Egypt's Unexplained Files (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 9 - Ramses' Forbidden City - full transcript

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Narrator: Pyramids, temples, tombs...

These ancient wonders
promise even greater secrets

still to be found beneath
the sands of egypt.

Now cutting-edge science

decodes the mysterious
land of the pharaohs.

We are gaining an insight

into the way the ancient egyptians lived

and the manner of which they died.

Narrator: This time, the
mysteries behind egyptian genius.

Can scientists explain
bizarre markings in the desert

first spotted from outer space?



Rose: The landscapes are like
these post-apocalyptic wastelands,

like an explosion went off.

Narrator: Can a new lab experiment
reveal egyptians as the first surgeons?

Harrison: Do they understand medicine

hundreds of years before the greeks?

Narrator: And can modern
technology shed light on

how a pharaoh's capital city
was discovered in two places?

Naunton: Without the advent
of a new scientific technique,

we wouldn't be able
to understand that story.

Narrator: Ancient clues unearthed,

long-lost evidence re-examined,

precious artifacts brought
into the light of the 21st century.

These are "egypt's unexplained files."

1939... the great archeologist
pierre montet believed



he found the remains of a
great pharaoh's lost capital...

Pi-ramesses.

He was kind of dazzled by the statues

and the obelisks and the inscriptions.

Narrator: Then in the year 2000,

the results of a 30-year
magnetic scanning project

appeared to blow montet's theory apart.

It shows the location of the
city nearly 20 miles away.

How can these two places just
separated by miles be connected?

Narrator: Tanis, in the
northeast of the nile delta...

French archeologist pierre montet marvels

at his incredible discovery at monuments

all dedicated to one of the
greatest pharaohs of all time.

All around him he sees
monuments of ramesses ii.

His name and his image is everywhere.

Narrator: For 30 years,
it was believed montet

had found the lost capital of pi-ramesses,

until experts began
to question his findings.

He didn't really try to confirm
it by looking for pottery,

by looking for small finds,
which really would tell you

scientifically what the
date of the site was.

Narrator: In the late '60s,
archeologists begin to examine

the small artifacts from the site.

Astonishingly, none actually date

from the time of ramesses ii,

instead they're from 1,000 b.C.E.,

two centuries after his reign.

Archeologists now ask,

"could the great montet have been wrong?"

some people jump to the wrong conclusion

that this had to be that city.

Narrator: The search for
pi-ramesses begins all over again.

For archeologists,

the lore of this lost city is irresistible.

A great capital extolled in ancient poetry

and named in the bible itself.

Lacovara: It was a huge city.

It's been suggested 30 square kilometers,

the size of manhattan, bigger even.

It's a huge, thriving
metropolis... temples, palaces,

obelisks, colossal statues.

It was a monument to
ramesses ii's power and might.

Narrator: Egyptologists
re-examine the evidence.

Montet had just one clue to
the location of pi-ramesses,

an ancient hymn dedicated
to the great capital city.

Naunton: It just tells us that pi-ramesses

is on the eastern-most branch
of the nile in the nile delta.

It doesn't, though, give
us its exact location.

Narrator: The nile flows into the
mediterranean in northern egypt.

Here the river delta
splits into many branches.

Geologists know many of these have run dry

and shifted location over millennia.

Naunton: So, when we're
looking for the site of pi-ramesses,

we have to look not only
on branches of the river

which exist now, branches of the river

which might have existed in the past

but are now dried up.

Narrator: Montet searched
along a drained stretch of the nile,

known as the tanitic branch.

He believed this to be
the eastern-most part

of the delta described in the ancient hymn.

But 30 years later, austrian
geologists study contour maps,

they search among the ridges and valleys

for evidence of ancient river runs.

They're amazed to
discover another dead branch

of the nile delta even further east...

The pelusiac branch, 20 miles from tanis,

near the modern city of qantir.

It's 1970, and archeologists
begin to dig near the city,

uncovering thousands
of tiny but crucial clues.

The ceramics found in the area
date to the time of ramesses ii.

So, it's really in the shards
and the objects of daily life

and the little bits that
tell you the true story.

Narrator: Egyptologists now
ask an intriguing question...

Could these tiny finds be evidence

of the city of pi-ramesses,

nearly 20 miles from where
montet believed it stood?

Then they make another astonishing find.

Most intriguingly of all, we have evidence

of a colossal statue of ramesses ii

in a farmer's field, and
this leads archeologists

to want to look more closely at this site.

Narrator: It's another
clue this could be the site

of pi-ramesses.

Archeologists need to look much deeper.

They use handheld magnetometers

to undertake the largest underground scan

in the history of egyptology.

The results are astonishing.

An entire ancient capital city

just revealed almost in an instant.

Narrator: Networks of ancient
streets and foundations of buildings

all dating to the time of ramesses ii.

But there's a problem...

If the foundations of the
capital city are here in qantir,

then why did montet
discover the great monuments

to ramesses ii nearly
20 miles away in tanis?

Once again, long-term
changes in the nile delta

could hold the clue.

The branch that
pi-ramesses was located on...

The pelusiac branch... silts up gradually

so it eventually makes the site useless,

it's not a good port anymore.

Narrator: Without a flowing
river, the city could not function.

Lacovara: The harbor was no longer usable.

There was no way for trade to get there

and so the city was kind of
gradually starved for income.

Narrator: Egyptologists believe
150 years after pi-ramesses was built,

its fortunes began to suffer

when the pelusiac
branch of the nile ran dry.

Experts now propose a novel theory

that egyptians moved buildings

and statues 20 miles west to tanis,

the ancient site montet discovered.

It sounds an impossible undertaking,

but experts know the
egyptians had done it before.

They were of course well
used to this colossi of memnon

of amenhotep iii had been
taken from the quarries near cairo

all the way down to luxor.

They weighed 800 tons
and that was 400 miles.

Bianchi: It's not
uncommon for egyptologists

to find monuments from an earlier period

in a more recent context.

The egyptians were great recyclers.

Narrator: Yet this was a recycling
project on an unimaginable scale.

Some of the obelisks
weigh up to 1,000 tons.

Naunton: It would have been
involving a very significant

part of the population.

It would have been the big
event of the time in egypt.

Lacovara: We don't know
exactly how long it took, you know,

they would have probably taken it piecemeal

as they were picking over the city.

Naunton: It's a phenomenal undertaking,

a massive undertaking to move
all of that stone that distance.

Narrator: This is an
almost superhuman effort

on the part of the egyptians,

but actually one that
would save time and effort.

Naunton: The alternative would
have been to build from scratch,

and that would mean quarrying stone anew

and bringing it from quarries,

which would have been a long way away,

further away from tanis
than pi-ramesses is.

It was a lot cheaper to try
to retrofit older monuments

and you would get it up in a hurry.

Narrator: In pi-ramesses, it's
likely thousands of men were needed

to move these great monuments
to tanis to rebuild once again.

Naunton: It's a great
revivification of a city

which becomes great again,
just in a different location.

Narrator: This astonishing
achievement meant that 5,000 years later,

it was not pi-ramesses
that montet discovered,

but a new city built with borrowed stone

carried across the desert
from the great capital.

Montet's discovery was in fact evidence

of how the egyptians pulled off

one of the greatest engineering
feats of the ancient world.

♪

Recent satellite images of egypt

reveal a strange unexplained phenomenon...

Giant holes in the ground
next to some of the country's

most important archeological sites.

And what's really scary is
that number of these holes

is increasing.

Narrator: Scientists rush to investigate.

But what are they?

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Narrator: Satellite
technology offers archeologists

the latest tool in the search
for clues to ancient past.

But these images taken from space in 2012

have baffled the experts.

The landscapes near
these archeological sites

are like these pockmarked,
post-apocalyptic wasteland.

It's like an explosion went off.

Many of the sites end up
looking like swiss cheese.

Narrator: As they seek an
explanation for these deep craters

near precious ancient sites,

a new and unusual clue
comes to light, not in egypt,

but over 400 miles
away in jerusalem, israel.

Paul: Israeli authorities actually
found two egyptian sarcophagi

in an antiquity shop in jerusalem.

Narrator: To experts, it's
uncommon to see treasure

such as these for sale outside egypt.

It's not unheard of that you
would see egyptian artifacts

excavated from israel,
however, a large sarcophagus,

that's not typical in israel.

Narrator: The two ancient artifacts
have been treated with little care,

both were damaged beyond repair.

Investigators believe these
treasures have been looted

to be sold illicitly in israel.

The seller may say the item is authentic,

that doesn't mean it's legal.

Narrator: Could the holes in the
desert be evidence of criminals

digging for sarcophagi
and other prizes of antiquity?

Ancient egypt's riches have certainly

always been under threat from thieves.

Clark: It's a very old practice.

As far as crime's concerned,
you could in fact say

it's the world's second-oldest profession.

One of the most famous
tomb raiders was an italian

who operated in the early 19th century.

There was one man, an
italian, giovanni belzoni,

who was a master tomb robber.

Narrator: Belzoni had
an unusual set of skills

that made him perfect for the job.

Cooney: He was trained as a circus man,

and he was actually a crack engineer,

also self-trained.

And he was hired by a number
of wealthy men in europe

to get stuff for them.

Narrator: Belzoni earned his reputation

by stealing some of egypt's
most impressive artifacts

with stunning bravado.

Well, belzoni makes his
name initially by removing

the bust of ramesses ii
from outside the ramesseum

and hauling it down the nile to cairo

for shipment to England.

Narrator: Stealing priceless treasures
and smashing others in the process,

belzoni also brazenly left his calling card

at the scene of his crimes.

Cooney: Belzoni wasn't
shy about putting his name

everywhere he could,

and if you're a tourist in egypt today

and you climb into the
burial chamber of king khafre,

on of the great pyramids
on the giza plateau,

you will see the name belzoni
as big as possible on the walls.

Narrator: The story of belzoni is evidence

of the extreme lengths
tomb raiders will go to

to steal egyptian artifacts.

The experts now examine
the satellite images

for the proof of
21st-century grave robbers.

Cooney: When archeologists
are using satellite imagery,

sometimes if they
compare the satellite images

from 10 years ago to today,

they start to see more holes in the ground

that weren't there before.

Narrator: Clustered around
key archeological sites,

these holes are revealed,
on closer inspection,

to be deep vertical shafts,

tunnels dug by modern thieves
searching for ancient treasures.

Paul: So, there's really a
race between archeologists

who are trying to properly
record and excavate

and tomb raiders

who are stealing artifacts
at astronomical rates

like we've never seen before in egypt.

But why is there such an enormous spike

in illegal digging?

Many believe it's connected
to the egyptian revolution

which exploded in 2011.

Civil unrest followed for years.

Experts now believe important sites

were ransacked during the chaos.

And sometimes that looting
can be a couple of people

coming in and digging a hole here or there.

In other cases, that
looting is very systematic.

Rose: As they go in
there and they're taking out

all the valuable objects,
they're destroying the site.

They're causing irreparable
damage to that archeology.

Cooney: You see people
coming in with earth movers,

with bulldozers to come in
and sweep away parts of a site

to quickly look for ancient
materials they can sell.

Narrator: Between 2011 and
2013, researchers recorded

an average of 38,000 annual lootings

of egypt's precious archeological sites.

Artifacts are being stolen
on an industrial scale

to feed a global market.

Paul: The people buying these artifacts

tend to be from wealthier countries

so that's countries in the west,

like the united states, like
the u.K., France, germany.

Narrator: It's a trade that leaves
archeologists deeply troubled.

But as long as there
are people willing to pay

for stolen artifacts,

there will always be
people willing to steal them.

Cooney: The greatest tomb robbers of all

are all of the people who
are currently buying them.

When that demand stops,
then the tomb robbery will stop.

♪

Narrator: Produced to create
beautiful art 4,600 years ago,

the world's first artificial
pigment... egyptian blue.

Egyptian blue was extraordinarily important

throughout the ancient world.

Incredibly, researchers now believe

this material may hold within it

the key to revolutionize forensic science.

Could egyptian blue be used
to solve 21st-century crimes?

♪

Narrator: For the ancient egyptians,

blue was a sacred color.

It has connotations as a
color with fertility, with creation,

with everything relating
to the skies above them.

They wanted to incorporate
this cherished color into their art,

but there was a problem.

Blue is not available naturally.

It doesn't occur naturally
in too many substances.

Reds, yellows are common
among different kinds of pigments,

but blue is something difficult to create.

Narrator: In 2,600 b.C.E.,

to overcome this, the
ancient egyptians embarked

on a chemical experiment
and made a breakthrough.

Colleen: I think that we can
pretty safely say that the egyptians

were phenomenal
chemists of the ancient world.

And they clearly experimented.

Egyptians found a way
to create egyptian blue

using substances around them basically...

Sand, using copper, calcium.

So, these are very common substances.

Narrator: Balls of the mixture
were placed into clay jars

and put into ovens heated
at 1,000 degrees celsius.

The finished product was
then thoroughly ground down,

and they had the world's
first artificial pigment.

It's chemical name...
Calcium copper tetrasilicate,

the color a striking blue.

The ancient egyptians
were incredibly resourceful,

and there essentially was not a problem

that they couldn't solve through tenacity

and use of the resources at their disposal.

Narrator: This vibrant color
stunned the ancient world,

but now, thousands of years later,

it's egyptian blue's hidden qualities

that are exciting modern
forensic scientists.

Centuries ago, reliefs like these

were once painted with the famous pigment.

The color has faded to the naked eye,

but using high-tech infrared cameras

under the right lighting conditions,

the remains of the egyptian blue pigment

reveals itself in a
dazzling luminescent glow.

This paint thousands
of years old can show up

using a modern scientific technique.

Despite differences in temperature,

oxygen levels, lighting conditions,

this substance can still be
found after thousands of years.

Johnston: The ancient
egyptians in creating this blue color

that was so desirous to obtain,

they actually stumbled across something

that was extraordinarily durable,

even if not to the naked
eye, several millennia later,

would still be detectable.

Narrator: 2016... a team of researchers

at curtin university in perth, australia

see an opportunity.

Could egyptian blue's twin
qualities of luminescence

and durability be the key to
solving a long-term problem

in the forensic field of fingerprinting?

This could then potentially be
a game changer for forensics.

Narrator: When forensic
teams arrive at a crime scene,

they dust surfaces with a
powder of contrasting color

which sticks to the
fingerprints left behind,

traditional fingerprinting
powders, for instance,

are made out of plant
resins or a kind of soot.

Narrator: But these crime-scene
teams are facing a challenge.

On particular problem surfaces,

the traditional powders
are just not working.

Johnston: With modern
technology, polymer bank notes,

highly patterned surfaces,
it's incredible difficult

to be able to obtain fingerprints

for a number of these surfaces.

Colleen: Researchers were
intrigued by egyptian blue,

because it might have an application

for dusting for fingerprints.

And even in a patterned
surface, using egyptian blue

might enable the
fingerprints to stand out more

in scientific testing than
traditional techniques.

Narrator: The researchers
at curtin university

believe egyptian blue's hidden
power... bright luminescence

and an ability to stick
to a surface for so long...

Means it may have the answer
forensic science is looking for.

Following the ancient recipe in the lab,

they mix the egyptian blue compound

and then grind it down
into microscopic particles.

They dust the egyptian blue pigments

onto fingerprints on a polymer bank note,

a surface on which traditional
dusting powders can falter.

The surfaces are then
illuminated in white light

and photographed with a special camera,

which can detect infrared rays.

The images are astonishing.

Altawheel: Even though it's a
surface that would otherwise

not leave the preservation
of a fingerprint.

This particular substance, egyptian blue,

actually left some residue behind.

Narrator: The researchers
compare the testing methods

on soft-drink cans.

First, using traditional powders,

and then with egyptian blue pigment.

It reveals a vast improvement.

Applying the blue pigment
to other problematic surfaces

including patterned tiles and glass,

the prints are incredibly clear.

Colleen: It's amazing.

Even though it's not
visible to the naked eye,

it glows under the near infrared light.

The pigment's quality of
exhibiting luminescence

narrator: Coupled with its
ability to retain this luminescence

for centuries demonstrates
it could have a major impact

in law enforcement.

Johnston: What I find absolutely incredible

is the fact that ancient technology

through the synthetic
pigment, egyptian blue,

is being used now in the 21st century.

Altawheel: It's kind of amazing
to think that egyptian blue

could actually be used to
catch criminals very soon.

♪

Narrator: In the
ancient-egyptian city of amarna,

dutch archeologists
uncover the skeletal remains

of an ancient female,

attached to the skull...

A flamboyant, multicolored
mass of braided hair.

All of a sudden, she cried out, "look.

They have hair extensions."

fletcher: The body is basically a
skeleton and yet the hair survived,

and it's styled into these
amazing hair extensions.

Narrator: The dutch team are baffled.

How has the hair survived
when the bodies have rotted?

And what is the significance
of the ornate braided hair?

Wendrich: Was this something unique?

Was this something that
had a special meaning?

There are so many mysteries.

Narrator: 2014... and a
team of researchers examine

this strange skeleton in a grave.

The female body's discovered
in literally a hole in the ground,

a standard pit grave in the sand.

Narrator: The excavation team find
this woman's remains are not alone.

They unearth a vast cemetery,

countless humble
graves filled with the poor.

It rapidly becomes apparent

that this woman isn't an isolated incident,

that there are others,
hundreds of other bodies.

Narrator: In grave after grave,
they find a similar outlandish

hairpiece matted to the skulls of the dead.

Head after head, person after person,

woman after woman, had hair extensions.

Narrator: Bone experts are called in

to examine the skeletons of the women.

They search for clues
that might help explain

the presence of the hair.

1341 b.C.E., the city
of amarna is constructed

as pharaoh akhenaten's eternal capital.

Now forensic archeologists
find clues suggesting

the city's inhabitants endured
a lifetime of hard labor.

From the skeletal remains, it's
clear they had a very hard life.

We can see that they had very strong arms,

that they had very big muscles.

We can see from their
spines, they are damaged,

they were carrying a lot of heavy stuff.

A lot of these people had
serious health problems.

Narrator: These women were the workforce

who kept akhenaten's city running.

In death, the workers
are found buried together

in a mass cemetery.

They're discovered wrapped
in mats and laid in the ground.

Wendrich: There are just
slots excavated in the sands,

simple graves where ordinary
people from amarna were buried.

Narrator: The bodies are not mummified,

a practice restricted to the wealthy elite.

The flesh has rotted
away, leaving just bone,

yet the hair is perfectly preserved.

It's taken for close examination
to a special lab in cairo.

Researchers want to find
out why it is frozen in time.

Tests reveal that the hair has
been treated with animal fats.

Wendrich: If you live
in such a dry climate,

then you want to put grease in your hair.

And grease was also the way to perfume

so everything that smelled nice...

Pressed flowers or resins
...were dissolved in fats.

Which has preserved the hair

almost perfectly for 3,500 years.

Narrator: Analysis of
the fats used in the hair

reveal it comes from cows and goats.

It appears to have
been fashioned into a gel

and worked into the hair.

And so they're styling the
hair with styling product,

which gives an extra layer
of protection to the hair itself.

And so these things can
survive thousands of years.

Narrator: The lab technicians
make another astonishing discovery.

The hair used to make the
braids appears to come from

multiple sources.

The archeologists are
finding more people at amarna

with extensions of hair
made not only from their own,

but of different colors and textures.

Wendrich: They used hair
extensions of real human hair

so probably young girls
could donate their hair,

could sell their hair maybe.

♪

Narrator: Examining the braids,
the experts note how tightly

and neatly they have been dressed.

They conclude this work
would have been too intricate

to carry out in the final
stages of a dying woman's life.

Instead, they believe the
process took place after death,

in preparation for burial.

Wendrich: They couldn't
afford to be mummified,

but they could afford

some measures to remain in the afterlife.

Narrator: Investigators want to
understand the significance of preserved

hairpieces for the impoverished
women in their graves.

They look for answers in the
complex egyptian burial rituals.

Fletcher: So, we know that
wealthy people are buried

in splendid stone-built tombs.

Wendrich: They're hacked out in the
rocks, they are beautifully decorated.

While the rest of the
population, the working people,

are just buried in a hole in the ground.

Narrator: Pharaohs fill
their tombs with gold thrones,

jewelry, perfumes, and wines.

They want to retain all their riches

and bring them to the afterlife.

The only item these poor
working women can afford to take

with them to the next world are
these elaborate hair extensions.

Now, scholars have hit on
a final theory to explain why

this artificial hairpiece was
so crucial for the afterlife.

It lies with the goddess hathor

who personified beauty and rebirth.

In the afterlife,

it was believed she would
help the dead to be reborn.

Hathor was the goddess of femininity

but also had a role as
a goddess of the dead.

Narrator: Crucially, she was
recorded in ancient-egyptian myth

for her distinctive and beautiful hair.

Fletcher: Goddess hathor,
a mother goddess figure,

who was called "she of the beautiful hair,"

"the lady of the locs,"

and so if she spotted
you as one of her own,

you were set for the glorious afterlife.

Narrator: These amarna women
may have been using their only asset

to attract the attention of this goddess.

Dodson: It's possible that these
women were using hair extensions

to allow them to be associated with her

in their transformation
into the next world.

Narrator: Egyptologists now
believe the women in amarna

were undergoing this simple
post-mortem beauty ritual

to be as beautiful as possible
for their eternal afterlife.

Hair and beauty were
extraordinarily important

to the ancient egyptians.

Where to look you best meant everything.

Wendrich: People wanted to be beautiful.

They make themselves
beautiful in life and in death.

The way they wanted
to live in the afterlife,

that's the way they were buried.

Narrator: The working poor of
amarna did not have the vast riches

that filled the great pharaohs' tombs.

What little money they had
they used to buy a precious wig,

a beautiful headpiece which would see them

recognized by the goddess hathor

and welcomed for
eternity into the next world.

♪

2017... a rock face
50 miles south of luxor.

Archeologists are amazed
when they discover a collection

of giant hieroglyphs, each one 2 feet high.

Why were the hieroglyphs so big?

This is almost like an ancient billboard.

Narrator: These unique and mysterious signs

are some of the earliest ever found.

Over 5,000 years old,

they predate the pyramids and the sphinx.

This was really about the last
thing we expected we would find.

Narrator: The experts' task is to
decipher these ancient symbols

and reveal this message from antiquity.

What are these
hieroglyphs trying to tell us?

Narrator: 100 feet above
an ancient crossroads,

by the egyptian village of el-khawy.

A team from yale university
lead by professor john darnell

examined the earliest
hieroglyphs found on this scale.

John: This is big.

It's out in a public space.

It's overlooking these roads.

It's definitely meant to be
seen by people from a distance.

Narrator: These mysterious hieroglyphs date

back to the birth of the entire
language at around 3200 b.C.E.

Three of them depict birds.

Two large storks standing
back to back between

and slightly above them we have an ibis.

Narrator: Professor darnell
recognizes these symbols instantly.

That arrangement evokes
the horizon for the egyptians...

The two horizon hills with
the sun rising in between.

The solar cycle, we feel pretty confident

that it's a statement of cosmic power.

Johnston: The solar cycle is the
rising and falling of the sun each day.

It affects this life, it
affects the afterlife.

Ancient-egyptian religion at
its very core is a solar religion.

Narrator: Cosmic power and the solar cycle,

the first clues to the meaning
of the message on the rock face.

But to the untrained eye,

the remaining hieroglyph on the wall

is more difficult to decipher.

Armed with the knowledge
of early egyptian iconography

and inscriptions,

professor darnell knows he
has seen this hieroglyph before.

Back in 1995, the site of gebel tjauti,

25 miles northwest of luxor,

he and his team made
another incredible discovery

as they scrutinized
scratchings in the rocks

also dating back over 5,000 years.

The scorpion tableau is a rock art scene

with early hieroglyphic annotations.

It appears to date to the same
as the el-khawy inscription.

The scorpion king tableau
shows the king, king scorpion,

in battle.

Narrator: The scorpion
king was the first king

of the unified upper egypt.

Beside this figure of the king,

a familiar symbol can be identified.

The symbols that were
found on the scorpion tableau

were very similar to the symbols
that were found by yale team.

John: The exact same sign
appears in that tableau as well.

Narrator: Professor darnell has a
theory as to what this symbol carved

into both walls in the
same time period actually is.

The sign of a bull's head on a pole.

It is identical.

Narrator: A clue to what the
bull represents comes in the form

of one of ancient egypt's
most iconic artifacts,

also dating back almost 5,000 years...

The narmer palette.

So-called narmer palette, which
is heavily adorned with images

which seem to show the unification of egypt

by one king.

Narmer is depicted as a raging
bull that is trampling an enemy

and knocking down the
walls of the enemy fortress.

So it shows a kind of royal
authority taking over the land.

Narrator: It's clear that in
the egypt of 5,200 years ago,

the figure of the bull
symbolized the royal leader.

The bull is a symbol of power.

We can say that the symbol
of the bull represents the ruler,

the pharaoh of egypt.

Narrator: Now the world's
oldest hieroglyphs of this size

on the cliff face at el-khawy
can be pieced together.

And professor darnell can
reveal this message from antiquity.

John: This seems to be a statement

that now there's a central authority.

Now there's a focus for religious activity.

Now there's a representative
of these cosmic powers on earth.

The king is showing his
absolute authority to subjects.

Colleen: What this billboard is advertising

is royal power and control.

The king is the one
who is actually in charge

of the solar cycle, that makes him the god.

Narrator: In 3200 b.C.E.,
this message was carved

in large hieroglyphs into the rock face

so that every traveler
pausing at these crossroads

could be left in no doubt of

who was in total control of both the land

and the sky that surrounded
them... the pharaoh.

♪

The discovery of a mummy

bearing a wooden toe excites archeologists.

Is this an early form of prosthetic?

Harrison: Do they understand
medicine and surgery

hundreds of years before the greeks?

Narrator: Or is part of a
strange burial practice?

Dodson: Is this something which
was made to wear during her lifetime

or is it simply something
to allow her mummy

to be complete in the next world?

We need to sort the
magic from the medicine.

♪

Narrator: This curious
artifact is uncovered

in a tomb west of luxor.

The toe is found attached to
the foot of a female mummy

and is nearly 3,000 years old.

They found this female mummy with a toe

that was made out of leather and wood

and it was wrapped around
and attached to her foot.

Narrator: Many archeologists
believe this relic is a symbolic token

added during the mummification process

to replace a missing toe.

We would assume that these
have actually been placed there

to complete the body
for the soul in the afterlife

so that they would have use of that limb.

Narrator: Researchers
in biomedical egyptology

at manchester university are not convinced.

In 2011, studying evidence
of wear and tear on the toe,

they theorized that this could actually be

a fully functioning
prosthetic worn in life.

Aziz: A few of the researchers
from the university of manchester

decided to put it to the test.

They find two volunteers,

both of these volunteers
have their big right toes missing.

Narrator: The technicians
construct a replica of the female

mummy's wooden toe and
attach it to the volunteers' feet.

A series of tests to track
their movements begins.

If the toe is functional,
this would be the earliest

working prosthetic ever discovered.

Will the results of the experiment

finally show egyptian medical knowledge

was far ahead of the
rest of the ancient world?

Could the discovery of a
toe on a mummy point us

in the right direction?

Narrator: Egyptologists also
examine ancient medical papyri

that surfaced in the mid-19th century

when the black-market trade
in these scrolls was booming.

Rose: A few of these documents
point to egyptian physicians

as possessing far more
advanced medical knowledge

than we ever thought possible.

Narrator: The details within the
papyri show that the ancient egyptians

had a deep understanding of the human body.

Harrison: They show that the
egyptians understood things

like the heart pumping
fluids around the body.

They understood anatomy.

They understood certain organs.

They understood the
human body probably better

than any other ancient civilization.

Narrator: A document known
as the "edwin smith papyrus"

reveals advanced
egyptian medical expertise.

It's a manual, basically,
for trauma victims.

Narrator: It shows that egyptians
were using technologies similar

to those modern doctors
treating body trauma employ today.

Dodson: The egyptians had a good knowledge

of practical medicine... surgery,

particularly to do with
orthopedics, bone damage.

If the wound was quite deep,
then they would stitch it up.

I mean, they were remarkable at stitching.

Narrator: Experts realize
ancient egyptians were using

tools that were comparable to
those used in a modern surgery.

If you go to a tomb or a temple inside

and you see some of
these medical equipment,

it's the same that we use
today, in a lot of cases.

The egyptians were at
forefront of understanding

how the human body works.

Narrator: Back at manchester
university, the egyptologists want to put

this documented medical
prowess to the test.

The volunteers are asked to
walk on a 10-meter walkway

wearing ancient-egyptian style sandals.

Firstly, with the replica toe
attached and then without.

The results are surprising.

They helped both volunteers balance

so it definitely could have been used.

The replica wooden artificial
toe makes it much easier

for the volunteers to walk
in the egyptian-style sandals.

This toe was actually
a workable prosthetic.

This was fascinating.

We were amazed by this.

The toe could indeed have functioned

as a lifetime prosthesis.

Narrator: Experts believed
that the artificial toe

found on the mummy

was used in her daily
life to aide her walking.

Also, that is was readjusted
for size as she got older.

Rose: It was there to help her
balance and to give her function back.

So what this tells us is that
ancient-egyptian medicine

was far more advanced than
we ever gave them credit for.

Aziz: Technologically, scientifically,

and medically the ancient
egyptians were really advanced.

And this is oldest functional
prosthetic ever found

in history.

Narrator: This incredible artifact
and the clues from the ancient papyri

are completely overturning our assumptions

about medical knowledge in antiquity.

Rose: We think about
these ancient civilizations,

and we tend to think
that they're all backward.

No, egyptians are one of the
most advanced civilizations

when it comes to medicine.

Narrator: 2,500 years ago, far
exceeding their contemporaries,

the egyptians were
laying down the blueprint

for what would become
the field of modern medicine.

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