Heba] This was
a very highly emotional moment in Egypt.

The discovery was used as re-assertion
of the Egyptian identity

and a proof of us being the descendants
of the ancient Egyptians,

which means that we're not supposed to be
ruled by any foreigners.

This mean that Tutankhamun
had to stay in Egypt

and it were for the Egyptians.

[narrator] As Carter struggles
to remove the mask from the mummy,

its beard becomes detached,
revealing boyish looks

and here we have an explanation
of why his tomb is so small.

This is not the tomb of an old ruler,

the remains are of a teenage boy.

Later research suggests he died age 19.

There hadn't been time
to finish an official tomb,

so the jumbled objects and
small tomb are explained.

It was quickly assembled
for the untimely death of a young man.

A century later the power of Tutankhamun
is as strong as ever.

It's thanks to these exquisite,
personal and lavish treasures of his tomb,

but also to Howard Carter

who stopped at nothing in his quest
to make this unique discovery.