"Lost Treasures of Egypt" (2019–2020): Season 1, Episode 4 - Tomb Raiders - full transcript

NARRATOR: Egypt,
the richest source

of archaeological treasures
on the planet.

SALIMA IKRAM:
Oh, that's a fabulous one!

NARRATOR: Beneath
this desert landscape

lie the secrets of
an ancient civilization.

MAN: Wow, you can see why
the pharaohs chose this place.

NARRATOR: Now, for a full
season of excavations,

our cameras have
unprecedented access

to follow teams on the
frontline of archaeology...

MAN: I'm driving so fast
because I'm so excited!

WOMAN: It's an entrance,
we can see an entrance.



NARRATOR:
Revealing buried secrets...

ANTONIO MORALES:
So I have just been told

that they have found something.

[laughing]

MAN: A sphinx!

NARRATOR:
And making discoveries

that could rewrite
ancient history.

MAN: Hey!

NARRATOR: This time,
archaeologists reveal

what tomb raiders left behind.

John investigates an ancient
tomb-robbing scandal.

JOHN DARNELL: Royal tombs are
not robbed by random robbers.

NARRATOR: US Homeland Security

helps bring a stolen mummy
back to Egypt.



SALIMA: How fabulous.

NARRATOR: And Don
makes a discovery

in a long-forgotten tomb.

DON: Oh, my gosh.

It has a possibility
of being truly exciting.

♪

♪

NARRATOR:
The Valley of the Kings.

65 tombs hidden
in this remote gorge,

built to contain the mummies
of Egypt's great pharaohs

and their treasures.

Throughout history
these tombs have been raided

from within just a few weeks
of being sealed,

right up to the 20th century.

But to archaeologists,
what the thieves left behind

is still priceless evidence,

helping them to unlock
the secrets of ancient Egypt.

MAN: Dr. Ryan.

NARRATOR: Renowned American
Egyptologist Don Ryan

is kicking off his season
in the Valley.

DON: I first came to Egypt
as a student.

It was my priority to come
and see this place.

And I had a map of
the Valley of the Kings,

and I noticed amongst all
thesetombs of these famous rulers

there were all these little
dotswith numbers on them,

and those really intrigued me.

NARRATOR: The dots
on Don's maps represented

the smaller and lesser-known
tombs in the Valley.

Don made these
his area of expertise.

DON: Working in various tombs
around here

has so many aspects
that make it special,

apart from it being the most
famous archaeological site

in the world.

NARRATOR: Dig season runs
from October to April

and relies on the expertise

of hundreds of
skilled local workers.

DON: I know this guy
from before.

He's a good guy.

This book is kind of special,

because it goes back to my
veryfirst field season in Egypt.

This is 1989.

Every tomb in
the Valley of the Kings

is a piece of a great puzzle.

NARRATOR: Don's missions
have focused on a cluster

of small tombs at the edge
of the Valley.

Nearby is the impressive
burial chamber

of Pharaoh Amenhotep II.

But most of the surrounding
tombs remain unidentified.

All of them were looted
centuries ago,

any treasures stolen by robbers.

But in some, they left behind
mummified animals

and ancient pottery.

This year, Don is excavating
one of the most mysterious

tombs of them all:
tomb number 49.

Who it was built for
remains a mystery.

Thought to be empty,

no one has excavated it
for over a century.

DON: We are the first
archaeologists to go in there

and clear the material out
since 1906.

I know from previous experience

having excavated a number
of tombs from that period

that these early archaeologistsusually
took the bigger things

or the prettier things and
left everything else inside.

♪

♪

NARRATOR: Solving the
mysteries of this tomb will be tough.

The chamber is totally unmarked.

DON: At this point
we don't have any indication

for whom this tomb
might have been built.

We have to look for
all the little clues.

NARRATOR: Don has become
an expert in uncovering

the secrets of these smaller,
undecorated tombs.

DON: The tombs I work with
don't have any inscriptions,

one can't just go in
and read the walls.

In the Valley of the Kings
just having a burial chamber

is a magnificent honor.

It could have been
a royal family member

or it could have been
a very high official.

NARRATOR: Tomb 49 has been
robbed by ancient tomb raiders,

but that doesn't mean
it's empty.

DON: We'll clear this stuff
outand we'll go through it,

and it'd be really nice

if we found something
with a name on it.

We might find some objects
from the original burial.

It has the possibility
of being truly exciting.

♪

♪

NARRATOR: The team has
just three weeks

to move several tons of earth.

♪

Each bucketful must undergo
a fingertip search,

with even the tiniest fragments pulled out

for further investigation.

DON: One never knows, it
couldbe the last basketful of debris

that might give up the answer
that we're looking for.

NARRATOR: At the entrance
to the Valley

sits a complex of tombs and
temples called Deir El-Bahari.

In the cliffs of this site

are where important officials
were buried.

♪

ANTONIO: Shukran.

How many people
do we have today?

ALI FAROUK: Total, 3-0.

ANTONIO: So we need 10 more.

NARRATOR: Professor
Antonio Morales

is an Egyptologist from the
University of Alcalá in Spain.

He's in charge of 30
international experts

working here on
one of the biggest

archaeological projects
in Egypt.

ANTONIO: We came here to
excavate two or three tombs

that belonged to
very prestigious,

very powerful high officials.

They provide much information
about things like religion,

beliefs, ritual practices,

and about ancient Egyptian
culture in general.

NARRATOR: But this year,

his government permit
has come through late.

ANTONIO: This season is going
to be very intensive,

because we were expecting to
work for five or six weeks,

we're actually going to do it
for three weeks,

which means that this is going
to be double intensive.

NARRATOR: Like the tombs
in the Valley of the Kings,

this site was also robbed
by other ancient Egyptians.

ANTONIO: Most of the ancient
Egyptian tombs were plundered

weeks or months
after the funeral,

so for us it's very
interestingto try to come up

with a reconstruction
of what happened here.

RAOUL: So those are
the contents.

NARRATOR: Last year,
Antonio's team unearthed

hundreds of body parts:

mummies ripped apart by
thieves looking for gold and jewels.

ANTONIO: The robbers
cut the bandages

looking for as many objects
as possible,

and once they were
finished with that,

perhaps they burned the mummy,
they throw it away,

they didn't want
to have any ghost,

any visit from the afterlife.

NARRATOR: Tomb robbers
believed the dead would come back

to haunt them unless
they destroyed the mummy.

But for the dead themselves,

this was the worst
possible fate.

They needed their mummified
body to remain intact

to live on in the afterlife.

So stopping thieves was about

more than protecting
your treasure,

it was also about ensuring
your eternal life.

ANTONIO: Now I can go
into the sarcophagus.

NARRATOR: Antonio
is investigating

how the owner of this
4,000-year-old tomb

tried to prevent his mummy
from being destroyed by looters.

ANTONIO: Now we are inthe
deepest section of the tomb

where his coffin and corpse
was deposited.

NARRATOR: The team
knows this tomb

must have belonged to
an important official.

There's no mummy, but
the sarcophagus is covered

with intricate hieroglyphs.

Among them, the team finds
the name of the owner.

DAINA: So this area
we can read, this Ipi,

so the deceased is named Ipi.

What you can see here is
actually all the things

the deceased needs
for his afterlife.

NARRATOR: Ipi was a vizier,

a role second only
to the pharaoh.

A powerful statesman,

he was buried in an ornately
inscribed sarcophagus,

covered in spells to protect
him in the afterlife.

To ensure his mummy
stayed intact,

Ipi's tomb was designed
to stop robbers.

The entrance was sealed
by huge boulders.

And inside the burial chamber,

the sarcophagus was
set into the floor,

then covered with stone slabs

so that the room appeared empty.

ANTONIO: When robbers came,
they will see an empty chamber,

a wonderful floor, and they
willthink that the chamber was empty

because it was already stolen.

NARRATOR: But even
this clever design

wasn't enough to stop thieves.

Ipi's mummy and
all his treasures

were stolen centuries ago.

♪

[men yelling]

Outside Ipi's tomb, there's
an exciting discovery.

ANTONIO: I have been told that
just in one of the sections

we started working this morning

it seems they have found
some kind of a structure.

NARRATOR: Antonio's team
has spotted

an opening in the rubble.

It could be an entrance
to a hidden chamber,

undisturbed for
thousands of years.

NARRATOR: In the Valley
of the Kings,

Egyptologist Don Ryan
is investigating

the mysterious tomb 49.

DON: It stops right there.

[speaking Arabic]
Right there.

NARRATOR: His decision to
carefully sift tons of earth

from a seemingly empty tomb
is paying off.

The team has found
several artifacts

that might help reveal
who the tomb was built for,

including pottery,
wood, and linen.

DON: These are cloth fragments,

and they tend to be
well preserved.

These could be 3,000 years old,

because it's, it's dry
down in the tomb

and conducive to
the preservation.

It, it does tell you something,

it tells you that if
these are mummy wrappings,

there was a mummy in there
at one time,

and that's of course
important to know.

NARRATOR: These pieces of
ancient wood and pottery

are over 3,000 years old.

DON: This is probably a big
chunk of coffin right here.

And this is probably part of
a dowel or some piece of wood

that was used to hold bits and
pieces of coffins together.

ROSE: You guys got
some good stuff.

DON: Well, maybe, we'll see.

NARRATOR: Based on
what he's found,

Don can begin to piece together

what was actually inside
tomb 49.

A hidden staircase, chiseled
out of solid limestone,

leads to
a six-by-three-yard chamber.

The excavated pieces of wood

were probably from an
elaborately painted coffin,

that held
a tightly wrapped mummy.

Stored around the coffin
were everyday items,

everything the tomb owner
would need for the afterlife.

♪

It seems like tomb 49 is
a conventional burial site,

but who it belongs to
is still a mystery.

Suddenly, Don is called
to the chamber.

NARRATOR: Among the rubble is
a remarkable treasure.

DON: Oh!

NARRATOR: Exactly what Don
was hoping for.

DON: Oh, my gosh.

NARRATOR: An artifact
with a name on it.

DON: This is a ring
made out of glass,

and possibly we have
on the surface

the name of Ramses III,

one of the great warrior
pharaohs of Egypt.

My team would be the first to
hold this in over 3,000 years.

NARRATOR: The ring is
an extraordinary

but unexpected find.

If it does belong
to the pharaoh Ramses III,

it shouldn't be here.

Ramses was buried in
tomb number 11, not tomb 49.

DON: How this object gotinto
this tomb is the question.

♪

NARRATOR: At Deir El-Bahari,

Egyptologist Antonio Morales
and his team are working

near the ransacked tomb of
a pharaoh's right-hand man,

the vizier Ipi.

They've just discovered
an opening.

MOHAMED: What you can see here
now is rubble.

ANTONIO: After a couple of
hourswe'll be able to see more.

NARRATOR: The entrance
is so well hidden,

it's possible this chamber
was never found by robbers.

ANTONIO: He's going to clean
all this area around,

and then once we know
what is around

we can take up everything
to see what is behind.

But make sure you keep
many people here working,

we need to do all this
quickly, okay?

NARRATOR: With such
a short permit,

the team must work
against the clock.

ANTONIO: It seems that
the structure we have found

could be larger
than we expected,

so we need to clean
first this area

so that they can
continue excavating

to see whether we can go into
this new structure underneath.

NARRATOR: Antonio hopes
for good results

from this new chamber,

because last season,
close to Ipi's tomb,

the team discovered
something incredible:

what Antonio suspects is
the largest deposit

of intact mummification
equipment ever found in Egypt.

ANTONIO: We found these 56 jars

related to the mummification
process of the vizier Ipi.

NARRATOR: For ancient
robbers, these jars had little value.

ANTONIO: What we were
not prepared for

was when we really realized

that some of the jars still
kept their contents.

It really makes it
a treasure for us.

NARRATOR: Despite being
nearly 4,000 years old,

the contents are
in incredible condition.

SALIMA: Raoul?

Coming in!

RAOUL: So this is
the contents...

SALIMA: Perfect.

RAOUL: ...of one of the jars.

NARRATOR: With 56 jars
to process,

Antonio has called in
Salima Ikram,

professor of Egyptology at
the American University in Cairo.

She's forensically examining
all the items in the jars,

including mummified body parts.

SALIMA: Sometimes
it's a bit stinky,

and then there are moments
whereyou realize you're in touch

with people's bodily fluids,
which is a bit awkward.

But it's fantastic because
one is in touch, literally,

physically, as well as
sort of emotionally,

with people who lived
thousands of years ago.

NARRATOR: Salima is
investigating 300 natron bags.

SALIMA: The natron is a
mixtureof salt and baking soda,

and it naturally desiccates
and defats,

because that's what we do

as we... [slurp]...
Dehydrate the body.

NARRATOR: Ancient Egyptians
practiced mummification

to preserve bodies for eternity.

First, priests removed
the internal organs.

To dry out these organs,
and the body,

the priests used sponges
called natron bags

to soak up fluids
inside the corpse.

The soul was believed
to reside in the heart,

so this organ was kept
inside the body.

The other organs
were placed beside it.

All materials used during the
process were considered sacred,

so everything was packed into
jars and entombed close by.

SALIMA: So this is the one
that I'm going to start with,

and it was early on
in the mummification process,

because it's really hard

and it's absorbed a lot
ofthe liquids, the bodily juices,

and it's been smushed down,

and you can see its different
points of contact

with Ipi's body.

Ooh! Plumpy!

God, that's fat!

And this one smells a bit
different from the other one.

This smells more of body
andthe other one smelt more of oil.

[sniffs]

You know, if you look at
anything long enough

you will kind of figure out
what happens.

If forensic scientists
can do it for murders now,

we can do it for deaths
a long time ago,

because that's just what
archaeology really is.

NARRATOR: These materials
are some of the oldest

mummification deposits
ever found.

SALIMA: The earlier
we can go in time,

the better it is for us
to try and track

how mummification changed
over time.

So really, these are testaments,
very physical testaments,

to what happened and how.

NARRATOR: 300 miles north
in Giza...

♪

Here, in the shadow
of the pyramids,

a team of investigators
is in pursuit

of modern-day tomb robbers.

Shaaban Abd-Elgawad is
a government minister.

He works with crime agencies
around the world

to locate stolen
ancient Egyptian treasures.

NARRATOR: Shaaban has
already intercepted

over 1,000 stolen artifacts
from the global black market.

NARRATOR: After
a year-long operation,

ancient mummy parts have been
seized in the United States.

NARRATOR: In the 1900s,

thieves stole thousands
of newly unearthed artifacts

from the Valley of the Kings,
including human remains.

NARRATOR: Could these
stolen artifacts

be the mummified parts of
one of Egypt's great pharaohs?

NARRATOR: Shaaban is on
his way to the Egyptian Museum,

where the illegal artifacts
are arriving

from the United States.

NARRATOR: Who the parts
belong to is a mystery,

but mummification was
usually reserved

for nobility and pharaohs.

SHAABAN: We're going to the lab.

NARRATOR: Shaaban
and his team will finally see

these extraordinary relics
up close.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

NARRATOR: Finally home
in Egypt,

can forensic analysis reveal

exactly who the hands
and this head belong to?

♪

In the Valley of the Kings,

Don and the local workers
are starting their day

with a team ritual.

DON: One of our workers,
his wife,

she started making cakes for us,
so he got the nickname Abu Cake.

Yeah, take the whole thing.

Don't be shy,
you know it's good.

A lot of times we start
with tea and cake,

and then we get right to work.

NARRATOR: Today, Don is
visiting one of the largest

and most spectacular sites
in the Valley...

Tomb number 11.

After his discovery of a ring
that could belong to a pharaoh,

he's hoping to verify
the inscription.

DON: We're in the tomb
of Ramses III,

perhaps the last great pharaoh
of Egypt's Age of Empire,

and of course he's entitled to
a special and beautiful tomb

in the Valley of the Kings.

So he was obviously very
powerful, was a great warrior.

This magnificent,
well-preserved temple

shows him just causing havoc
on foreign invaders

and anyone else
who gets in his way.

NARRATOR: Each pharaoh had
his own name and insignia,

called a cartouche.

It was a key part
of tomb decoration,

found on walls, the coffin,
and precious artifacts, like rings.

DON: In front of me, we have
a depiction of his names.

We have a seated figure
of the goddess Ma'at.

On the right we have the sign
for Usar, or powerful,

and then a sun disc
up here for Ra.

This is a blown-up image of
thering we encountered in tomb 49.

By looking at the hieroglyphs
on the ring,

you know, it's essentially
identical.

NARRATOR: Ramses III
was a warrior,

famed for battling Libya
and other neighbors

trying to invade Egypt.

But his wars drained
the state of its wealth,

and in an argument over which
son would inherit the throne,

Ramses was murdered.

Some believe his wife plotted
to have him killed.

His burial and tomb were lavish.

Golden amulets and jewelry
would have been placed

in every layer of
his mummy wrappings.

But Ramses' tomb
fell prey to raiders.

And like the tombs
of many other pharaohs,

the mummies were stolen,
unwrapped,

and stripped of their treasures.

DON: This tomb is just across
the way from tomb 49.

I find it interesting that we,
we find a ring of Ramses III

inside tomb 49.

Maybe that ring
dropped off a mummy,

it could've been dropped
by tomb robbers.

So we can start with
an interesting idea

and then see where
the evidence takes us.

NARRATOR: Don's challenge now
is to find out

why a ring with Ramses III's
name on it

was found in the rubble
of the mysterious tomb 49.

NARRATOR: At Deir El-Bahari,

Antonio and his team have
been working to uncover

a secret entrance
found close to the tomb

of a pharaoh's right-hand
man, a vizier called Ipi.

It could be a chamber built
to hide treasures,

or even a body, from thieves.

♪

After two days of digging,

for the first time
in possibly 4,000 years,

the entrance is finally clear.

MOHAMED: I will have a look now.

♪

Oh, yeah.

♪

♪

♪

Well, it's perfectly empty.

There's nothing in there.

Just a magnificent,
rectangular, empty space.

ANTONIO: So how was that?

MOHAMED: Well, it probably had
been dug for a burial,

and it, it can fit
for a small coffin,

also funeral materials.

ANTONIO: Anyway.

MOHAMED: Of course this means
that robbers, tomb robbers,

actually was ahead and
they took whatever was there.

NARRATOR: The team removes
all the rubble

to verify the chamber has
been completely stripped.

ANTONIO: So we will like
to find things

in the way they were
constructed,

but all these robberies
and plundering

somehow tell us a lot about
the, the rest of the process.

NARRATOR: All they can do now
is number the tomb

and map its location.

MOHAMED: Disappointment should
not be a scientific thing,

it's a, you know,
it's human feelings,

and of course sometimes
you feel it,

but you have to live with it.

NARRATOR: On the other side
of the site,

Ipi's mummification jars
are proving more rewarding.

ANTONIO: Hello, Salima.

SALIMA: Hey, Antonio.

NARRATOR: One jar in particular

contains something
extremely unusual.

ANTONIO: So I brought you
this organ.

SALIMA: Oh!

We can see this is quite
a well-preserved heart.

You can see
the different chambers,

and here you can just see
this very nice, reddish resin.

And this sort of red/gold
coloris important,

because people used to use
resinnot just because it deodorizes,

disinfects, inhibits bacteria,
and smells nice...

When you're a corpse
it's good to smell nice...

But also because
it gives you this color,

and when you're being
mummified, you're being transformed

from a human being into a
divinebeing whose flesh was of gold.

NARRATOR: Found in
the embalming jars,

the heart almost certainly
belongs to Ipi.

SALIMA: It's sort of amazing
toactually be holding Ipi's heart.

But I mean, also you think, oh,
my god, what is it doing here?

Because it should be with Ipi,
wherever he might be.

ANTONIO: Yeah.

NARRATOR: The ancient
Egyptians believed the heart

contained the soul and
was vital in the afterlife.

SALIMA: So it's amazing.

NARRATOR: To find one
separated from its mummy

is extremely rare.

SALIMA: This is the only
mummified heart

that I have ever seen.

ANTONIO: Perhaps the embalmers
made a mistake

and thought that it was
one of the natron bags.

SALIMA: Yeah.

ANTONIO: To be put
into the jars, yeah.

SALIMA: I think they messed
up, and we just hope that poor Ipi

is not having a problem
in the hereafter,

because he's lacking
this very key organ.

ANTONIO: We have been
studying the vizier Ipi

from the historical
point of view,

and suddenly now
you see yourself

having the heart
of, of this vizier.

It's kind of impossible
to imagine being so close

to someone that you have been
studying for so many years.

For me this is
the best job ever.

The adventure of having to
dealwith so many new questions

every day, so many
new decisions, new findings,

exciting ideas, makes this job
incredibly interesting,

much more than any other thing
in the world.

♪

♪

NARRATOR: At tomb 49,

Don's discovery of what might
be a great pharaoh's ring

has caught the attention
of the authorities.

DON: The director
of the wider area here,

it's a very, very important
position to have,

he wants to take a look
at that ring

with the name of Ramses III.

NARRATOR: The chief inspector
of the Valley

assesses the progress
of the excavations on site.

DON: Bust out the jewelry box.

Here it is.

NARRATOR: He has the power
to take over the dig at any time.

NARRATOR: Any relics found
in the Valley of the Kings

belong to the government and
must be verified and catalogued

according to strict rules.

[speaking Arabic]

DON: Shukran.

INSPECTOR: Congratulations.

NARRATOR: The inspector gives
his seal of approval.

INSPECTOR: Okay. Thank you.

DON: You're very welcome.

Thanks for coming out.

INSPECTOR: Bye-bye.

DON: The Egyptian authorities
seem to be quite excited

by, by the whole thing.

I think he was impressed.

So that's always good.

INSPECTOR: For the ring,
really it is, it's amazing,

because, you know, it is
the most important for us

is continuing the name
of Ramses III.

♪

♪

NARRATOR: The ring is
a major discovery,

likely to end up in a museum.

But for Don the question
still remains;

how did Pharaoh Ramses III's
ring end up in tomb 49?

One theory is that it was
accidentally dropped there

by robbers, and the ring
isn't the only thing

they left behind.

DON: One of the things that
makes this particular tomb

very special is that
above its doorway

we have two examples
of ancient graffiti.

It's written in red

in a cursive form
of, of hieroglyphs.

And the graffiti talks about
there being very fine linen

and linen shawls being stored
in this particular tomb.

NARRATOR: The graffiti is
actually a list of items

commonly used to wrap
mummies, and it's signed.

DON: There's a prominent name
mentioned,

a fellow named Butehamun.

NARRATOR: Could there be a link

between Butehamun's
list of materials

and Ramses III's ring?

Helping to discover how
they might be linked

are Professor John and
Dr. Colleen Darnell.

They've studied Butehamun's
letters and inscriptions

for decades.

JOHN DARNELL: Rock
inscriptionsare probably about as close

as you can get to the mind of
an ancient Egyptian thinking,

"What do I want people
to think about me?

How do I want
to present myself?"

NARRATOR: Today, they're on
their way to Butehamun's house,

a temple complex
called Medinet Habu.

COLLEEN DARNELL: To visit
temples that I read about

when I was a 5-year-old

and to go back and be able
to know what everything says

and the historical
interrelationships

is just truly a dream come true.

♪

NARRATOR: It's one of the
most intricately inscribed sites

of ancient Egypt.

It should reveal more
about Butehamun,

a high-ranking scribe

who oversaw
the Valley of the Kings.

JOHN: Where is the title
that we need?

Oh, wait, there's a Ma-ha.

COLLEEN: It's great to see,
Bu-tehey-amun.

So I think this is
"overseer of the treasury."

JOHN: But there is
no treasury as such,

there's no treasury building.

Of course he is overseeing
the greatest treasures

of New Kingdom Egypt,

he's in charge of
the Valley of the Kings.

NARRATOR: Letters have also
survived that give more details

about Butehamun's role
in the Valley.

JOHN: One of the really
most important bits

of direct information

is this letter saying,
"Get together a team."

COLLEEN: Mm-hmm.

JOHN: Of whom Butehamun is one,

and they're basically told

they have to carry out
this commission.

And the really important
part here,

it says,
"Open one of the tombs,"

and that's interesting,
because this is something

then apparently it's,
it's like a special mission.

NARRATOR: The letters
and inscriptions reveal

that 80 years after
the death of Ramses III,

Butehamun was given
the official role

of protecting the Valley
from robbers.

In reality, he was secretly
ordered to loot the tombs

of long-dead pharaohs
like Ramses.

One by one, he opened them up,

taking any treasure to
restore the wealth of Egypt.

He even unwrapped the
pharaohs' mummified bodies,

taking the gold and jewels
hidden in the bandages.

But Butehamun still respected
the pharaohs,

so he rewrapped them
in new linen

so they would remain intact
for the afterlife.

JOHN: Royal tombs are not
robbedby random robbers,

they're opened systematically
by people like Butehamun.

They're basically doing
something for the state

before actual robbers do it.

For decades, the real source
of wealth of the state

is probably to a great extent

what Butehamun
and his associates

are bringing out of
the earlier royal tomb.

NARRATOR: Did Butehamun
drop Ramses III's ring

while carrying out
a state-sanctioned robbery

in tomb 49?

NARRATOR: In Cairo,
the Egyptian authorities

are battling modern-day
tomb robbers.

Stolen mummy parts intercepted

on the international
black market

have been returned
to the Egyptian Museum.

Thought to be from
the Valley of the Kings,

could these be the mummified
remains of a great pharaoh?

NARRATOR: As Egypt's foremost
mummification expert,

Professor Salima Ikram has
come to analyze the remains.

SALIMA: It is always exciting
tomeet another ancient Egyptian,

even in bits and pieces.

How fabulous.

Oh!

Well, this is just
a child's hand.

But look at those little rings.

People who were robbing mummies,

what they did was they
would cut off pieces,

because it was easier
to sell to tourists,

and hands were really
very, very popular

because often they had
rings on them.

Oh, wow!

Okay, this, this is clearly
the hand of an adult,

but what's extraordinary is
thatit's missing some of its digits.

But even so, there's a ring.

NARRATOR: A blue ring is
clearly visible

through the mummy's wrappings.

SALIMA: Oh, wow!

NARRATOR: But could this be
a pharaoh's head?

The methods used
for mummification

changed over time.

Salima is hoping to find clues

that will help her
date these remains.

SALIMA: Oh, look! I think
you can see its hair!

Look. Right there's the hair.

So there's hair here,
and hair here.

MAN: That means it's a man?

SALIMA: Yes, it's a man.

MAN: How old?

SALIMA: How old? Good question.

There, there's gold, and here.

NARRATOR: Salima has spotted
small flecks of gold

all over the head, in
particular around the eyes.

SALIMA: This is a Roman-period
mummy because it's gilded.

NARRATOR: During Roman times,

the bodies of
important individuals

were often coated
with gold leaf,

but at that time
the Valley of the Kings

was no longer used
as a burial site.

SALIMA: So this means
it's unlikely

that it's from
the Valley of the Kings.

Dealers would want to
make up a good story

that would hike up the price,

and so the Valley of the Kings
of course is a pedigree

that most people would jump on.

NARRATOR: He may not
have been a pharaoh,

but such liberal
application of gold

would've been reserved for
someone extremely wealthy.

SALIMA: These three pieces,

I don't think any of them
are related

in terms of belonging
to the same body.

But still they're mummies,

so they can teach us
about mummification,

the history of robbery,

and the, you know,
their own life history.

So they're really
very important pieces.

NARRATOR: For Shaaban, from
the Ministry of Antiquities,

it's a rare victory
over the tomb robbers.

SHAABAN:
It's very important for us

that we recover allthe
information for the history.

This is very important that
we will add some information

to the history of Egypt andthe
history of the whole world.

This is an unbelievable feeling.

♪

NARRATOR:
In the Valley of the Kings,

Don Ryan is assessing
all the discoveries

excavated from tomb 49.

He has an incredible
new story for this tomb.

DON: We're almost done.

I would describe our season
as unexpected.

You have this chamber that
wesifted through every bit of it,

and we, we found some
interesting things.

This tomb, it was robbed
like all the other ones

and at a later point
put to some other use.

NARRATOR: Don's finds
of the mummy wrappings

and Ramses III's ring,

combined with the graffiti
outside the door,

suggest this tomb could have
played a central role

in a state-sanctioned
criminal plot.

In here, Butehamun
unwrapped royal mummies

and stole the jewels hidden
inside their bandages.

Some treasures,
like Ramses III's ring,

were accidentally left behind.

DON: All these little tombs,

they're full of
fascinating things,

and when you put it
all together,

this place truly is amazing.

Archaeology in the Valley of
the Kings is by no means over.

Just when you think it might be, it isn't.