"Lost Treasures of Egypt" (2019–2020): Season 2, Episode 8 - Curse of the Mummy - full transcript
Archaeologists hunt for the most intriguing Egyptian artifacts of all - mummies.
Ator: Egypt,
the richest source of
Archaeological
treasures on the planet.
Man: Oh, wow, look at that!
Narrator: Hidden beneath
this desert landscape,
Lie the secrets of this
ancient civilization.
(speaking native language).
Archaeologist: I never
seen something like this.
Narrator: Now, for a full
season of excavations,
Our cameras have been
given unprecedented access
To follow teams on the
front line of archaeology.
Woman: This is the
most critical moment.
Team: Ahh!
Narrator: Revealing
buried treasures.
Woman: Oh!
Man: We are lucky today.
John: Wow, lots of mummies.
Woman: The smell is horrible.
Narrator: And making discoveries
that could rewrite ancient history.
John: We've never had
the proof until now.
Colleen: This is where
it all started.
Alejandro: My goodness,
I never expected this.
(applause).
Narrator: This time, archaeologists
hunt for some of the most intriguing
Egyptian artifacts of all.
John: Oh, wow.
Narrator: Mummies.
John: Oh, there's wrapping
and mummy everywhere.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: John and maria
discover a hidden tomb entrance.
(speaking native language).
John: Yes! Man: Oh!
John: We have light!
Narrator: Veronica and alberto
investigate an ancient crime scene.
Veronica: We found the
mummies everywhere.
Narrator: And alejandro looks
for treasures hidden beneath
The bandages of
his prized mummy.
Alejandro: In five
minutes we will know.
(theme music plays).
Narrator: The ancient egyptians,
famous for their pursuit of immortality.
They made mummies by preserving
the dead with salts, oils, and wrappings,
Hoping their bodies
would live forever.
And covering these mummies
with gold and jewels,
They sought to guarantee
success in the afterlife.
Yet, only a tiny fraction of these
mummies have ever been discovered intact.
Most were destroyed by ancient
thieves looking for treasure.
For archaeologists, finding an untouched
burial is the holy grail, and the chance to
Uncover extraordinary new
information about the people and society
Of this great civilization.
Among these archaeologists are husband
and wife team, john ward and maria nilssen,
Here for their 13th season to
excavate their site in southern egypt.
John: Okay,
everybody on the car.
Archaeologist: Okay.
Narrator: But before
they can start digging,
They must transport their
20 strong team to the site.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: With
just one vehicle.
John: Don't push
me further off!
(speaking native language).
John: Looks very
cozy in there.
Maria: Doesn't it!
John: I'll just precariously
hang off the back.
(laughing).
Ooh!
Narrator: The site john and
maria want to investigate today,
Sits right on the mountaintop.
Team: Oh!
(speaking native language).
Narrator: It's the final day their
excavation permit allows them to dig on site.
Maria: Come on, guys.
John: Come on, guys.
Narrator: This area, gebel el-silsila,
is known for its huge stone quarries,
Where ancient pharaohs mined
stone for their giant monuments.
But it was also the site of a small
town built to house the workers,
Where they lived,
died, and were buried.
John: Souka you're gonna be
with nils and souna.
Narrator: John and maria are
on the hunt for the graves of
The town's middle classes, like
the specialist stone masons.
John: Move that lot.
Narrator: A tomb with any mummies or burial
goods could hold valuable information
About this ancient
egyptian community.
John: So you've got about 10,
15 minutes to get that open.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: John's particularly keen to
investigate a structure he's named tomb 15.
John: We've got a monument that
once stood right on top of this mountain.
And, at some point in history, some
looters came along and actually dug a hole
Through the floor of that monument,
and, lucky for them, discovered a tomb.
Narrator: The monument could
have sat on top of a high status tomb.
And, though he knows it was looted for
valuables in antiquity, john hopes that the
Robbers may have left traces
of the tomb's owner behind.
John: I am hoping to find remains of
the mummies that were entombed in there.
Some indication of what they were entombed
with, their funerary ware, to understand
The importance or the status
of them within the community.
Narrator: Keen to use every minute of their
last day, maria gets to work exploring
A different part of the site.
She quickly spots something
amongst the rubble.
Maria: Oh, john!
Do you wanna come in?
John: What have you got?
Maria: I actually think that I got a
game piece here, a game board.
What I can see are three vertical lines
and a series of several horizontal lines.
I found myself a senet game.
I know it's difficult to see.
John: Yeah, I can see.
Maria: I just turned
the stone around.
Narrator: Senet was a popular board
game played throughout ancient egypt.
It was also a funerary offering.
Squares of the game representing
different hazards the deceased would
Need to navigate to
reach the afterlife.
The great tutankhamen was
buried with five senet games
In his tomb in the
valley of the kings.
Could this find be a hint that an important
mummy is hidden somewhere nearby?
Maria: This is a
game that was played.
John: Well, it was played
by royals and laymen alike.
Maria: Yeah.
John: I mean, everybody, from the workers all
the way right up to the viziers, all the way
Up to the living god, the
pharaoh himself played it.
Maria: Yeah, yeah.
Narrator: But on closer inspection
maria isn't sure that this senet board
Was a burial offering.
Maria: Look where I am,
I'm in beautiful shade,
I got the breeze coming through.
John: True, true.
Maria: What if the men who quarried
these monuments, what if they sat here,
Had their break, and you've
got the senet game here.
Narrator: Perhaps not a game for a
deceased tomb owner, but the tomb builders.
Still an exciting sign they
are in the right place.
Maria: Wonderful.
Narrator: But they only have
six hours left on site to find
The chamber they
are looking for.
John: Jose!
Narrator: 40 miles south,
along the nile, in aswan
Sits the hillside necropolis
of qubbet el-hawa.
In his 11 years of working here, professor
alejandro jiménez-serrano has already
Discovered four new tombs
and ten burial chambers.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: The site's location, on
ancient egypt's southern border,
Makes it a particularly
exciting place to excavate.
Alejandro: This area was the frontier
between egypt and nubia where the people
Interchange not only
products but also ideas.
Bilal, don't find
another tomb, hey?
(laughing).
(speaking native language).
Narrator: Last year at this
site alejandro and his team
Made the discovery
of a lifetime.
Alejandro: Get ready.
Narrator: An incredibly rare undisturbed
burial with a 4,000 year old wooden coffin
Containing a completely
untouched mummy.
Alejandro: Yeah, we
have been very lucky.
It's impossible to explain
the feelings that I am having.
Narrator: The coffin is covered in
hieroglyphic markings, immediately giving
The archaeologists vital information
about who this mummy might be.
The hieroglyphs reveal the person
inside is a male named shemai.
They describe him as a priest and overseer
of the stores, controlling the distribution
Of grain amongst the
local population.
The markings also identify his
father as khema, a governor,
A powerful ruler in
the south of egypt,
And his mother as satethotep,
the daughter of sarenput I,
A man trusted by the pharaoh to be
the founding governor of this region.
But these discoveries came right
at the end of last season,
And now the team are keen to
uncover more of shemai's life story.
Alejandro begins the search at
a spectacular tomb nearby
That he began excavating
two years ago.
Thanks to the coffin, he now
knows that this belongs to
One of shemai's
distinguished relatives.
Alejandro: This is one of
the stars of the necropolis,
It's the tomb of sarenput I,
Shemai's grandfather.
Narrator: On the outside wall of the tomb
is an intricately carved family portrait.
Alejandro: We have sarenput I
sat and receiving the homage of
His wife, his mother,
his eldest daughter,
Satethotep,
who was shemai's mother.
Narrator: But shemai
himself doesn't appear.
Alejandro: We did not have
any reference to shemai before
The discovery of his
funerary chamber,
So he was member of the family,
But for any reason he was
never represented here.
Narrator: Though alejandro has discovered
other human remains at this necropolis,
He has never found any of the family
members represented on this tomb wall.
Now the body of shemai, the missing son,
provides a unique chance to investigate.
Who were the people of
this great ruling family?
And where did they come from?
40 miles away in
gebel el-silsila,
John and maria hope they are on the
cusp of their own mummy discovery.
With time already very tight
to complete their work,
Maria begins excavating
at tomb number nine.
Maria: Okay, are
you ready, trish?
Narrator: Working alongside team member,
tricia coletto, she hopes this chamber will
Reveal more clues about
gebel el-silsila's inhabitants.
Maria: Take a while
for the eyes to adjust.
Tricia: Eyes to
adjust a little bit.
Narrator: Earlier this season the team cleared
this tomb and found the stone slab empty,
But the broken remains of a mummy
half buried in the mud of the floor,
Looted by tomb robbers.
Maria: They find the mummies, they will break
them in half for the sake of finding the
Few little glittery things
that might adorn these.
Narrator: But the looters
feared the mummy's curse,
So they completely
destroyed the mummy,
Hoping it could then never reap
its revenge in the afterlife.
Tricia: The looters have torn
our little friend apart and
Unceremonially thrown him
or her back inside the tomb.
Narrator: The small handful of tombs
that have been discovered with treasures
Intact provide a glimpse of why
mummies were so sought after by thieves.
The most splendid is the
mummy of tutankhamen.
Beneath the stunning death mask and under
the wrappings is a treasure trove of over
100 ritual ornaments.
Around the neck alone dozens of precious
amulets, covering the chest a golden vulture and
A winged cobra, deities
of upper and lower egypt.
On the navel a black resin
scarab, a symbol of immortality,
And around the waist and thigh
the king's prized daggers,
Made of gold and iron
hammered from a meteorite.
These valuable objects were
meant for the afterlife,
But were an irresistible
target for the living.
To properly examine the looted
mummy that they are working on,
Maria and tricia must first
carefully remove it from the ground.
Maria: Now what I think we should do this
morning is to lift this block to start.
Narrator: But just as
they are ready to begin,
Maria spots something
worrying in the sand.
Maria: That's concerning.
Tricia: Oh, yes, I see it.
Maria: Yeah.
We might have a snake.
And it could still be hiding
somewhere in the tomb.
John joins them to
lend some support.
Tricia: Good luck.
Maria: Okay, if you're still
in here, I come in peace.
Tapping a bit.
John: Maria, don't
tap it, just lift it.
Maria: All right.
John: Yank it.
Maria: I don't want it to
end up falling on our mummy.
John: Just be safe.
Narrator: Many of the
snakes in egypt are deadly.
John: Are you okay?
Maria: Yeah, there's tracks.
John: Yeah, don't
lift the stone.
Try and keep back
from the door please.
(grunting).
John: I got it.
(grunting).
Maria: Well.
John: Nothing?
I tell you what, I'm gonna carry on with
my work and leave you with your snake.
Narrator: Maria and tricia can't be
completely sure the snake has gone.
Maria: I removed a
hole where it entered.
Tricia: Okay.
You've scared him
off anyway, I think.
Narrator: But with the clock ticking,
they decide they must press on.
Tricia: We have to be careful to distinguish
what is mummy and what is dirt here.
Maria: Yes.
Tricia: The stone can go.
Narrator: By excavating the body from the
mud, they hope to discover more about the
Role of this person in gebel
el-silsila's community,
But the state of the mummy
makes their task tougher.
Maria: More pieces.
Tricia: A little
piece of skull.
Maria: Yeah, I got more here.
And they burn to such heat
that the white bones turn blue.
Narrator: Ancient looters would often
burn the mummies they found inside a tomb.
Maria: They're after gold, and by burning the
mummies it's easier for them to open them up.
Very sad.
Narrator: The ancient egyptians would
have dreaded this kind of mutilation,
They went to huge lengths to
mummify and protect their dead,
Believing that to
succeed in the afterlife
Key elements of the body and
soul must be preserved intact.
The first was the ren,
your identity and name.
It lived for as long as
your name was spoken.
Ib was the heart, the seat of your
soul, the good force in your life.
Sheut was the shadow, an image of yourself
that was reborn every day at sunrise.
Ba was the unique personality,
It left the body in the form of
a bird at night and at death.
The ka was the vital essence, the
force that animated the individual,
And the khat was the
physical form of the body,
Which must be preserved, or
mummified, for the dead to be
Granted eternal life.
Tricia: I feel like I personally get
attached when I'm working on a mummy, and
You feel like you're getting to know
them, and you feel like a caretaker.
Narrator: At tomb 15, john has just hours
remaining to search inside for any evidence of the
Tomb's owner's status in the
town, but he has a puzzle,
Right now the only way into
The chamber is via the hole
dug by ancient looters.
John: Found the door yet?
Archaeologist: No.
Narrator: John hopes that if he can
find the tomb's original door, it could be
Inscribed with a name or date
identifying who was buried here.
John: Theoretically it should
be somewhere in this area.
Narrator: He decides he might have more
chance of locating it from inside the tomb,
Descending through
the looters' tunnel.
John: I must admit I'm a little bit
worried about going down there,
But I know what to do if
I find a snake, call maria.
(speaking native language).
John: Oh wow.
(panting).
Oh, there's wrapping
and mummy everywhere.
I am surrounded by the remains of
the poor souls that were interned in here
But have been completely looted.
This is the part I really want to
get to, and find out if this is, oh wow!
(laughing).
Narrator: An area of fallen rocks could point
the way to the tomb's original entrance.
John: No, it's far too small.
This is not big enough by any stretch of
the imagination, so where's my entrance?
Narrator: 75 miles north of
gebel el-silsila is luxor,
One of the richest
archaeological sites in the world,
Home to magnificent
temples of the pharaohs,
The tombs of the nobles, and
the great valley of the kings.
Here, in the foothills of the famous
valley, at the necropolis of asasif,
A team of archaeologists from Spain
works to solve an ancient mummy mystery.
The site is unusual because
of the sheer number of
Ancient artifacts and the
level of devastation.
Narrator: Archaeologist, veronica garcía
martinez is tasked with piecing together
The thousands of shards and
fragments the team has found here.
Narrator: And amongst the debris
there's something much more grizzly.
Are in a very bad state.
Narrator: Just like john and maria's site,
these mummies were looted by thieves looking
For precious jewels and amulets, and again
the bodies have been mutilated to avoid
Inciting the curse of the dead.
But here the robbers were very
particular in their desecration.
Narrator: By dismembering the corpses like
this, the looters hoped to deny the dead of all
Possible means of enacting
their revenge in the next life.
Narrator: So far the team has
found more than 350 mummies here.
Now they want to know why were so
many people buried in this one spot?
They think the answer could be
connected to this site's original purpose,
As a tomb complex for
a man named huy,
Vizier to king amenhotep iii,
who ruled from 1390 bc.
The vizier was a very powerful
position in ancient egypt,
Second in command only
to the pharaoh himself.
Narrator: Professor francisco martin-valentin
works at the heart of the burial ground.
The once magnificent tomb chapel that huy
himself spent years designing and building
In preparation for his death.
Narrator: When francisco began his restoration
work 11 years ago, the chapel was in ruins.
Now he's hoping that clues in the stone wall
inscriptions could help solve the mystery
Of the mummies.
Narrator: As francisco puts the
pieces of this stone puzzle together,
It's clear that this tomb has
not just been weathered by time,
It has been
systematically vandalized.
All inscriptions depicting the
tomb's owner have been mutilated.
He thinks the damage here is not
down to looters looking for treasure,
But someone much closer to huy.
Huy was vizier during the
reign of both amenhotep iii
And his successor, amenhotep iv.
Amenhotep iv, in an attempt to cement
his power, soon abolished the worship of
Traditional gods in favor of just one, the
aten, and changed his name to akhenaten.
Refusing to follow his heretic king, huy added
inscriptions inside his own tomb declaring
Loyalty to the old gods.
When akhenaten found out, he ordered
the destruction of huy's tomb chapel.
The vizier, huy, was never seen again,
and his mummy has never been found.
It seems that huy was murdered
for his beliefs by order of the pharaoh,
And by destroying his name
and likenesses, his ren,
The killers ensured that he would never be
able to pass peacefully into the afterlife.
But amongst the rubble the team
has found a very special fragment,
A rare image of
the vizier's face.
Narrator: By reinstalling this piece to its
original position in the wall inscription,
Francisco hopes to right the
wrongs of these ancient vandals,
Giving huy back his ren and, in
theory, his place in eternity.
On the mountaintop
in gebel el-silsila.
John: What have you got?
Narrator: John and his team are
searching for a hidden tomb entrance,
And things are looking up.
John: What it looks like is
actually the entrance to tomb 15.
Narrator: To be sure, john wants
to see whether this hole lines up
With the chamber below.
John: We're gonna continue now, clean
this entire area, and I would be downstairs
Cleaning from up, or down up,
and hopefully we'll meet halfway.
Narrator: Maria gets word of
the discovery and arrives
To supervise the
team digging on top.
(speaking native language).
Maria: I can see light, it looks
like we've got the ancient doorway.
John: I think they're
breaking through.
(laughing).
Narrator: It seems john could
be in the right place after all.
Maria: Yeah,
(speaking native language).
John: I can hear maria's voice.
Oop!
Narrator: The workers on the surface pick up
the pace, but without knowing john's precise
Position below them, there's a real
risk the tomb could collapse on top of him.
John: Ah! We have light!
John: Yeah. Come up.
I'm fine! I'm fine! Still alive!
Maria: There's his head!
John: How are you doing, guys?
Maria: Hi!
Narrator: John finally breaks through what
he hopes is the ancient doorway to the tomb.
John: I think we've
found the entrance!
Maria: We did, it's a shaft.
Narrator: But there
is still a puzzle.
This opening still doesn't seem big enough
to get a mummy through it and into the tomb.
John: Well, we'll continue and take
this back and see where we can get up to.
Narrator: At the necropolis of asasif
in luxor, inside the vizier's tomb chapel,
Francisco and his wife, teresa,
have found the correct location for the
Fragment bearing huy's face, and are
ready to restore it to its rightful place.
Narrator: After three and
a half thousand years,
Vizier huy's image is
finally complete, and,
According to
ancient egyptian traditions,
His spirit lives again
in the afterlife.
But this site still holds a mystery, why
did the team find over 350 mummies
Scattered around huy's tomb?
Who were these people?
Veronica and alberto examine
one of the mutilated bodies,
Inserting a tiny camera
in through its nose.
Narrator: Veronica is looking
for a crucial sign that
She can only find
inside the skull.
Narrator: Removing the brain
was a prestigious part of
Mummification that
few could afford.
Narrator: This man's high status is a clue
to why he and hundreds of other mummies are
Here at huy's tomb.
After the pharaoh akhenaten
died, worship of the old gods,
Like amun, the king of
the gods, was restored.
Veronica and alberto think that
huy became regarded as a martyr,
And his tomb a place of
pilgrimage and burial for the elites.
Narrator: Sadly, like so many ancient mummies,
this pilgrim was later plundered for his
Burial riches, and mutilated
by the robber to avoid a curse.
Narrator: 115 miles
south, in aswan,
Alejandro is on the
hunt for clues about another
Elite egyptian, his extraordinary
intact mummy, shemai.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: The evidence at the burial site
revealed his name and ancestry within a family
Of powerful governors.
But to uncover more about his age, any amulets
and perhaps even further clues about this
Enigmatic ruling family
and where they came from,
Alejandro must probe
shemai's mummy itself.
Alejandro: Tonight we have came here to
the store of the ministry of antiquities in
Aswan where shemai's
mummy is kept.
We are going to transport the mummy
to the hospital in order to do a ct scan.
Narrator: It's been a year since alejandro
last saw shemai, and now he hopes that
A ct scan will allow him to peer beneath
the mummy's bandages for the first time.
Alejandro: When I saw the box
and the mummies, it's a respect.
In that same ways it's
part of my family.
Narrator: The hospital is across town and
the ct scanner is only available outside
Regular hours, which means the
team must travel at night,
The most dangerous time to
travel through the city.
Alejandro: I'm nervous,
definitely, I'm nervous.
Narrator: A mummy like shemai is a priceless
ancient artifact, and still a prime
Target for thieves, so armed police
escort the team through the busy streets.
Alejandro: Egypt was so plundered in
the past that they tried to avoid any kind
Of modern robbery wherever.
Narrator: Shemai's body could
be wrapped with precious jewels,
A modern-day looter's jackpot.
Find more about shemai
after a year of waiting.
Alejandro: I feel very excited
because it's an opportunity to
Know perhaps the
causes of his death,
Or perhaps the amulets
that we are going to find,
So it's amazing.
Narrator: After a tense 30 minutes the armed
convoy makes it safely to the hospital.
Alejandro: We go.
Narrator: But will the scan give
alejandro the answers he's looking for?
A ct scan of tutankhamen, the
world's most famous mummy,
Revealed an incredible
level of detail.
Beneath 13 layers of bandages
lies tutankhamen's body.
The embalmers drenched his head in tree resin
to preserve the soft tissues of his face.
X-ray evidence of healthy teeth revealed
a good diet, and still developing wisdom
Teeth indicated he
died a late teenager.
A hole in his skull and a bone fragment in
his head were telltale signs the embalmers
Removed his brain.
These features are all typical
of the advanced mummification
Reserved for the
highest in society.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: Alejandro hopes that
shemai's ct scan might reveal
The same kind of forensic clues.
Technicians carefully place his
prize discovery onto the scanner.
Technician: You
find it in a coffin?
Alejandro: Yeah.
We excavated it last season, and we have
the titles, which are very interesting,
He was the overseer of
the grain store.
Technician: Mm hm.
Narrator: As well as looking for
amulets and a possible cause of death,
There is a mystery that has
puzzled alejandro ever since
He first opened shemai's
coffin a year ago.
Alejandro: Oof,
uno venticinco. 125.
It's quite short.
My daughter is more or less
like this, and she is eight years old.
Narrator: Could shemai really
have been as young and
Held the title of overseer
of the grain store?
Alejandro hopes the scan will
finally help to determine his true age.
Alejandro: We are going to begin the
scanning, so we need to leave the room.
Narrator: The forensic anthropologists
look closely at shemai's teeth to estimate
His age when he died.
Anthropologist: Nueve.
Alejandro: Nine years old?
(speaking native language).
Alejandro: Nine years
old, he's a child.
Narrator: For alejandro such a tender age
at death suggests that shemai never actually
Held the title
inscribed on his coffin.
Alejandro: If he was only
nine years old when he died,
It means that it's
impossible that he might
Hold in reality the title of
overseer of the grain store.
Narrator: It's more likely that this was a
posthumous promotion designed to give
The boy a position of
status in the afterlife.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: Alejandro is getting closer
to uncovering shemai's true story.
Alejandro: Five minutes we
will know more about him.
Narrator: In gebel el-silsila,
Tricia has just over an hour left to
excavate the mummy in tomb nine,
When she discovers
something unexpected.
Tricia: Maria, would
you please come over?
I think we have something interesting,
I think we don't have one mummy,
I think we have two.
Narrator: A second mummy is
an intriguing development.
Family members were often buried
together in the same tomb,
So these two could be related.
But both have been burned by the ancient
looters to get at the precious amulets,
Fusing the mummies together.
Maria: Oh wow, look
how burned that is.
Tricia: Oh no, the resin is
now basically turned to stone.
Maria: Yeah, and
glued together.
I don't know how
we're gonna do this.
Let's see.
Narrator: It's now a huge
challenge to remove both bodies
Before the work must stop.
Maria: Nice.
The problem is, if we leave it here, it
will most probably be destroyed even more.
If we lift it, we might have to
actually take that bone to the side.
Tricia: I think we
take the femur out.
Maria: And we're
fighting the time now.
Narrator: With only one hour
remaining, maria faces a tough decision.
So little time risks
too much further damage.
Maria: What we'll do is protect it as
far as we can and we will rebury it.
Tricia: I think
it's the right idea.
Narrator: Maria's disappointed not to be
able to remove the mummies today, but the
Discovery of two individuals means
she could have found a family group,
An exciting prospect
to explore next season.
Tricia: You're going to stay
here for a while, my friend.
Maria: Yeah, we did our best.
Narrator: In tomb 15, john is
still trying to dig himself out of
What could be the
original entrance.
Having left her mummies
behind, maria heads back to help.
Maria: Let's see if we can.
Narrator: And she's just in
time for a surprise discovery.
(grunting).
John: There's another doorway!
Maria: What?
To where?
John: Another chamber!
There's a whole new chamber
directly in front of me.
I can see the chisel marks,
it's full of mummy wrappings.
Narrator: It's a tantalizing find,
a whole new area of the tomb,
Potentially with a
rare intact mummy.
But they now have just minutes left before they
have to close the site, so this will have to
Be another project
for next season.
Now john must stick to his first
task, finding the tomb's original door.
John: I just need to move some of
this sand so I can get my butt in here,
You can see I'm stuck again.
Narrator: There's no sign of the grand entranceway
john was expecting, so could this small
Opening be the original
doorway after all?
The only way to test if it's
wide enough for a human mummy
Is for john to climb
through the gap himself.
(maria laughing).
(coughing).
John: Hello darling.
How are you?
Maria: Happy to see
you on this side.
(laughing).
John: Wow, that was
something and a half.
Maria: Well done, you.
Narrator: The
dimensions seem to fit.
(laughing).
John: Absolutely amazing.
Narrator: It's an unexpectedly
emotional experience for john.
John: Most of us get to have the
experience of going through the entrance
Into tombs that have been
looted, not the other way round,
Coming out of the entrance,
having dug it from the inside.
Narrator: If this is the
original door, it could hold
Crucial clues about
the tomb's owner.
Sadly, there are no markings to indicate a
name or date, but john and maria are still
Able to glean valuable
information from the stonework.
Maria: The shaft is absolutely
beautifully dressed.
Narrator: The craftsmanship of the masonry
and the existence of the extra chamber suggest
That this was an
important individual.
John: This tomb definitely belonged to
someone of some status within the community.
It wasn't just a worker.
The other chamber, we've
just got a glimpse of it.
What awaits us inside
is yet to be revealed.
Narrator: At the university
hospital in aswan,
Alejandro waits nervously for
more information about shemai.
Alejandro: Que tiene?
Anthropologist: Necklace.
Alejandro: Ah, he
has a necklace.
Narrator: Inside the ct scanner the
mummy is slowly revealing its secrets.
Alejandro: He is wearing a
necklace with small beads.
Narrator: But alejandro still
has unanswered questions.
The ancient egyptians usually mummified
members of the elite, removing their organs
And brain while preserving
the rest of the body.
Alejandro is keen to see whether
shemai has received the same treatment.
(speaking spanish).
Alejandro: Yeah.
(speaking spanish).
Alejandro: Yeah, we can see the
remains of the brain inside the head,
So it was not taken out.
The nose was not perforated
to drain the brain.
Narrator: Over the course of the
evening, the scan has revealed a host of
New information about shemai.
Beneath the bandages is a 4 foot 1 inch
tall skeleton with little surviving tissue.
His mouth has a mix of both
adult and baby teeth,
Which puts his age at death
around nine years old.
Around the neck is a ceramic necklace designed
to magically help him reach the afterlife,
A hallmark of high status.
But unlike other elite
mummies of the era,
His brain, now shriveled,
was left in his skull.
Why was shemai's body so poorly
preserved when he came from such a
Powerful egyptian family?
Alejandro has a theory.
Alejandro: We need to think that
we are in the periphery of the state.
The best specialist would be
in the court, and we are in
The southernmost
province of egypt.
They had no experts
in mummification here.
Anthropologist: Ahora...
This is new, it's different.
Man: Yes.
Narrator: But the ct scan has one more
surprise for alejandro, shemai's ethnicity.
Alejandro: Well, they have
just told me that shemai
Had the nubian features,
Which means that the ruling
family was probably nubian,
And that was unexpected.
Narrator: Examining shemai's anatomy closely,
the thickness of his bones and the shape of
His nasal cavity, the anthropologists
think he was a black african,
Likely from neighboring nubia.
A huge revelation that
challenges the prevailing image
Of the egyptian ruling class.
Alejandro: We always thought the ancient
egyptian elite were mediterranean type,
And in this sense shemai
is representing the society
Of a frontier in which
Different ethnic
groups were mixed.
At the end it doesn't matter the color
of your skin, shemai was egyptian.
Narrator: It's been an incredible
night of investigation and discovery
For the team, who have added a
brand new page to the history book.
Alejandro: Thank you very much
for your help, it's very useful.
Narrator: With their carefully
preserved mummies and elaborate tombs,
The ancient egyptians sought
eternal life after death.
Despite a curse to protect them from
robbers, few mummies ever survive intact.
But for the lucky archaeologists
who discover them,
It's an incredible
opportunity to uncover
The secrets of this
fascinating civilization,
And by protecting and restoring
the mummies they help return
The souls of the ancients
onto their path to immortality.
the richest source of
Archaeological
treasures on the planet.
Man: Oh, wow, look at that!
Narrator: Hidden beneath
this desert landscape,
Lie the secrets of this
ancient civilization.
(speaking native language).
Archaeologist: I never
seen something like this.
Narrator: Now, for a full
season of excavations,
Our cameras have been
given unprecedented access
To follow teams on the
front line of archaeology.
Woman: This is the
most critical moment.
Team: Ahh!
Narrator: Revealing
buried treasures.
Woman: Oh!
Man: We are lucky today.
John: Wow, lots of mummies.
Woman: The smell is horrible.
Narrator: And making discoveries
that could rewrite ancient history.
John: We've never had
the proof until now.
Colleen: This is where
it all started.
Alejandro: My goodness,
I never expected this.
(applause).
Narrator: This time, archaeologists
hunt for some of the most intriguing
Egyptian artifacts of all.
John: Oh, wow.
Narrator: Mummies.
John: Oh, there's wrapping
and mummy everywhere.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: John and maria
discover a hidden tomb entrance.
(speaking native language).
John: Yes! Man: Oh!
John: We have light!
Narrator: Veronica and alberto
investigate an ancient crime scene.
Veronica: We found the
mummies everywhere.
Narrator: And alejandro looks
for treasures hidden beneath
The bandages of
his prized mummy.
Alejandro: In five
minutes we will know.
(theme music plays).
Narrator: The ancient egyptians,
famous for their pursuit of immortality.
They made mummies by preserving
the dead with salts, oils, and wrappings,
Hoping their bodies
would live forever.
And covering these mummies
with gold and jewels,
They sought to guarantee
success in the afterlife.
Yet, only a tiny fraction of these
mummies have ever been discovered intact.
Most were destroyed by ancient
thieves looking for treasure.
For archaeologists, finding an untouched
burial is the holy grail, and the chance to
Uncover extraordinary new
information about the people and society
Of this great civilization.
Among these archaeologists are husband
and wife team, john ward and maria nilssen,
Here for their 13th season to
excavate their site in southern egypt.
John: Okay,
everybody on the car.
Archaeologist: Okay.
Narrator: But before
they can start digging,
They must transport their
20 strong team to the site.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: With
just one vehicle.
John: Don't push
me further off!
(speaking native language).
John: Looks very
cozy in there.
Maria: Doesn't it!
John: I'll just precariously
hang off the back.
(laughing).
Ooh!
Narrator: The site john and
maria want to investigate today,
Sits right on the mountaintop.
Team: Oh!
(speaking native language).
Narrator: It's the final day their
excavation permit allows them to dig on site.
Maria: Come on, guys.
John: Come on, guys.
Narrator: This area, gebel el-silsila,
is known for its huge stone quarries,
Where ancient pharaohs mined
stone for their giant monuments.
But it was also the site of a small
town built to house the workers,
Where they lived,
died, and were buried.
John: Souka you're gonna be
with nils and souna.
Narrator: John and maria are
on the hunt for the graves of
The town's middle classes, like
the specialist stone masons.
John: Move that lot.
Narrator: A tomb with any mummies or burial
goods could hold valuable information
About this ancient
egyptian community.
John: So you've got about 10,
15 minutes to get that open.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: John's particularly keen to
investigate a structure he's named tomb 15.
John: We've got a monument that
once stood right on top of this mountain.
And, at some point in history, some
looters came along and actually dug a hole
Through the floor of that monument,
and, lucky for them, discovered a tomb.
Narrator: The monument could
have sat on top of a high status tomb.
And, though he knows it was looted for
valuables in antiquity, john hopes that the
Robbers may have left traces
of the tomb's owner behind.
John: I am hoping to find remains of
the mummies that were entombed in there.
Some indication of what they were entombed
with, their funerary ware, to understand
The importance or the status
of them within the community.
Narrator: Keen to use every minute of their
last day, maria gets to work exploring
A different part of the site.
She quickly spots something
amongst the rubble.
Maria: Oh, john!
Do you wanna come in?
John: What have you got?
Maria: I actually think that I got a
game piece here, a game board.
What I can see are three vertical lines
and a series of several horizontal lines.
I found myself a senet game.
I know it's difficult to see.
John: Yeah, I can see.
Maria: I just turned
the stone around.
Narrator: Senet was a popular board
game played throughout ancient egypt.
It was also a funerary offering.
Squares of the game representing
different hazards the deceased would
Need to navigate to
reach the afterlife.
The great tutankhamen was
buried with five senet games
In his tomb in the
valley of the kings.
Could this find be a hint that an important
mummy is hidden somewhere nearby?
Maria: This is a
game that was played.
John: Well, it was played
by royals and laymen alike.
Maria: Yeah.
John: I mean, everybody, from the workers all
the way right up to the viziers, all the way
Up to the living god, the
pharaoh himself played it.
Maria: Yeah, yeah.
Narrator: But on closer inspection
maria isn't sure that this senet board
Was a burial offering.
Maria: Look where I am,
I'm in beautiful shade,
I got the breeze coming through.
John: True, true.
Maria: What if the men who quarried
these monuments, what if they sat here,
Had their break, and you've
got the senet game here.
Narrator: Perhaps not a game for a
deceased tomb owner, but the tomb builders.
Still an exciting sign they
are in the right place.
Maria: Wonderful.
Narrator: But they only have
six hours left on site to find
The chamber they
are looking for.
John: Jose!
Narrator: 40 miles south,
along the nile, in aswan
Sits the hillside necropolis
of qubbet el-hawa.
In his 11 years of working here, professor
alejandro jiménez-serrano has already
Discovered four new tombs
and ten burial chambers.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: The site's location, on
ancient egypt's southern border,
Makes it a particularly
exciting place to excavate.
Alejandro: This area was the frontier
between egypt and nubia where the people
Interchange not only
products but also ideas.
Bilal, don't find
another tomb, hey?
(laughing).
(speaking native language).
Narrator: Last year at this
site alejandro and his team
Made the discovery
of a lifetime.
Alejandro: Get ready.
Narrator: An incredibly rare undisturbed
burial with a 4,000 year old wooden coffin
Containing a completely
untouched mummy.
Alejandro: Yeah, we
have been very lucky.
It's impossible to explain
the feelings that I am having.
Narrator: The coffin is covered in
hieroglyphic markings, immediately giving
The archaeologists vital information
about who this mummy might be.
The hieroglyphs reveal the person
inside is a male named shemai.
They describe him as a priest and overseer
of the stores, controlling the distribution
Of grain amongst the
local population.
The markings also identify his
father as khema, a governor,
A powerful ruler in
the south of egypt,
And his mother as satethotep,
the daughter of sarenput I,
A man trusted by the pharaoh to be
the founding governor of this region.
But these discoveries came right
at the end of last season,
And now the team are keen to
uncover more of shemai's life story.
Alejandro begins the search at
a spectacular tomb nearby
That he began excavating
two years ago.
Thanks to the coffin, he now
knows that this belongs to
One of shemai's
distinguished relatives.
Alejandro: This is one of
the stars of the necropolis,
It's the tomb of sarenput I,
Shemai's grandfather.
Narrator: On the outside wall of the tomb
is an intricately carved family portrait.
Alejandro: We have sarenput I
sat and receiving the homage of
His wife, his mother,
his eldest daughter,
Satethotep,
who was shemai's mother.
Narrator: But shemai
himself doesn't appear.
Alejandro: We did not have
any reference to shemai before
The discovery of his
funerary chamber,
So he was member of the family,
But for any reason he was
never represented here.
Narrator: Though alejandro has discovered
other human remains at this necropolis,
He has never found any of the family
members represented on this tomb wall.
Now the body of shemai, the missing son,
provides a unique chance to investigate.
Who were the people of
this great ruling family?
And where did they come from?
40 miles away in
gebel el-silsila,
John and maria hope they are on the
cusp of their own mummy discovery.
With time already very tight
to complete their work,
Maria begins excavating
at tomb number nine.
Maria: Okay, are
you ready, trish?
Narrator: Working alongside team member,
tricia coletto, she hopes this chamber will
Reveal more clues about
gebel el-silsila's inhabitants.
Maria: Take a while
for the eyes to adjust.
Tricia: Eyes to
adjust a little bit.
Narrator: Earlier this season the team cleared
this tomb and found the stone slab empty,
But the broken remains of a mummy
half buried in the mud of the floor,
Looted by tomb robbers.
Maria: They find the mummies, they will break
them in half for the sake of finding the
Few little glittery things
that might adorn these.
Narrator: But the looters
feared the mummy's curse,
So they completely
destroyed the mummy,
Hoping it could then never reap
its revenge in the afterlife.
Tricia: The looters have torn
our little friend apart and
Unceremonially thrown him
or her back inside the tomb.
Narrator: The small handful of tombs
that have been discovered with treasures
Intact provide a glimpse of why
mummies were so sought after by thieves.
The most splendid is the
mummy of tutankhamen.
Beneath the stunning death mask and under
the wrappings is a treasure trove of over
100 ritual ornaments.
Around the neck alone dozens of precious
amulets, covering the chest a golden vulture and
A winged cobra, deities
of upper and lower egypt.
On the navel a black resin
scarab, a symbol of immortality,
And around the waist and thigh
the king's prized daggers,
Made of gold and iron
hammered from a meteorite.
These valuable objects were
meant for the afterlife,
But were an irresistible
target for the living.
To properly examine the looted
mummy that they are working on,
Maria and tricia must first
carefully remove it from the ground.
Maria: Now what I think we should do this
morning is to lift this block to start.
Narrator: But just as
they are ready to begin,
Maria spots something
worrying in the sand.
Maria: That's concerning.
Tricia: Oh, yes, I see it.
Maria: Yeah.
We might have a snake.
And it could still be hiding
somewhere in the tomb.
John joins them to
lend some support.
Tricia: Good luck.
Maria: Okay, if you're still
in here, I come in peace.
Tapping a bit.
John: Maria, don't
tap it, just lift it.
Maria: All right.
John: Yank it.
Maria: I don't want it to
end up falling on our mummy.
John: Just be safe.
Narrator: Many of the
snakes in egypt are deadly.
John: Are you okay?
Maria: Yeah, there's tracks.
John: Yeah, don't
lift the stone.
Try and keep back
from the door please.
(grunting).
John: I got it.
(grunting).
Maria: Well.
John: Nothing?
I tell you what, I'm gonna carry on with
my work and leave you with your snake.
Narrator: Maria and tricia can't be
completely sure the snake has gone.
Maria: I removed a
hole where it entered.
Tricia: Okay.
You've scared him
off anyway, I think.
Narrator: But with the clock ticking,
they decide they must press on.
Tricia: We have to be careful to distinguish
what is mummy and what is dirt here.
Maria: Yes.
Tricia: The stone can go.
Narrator: By excavating the body from the
mud, they hope to discover more about the
Role of this person in gebel
el-silsila's community,
But the state of the mummy
makes their task tougher.
Maria: More pieces.
Tricia: A little
piece of skull.
Maria: Yeah, I got more here.
And they burn to such heat
that the white bones turn blue.
Narrator: Ancient looters would often
burn the mummies they found inside a tomb.
Maria: They're after gold, and by burning the
mummies it's easier for them to open them up.
Very sad.
Narrator: The ancient egyptians would
have dreaded this kind of mutilation,
They went to huge lengths to
mummify and protect their dead,
Believing that to
succeed in the afterlife
Key elements of the body and
soul must be preserved intact.
The first was the ren,
your identity and name.
It lived for as long as
your name was spoken.
Ib was the heart, the seat of your
soul, the good force in your life.
Sheut was the shadow, an image of yourself
that was reborn every day at sunrise.
Ba was the unique personality,
It left the body in the form of
a bird at night and at death.
The ka was the vital essence, the
force that animated the individual,
And the khat was the
physical form of the body,
Which must be preserved, or
mummified, for the dead to be
Granted eternal life.
Tricia: I feel like I personally get
attached when I'm working on a mummy, and
You feel like you're getting to know
them, and you feel like a caretaker.
Narrator: At tomb 15, john has just hours
remaining to search inside for any evidence of the
Tomb's owner's status in the
town, but he has a puzzle,
Right now the only way into
The chamber is via the hole
dug by ancient looters.
John: Found the door yet?
Archaeologist: No.
Narrator: John hopes that if he can
find the tomb's original door, it could be
Inscribed with a name or date
identifying who was buried here.
John: Theoretically it should
be somewhere in this area.
Narrator: He decides he might have more
chance of locating it from inside the tomb,
Descending through
the looters' tunnel.
John: I must admit I'm a little bit
worried about going down there,
But I know what to do if
I find a snake, call maria.
(speaking native language).
John: Oh wow.
(panting).
Oh, there's wrapping
and mummy everywhere.
I am surrounded by the remains of
the poor souls that were interned in here
But have been completely looted.
This is the part I really want to
get to, and find out if this is, oh wow!
(laughing).
Narrator: An area of fallen rocks could point
the way to the tomb's original entrance.
John: No, it's far too small.
This is not big enough by any stretch of
the imagination, so where's my entrance?
Narrator: 75 miles north of
gebel el-silsila is luxor,
One of the richest
archaeological sites in the world,
Home to magnificent
temples of the pharaohs,
The tombs of the nobles, and
the great valley of the kings.
Here, in the foothills of the famous
valley, at the necropolis of asasif,
A team of archaeologists from Spain
works to solve an ancient mummy mystery.
The site is unusual because
of the sheer number of
Ancient artifacts and the
level of devastation.
Narrator: Archaeologist, veronica garcía
martinez is tasked with piecing together
The thousands of shards and
fragments the team has found here.
Narrator: And amongst the debris
there's something much more grizzly.
Are in a very bad state.
Narrator: Just like john and maria's site,
these mummies were looted by thieves looking
For precious jewels and amulets, and again
the bodies have been mutilated to avoid
Inciting the curse of the dead.
But here the robbers were very
particular in their desecration.
Narrator: By dismembering the corpses like
this, the looters hoped to deny the dead of all
Possible means of enacting
their revenge in the next life.
Narrator: So far the team has
found more than 350 mummies here.
Now they want to know why were so
many people buried in this one spot?
They think the answer could be
connected to this site's original purpose,
As a tomb complex for
a man named huy,
Vizier to king amenhotep iii,
who ruled from 1390 bc.
The vizier was a very powerful
position in ancient egypt,
Second in command only
to the pharaoh himself.
Narrator: Professor francisco martin-valentin
works at the heart of the burial ground.
The once magnificent tomb chapel that huy
himself spent years designing and building
In preparation for his death.
Narrator: When francisco began his restoration
work 11 years ago, the chapel was in ruins.
Now he's hoping that clues in the stone wall
inscriptions could help solve the mystery
Of the mummies.
Narrator: As francisco puts the
pieces of this stone puzzle together,
It's clear that this tomb has
not just been weathered by time,
It has been
systematically vandalized.
All inscriptions depicting the
tomb's owner have been mutilated.
He thinks the damage here is not
down to looters looking for treasure,
But someone much closer to huy.
Huy was vizier during the
reign of both amenhotep iii
And his successor, amenhotep iv.
Amenhotep iv, in an attempt to cement
his power, soon abolished the worship of
Traditional gods in favor of just one, the
aten, and changed his name to akhenaten.
Refusing to follow his heretic king, huy added
inscriptions inside his own tomb declaring
Loyalty to the old gods.
When akhenaten found out, he ordered
the destruction of huy's tomb chapel.
The vizier, huy, was never seen again,
and his mummy has never been found.
It seems that huy was murdered
for his beliefs by order of the pharaoh,
And by destroying his name
and likenesses, his ren,
The killers ensured that he would never be
able to pass peacefully into the afterlife.
But amongst the rubble the team
has found a very special fragment,
A rare image of
the vizier's face.
Narrator: By reinstalling this piece to its
original position in the wall inscription,
Francisco hopes to right the
wrongs of these ancient vandals,
Giving huy back his ren and, in
theory, his place in eternity.
On the mountaintop
in gebel el-silsila.
John: What have you got?
Narrator: John and his team are
searching for a hidden tomb entrance,
And things are looking up.
John: What it looks like is
actually the entrance to tomb 15.
Narrator: To be sure, john wants
to see whether this hole lines up
With the chamber below.
John: We're gonna continue now, clean
this entire area, and I would be downstairs
Cleaning from up, or down up,
and hopefully we'll meet halfway.
Narrator: Maria gets word of
the discovery and arrives
To supervise the
team digging on top.
(speaking native language).
Maria: I can see light, it looks
like we've got the ancient doorway.
John: I think they're
breaking through.
(laughing).
Narrator: It seems john could
be in the right place after all.
Maria: Yeah,
(speaking native language).
John: I can hear maria's voice.
Oop!
Narrator: The workers on the surface pick up
the pace, but without knowing john's precise
Position below them, there's a real
risk the tomb could collapse on top of him.
John: Ah! We have light!
John: Yeah. Come up.
I'm fine! I'm fine! Still alive!
Maria: There's his head!
John: How are you doing, guys?
Maria: Hi!
Narrator: John finally breaks through what
he hopes is the ancient doorway to the tomb.
John: I think we've
found the entrance!
Maria: We did, it's a shaft.
Narrator: But there
is still a puzzle.
This opening still doesn't seem big enough
to get a mummy through it and into the tomb.
John: Well, we'll continue and take
this back and see where we can get up to.
Narrator: At the necropolis of asasif
in luxor, inside the vizier's tomb chapel,
Francisco and his wife, teresa,
have found the correct location for the
Fragment bearing huy's face, and are
ready to restore it to its rightful place.
Narrator: After three and
a half thousand years,
Vizier huy's image is
finally complete, and,
According to
ancient egyptian traditions,
His spirit lives again
in the afterlife.
But this site still holds a mystery, why
did the team find over 350 mummies
Scattered around huy's tomb?
Who were these people?
Veronica and alberto examine
one of the mutilated bodies,
Inserting a tiny camera
in through its nose.
Narrator: Veronica is looking
for a crucial sign that
She can only find
inside the skull.
Narrator: Removing the brain
was a prestigious part of
Mummification that
few could afford.
Narrator: This man's high status is a clue
to why he and hundreds of other mummies are
Here at huy's tomb.
After the pharaoh akhenaten
died, worship of the old gods,
Like amun, the king of
the gods, was restored.
Veronica and alberto think that
huy became regarded as a martyr,
And his tomb a place of
pilgrimage and burial for the elites.
Narrator: Sadly, like so many ancient mummies,
this pilgrim was later plundered for his
Burial riches, and mutilated
by the robber to avoid a curse.
Narrator: 115 miles
south, in aswan,
Alejandro is on the
hunt for clues about another
Elite egyptian, his extraordinary
intact mummy, shemai.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: The evidence at the burial site
revealed his name and ancestry within a family
Of powerful governors.
But to uncover more about his age, any amulets
and perhaps even further clues about this
Enigmatic ruling family
and where they came from,
Alejandro must probe
shemai's mummy itself.
Alejandro: Tonight we have came here to
the store of the ministry of antiquities in
Aswan where shemai's
mummy is kept.
We are going to transport the mummy
to the hospital in order to do a ct scan.
Narrator: It's been a year since alejandro
last saw shemai, and now he hopes that
A ct scan will allow him to peer beneath
the mummy's bandages for the first time.
Alejandro: When I saw the box
and the mummies, it's a respect.
In that same ways it's
part of my family.
Narrator: The hospital is across town and
the ct scanner is only available outside
Regular hours, which means the
team must travel at night,
The most dangerous time to
travel through the city.
Alejandro: I'm nervous,
definitely, I'm nervous.
Narrator: A mummy like shemai is a priceless
ancient artifact, and still a prime
Target for thieves, so armed police
escort the team through the busy streets.
Alejandro: Egypt was so plundered in
the past that they tried to avoid any kind
Of modern robbery wherever.
Narrator: Shemai's body could
be wrapped with precious jewels,
A modern-day looter's jackpot.
Find more about shemai
after a year of waiting.
Alejandro: I feel very excited
because it's an opportunity to
Know perhaps the
causes of his death,
Or perhaps the amulets
that we are going to find,
So it's amazing.
Narrator: After a tense 30 minutes the armed
convoy makes it safely to the hospital.
Alejandro: We go.
Narrator: But will the scan give
alejandro the answers he's looking for?
A ct scan of tutankhamen, the
world's most famous mummy,
Revealed an incredible
level of detail.
Beneath 13 layers of bandages
lies tutankhamen's body.
The embalmers drenched his head in tree resin
to preserve the soft tissues of his face.
X-ray evidence of healthy teeth revealed
a good diet, and still developing wisdom
Teeth indicated he
died a late teenager.
A hole in his skull and a bone fragment in
his head were telltale signs the embalmers
Removed his brain.
These features are all typical
of the advanced mummification
Reserved for the
highest in society.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: Alejandro hopes that
shemai's ct scan might reveal
The same kind of forensic clues.
Technicians carefully place his
prize discovery onto the scanner.
Technician: You
find it in a coffin?
Alejandro: Yeah.
We excavated it last season, and we have
the titles, which are very interesting,
He was the overseer of
the grain store.
Technician: Mm hm.
Narrator: As well as looking for
amulets and a possible cause of death,
There is a mystery that has
puzzled alejandro ever since
He first opened shemai's
coffin a year ago.
Alejandro: Oof,
uno venticinco. 125.
It's quite short.
My daughter is more or less
like this, and she is eight years old.
Narrator: Could shemai really
have been as young and
Held the title of overseer
of the grain store?
Alejandro hopes the scan will
finally help to determine his true age.
Alejandro: We are going to begin the
scanning, so we need to leave the room.
Narrator: The forensic anthropologists
look closely at shemai's teeth to estimate
His age when he died.
Anthropologist: Nueve.
Alejandro: Nine years old?
(speaking native language).
Alejandro: Nine years
old, he's a child.
Narrator: For alejandro such a tender age
at death suggests that shemai never actually
Held the title
inscribed on his coffin.
Alejandro: If he was only
nine years old when he died,
It means that it's
impossible that he might
Hold in reality the title of
overseer of the grain store.
Narrator: It's more likely that this was a
posthumous promotion designed to give
The boy a position of
status in the afterlife.
(speaking native language).
Narrator: Alejandro is getting closer
to uncovering shemai's true story.
Alejandro: Five minutes we
will know more about him.
Narrator: In gebel el-silsila,
Tricia has just over an hour left to
excavate the mummy in tomb nine,
When she discovers
something unexpected.
Tricia: Maria, would
you please come over?
I think we have something interesting,
I think we don't have one mummy,
I think we have two.
Narrator: A second mummy is
an intriguing development.
Family members were often buried
together in the same tomb,
So these two could be related.
But both have been burned by the ancient
looters to get at the precious amulets,
Fusing the mummies together.
Maria: Oh wow, look
how burned that is.
Tricia: Oh no, the resin is
now basically turned to stone.
Maria: Yeah, and
glued together.
I don't know how
we're gonna do this.
Let's see.
Narrator: It's now a huge
challenge to remove both bodies
Before the work must stop.
Maria: Nice.
The problem is, if we leave it here, it
will most probably be destroyed even more.
If we lift it, we might have to
actually take that bone to the side.
Tricia: I think we
take the femur out.
Maria: And we're
fighting the time now.
Narrator: With only one hour
remaining, maria faces a tough decision.
So little time risks
too much further damage.
Maria: What we'll do is protect it as
far as we can and we will rebury it.
Tricia: I think
it's the right idea.
Narrator: Maria's disappointed not to be
able to remove the mummies today, but the
Discovery of two individuals means
she could have found a family group,
An exciting prospect
to explore next season.
Tricia: You're going to stay
here for a while, my friend.
Maria: Yeah, we did our best.
Narrator: In tomb 15, john is
still trying to dig himself out of
What could be the
original entrance.
Having left her mummies
behind, maria heads back to help.
Maria: Let's see if we can.
Narrator: And she's just in
time for a surprise discovery.
(grunting).
John: There's another doorway!
Maria: What?
To where?
John: Another chamber!
There's a whole new chamber
directly in front of me.
I can see the chisel marks,
it's full of mummy wrappings.
Narrator: It's a tantalizing find,
a whole new area of the tomb,
Potentially with a
rare intact mummy.
But they now have just minutes left before they
have to close the site, so this will have to
Be another project
for next season.
Now john must stick to his first
task, finding the tomb's original door.
John: I just need to move some of
this sand so I can get my butt in here,
You can see I'm stuck again.
Narrator: There's no sign of the grand entranceway
john was expecting, so could this small
Opening be the original
doorway after all?
The only way to test if it's
wide enough for a human mummy
Is for john to climb
through the gap himself.
(maria laughing).
(coughing).
John: Hello darling.
How are you?
Maria: Happy to see
you on this side.
(laughing).
John: Wow, that was
something and a half.
Maria: Well done, you.
Narrator: The
dimensions seem to fit.
(laughing).
John: Absolutely amazing.
Narrator: It's an unexpectedly
emotional experience for john.
John: Most of us get to have the
experience of going through the entrance
Into tombs that have been
looted, not the other way round,
Coming out of the entrance,
having dug it from the inside.
Narrator: If this is the
original door, it could hold
Crucial clues about
the tomb's owner.
Sadly, there are no markings to indicate a
name or date, but john and maria are still
Able to glean valuable
information from the stonework.
Maria: The shaft is absolutely
beautifully dressed.
Narrator: The craftsmanship of the masonry
and the existence of the extra chamber suggest
That this was an
important individual.
John: This tomb definitely belonged to
someone of some status within the community.
It wasn't just a worker.
The other chamber, we've
just got a glimpse of it.
What awaits us inside
is yet to be revealed.
Narrator: At the university
hospital in aswan,
Alejandro waits nervously for
more information about shemai.
Alejandro: Que tiene?
Anthropologist: Necklace.
Alejandro: Ah, he
has a necklace.
Narrator: Inside the ct scanner the
mummy is slowly revealing its secrets.
Alejandro: He is wearing a
necklace with small beads.
Narrator: But alejandro still
has unanswered questions.
The ancient egyptians usually mummified
members of the elite, removing their organs
And brain while preserving
the rest of the body.
Alejandro is keen to see whether
shemai has received the same treatment.
(speaking spanish).
Alejandro: Yeah.
(speaking spanish).
Alejandro: Yeah, we can see the
remains of the brain inside the head,
So it was not taken out.
The nose was not perforated
to drain the brain.
Narrator: Over the course of the
evening, the scan has revealed a host of
New information about shemai.
Beneath the bandages is a 4 foot 1 inch
tall skeleton with little surviving tissue.
His mouth has a mix of both
adult and baby teeth,
Which puts his age at death
around nine years old.
Around the neck is a ceramic necklace designed
to magically help him reach the afterlife,
A hallmark of high status.
But unlike other elite
mummies of the era,
His brain, now shriveled,
was left in his skull.
Why was shemai's body so poorly
preserved when he came from such a
Powerful egyptian family?
Alejandro has a theory.
Alejandro: We need to think that
we are in the periphery of the state.
The best specialist would be
in the court, and we are in
The southernmost
province of egypt.
They had no experts
in mummification here.
Anthropologist: Ahora...
This is new, it's different.
Man: Yes.
Narrator: But the ct scan has one more
surprise for alejandro, shemai's ethnicity.
Alejandro: Well, they have
just told me that shemai
Had the nubian features,
Which means that the ruling
family was probably nubian,
And that was unexpected.
Narrator: Examining shemai's anatomy closely,
the thickness of his bones and the shape of
His nasal cavity, the anthropologists
think he was a black african,
Likely from neighboring nubia.
A huge revelation that
challenges the prevailing image
Of the egyptian ruling class.
Alejandro: We always thought the ancient
egyptian elite were mediterranean type,
And in this sense shemai
is representing the society
Of a frontier in which
Different ethnic
groups were mixed.
At the end it doesn't matter the color
of your skin, shemai was egyptian.
Narrator: It's been an incredible
night of investigation and discovery
For the team, who have added a
brand new page to the history book.
Alejandro: Thank you very much
for your help, it's very useful.
Narrator: With their carefully
preserved mummies and elaborate tombs,
The ancient egyptians sought
eternal life after death.
Despite a curse to protect them from
robbers, few mummies ever survive intact.
But for the lucky archaeologists
who discover them,
It's an incredible
opportunity to uncover
The secrets of this
fascinating civilization,
And by protecting and restoring
the mummies they help return
The souls of the ancients
onto their path to immortality.