00:00A gruesome discovery took place in Egypt some years ago.
00:03You wanna hear about it?
00:0516 human hands, carefully buried in 4 eerie pits.
00:09They didn't look too much like human hands at first, since they were abnormally large.
00:14But they were!
00:15Weirdly, there were only right hands, no left hands were in sight.
00:20It turned out that it points to the practice of an ancient dark ritual.
00:24Old Egyptian art and tales talked of a ceremony where warriors would present the right hand
00:29of their adversaries as proof of victory and ask for gold in return.
00:35Egyptians believed in the afterlife, so cutting off someone's hand meant you cut off their
00:39power eternally.
00:41Guaranteeing this type of defeat was interesting to the winning party.
00:45Here the fight was between Egyptians vs Hyksos, who lived in what was once known as Canaan.
00:53Egypt has always been the center of some history-changing findings, and some time ago, this papyrus
00:58was found.
01:00If we stretched it open, it would be just a tad bigger than the height of a skyscraper.
01:05The world's tiniest skyscraper, I mean, which is located in Wichita Falls, Texas.
01:12When humans didn't write on their notes app, they wrote on this thing, made from the medulla
01:17of a papyrus plant.
01:19Around 2,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians wrote something reminiscent of a book, where
01:23they describe most of their funerary traditions and their visions of the afterlife.
01:29It's considered one of the most important texts from ancient Egypt, and is still sold
01:33in bookstores to this day.
01:35This ancient manuscript was unearthed from a chamber located just south of the Pyramid
01:40of Dozier, located in Saqqara.
01:42Oh yes, Dozier is the oldest pyramid in Egypt and not the Giza pyramids like most people
01:47think.
01:48Also recently, the site of Saqqara buzzed with excited archaeologists, who probably
01:53found one of Egypt's oldest complete mummies.
01:56They believe that this beautiful and well-preserved mummy was that of a wealthy man.
02:01He was discovered in a deep shaft, covered in layers of gold leaves.
02:06There are many symbols that show he was an important and wealthy man, like the band he
02:10wore on his head, the bracelet on his chest, and the fact that he was embalmed with a tunic,
02:16which was reserved for Egypt's finest.
02:19The most exciting part of the entire discovery was finding the resting place sealed with
02:24mortar, just as the ancient Egyptians had left it 4,300 years ago.
02:30This may sound weird, but back in 2008, archaeologists discovered a missing pyramid.
02:36It went missing because it deteriorated over the span of 4,000 years.
02:41Today, you can only see its base.
02:44It was a pretty important site back in ancient times.
02:47It is said that around the area of the pyramid, the ancients hosted a special type of ceremony
02:52where high priests would carry mummified remains of sacred bulls.
02:56Here's a fun fact.
02:58Ancient Egyptians believed that Apis bulls were earthly incarnations of the city deity
03:03of Memphis and was connected to rites of fertility.
03:07It wasn't just any Apis bull, though.
03:09They needed to be all black with a single white mark between its horns and a bunch of
03:14very specific characteristics.
03:16They were selected by the local priests and honored until they passed away.
03:20After that, they were mummified and buried in underground galleries.
03:25Meanwhile, this missing pyramid sort of disappeared around the 1800s.
03:31It was a German archaeologist who first found it in the village of Saqqara.
03:35He called it the headless pyramid when he first found it.
03:38But then, years after the official discovery, the desert sand came along and covered the
03:43whole thing.
03:44There were some excavations between the 19th and 20th centuries, but they weren't too
03:49systematic.
03:50That's why scientists were so thrilled when they dug an entire pyramid's base after
03:54removing the 25-foot mound of sand that was covering it.
03:58Oh, and it turns out American archaeologists are excavating a cemetery in Egypt that could
04:04contain over a million mummified bodies.
04:07So far, archaeologists have dug around 1,700 mummies.
04:12One of the main differences from other classic Egyptian mummies is that these people weren't
04:16kings and pharaohs.
04:18They were commoners that most likely lived about 1,500 years ago, when Egypt was controlled
04:23by the Roman and Byzantine Empires.
04:26The name of the cemetery is cool, though – the Way of the Water Buffalo – just in case you
04:30want to check it out on your next trip.
04:33Other than bulls and buffaloes, ancient Egyptians also liked baboons.
04:37Are you seeing a pattern here?
04:39In the beginning of the 20th century, archaeologists discovered a site filled with mummified baboons
04:45in a place called, guess what, the Valley of Monkeys.
04:49An animal wouldn't have been mummified if it wasn't considered important.
04:53Certain animals were more important than others since they were linked to specific deities.
04:58Jackals were connected to Anubis, the ancient god of the afterlife, and cats were likened
05:03to the female deity Bastet.
05:06Baboons were a pretty big deal, since they were believed to be connected to Thoth, the
05:09deity of wisdom and advisor to Ra, one of Egypt's supreme deities.
05:15The archaeologists who studied these animals weren't too happy.
05:19They think these baboons were kept inside and were deprived of sunlight for most of
05:23their lives.
05:24They had extreme vitamin D deficiencies, and they were poorly fed.
05:28Maybe Thoth got angry with these baboon keepers.
05:31Just a guess.
05:33Since there's never a boring day for archaeologists in Egypt, they also found human mummies with
05:38golden tongues.
05:40Since Egyptians were all about the afterlife, they believed that golden tongues might help
05:45a person speak once they pass to the other side.
05:48I mean, it's a long shot, but hey, why not?
05:52Some of these mummies were placed in wooden coffins with goods, such as necklaces, pottery,
05:57and artifacts in the shape of lotus flowers and scarab beetles.
06:00And iPhones.
06:01Just kidding.
06:02A new temple was also unearthed recently in Egypt.
06:06Scientists believe it was dedicated to honor Zeus Cassios.
06:10That deity would be a cross between Zeus, the almighty Greek deity of the sky, and Mount
06:15Cassios.
06:16While digging around the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, archaeologists spotted two pink granite
06:21columns poking out of the ground.
06:24And bingo.
06:25They believe these columns represented the temple's front gate and collapsed during
06:29an earthquake many years ago.
06:32And speaking of deities, there weren't only super-serious deities.
06:36Recently, scientists unearthed a golden ring in a city south of Cairo.
06:40No, Frodo, it's not magical.
06:42It was a normal gold ring.
06:44But it had the depiction of the deity of fun, officially named Bess.
06:49This deity is often described in sacred texts as a happy chubby dwarf.
06:54Today, many tattoos we get are sorta deprived of any sense and are made of aesthetic purposes
07:00only.
07:01In ancient Egypt, though, women would get tattoos as a token of protection for childbirth.
07:06That's what scientists think, at least.
07:09Around the Nile region, scientists found some mummies that had well-preserved tattoos, which
07:13is a rarity since the skin deteriorates so easily.
07:16Two of these women tattooed their lower backs, and the drawings were simple.
07:21They were mostly pictures, including that same chubby dwarf we just talked about, Bess.
07:25He also had a side hustle as the protector of women during childbirth.
07:31Would you believe me if I told you ancient Egyptians invented robots?
07:34No?
07:35Well, that's because that's not entirely true.
07:37Sure, they were astronomers, mathematicians, and engineers, and somehow they also squeezed
07:43an eccentric invention into that package – an automated deity some scientists called Hathor.
07:49This wooden statue had been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for years before someone noticed
07:54its secret.
07:55With the help of an X-ray machine, specialists discovered a mechanical operating system inside
08:00it.
08:01The pulley-like axis goes from the statue's shoulder to her left leg.
08:05When the system rotates, the statue raises and lowers her hand.
08:09Hey, pick me, pick me, I got my hand up here!
08:12That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like
08:17and share it with your friends.
08:18Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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