Egypt's Unexplained Files (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Curse of the Screaming Mummy - full transcript
The Screaming Mummy is one of Egypt's greatest mysteries: a mummy with a terrifying expression frozen in agony. New discoveries reveal the connection between this horrific discovery and a pharaoh's murder, offering more clues to E...
Narrator: Pyramids, temples, tombs...
These ancient wonders
promise even greater secrets
still to be found under the sands of egypt.
Now cutting-edge science finally decodes
the mysterious land of the pharaohs.
With modern technology,
we are gaining an insight
into the way the ancient egyptians lived
and the manner at which they died.
Narrator: This time,
crime and punishment ancient egypt,
can cutting-edge scans prove
ramesses iii was murdered?
This is an attempt to change
the arc of egyptian history.
Narrator: Could new technology
finally solve the mystery
of the most famous
statue of queen nefertiti?
Is it genuine or is it a fake?
Narrator: And can the FBI
recover the first-ever ancient dna
from an egyptian mummy?
It was the FBI that
had the scientific tools
to analyze this head.
Narrator: Ancient clues on earth,
long-lost evidence reexamined,
precious artifacts brought
into the light of the 21st century.
These are "egypt's unexplained files."
FBI agents believe they can
solve a 4,000-year-old cold case
by extracting dna from an
ancient egyptian mummy
for the first time ever.
Nobody ever got dna from egyptian samples,
so I didn't think it was gonna work.
Narrator: It could reveal what had
eluded researchers for 100 years...
The person's identity.
Berman: People naturally
want to know whose it was.
We have a mystery.
♪
Narrator: The boston
museum of fine art, 2005.
Curators reexamine a strange
artifact kept in their vaults...
A mummified head missing its body.
They've never known its identity,
despite decades of research.
They believe now is the
time to find an answer.
And we thought that with
advances in technology,
we might be able to get more information
about the mummy's head.
So, we took the head to the
massachusetts general hospital,
and we did very advanced
and detailed ct scans.
♪
Narrator: From the 2005 ct scan,
scientists create a 3-d model of the skull.
It may determine whether the
person was a male or female.
But when they examine the
model, crucial evidence is missing.
Berman: We have 3-d
models that were printed out.
If you look at the jaw areas,
you can see what had been removed.
These are precisely the bones
that would be the most telling
in determining whether
the skull was male or female.
Narrator: It is a setback
for the scientists.
They now reexamine
the discovery of the tomb,
searching for missed evidence.
♪
Berman: The head was found in 1915
while the museum was excavating tombs
in the cemetery of deir el-bersha,
which is about 175 miles south of cairo.
Narrator: The burial place
has been ransacked by looters.
Berman: They broke in through
the head-ends of the coffin
and yanked the mummy out.
It was in great disarray.
Cooney: Strangely, the looters left
one of the heads of the inhabitants
severed from its body on top of the coffin.
Narrator: Identifying the head
from the contents found in the tomb
was impossible.
Since none of them were in the coffins,
we didn't know who they were.
Narrator: So archaeologists
examine the coffins themselves,
hoping for a clue to whom they belong.
They discovered inscriptions
that suggest two possibilities.
The coffins are copiously inscribed
with inscriptions that
contain their name and titles...
The governor djehutynakht
and of his wife whose
name was also djehutynakht.
Narrator: The inscriptions show
the couple are important people
around 2,000 b.C.E.,
but the mystery of the head remains.
No one knew whether it belonged
to djehutynakht the governor
or to his wife.
Is it him or is it her?
♪
Narrator: To solve the question,
museum curators seek outside expertise.
In 2016, the world's leading crime fighters
come to the rescue.
In this particular case, it was the FBI
that had the scientific
tools to analyze this head.
Narrator: The mummy's head is assigned
to two of the FBI's most
experienced investigators...
Jodi irwin, a research biologist
and odile loreille, a
specialist in ancient dna.
Loreille: The museum wanted to know
whether the head of the mummy belonged
to governor djehutynakht or to his wife.
Narrator: For the first time ever,
the FBI uses a dna sequencing
technique new to forensics.
We had a really difficult situation,
a situation that we wouldn't
have been able to solve
with all of our
currently-implemented technologies.
Narrator: The new technology is
called next-generation sequencing.
It can examine the tiniest of samples.
So, for ancient dna where, you know,
you don't have a lot of dna to start with.
These are instruments that allow
you to copy and sequence dna
that are very small and
in very high throughput,
so you have millions
and millions of sequences.
Narrator: But first, the FBI team
must find ancient dna in the skull,
a nearly impossible task.
They wouldn't normally have
to work with 4,000-year-old dna,
but often they are faced
with challenging situations.
Narrator: Over the
course of four millennia,
time, along with the
heat of the desert climate,
breaks down the dna in the head.
But geneticists potentially
face a far bigger issue...
Contamination.
Loreille: The mummy has been
touched by multiple people...
The looters, obviously, the archaeologists,
and then probably some
curators at the museum in boston,
so we were very concerned
about contamination.
Narrator: To extract uncontaminated dna,
the FBI team need an untouched sample,
a daunting task after 4,000 years.
Loreille: What we did is we
got a sample from inside a tooth
by going through the neck
so that we knew for sure
that it had never been touched.
Berman: The removal of the molar
was done as delicately as it would be
if you were operating on a living person.
Narrator: The tooth could
yield a viable dna sample,
but the scientists know
the odds are against them.
Loreille: I was really skeptical.
When I started, I thought there might be
a 5% chance it would work at best.
Narrator: Extracting
useful dna from the tooth
is a delicate and painstaking process.
Loreille: We sanded the
surface to remove contamination,
and then we drilled through
the tooth to remove powder.
Once you have the
powder, you extract the dna,
you put it in solution,
and that's the dna extract.
Narrator: For the first time ever,
the FBI uses the very-latest
sequencing technology
to process a mummy's ancient dna.
The results show up as a huge
data set of chemical sequences.
Once you've done that, you
see how many sequences
you have that match chromosome 1,
how many chromosome
2, 3, 4, 5, "x" and "y."
narrator: Odile is hunting
for the "y" chromosome
because "y" chromosomes
are only present in male dna.
If they succeed, it may be
the first ancient dna extraction
from an egyptian mummy in history.
Nobody ever got dna from egyptian samples,
so I didn't think it was gonna work.
Narrator: When the FBI
team study their results,
they discover something
long though unattainable...
Ancient dna.
They can now solve the
mystery of the severed head.
Irwin: The dna results
showed that the mummy's tooth,
and therefore the mummy,
is from the governor djehutynakht
and not his wife.
Yeah, it was boy.
[ laughs ]
berman: Although I'm
very happy that we know
that it is the governor and not his wife,
I was kind of hoping that it was her.
Narrator: After 4,000 years,
an ancient mummy has his identity restored
thanks to the world-class
expertise of the FBI.
But what is more, they
make a scientific breakthrough
in the field of ancient dna
that will undoubtedly lead
to further discoveries in the future.
♪
♪
The mysterious nefertiti.
Her iconic bust is a priceless treasure.
Fletcher: The bust of
nefertiti has long been
the crowning glory of egyptian antiquities.
It's a superb work of art.
Narrator: But some experts
believe this beautiful face
could be a forgery.
You would never in the ancient
world find an ancient statue
where they'd finished off
the hard parts with plaster.
This has got to be one of the
most controversial works of art
in human history.
Narrator: Now state-of-the-art scanners
are finally peering
beneath the statue's veneer
to answer one of egypt's
greatest questions.
Is it genuine or is it a fake?
♪
Narrator: She is the iconic
face of egypt's 18th dynasty...
Queen nefertiti.
Nefertiti has gone down in history
as the most beautiful
egyptian queen of all time.
Narrator: But for over 100 years,
questions about this beauty loom large.
Some believe the life-size
bust that created her image
may not be real.
I think that the bust of
nefertiti is a masterpiece,
and masterpieces are very hard to evaluate
in terms of authenticity.
Fletcher: A lot of duplicates were made
because the bust was so very popular.
Every collection wanted a
replica so visitors could come
and admire the bust of nefertiti
even if it's not the original one.
And I think the proliferation
of these reproduction busts
has sort of led to a certain
amount of uncertainty.
Which is the real one?
We can't 100% say it's accurate.
Narrator: So scientists begin
a 21st-century investigation
to find the truth.
Experts are analyzing this bust
using the latest scientific techniques
to try and find out if it truly is ancient.
Narrator: They start by probing
the statue with a 64-section ct scan,
revealing for the first time
the bust's inner structure.
Harrison: Ct scans reveal
that it's a limestone core
which has been covered
with a layer of stucco
which was then painted.
Narrator: For egyptologists, the
discovery is deeply suspicious.
Harrison: You would
never, in the ancient world,
find an ancient statue
where they'd finished off
the hard parts with plaster,
so this rings some alarm bells.
I suppose the temptation
of people to want to buy
a little piece of amarna art for themselves
could throw up the possibility
that a bust like this may
have been made by a forger.
But, of course, it just feeds
into this whole mystery of
"is the nefertiti bust a fake or not?"
narrator: The strange
materials found in the scan
lead experts to reexamine the circumstances
under which the bust is discovered
in the early 20th century.
♪
Harrison: Ludwig borchardt
claims to find the bust of nefertiti
in a workshop at el-amarna
under 50 centimeters of dirt and gravel.
Narrator: It all seems too perfect.
Investigators now look at borchardt's diary
to find anything out of the ordinary.
Then something suspicious.
The exact circumstances
surrounding the discovery of the bust
have been called into question
because it coincided, apparently,
the visit of a prince to the excavations.
And it's been suggested
maybe that borchardt
wanted to impress his royal visitor
with this amazing new find.
Narrator: In the early 20th
century, there is huge desire
to impress europe's
still-powerful royal families.
A find showing the beautiful nefertiti
would take their breath away.
The prince marvels at the discoveries,
but one of the workmen
disappears for a few moments.
The workman comes back
holding this bust of nefertiti.
The royals are wowed by its beauty.
Fletcher: In some people's
minds, it's a question of
"was this thing planted
to make the archaeology
seem even more exciting?"
narrator: The visit
raised initial suspicions
about the bust's authenticity,
but in the decades that followed,
experts have also studied
the characteristics of the statue.
One detail raised questions.
♪
Harrison: The fact that
the bust only has one eye
does raise some red flags.
Modern forgery experts
argue that it would be easy
to sort one ancient eye
in the construction of a piece like this,
but finding a pair would
be almost impossible.
Narrator: But not all
experts agree with the theory
that nefertiti's one eye proves it's fake.
This is to fundamentally misunderstand
how the ancient egyptians
produced portraits
with inlaid eyes.
And so frequently, these
eyes fall out all the time,
so whether the eye is there
or not is absolutely no reason
to question the authenticity
of this superb work of art.
Narrator: As researchers
consider further the idea
that the statue is a forgery,
they start to notice other
irregular elements in the bust.
♪
Fletcher: There is selective
damage on the bust.
You know, the missing
head of the uraeus snake,
damage to the ear and so forth.
Harrison: We're told that
the bust was found on it's face
under the ground in the workshop,
and yet, there's no damage
to the nose or the chin,
which is what you'd expect
if it had fallen off of a shelf
and lost the cobra.
The damage on the ear
seems to be quite selective
as if it had been dropped
on its right and then left side.
The face is largely immaculate.
It's almost as if someone wants
that most important
feature to be preserved.
Narrator: The face of
nefertiti is so perfect,
when brought to germany,
it is revered by their
powerful new dictator.
♪
Hitler greatly admired
the bust of nefertiti.
To him, it represented
the ideal aryan woman.
Fletcher: Adolf hitler apparently
takes the bust of nefertiti
into his personal collection.
♪
Narrator: After the war, the bust
ends up in berlin's neues museum,
it's most-prized treasure.
In 2009, the museum curators
continue their exhaustive
examinations of the statue,
determined to solve the mystery.
The museum decides they
want to put this argument to rest.
They want to determine is this bust
actually made of ancient materials.
Narrator: For this, scientists
carry out a chemical analysis
of the materials using
cutting-edge xrf testing.
Xrf stands for x-ray florescence.
Essentially, you aim
lasers at the bust of nefertiti,
and then the elements that
leave from the laser are monitored,
and you can find out if there
are any, say, modern pigments.
Narrator: The results will
show whether the pigments
are made from 3,000-year-old components
or cheap 20th-century counterfeits.
When the data comes in,
the scientists are amazed.
Fletcher: The pigments used,
the paints used exactly conform
to the kind of pigments
that 18th-dynasty artists
were using in egypt at that time.
They are, in fact, ancient pigments.
Narrator: The results lead
some to make a final conclusion
on nefertiti's bust.
I think it's absolutely clear
that this bust is genuine.
Narrator: Others are not yet convinced.
The fact is, there's strong
evidence on both sides
that indicate that it could be authentic
and it could be a forgery.
Fletcher: If it's a fake, then
the forger must be a genius,
being able to replicate
exactly the known recipes
for ancient-egyptian pigments.
Narrator: The final answer
to this ancient mystery
may lie in the analysis of other materials
used in creating the bust,
a task scientists will no
doubt tackle in the future.
Eventually, when we're able
to data limestone and plaster,
then we'll be able to tell for sure.
Narrator: Priceless ancient artifact
or 20th-century fake?
Experts are getting closer and closer
to a definitive answer
on the enduring image
of the most beautiful
queen in ancient egypt.
♪
♪
A pharaoh whose death is one
of egypt's strangest mysteries.
Darnell: The ultimate fate
of pharaoh ramesses iii
has long puzzled egyptologists.
Up to now, we don't know
how ramesses iii died.
Narrator: Now scientists, using
the latest high-resolution scanners,
believe they can prove he's murdered.
Darnell: 21st-century
technology may finally enable us
to solve this cold case.
♪
Narrator: He was the last truly
great monarch of the 20th dynasty,
the dominant pharaoh ramesses iii.
He seems to have been a very
powerful and successful pharaoh.
Narrator: But despite perceptions,
some experts suggest the
king has troubles at home.
Enmarch: Towards the end of his reign,
there does appear to
have been some problems
with law and order,
so there may have been
gathering storm clouds
towards the end of his reign.
Narrator: These stormy last years
become the basis for a long-held theory...
Ramesses iii is the target
of an assassination plot.
Darnell: The assassination of ramesses iii
and the attempt to put someone
other than his designated
successor on the throne
is definitely a coup d'etat.
Narrator: But there is a
problem with the theory...
No one's ever been able to
prove that his death was murder.
Now scientists think
cutting-edge technology
could reveal new information
in a key piece of evidence...
Ramesses' body.
Darnell: The mummy
of ramesses iii is labeled.
It was re-wrapped and reburied
following the end of the new kingdom,
so we know that it's his body.
Narrator: The pharaoh's corpse now
lies in the egyptian museum in cairo.
When scientists carry out
an initial examination in 2012,
they find no obvious causes of death.
There's no evidence of any
kind of diseases or trauma
or any indication why he could have died.
Narrator: But on closer
scrutiny, there is an obvious clue.
While most of the bandages on the body
were taken off during antiquity,
in one sport, the bandages
have been left intact.
Zink: Most interestingly, they
have a thick layer of bandages
just around the neck,
and this couldn't have been
removed in the earlier attempts,
so it remains there forever.
Narrator: The bandages appear
intact from the time of the burial,
suggesting they could be hiding something.
Unlike other postmortem examinations
that dissect the body,
the scientists decide not
to remove the bandages.
Instead, they use a 21st-century
method of investigation.
In recent times, it's been
possible to examine mummies
in more detail using ct scans.
Zink: We are allowed to make
new ct scans of the mummy
to look, let's say, inside the body,
which we cannot see from outside.
Narrator: They scan ramesses
iii for the first time in history,
creating a 3-d image of
the 3,000-year-old corpse.
When the scientists
study the scans of the neck,
they're horrified.
It became clear that
there is a very deep gash
that runs across his throat.
Everything's cut... the muscles,
the skin, and even the arteries.
Enmarch: So, we're talking
here about a really deep cut,
you know, several inches deep.
It actually cuts back to the vertebra
of the back of the neck,
so a really deep gash to the neck.
Narrator: A wound of this
type can mean only one thing...
Murder.
It would have been very rapidly fatal.
Zink: There's no chance
to survive such a cut.
It's really a typical deadly
cut wound of his neck.
♪
Narrator: But there is even more.
The scientists find evidence
that suggest the wound
is definitely inflicted
while ramesses is still alive.
♪
Zink: Inside the wound,
there's a little amulet.
Darnell: And in the ct scan,
you could see it's the
shape of an udjat eye,
of the eye of horus, and
that is a healing amulet.
Zink: This is an amulet the
ancient embalmer puts in
to heal something, to repair something.
So it's as if to make up for the fact that
he died in such a
violent and traumatic way,
that they're adding that amulet
to almost undo the damage that was done.
Narrator: It is enough
evidence for some egyptologists
to make a final conclusion
about the fate of ramesses iii.
Darnell: The ct scans of
the mummy of ramesses iii
indicate that he was the
victim of a vicious assassination.
Enmarch: The cause of
the death of ramesses iii
has mystified egyptologists
for generations,
but new scientific techniques have revealed
a potentially brutal demise.
Narrator: Many believe this
proves the longstanding theory,
turning ramesses death
into a case of murder
three millennia after it is committed.
♪
Cutting-edge science
exposes the possible murder
of pharaoh ramesses iii.
Darnell: Up until the ct scan
and the investigation of
the mummy of ramesses iii,
we had no confirmation
that the assassination
attempt actually succeeded.
Narrator: With an
assassination case now open,
experts think they may be able to pinpoint
who helped carry out the grisly killing
using the newest dna analysis.
Darnell: There were many
guesses about who he might be,
but we had to wait until
dna evidence was available
and testing was available.
Narrator: The hunt is now on to
solve the 3,000-year-old murder case.
♪
Narrator: Egyptologists want to know
who may have plotted against ramesses iii.
♪
To start, they return to the tomb
where the 20th-dynasty pharaoh was found
along with other family
members and royals from the time.
Could someone else buried
there be implicated in his murder?
♪
Darnell: The tomb at deir el-bahari
containing most of the mummies
of the rulers of the new kingdom
is discovered in the 1880s.
And one of the mummies is very unusual.
The so-called "screaming mummy."
zink: And this mummy is unique
because it has his mouth wide open.
It looks like it's really screaming.
Darnell: The physical evidence
of the screaming mummy
indicates that he died a violent death.
Narrator: For decades, the
screaming mummy is an enigma,
but in 2012,
scientists perform an autopsy
on the horrifying corpse.
It reveals something even more sinister.
It is not in a nice sarcophagus
with its name written on it,
and the mummy has not been mummified.
It is simply a naturally dried-out corpse.
Darnell: We have every indication
that he was intentionally
not embalmed properly.
His internal organs were left in his body,
he was buried in ritually-impure goat skin.
Narrator: It appears to some
that this is done deliberately.
I mean, it seems that the priest,
the embalmers who
enacted this bizarre version
of the mummification ritual
took care to not give him a proper burial.
Enmarch: Some egyptologists
speculate that this person
may have been cursed
in his burial in some way.
Narrator: The autopsy
also shows chilling details
of the screaming mummy's death.
♪
Zink: From the outer side around
his neck, there were some wrinkles.
It looks really like there
was a rope around his neck
and maybe he died of suffocation.
Narrator: The evidence suggests
the man is strangled or hanged.
It could be a punishment
or a gruesome crime.
Egyptologists turn to ancient
records for more information.
Reexamining an ancient
papyrus found in the 19th century,
they discover something incredible...
Trial records describing a plot
to assassinate ramesses iii.
The judicial papyrus of
turin contains the testimony
of the conspirators who
took part in this conspiracy.
Narrator: When experts study
the section naming the accused,
they're even more intrigued.
On trial is one of the
king's wives... queen tiye.
Also mentioned is her son, pentaweret.
It tells us their names,
it tells us what they did
as part of the conspiracy,
who they interacted with,
so they give us the
names of their collaborators.
This is an attempt to change
the arc of egyptian history.
♪
Narrator: Some of the conspirators
seem to have been swiftly sentenced.
Enmarch: Lower-ranking
conspirators are executed,
often in very gruesome ways.
Some of them seem to
have been impaled on spikes.
Narrator: But it appears the
judge faces a dilemma with others.
Darnell: Because
several of the perpetrators
in the assassination of ramesses iii
are members of the royal family,
how do you handle the death penalty?
Narrator: Historians can find
very little record of queen tiye's fate,
but they uncover a chilling
sentence for pentaweret.
The pharaoh's son is found guilty
and ordered to kill himself.
Pentaweret performed suicide,
possibly by hanging himself.
Narrator: Experts now consider
an extraordinary new theory...
The screaming mummy could be pentaweret,
ramesses iii's son,
and possible conspirator
to the pharaoh's murder.
To prove the theory, scientists
turn to the field of genetics,
hoping to confirm the
screaming mummy's identity.
♪
Darnell: There were many
guesses about who he might be,
but we had to wait until
dna evidence was available
and testing was available.
♪
Narrator: Forensic
anthropologist dr. Albert zink
leads the investigation.
We installed dna laboratory
in cairo, close to the museum,
to extract the dna and
then also to multiply the dna
and to get the genetic
fingerprint of the mummy.
Narrator: Dr. Zink and
his team extract a sample
from the bone of the screaming mummy,
believing they have found ancient dna.
When he compares the sequencing data
of the screaming mummy with the dna
taken from the body of
ramesses iii, he's stunned.
Zink: What we see when we
analyze the dna of both mummies,
that they indeed share 50% of the dna.
So, it's highly likely,
based on this genetic test,
that they are indeed father and son.
Narrator: It is a shocking
and unexpected result.
Based on this information,
some egyptologists believe
they can make a conclusion
about the screaming mummy.
Darnell: If we put all of this
evidence together with the papyri,
it makes the most sense
that the screaming
mummy is prince pentaweret.
Narrator: It means the son of ramesses iii
may have been instrumental in a plot
to kill his own father,
the 20th-dynasty pharaoh of egypt,
then he hanged for it.
♪
It is a window into a dark egyptian drama
only made possibly
by 21st-century scientific breakthroughs.
♪
Archaeologists in northern
egypt make a horrific discovery.
They come across four pits
filled with the remains
of 16 severed hands.
Narrator: It is a mystery
egyptologists are determined to solve,
answering a gruesome question.
For what sinister reason
are these hands cut off?
♪
Narrator: 2012...
Avaris, about 65 miles northeast of cairo.
Archaeologists dig at a
royal palace in the ancient city.
They uncover something morbid...
16 severed right hands.
This is a very strange and
puzzling find in many ways.
The severing of hands does not seem to play
in other areas of egyptian activity.
Narrator: Egyptologists are determined
to make sense of the ghastly find.
They start by examining the judicial system
in ancient egypt,
wondering if the hands could be part
of some state-sanctioned punishment.
We have a lot of evidence of a
system of crime and punishment
existing in ancient egypt
from relatively early on.
The more serious crimes led to mutilation,
and generally, the
lopping off of one's nose
or the cutting off of one's ear.
Narrator: Harsh treatment.
But as experts investigate
this justice system further,
they also discover how
the ancients enforced
this brutal rule of law.
Naunton: There was an entire
class of people called the medjay
who acted as a kind of police force
for the egyptian states to enforce laws
and to catch people who were breaking them.
Narrator: Ancient depictions reveal
a system of crime and punishment
where suspects are tried and sentenced.
Naunton: People were
involved in the law courts
and dealing with the laws
and in meeting out punishments
to people who broke them.
Narrator: But not only
were the guilty punished,
even innocent witnesses
are subject to the brutalities of the law.
If you witnessed a
crime and did not report it,
you would be guilty.
If you see something, say something.
Don't be quiet.
Naunton: We know that
torture is used from time to time
as a means of interrogation,
and we have the evidence
that arms were twisted,
various other techniques used to try
and coax information out of people.
Narrator: Could these 16 severed hands
be evidence of this ancient torture?
Some experts are not convinced.
Naunton: The hands
found at avaris are severed.
This would be a bit severe
if we're looking at torture.
This is something else,
something different.
Narrator: Researchers
must find another explanation.
They wonder if an answer could be found
in the actions of the pharaohs.
They examine a painting in
the famous tomb of king tut.
A savage detail catches their eye.
A relief of tutankhamun actually shows
that his enemies' hands are
being skewered on spikes.
Narrator: It's an intriguing clue,
so much so that investigators compare it
with paintings from other royal tombs.
On the reliefs in the
tombs of ramesses ii and iii,
we see piles of hands being collected,
which are actually the right
hands of all of their enemies.
Narrator: The evidence is mounting.
The severed hands appear connected
to some sort of military action.
When experts study the
records from ancient battles,
they make a crucial discovery.
When we look at egyptian battle records,
particularly from the 18th dynasty,
we understand that it was common practice
for the victorious egyptians
to sever right hands of fallen slain enemy.
♪
Narrator: But why cut off the
hands of your fallen enemy?
Mcginn: It's common
practice for the pharaoh
to pay his soldiers in plunder.
For the soldiers to get
paid, they need to prove
that they were brave in battle,
and what better way
to do it than to cut off
the right hand of your enemy?
Narrator: The severed hands
appear to be physical proof
of kills on the battlefield.
It allows egyptologists
to make a final conclusion
about the 16 hands.
Taking all the evidence together,
it seems very likely that these hands
in these pits in the royal palace
are the evidence of what
we see on the temple walls...
Hands having been
cut off foreign prisoners,
brought to the palace as a symbol
of egypt's conquest over its enemies.
Narrator: The archaeological
discovery of the severed hands
is the first empirical
evidence of this practice
ever found in egypt.
Bianchi: We had textual
and visual representations
of severed hands,
the avaris find is the first
time we have actual hands.
Narrator: It also confirms a
system of payment for soldiers
egyptologists thought might be true,
but for which we now have undeniable proof.
♪
An ancient papyri reveals one
of the most infamous criminals
in all of egypt.
He seems to have been
an all-around bad guy.
He had a rap sheet we should say.
Narrator: Egyptologists want to know
if this man gets away with his crimes
and whether he could be at the center
of one of the earliest criminal
cases of sexual misconduct.
♪
♪
Narrator: In the early 19th century,
british collector henry
salt arrived in egypt
on a mission to secure antiquities.
Among his purchases, an ancient papyri,
thereafter called "the salt papyri."
♪
Rose: When they dated it,
they found that is was
more than 4,000 years old.
Narrator: The scroll was originally
discovered perfectly preserved
at the site of deir el medina,
an ancient workers' village.
Cooney: It's absolutely amazing
we have this documentation at all.
It's extraordinary, and the reason we do
is because deir el medina is a village
in the middle of the desert,
and the desert preserves.
The desert sands, it
takes away all of the water,
dries everything out to
a perfect preservation.
Narrator: When researchers
translate the ancient text,
they make an astonishing discovery.
It tells the story of a shadowy character.
Rose: It's the full account of a worker
who had been working at deir el medina.
His name was paneb.
Clark: We know that paneb's
operating around the time of ramesses vi,
and this is in the 20th dynasty.
Narrator: As they study the scroll further,
experts find that paneb
is accused of countless misdemeanors.
He's accused of stealing crafted
objects that people have made.
Paneb was just an all-around bad guy.
Narrator: The list of accusations
become more and more serious.
It seems paneb is a prime suspect
in a string of robberies.
Paul: According to the salt papyri,
he's raided at least three tombs,
but that's based on the
recording that we have,
and of course, someone
with a rap sheet like paneb
likely looted many more.
Tomb robbery is one of
the most serious crimes
you can commit in ancient egypt.
♪
Narrator: The crimes take
place in one of ancient egypt's
most sacred cemeteries
...the valley of the kings.
This vast royal burial ground
is close to paneb's home in deir el medina.
Deir el medina was important
because that's where all the workmen
for the tombs of the
valley of the kings lived.
Narrator: Experts conclude
that paneb is a craftsmen
in the construction of the royal tombs,
a job that offers unique
access to restricted areas.
Cooney: The deir el medina
craftsmen knew the location
of every royal tomb, that
was their place of work.
They knew where ramesses ii was buried,
they knew were thutmose iii was buried.
Clark: Paneb is gonna
have intimate knowledge
of the layout of all the tombs.
He's actually involved in digging them.
Rose: Any tomb builder in ancient egypt
is a suspect for robbing these tombs out.
Narrator: Paneb has access to
information only a handful of people have.
Rose: It stands to reason that if paneb
had this kind of specialized information,
then any other tomb
builders would also have
that kind of special information.
Narrator: From the records,
experts reveal that paneb
begins to use his specialist
knowledge to his own benefit.
He's decided to use that position of power
for a life of crime.
Narrator: Now paneb
uses his intricate knowledge
of the valley of the
kings to his advantage.
Clark: Paneb was accused of
stealing from the tomb of seti ii,
but the one that would have got him,
the worst condemnation was
from stealing from queen henutmire
where he took a goose,
which was a symbol of amun
and would have been extremely valuable.
♪
Narrator: But his crime
wave can't go on forever.
The salt papyri reveals paneb's
actions catch up with him,
and his felonies go far
beyond treasure-seeking.
From the records, paneb's
trial could be one of the earliest
criminal cases of sexual
misconduct in history.
Cooney: He's accused of stealing
from a number of people's tombs,
he's accused of stealing wives,
so to speak, when he's accused of adultery,
and he's also accused of rape and violence.
Paneb was just an all-around bad guy.
Narrator: In the end,
paneb's low moral standing
comes back to haunt him.
The trial seems to have shown
that he had many enemies,
and he was taken down for it.
Justice in ancient
egypt is swift and severe.
♪
Paneb was dealt with by given 20 lashes.
He was a notorious tomb raider
and bad boy of the ancient world.
Narrator: The story of paneb
reminds us that crime and punishment
in ancient egypt follows the same patterns
and outcomes as in the 21st century,
and gives a window into
ancient egyptian justice
like never before.
♪
These ancient wonders
promise even greater secrets
still to be found under the sands of egypt.
Now cutting-edge science finally decodes
the mysterious land of the pharaohs.
With modern technology,
we are gaining an insight
into the way the ancient egyptians lived
and the manner at which they died.
Narrator: This time,
crime and punishment ancient egypt,
can cutting-edge scans prove
ramesses iii was murdered?
This is an attempt to change
the arc of egyptian history.
Narrator: Could new technology
finally solve the mystery
of the most famous
statue of queen nefertiti?
Is it genuine or is it a fake?
Narrator: And can the FBI
recover the first-ever ancient dna
from an egyptian mummy?
It was the FBI that
had the scientific tools
to analyze this head.
Narrator: Ancient clues on earth,
long-lost evidence reexamined,
precious artifacts brought
into the light of the 21st century.
These are "egypt's unexplained files."
FBI agents believe they can
solve a 4,000-year-old cold case
by extracting dna from an
ancient egyptian mummy
for the first time ever.
Nobody ever got dna from egyptian samples,
so I didn't think it was gonna work.
Narrator: It could reveal what had
eluded researchers for 100 years...
The person's identity.
Berman: People naturally
want to know whose it was.
We have a mystery.
♪
Narrator: The boston
museum of fine art, 2005.
Curators reexamine a strange
artifact kept in their vaults...
A mummified head missing its body.
They've never known its identity,
despite decades of research.
They believe now is the
time to find an answer.
And we thought that with
advances in technology,
we might be able to get more information
about the mummy's head.
So, we took the head to the
massachusetts general hospital,
and we did very advanced
and detailed ct scans.
♪
Narrator: From the 2005 ct scan,
scientists create a 3-d model of the skull.
It may determine whether the
person was a male or female.
But when they examine the
model, crucial evidence is missing.
Berman: We have 3-d
models that were printed out.
If you look at the jaw areas,
you can see what had been removed.
These are precisely the bones
that would be the most telling
in determining whether
the skull was male or female.
Narrator: It is a setback
for the scientists.
They now reexamine
the discovery of the tomb,
searching for missed evidence.
♪
Berman: The head was found in 1915
while the museum was excavating tombs
in the cemetery of deir el-bersha,
which is about 175 miles south of cairo.
Narrator: The burial place
has been ransacked by looters.
Berman: They broke in through
the head-ends of the coffin
and yanked the mummy out.
It was in great disarray.
Cooney: Strangely, the looters left
one of the heads of the inhabitants
severed from its body on top of the coffin.
Narrator: Identifying the head
from the contents found in the tomb
was impossible.
Since none of them were in the coffins,
we didn't know who they were.
Narrator: So archaeologists
examine the coffins themselves,
hoping for a clue to whom they belong.
They discovered inscriptions
that suggest two possibilities.
The coffins are copiously inscribed
with inscriptions that
contain their name and titles...
The governor djehutynakht
and of his wife whose
name was also djehutynakht.
Narrator: The inscriptions show
the couple are important people
around 2,000 b.C.E.,
but the mystery of the head remains.
No one knew whether it belonged
to djehutynakht the governor
or to his wife.
Is it him or is it her?
♪
Narrator: To solve the question,
museum curators seek outside expertise.
In 2016, the world's leading crime fighters
come to the rescue.
In this particular case, it was the FBI
that had the scientific
tools to analyze this head.
Narrator: The mummy's head is assigned
to two of the FBI's most
experienced investigators...
Jodi irwin, a research biologist
and odile loreille, a
specialist in ancient dna.
Loreille: The museum wanted to know
whether the head of the mummy belonged
to governor djehutynakht or to his wife.
Narrator: For the first time ever,
the FBI uses a dna sequencing
technique new to forensics.
We had a really difficult situation,
a situation that we wouldn't
have been able to solve
with all of our
currently-implemented technologies.
Narrator: The new technology is
called next-generation sequencing.
It can examine the tiniest of samples.
So, for ancient dna where, you know,
you don't have a lot of dna to start with.
These are instruments that allow
you to copy and sequence dna
that are very small and
in very high throughput,
so you have millions
and millions of sequences.
Narrator: But first, the FBI team
must find ancient dna in the skull,
a nearly impossible task.
They wouldn't normally have
to work with 4,000-year-old dna,
but often they are faced
with challenging situations.
Narrator: Over the
course of four millennia,
time, along with the
heat of the desert climate,
breaks down the dna in the head.
But geneticists potentially
face a far bigger issue...
Contamination.
Loreille: The mummy has been
touched by multiple people...
The looters, obviously, the archaeologists,
and then probably some
curators at the museum in boston,
so we were very concerned
about contamination.
Narrator: To extract uncontaminated dna,
the FBI team need an untouched sample,
a daunting task after 4,000 years.
Loreille: What we did is we
got a sample from inside a tooth
by going through the neck
so that we knew for sure
that it had never been touched.
Berman: The removal of the molar
was done as delicately as it would be
if you were operating on a living person.
Narrator: The tooth could
yield a viable dna sample,
but the scientists know
the odds are against them.
Loreille: I was really skeptical.
When I started, I thought there might be
a 5% chance it would work at best.
Narrator: Extracting
useful dna from the tooth
is a delicate and painstaking process.
Loreille: We sanded the
surface to remove contamination,
and then we drilled through
the tooth to remove powder.
Once you have the
powder, you extract the dna,
you put it in solution,
and that's the dna extract.
Narrator: For the first time ever,
the FBI uses the very-latest
sequencing technology
to process a mummy's ancient dna.
The results show up as a huge
data set of chemical sequences.
Once you've done that, you
see how many sequences
you have that match chromosome 1,
how many chromosome
2, 3, 4, 5, "x" and "y."
narrator: Odile is hunting
for the "y" chromosome
because "y" chromosomes
are only present in male dna.
If they succeed, it may be
the first ancient dna extraction
from an egyptian mummy in history.
Nobody ever got dna from egyptian samples,
so I didn't think it was gonna work.
Narrator: When the FBI
team study their results,
they discover something
long though unattainable...
Ancient dna.
They can now solve the
mystery of the severed head.
Irwin: The dna results
showed that the mummy's tooth,
and therefore the mummy,
is from the governor djehutynakht
and not his wife.
Yeah, it was boy.
[ laughs ]
berman: Although I'm
very happy that we know
that it is the governor and not his wife,
I was kind of hoping that it was her.
Narrator: After 4,000 years,
an ancient mummy has his identity restored
thanks to the world-class
expertise of the FBI.
But what is more, they
make a scientific breakthrough
in the field of ancient dna
that will undoubtedly lead
to further discoveries in the future.
♪
♪
The mysterious nefertiti.
Her iconic bust is a priceless treasure.
Fletcher: The bust of
nefertiti has long been
the crowning glory of egyptian antiquities.
It's a superb work of art.
Narrator: But some experts
believe this beautiful face
could be a forgery.
You would never in the ancient
world find an ancient statue
where they'd finished off
the hard parts with plaster.
This has got to be one of the
most controversial works of art
in human history.
Narrator: Now state-of-the-art scanners
are finally peering
beneath the statue's veneer
to answer one of egypt's
greatest questions.
Is it genuine or is it a fake?
♪
Narrator: She is the iconic
face of egypt's 18th dynasty...
Queen nefertiti.
Nefertiti has gone down in history
as the most beautiful
egyptian queen of all time.
Narrator: But for over 100 years,
questions about this beauty loom large.
Some believe the life-size
bust that created her image
may not be real.
I think that the bust of
nefertiti is a masterpiece,
and masterpieces are very hard to evaluate
in terms of authenticity.
Fletcher: A lot of duplicates were made
because the bust was so very popular.
Every collection wanted a
replica so visitors could come
and admire the bust of nefertiti
even if it's not the original one.
And I think the proliferation
of these reproduction busts
has sort of led to a certain
amount of uncertainty.
Which is the real one?
We can't 100% say it's accurate.
Narrator: So scientists begin
a 21st-century investigation
to find the truth.
Experts are analyzing this bust
using the latest scientific techniques
to try and find out if it truly is ancient.
Narrator: They start by probing
the statue with a 64-section ct scan,
revealing for the first time
the bust's inner structure.
Harrison: Ct scans reveal
that it's a limestone core
which has been covered
with a layer of stucco
which was then painted.
Narrator: For egyptologists, the
discovery is deeply suspicious.
Harrison: You would
never, in the ancient world,
find an ancient statue
where they'd finished off
the hard parts with plaster,
so this rings some alarm bells.
I suppose the temptation
of people to want to buy
a little piece of amarna art for themselves
could throw up the possibility
that a bust like this may
have been made by a forger.
But, of course, it just feeds
into this whole mystery of
"is the nefertiti bust a fake or not?"
narrator: The strange
materials found in the scan
lead experts to reexamine the circumstances
under which the bust is discovered
in the early 20th century.
♪
Harrison: Ludwig borchardt
claims to find the bust of nefertiti
in a workshop at el-amarna
under 50 centimeters of dirt and gravel.
Narrator: It all seems too perfect.
Investigators now look at borchardt's diary
to find anything out of the ordinary.
Then something suspicious.
The exact circumstances
surrounding the discovery of the bust
have been called into question
because it coincided, apparently,
the visit of a prince to the excavations.
And it's been suggested
maybe that borchardt
wanted to impress his royal visitor
with this amazing new find.
Narrator: In the early 20th
century, there is huge desire
to impress europe's
still-powerful royal families.
A find showing the beautiful nefertiti
would take their breath away.
The prince marvels at the discoveries,
but one of the workmen
disappears for a few moments.
The workman comes back
holding this bust of nefertiti.
The royals are wowed by its beauty.
Fletcher: In some people's
minds, it's a question of
"was this thing planted
to make the archaeology
seem even more exciting?"
narrator: The visit
raised initial suspicions
about the bust's authenticity,
but in the decades that followed,
experts have also studied
the characteristics of the statue.
One detail raised questions.
♪
Harrison: The fact that
the bust only has one eye
does raise some red flags.
Modern forgery experts
argue that it would be easy
to sort one ancient eye
in the construction of a piece like this,
but finding a pair would
be almost impossible.
Narrator: But not all
experts agree with the theory
that nefertiti's one eye proves it's fake.
This is to fundamentally misunderstand
how the ancient egyptians
produced portraits
with inlaid eyes.
And so frequently, these
eyes fall out all the time,
so whether the eye is there
or not is absolutely no reason
to question the authenticity
of this superb work of art.
Narrator: As researchers
consider further the idea
that the statue is a forgery,
they start to notice other
irregular elements in the bust.
♪
Fletcher: There is selective
damage on the bust.
You know, the missing
head of the uraeus snake,
damage to the ear and so forth.
Harrison: We're told that
the bust was found on it's face
under the ground in the workshop,
and yet, there's no damage
to the nose or the chin,
which is what you'd expect
if it had fallen off of a shelf
and lost the cobra.
The damage on the ear
seems to be quite selective
as if it had been dropped
on its right and then left side.
The face is largely immaculate.
It's almost as if someone wants
that most important
feature to be preserved.
Narrator: The face of
nefertiti is so perfect,
when brought to germany,
it is revered by their
powerful new dictator.
♪
Hitler greatly admired
the bust of nefertiti.
To him, it represented
the ideal aryan woman.
Fletcher: Adolf hitler apparently
takes the bust of nefertiti
into his personal collection.
♪
Narrator: After the war, the bust
ends up in berlin's neues museum,
it's most-prized treasure.
In 2009, the museum curators
continue their exhaustive
examinations of the statue,
determined to solve the mystery.
The museum decides they
want to put this argument to rest.
They want to determine is this bust
actually made of ancient materials.
Narrator: For this, scientists
carry out a chemical analysis
of the materials using
cutting-edge xrf testing.
Xrf stands for x-ray florescence.
Essentially, you aim
lasers at the bust of nefertiti,
and then the elements that
leave from the laser are monitored,
and you can find out if there
are any, say, modern pigments.
Narrator: The results will
show whether the pigments
are made from 3,000-year-old components
or cheap 20th-century counterfeits.
When the data comes in,
the scientists are amazed.
Fletcher: The pigments used,
the paints used exactly conform
to the kind of pigments
that 18th-dynasty artists
were using in egypt at that time.
They are, in fact, ancient pigments.
Narrator: The results lead
some to make a final conclusion
on nefertiti's bust.
I think it's absolutely clear
that this bust is genuine.
Narrator: Others are not yet convinced.
The fact is, there's strong
evidence on both sides
that indicate that it could be authentic
and it could be a forgery.
Fletcher: If it's a fake, then
the forger must be a genius,
being able to replicate
exactly the known recipes
for ancient-egyptian pigments.
Narrator: The final answer
to this ancient mystery
may lie in the analysis of other materials
used in creating the bust,
a task scientists will no
doubt tackle in the future.
Eventually, when we're able
to data limestone and plaster,
then we'll be able to tell for sure.
Narrator: Priceless ancient artifact
or 20th-century fake?
Experts are getting closer and closer
to a definitive answer
on the enduring image
of the most beautiful
queen in ancient egypt.
♪
♪
A pharaoh whose death is one
of egypt's strangest mysteries.
Darnell: The ultimate fate
of pharaoh ramesses iii
has long puzzled egyptologists.
Up to now, we don't know
how ramesses iii died.
Narrator: Now scientists, using
the latest high-resolution scanners,
believe they can prove he's murdered.
Darnell: 21st-century
technology may finally enable us
to solve this cold case.
♪
Narrator: He was the last truly
great monarch of the 20th dynasty,
the dominant pharaoh ramesses iii.
He seems to have been a very
powerful and successful pharaoh.
Narrator: But despite perceptions,
some experts suggest the
king has troubles at home.
Enmarch: Towards the end of his reign,
there does appear to
have been some problems
with law and order,
so there may have been
gathering storm clouds
towards the end of his reign.
Narrator: These stormy last years
become the basis for a long-held theory...
Ramesses iii is the target
of an assassination plot.
Darnell: The assassination of ramesses iii
and the attempt to put someone
other than his designated
successor on the throne
is definitely a coup d'etat.
Narrator: But there is a
problem with the theory...
No one's ever been able to
prove that his death was murder.
Now scientists think
cutting-edge technology
could reveal new information
in a key piece of evidence...
Ramesses' body.
Darnell: The mummy
of ramesses iii is labeled.
It was re-wrapped and reburied
following the end of the new kingdom,
so we know that it's his body.
Narrator: The pharaoh's corpse now
lies in the egyptian museum in cairo.
When scientists carry out
an initial examination in 2012,
they find no obvious causes of death.
There's no evidence of any
kind of diseases or trauma
or any indication why he could have died.
Narrator: But on closer
scrutiny, there is an obvious clue.
While most of the bandages on the body
were taken off during antiquity,
in one sport, the bandages
have been left intact.
Zink: Most interestingly, they
have a thick layer of bandages
just around the neck,
and this couldn't have been
removed in the earlier attempts,
so it remains there forever.
Narrator: The bandages appear
intact from the time of the burial,
suggesting they could be hiding something.
Unlike other postmortem examinations
that dissect the body,
the scientists decide not
to remove the bandages.
Instead, they use a 21st-century
method of investigation.
In recent times, it's been
possible to examine mummies
in more detail using ct scans.
Zink: We are allowed to make
new ct scans of the mummy
to look, let's say, inside the body,
which we cannot see from outside.
Narrator: They scan ramesses
iii for the first time in history,
creating a 3-d image of
the 3,000-year-old corpse.
When the scientists
study the scans of the neck,
they're horrified.
It became clear that
there is a very deep gash
that runs across his throat.
Everything's cut... the muscles,
the skin, and even the arteries.
Enmarch: So, we're talking
here about a really deep cut,
you know, several inches deep.
It actually cuts back to the vertebra
of the back of the neck,
so a really deep gash to the neck.
Narrator: A wound of this
type can mean only one thing...
Murder.
It would have been very rapidly fatal.
Zink: There's no chance
to survive such a cut.
It's really a typical deadly
cut wound of his neck.
♪
Narrator: But there is even more.
The scientists find evidence
that suggest the wound
is definitely inflicted
while ramesses is still alive.
♪
Zink: Inside the wound,
there's a little amulet.
Darnell: And in the ct scan,
you could see it's the
shape of an udjat eye,
of the eye of horus, and
that is a healing amulet.
Zink: This is an amulet the
ancient embalmer puts in
to heal something, to repair something.
So it's as if to make up for the fact that
he died in such a
violent and traumatic way,
that they're adding that amulet
to almost undo the damage that was done.
Narrator: It is enough
evidence for some egyptologists
to make a final conclusion
about the fate of ramesses iii.
Darnell: The ct scans of
the mummy of ramesses iii
indicate that he was the
victim of a vicious assassination.
Enmarch: The cause of
the death of ramesses iii
has mystified egyptologists
for generations,
but new scientific techniques have revealed
a potentially brutal demise.
Narrator: Many believe this
proves the longstanding theory,
turning ramesses death
into a case of murder
three millennia after it is committed.
♪
Cutting-edge science
exposes the possible murder
of pharaoh ramesses iii.
Darnell: Up until the ct scan
and the investigation of
the mummy of ramesses iii,
we had no confirmation
that the assassination
attempt actually succeeded.
Narrator: With an
assassination case now open,
experts think they may be able to pinpoint
who helped carry out the grisly killing
using the newest dna analysis.
Darnell: There were many
guesses about who he might be,
but we had to wait until
dna evidence was available
and testing was available.
Narrator: The hunt is now on to
solve the 3,000-year-old murder case.
♪
Narrator: Egyptologists want to know
who may have plotted against ramesses iii.
♪
To start, they return to the tomb
where the 20th-dynasty pharaoh was found
along with other family
members and royals from the time.
Could someone else buried
there be implicated in his murder?
♪
Darnell: The tomb at deir el-bahari
containing most of the mummies
of the rulers of the new kingdom
is discovered in the 1880s.
And one of the mummies is very unusual.
The so-called "screaming mummy."
zink: And this mummy is unique
because it has his mouth wide open.
It looks like it's really screaming.
Darnell: The physical evidence
of the screaming mummy
indicates that he died a violent death.
Narrator: For decades, the
screaming mummy is an enigma,
but in 2012,
scientists perform an autopsy
on the horrifying corpse.
It reveals something even more sinister.
It is not in a nice sarcophagus
with its name written on it,
and the mummy has not been mummified.
It is simply a naturally dried-out corpse.
Darnell: We have every indication
that he was intentionally
not embalmed properly.
His internal organs were left in his body,
he was buried in ritually-impure goat skin.
Narrator: It appears to some
that this is done deliberately.
I mean, it seems that the priest,
the embalmers who
enacted this bizarre version
of the mummification ritual
took care to not give him a proper burial.
Enmarch: Some egyptologists
speculate that this person
may have been cursed
in his burial in some way.
Narrator: The autopsy
also shows chilling details
of the screaming mummy's death.
♪
Zink: From the outer side around
his neck, there were some wrinkles.
It looks really like there
was a rope around his neck
and maybe he died of suffocation.
Narrator: The evidence suggests
the man is strangled or hanged.
It could be a punishment
or a gruesome crime.
Egyptologists turn to ancient
records for more information.
Reexamining an ancient
papyrus found in the 19th century,
they discover something incredible...
Trial records describing a plot
to assassinate ramesses iii.
The judicial papyrus of
turin contains the testimony
of the conspirators who
took part in this conspiracy.
Narrator: When experts study
the section naming the accused,
they're even more intrigued.
On trial is one of the
king's wives... queen tiye.
Also mentioned is her son, pentaweret.
It tells us their names,
it tells us what they did
as part of the conspiracy,
who they interacted with,
so they give us the
names of their collaborators.
This is an attempt to change
the arc of egyptian history.
♪
Narrator: Some of the conspirators
seem to have been swiftly sentenced.
Enmarch: Lower-ranking
conspirators are executed,
often in very gruesome ways.
Some of them seem to
have been impaled on spikes.
Narrator: But it appears the
judge faces a dilemma with others.
Darnell: Because
several of the perpetrators
in the assassination of ramesses iii
are members of the royal family,
how do you handle the death penalty?
Narrator: Historians can find
very little record of queen tiye's fate,
but they uncover a chilling
sentence for pentaweret.
The pharaoh's son is found guilty
and ordered to kill himself.
Pentaweret performed suicide,
possibly by hanging himself.
Narrator: Experts now consider
an extraordinary new theory...
The screaming mummy could be pentaweret,
ramesses iii's son,
and possible conspirator
to the pharaoh's murder.
To prove the theory, scientists
turn to the field of genetics,
hoping to confirm the
screaming mummy's identity.
♪
Darnell: There were many
guesses about who he might be,
but we had to wait until
dna evidence was available
and testing was available.
♪
Narrator: Forensic
anthropologist dr. Albert zink
leads the investigation.
We installed dna laboratory
in cairo, close to the museum,
to extract the dna and
then also to multiply the dna
and to get the genetic
fingerprint of the mummy.
Narrator: Dr. Zink and
his team extract a sample
from the bone of the screaming mummy,
believing they have found ancient dna.
When he compares the sequencing data
of the screaming mummy with the dna
taken from the body of
ramesses iii, he's stunned.
Zink: What we see when we
analyze the dna of both mummies,
that they indeed share 50% of the dna.
So, it's highly likely,
based on this genetic test,
that they are indeed father and son.
Narrator: It is a shocking
and unexpected result.
Based on this information,
some egyptologists believe
they can make a conclusion
about the screaming mummy.
Darnell: If we put all of this
evidence together with the papyri,
it makes the most sense
that the screaming
mummy is prince pentaweret.
Narrator: It means the son of ramesses iii
may have been instrumental in a plot
to kill his own father,
the 20th-dynasty pharaoh of egypt,
then he hanged for it.
♪
It is a window into a dark egyptian drama
only made possibly
by 21st-century scientific breakthroughs.
♪
Archaeologists in northern
egypt make a horrific discovery.
They come across four pits
filled with the remains
of 16 severed hands.
Narrator: It is a mystery
egyptologists are determined to solve,
answering a gruesome question.
For what sinister reason
are these hands cut off?
♪
Narrator: 2012...
Avaris, about 65 miles northeast of cairo.
Archaeologists dig at a
royal palace in the ancient city.
They uncover something morbid...
16 severed right hands.
This is a very strange and
puzzling find in many ways.
The severing of hands does not seem to play
in other areas of egyptian activity.
Narrator: Egyptologists are determined
to make sense of the ghastly find.
They start by examining the judicial system
in ancient egypt,
wondering if the hands could be part
of some state-sanctioned punishment.
We have a lot of evidence of a
system of crime and punishment
existing in ancient egypt
from relatively early on.
The more serious crimes led to mutilation,
and generally, the
lopping off of one's nose
or the cutting off of one's ear.
Narrator: Harsh treatment.
But as experts investigate
this justice system further,
they also discover how
the ancients enforced
this brutal rule of law.
Naunton: There was an entire
class of people called the medjay
who acted as a kind of police force
for the egyptian states to enforce laws
and to catch people who were breaking them.
Narrator: Ancient depictions reveal
a system of crime and punishment
where suspects are tried and sentenced.
Naunton: People were
involved in the law courts
and dealing with the laws
and in meeting out punishments
to people who broke them.
Narrator: But not only
were the guilty punished,
even innocent witnesses
are subject to the brutalities of the law.
If you witnessed a
crime and did not report it,
you would be guilty.
If you see something, say something.
Don't be quiet.
Naunton: We know that
torture is used from time to time
as a means of interrogation,
and we have the evidence
that arms were twisted,
various other techniques used to try
and coax information out of people.
Narrator: Could these 16 severed hands
be evidence of this ancient torture?
Some experts are not convinced.
Naunton: The hands
found at avaris are severed.
This would be a bit severe
if we're looking at torture.
This is something else,
something different.
Narrator: Researchers
must find another explanation.
They wonder if an answer could be found
in the actions of the pharaohs.
They examine a painting in
the famous tomb of king tut.
A savage detail catches their eye.
A relief of tutankhamun actually shows
that his enemies' hands are
being skewered on spikes.
Narrator: It's an intriguing clue,
so much so that investigators compare it
with paintings from other royal tombs.
On the reliefs in the
tombs of ramesses ii and iii,
we see piles of hands being collected,
which are actually the right
hands of all of their enemies.
Narrator: The evidence is mounting.
The severed hands appear connected
to some sort of military action.
When experts study the
records from ancient battles,
they make a crucial discovery.
When we look at egyptian battle records,
particularly from the 18th dynasty,
we understand that it was common practice
for the victorious egyptians
to sever right hands of fallen slain enemy.
♪
Narrator: But why cut off the
hands of your fallen enemy?
Mcginn: It's common
practice for the pharaoh
to pay his soldiers in plunder.
For the soldiers to get
paid, they need to prove
that they were brave in battle,
and what better way
to do it than to cut off
the right hand of your enemy?
Narrator: The severed hands
appear to be physical proof
of kills on the battlefield.
It allows egyptologists
to make a final conclusion
about the 16 hands.
Taking all the evidence together,
it seems very likely that these hands
in these pits in the royal palace
are the evidence of what
we see on the temple walls...
Hands having been
cut off foreign prisoners,
brought to the palace as a symbol
of egypt's conquest over its enemies.
Narrator: The archaeological
discovery of the severed hands
is the first empirical
evidence of this practice
ever found in egypt.
Bianchi: We had textual
and visual representations
of severed hands,
the avaris find is the first
time we have actual hands.
Narrator: It also confirms a
system of payment for soldiers
egyptologists thought might be true,
but for which we now have undeniable proof.
♪
An ancient papyri reveals one
of the most infamous criminals
in all of egypt.
He seems to have been
an all-around bad guy.
He had a rap sheet we should say.
Narrator: Egyptologists want to know
if this man gets away with his crimes
and whether he could be at the center
of one of the earliest criminal
cases of sexual misconduct.
♪
♪
Narrator: In the early 19th century,
british collector henry
salt arrived in egypt
on a mission to secure antiquities.
Among his purchases, an ancient papyri,
thereafter called "the salt papyri."
♪
Rose: When they dated it,
they found that is was
more than 4,000 years old.
Narrator: The scroll was originally
discovered perfectly preserved
at the site of deir el medina,
an ancient workers' village.
Cooney: It's absolutely amazing
we have this documentation at all.
It's extraordinary, and the reason we do
is because deir el medina is a village
in the middle of the desert,
and the desert preserves.
The desert sands, it
takes away all of the water,
dries everything out to
a perfect preservation.
Narrator: When researchers
translate the ancient text,
they make an astonishing discovery.
It tells the story of a shadowy character.
Rose: It's the full account of a worker
who had been working at deir el medina.
His name was paneb.
Clark: We know that paneb's
operating around the time of ramesses vi,
and this is in the 20th dynasty.
Narrator: As they study the scroll further,
experts find that paneb
is accused of countless misdemeanors.
He's accused of stealing crafted
objects that people have made.
Paneb was just an all-around bad guy.
Narrator: The list of accusations
become more and more serious.
It seems paneb is a prime suspect
in a string of robberies.
Paul: According to the salt papyri,
he's raided at least three tombs,
but that's based on the
recording that we have,
and of course, someone
with a rap sheet like paneb
likely looted many more.
Tomb robbery is one of
the most serious crimes
you can commit in ancient egypt.
♪
Narrator: The crimes take
place in one of ancient egypt's
most sacred cemeteries
...the valley of the kings.
This vast royal burial ground
is close to paneb's home in deir el medina.
Deir el medina was important
because that's where all the workmen
for the tombs of the
valley of the kings lived.
Narrator: Experts conclude
that paneb is a craftsmen
in the construction of the royal tombs,
a job that offers unique
access to restricted areas.
Cooney: The deir el medina
craftsmen knew the location
of every royal tomb, that
was their place of work.
They knew where ramesses ii was buried,
they knew were thutmose iii was buried.
Clark: Paneb is gonna
have intimate knowledge
of the layout of all the tombs.
He's actually involved in digging them.
Rose: Any tomb builder in ancient egypt
is a suspect for robbing these tombs out.
Narrator: Paneb has access to
information only a handful of people have.
Rose: It stands to reason that if paneb
had this kind of specialized information,
then any other tomb
builders would also have
that kind of special information.
Narrator: From the records,
experts reveal that paneb
begins to use his specialist
knowledge to his own benefit.
He's decided to use that position of power
for a life of crime.
Narrator: Now paneb
uses his intricate knowledge
of the valley of the
kings to his advantage.
Clark: Paneb was accused of
stealing from the tomb of seti ii,
but the one that would have got him,
the worst condemnation was
from stealing from queen henutmire
where he took a goose,
which was a symbol of amun
and would have been extremely valuable.
♪
Narrator: But his crime
wave can't go on forever.
The salt papyri reveals paneb's
actions catch up with him,
and his felonies go far
beyond treasure-seeking.
From the records, paneb's
trial could be one of the earliest
criminal cases of sexual
misconduct in history.
Cooney: He's accused of stealing
from a number of people's tombs,
he's accused of stealing wives,
so to speak, when he's accused of adultery,
and he's also accused of rape and violence.
Paneb was just an all-around bad guy.
Narrator: In the end,
paneb's low moral standing
comes back to haunt him.
The trial seems to have shown
that he had many enemies,
and he was taken down for it.
Justice in ancient
egypt is swift and severe.
♪
Paneb was dealt with by given 20 lashes.
He was a notorious tomb raider
and bad boy of the ancient world.
Narrator: The story of paneb
reminds us that crime and punishment
in ancient egypt follows the same patterns
and outcomes as in the 21st century,
and gives a window into
ancient egyptian justice
like never before.
♪