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Lost Treasures of Egypt (2019) Season 6 Episode 5- The Nubian Pharaohs
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00:00Deep beneath Egypt's eastern desert...
00:13Archaeologists discover a section of an ancient emerald mine,
00:17untouched for 2,000 years.
00:21It could be like a kind of photograph
00:23of a mining workday inside of the mines.
00:27The team follows the perilous trail of miners
00:30who risked their lives to find precious resources
00:33that made Egypt wealthy and powerful.
00:37Voila!
00:39Here, eh?
00:41Look, enjoy!
00:43Perfect!
00:45Over 2,000 years, Egypt was ruled by dynasties
01:00of native-born Egyptian pharaohs.
01:03Khufu, Tutankhamun, Ramses the Great.
01:08For centuries, these pharaohs also controlled
01:12the resource-rich lands of their southern neighbors,
01:15the Nubians.
01:17Then everything changed.
01:21A Nubian dynasty, the Kushites,
01:25took control of Egypt for a hundred years.
01:28Today, archaeologists hunt for clues
01:33to how these Nubians wrested power
01:36from the mighty Egyptian pharaohs.
01:39Look at that.
01:40This is really cool, actually.
01:42They investigate the complex relationship
01:45between the Egyptians and their southern conquerors.
01:48So, here's my treasure.
01:51And explore the legacy the Kushite kings left
01:55on this great civilization.
01:58Deep in the eastern desert,
02:07in an area known as Wadi Secate,
02:12Spanish archaeologist Joan Ullier Guzman
02:15and his team are just beginning their dig season.
02:22I am in love with the eastern desert.
02:24It's an amazing, amazing place.
02:27They're driving up into the mountains
02:29to a vast warren of emerald mines
02:32that were on the border between Egypt and Nubia.
02:36In the mines, the idea is to continue
02:38increasing our knowledge
02:39of how they extracted the emeralds.
02:41Any stuff that we can find inside the mine
02:43is interesting.
02:44Joan wants to understand
02:46what life was like for the miners here
02:48and what it took to supply the Egyptian empire
02:51with the vast quantity of emeralds it demanded.
02:54To the ancient Egyptians,
02:59the vivid green of emeralds symbolized fertility,
03:03allegedly making them a favorite of Queen Cleopatra.
03:08The richest source was emerald mountain in the eastern desert,
03:15which was riddled with hundreds of mines,
03:18like the one Joan has come to explore.
03:21Are we ready?
03:30This area has at least 150 mines.
03:34Their shafts stretch for miles beneath the mountains.
03:38Joan is mapping each mine one by one.
03:44The view is amazing, as you can see.
03:46It's certainly amazing
03:47because you have all these mountains,
03:48all these wadis,
03:49so it's worth it to come here, I think, for sure.
03:53In the largest mine they've found so far,
03:56it's taken two full seasons
03:58to document half a mile of the winding tunnels.
04:02Today they will enter a completely unexplored section.
04:07In the mines it's always exciting
04:09because you never know what you will find inside.
04:11In 80 degree heat,
04:21they begin by digging out
04:23the 10 by 5 foot entrance to the mine.
04:38We just found here in the rubble
04:39two fragments of papyrus with some letters,
04:42which is really, really amazing
04:43because we haven't anything like that in all the area.
04:46This confirms that this is a really special mine.
04:50Oh, it's amazing.
04:56Wow!
05:01In Luxor,
05:04Egyptologist Arto Belegdamian
05:06is travelling across the Nile
05:08to the Theban necropolis.
05:12He's searching for clues
05:13to how the Egyptians ruled over the Nubians.
05:18Tomb TT-40 dates to Egypt's golden age,
05:22the new kingdom,
05:23a period of total domination
05:25over their southern neighbours.
05:27Look at this place.
05:31The preservation is remarkable.
05:35The colours are so vibrant.
05:37And so many cool details.
05:42The walls of the tomb depict stunning scenes of life
05:45in the Egyptian royal court.
05:47And for Arto,
05:50one scene stands out.
05:53In ancient Egyptian art,
05:55you can always tell who's Egyptian
05:58and who is not.
06:00And these guys are clearly not Egyptians.
06:04and they are bringing gifts.
06:07The products of their lands,
06:08including cattle,
06:12shields,
06:14a chariot,
06:16very prized kind of possession indeed.
06:19The procession appears to end
06:21at the feet of the king.
06:24And that king is none other
06:26than the famous Tutankhamun.
06:28These are all clearly tribute bearers.
06:32And right here,
06:34look at that.
06:36The inscription reads,
06:38Nub.
06:39That is the Egyptian word for gold.
06:45Who are these foreigners
06:47bringing gold to the feet of the Egyptian king?
06:50Arto searches the ceiling for clues.
06:58Look at that.
07:00Oh, absolutely beautiful.
07:02And we have here
07:03the name of the deceased,
07:05the tomb owner,
07:06Amenhotep Huwi.
07:09And right there,
07:10his most prominent title,
07:12the king's son of Cush.
07:14In other words,
07:15he was responsible
07:17for the governance
07:18of the land of Cush
07:21on behalf of the king.
07:23So the tribute bearers over there,
07:26therefore,
07:27they're Cushites.
07:31Cush was a small
07:33but highly developed kingdom
07:34south of Egypt
07:35in the region known as Nubia,
07:37modern-day Sudan.
07:40Rich in gold
07:41and the highly valued products
07:43of inner Africa,
07:44Cush was ruled
07:45by the Egyptian pharaohs
07:47who demanded these resources
07:48in return for peace.
07:52As viceroy to Cush,
07:53Amenhotep Huwi
07:54was the pharaoh's diplomat in Nubia,
07:57a physical reminder
07:58of the might of Egypt.
08:02In the time of Amenhotep Huwi,
08:04Cush was the main source
08:06of Egypt's gold
08:07and it was part of his job
08:09to make sure it stayed that way.
08:11These images depict a time
08:16when the Egyptian pharaohs
08:17were at the height of their power.
08:21But they were right
08:23to keep a close eye
08:25on their neighbors to the south
08:26because, well,
08:28500 years later,
08:30they would be the ones in charge.
08:33So how did the smaller kingdom of Cush
08:37manage to turn the tables
08:39on the mighty Egyptians?
08:42Next,
08:43Arto wants to explore
08:44how the pharaohs
08:46lost their grip on power.
08:53The island of Elephantine,
08:55close to Aswan
08:56on the river Nile.
09:00It is pharaonic Egypt
09:01in a nutshell.
09:02It's a privilege
09:03to work on such a site
09:04because compared
09:05within Egypt
09:06it is unique.
09:08German archaeologist
09:09Martin Seilhoff
09:11is investigating
09:12a settlement
09:13on the island
09:14that sits
09:15on the southern border
09:16between ancient Egypt
09:17and the Kingdom of Nubia.
09:22His team is excavating
09:23a massive 13-foot-thick
09:25mud brick wall
09:26that dates
09:27to the earliest pharaohs
09:292,000 years before
09:31the Kushite takeover.
09:35The wall might be comparable
09:36to medieval town walls
09:38in Europe
09:39that is defining a space
09:40and also controlling the space
09:42inside and also outside.
09:48The island of Elephantine
09:50would have been highly prized
09:51by both the ancient Egyptians
09:53and the Nubians.
09:57Trade routes up and down
09:58the river Nile
09:59could be controlled from here.
10:03A forensic examination
10:04of the perimeter wall
10:05could tell Martin's team
10:07more about how the relationship
10:09between the Egyptians
10:10and the Nubians developed.
10:14They plan to investigate
10:15the materials used
10:16to build the wall.
10:19We're just taking
10:20one-month break out
10:21to analyze
10:22its recipe.
10:29In Luxor,
10:32Arto wants to find out
10:33how the Kushites
10:34who ruled Egypt's
10:35southern neighbor
10:36Nubia
10:37managed to seize control
10:38of the land
10:39of the pharaohs.
10:40He's come to Karnak Temple complex
10:45in the ancient capital of Thebes.
10:49Over the course
10:50of the thousands of years
10:51of history here,
10:53every pharaoh who could
10:56would add to this place
10:58in a show of wealth, power, and piety.
11:05Although most of this temple
11:06was constructed during the New Kingdom,
11:08when pharaonic power was at its height,
11:11there is still astonishing evidence here
11:14of how this power began to crumble.
11:21In the small temple of Khonsu,
11:23built towards the end of this period,
11:25he finds a clue.
11:30Look at that.
11:33This is really cool, actually.
11:35The figure on the right,
11:37that's the god of moon,
11:38the one with the tall
11:39twin plumes on his head.
11:42In front of him,
11:44normally you would have
11:45the king presenting offerings,
11:47coming into the presence of a god,
11:50one of his peers, essentially.
11:52But that's not what we have here, in fact.
11:56A different figure is depicted
11:58where the pharaoh usually stands.
12:00It reads,
12:03the chief priest of a moon,
12:06Harryhor, the son of a moon.
12:10Harryhor, by placing himself
12:12in these scenes here,
12:14being portrayed as the one
12:16physically giving the offerings to the gods,
12:19he is portraying himself as king.
12:22In 1069 BCE,
12:28Pharaoh Ramses the 11th,
12:30facing declining harvests
12:31and famine in Egypt,
12:33was losing his grip on power.
12:36A high priest called Harryhor,
12:38leader of a cult called the priests of Amun,
12:41challenged the authority of Ramses,
12:44vying for control of the kingdom.
12:46Egypt was now ruled by the pharaohs in the north
12:54and the priests in the south.
12:57The split threw the empire
12:59into three centuries of chaos.
13:02And this instability gave Egypt's
13:04oppressed southern neighbors,
13:06the Kushites,
13:07an opportunity to take control.
13:09Around 750 BCE,
13:14for the first time,
13:15a Kushite king took southern Egypt
13:18without a fight.
13:20Soon after,
13:21his successor,
13:22King Pianchi,
13:23marched his army further north,
13:25all the way to the Mediterranean.
13:30A six-foot-high victory stealer
13:32reveals the many Egyptian rulers
13:34he vanquished.
13:36Jed Amun Iyuefach,
13:39Shashank,
13:41Osorkan,
13:42and finally,
13:44here,
13:46Tefnacht.
13:48It was by exploiting this sort of division
13:51and having his own allies as well
13:54that Pianchi,
13:55this Kushite ruler,
13:57a non-Egyptian ruler,
13:59managed to step in
14:01and claim the title of kingship pharaoh.
14:06Quote,
14:07I am the king,
14:09the representation of God.
14:13Pianchi,
14:14the Kushite dynasty,
14:15was now the one in control.
14:20Pianchi was one of six Kushite kings
14:22who ruled over Egypt
14:24for almost 100 years.
14:27So how did an invading foreign force
14:30hold onto power
14:31in a kingdom as steeped in ancient tradition
14:33as Egypt?
14:36To find out,
14:37Ato needs evidence of how
14:39the Kushite kings ruled
14:41once they held the Egyptian throne.
14:43In the eastern desert at Wadi Secate,
14:54Johan and his team
14:55are clearing an entrance
14:56to this vast emerald mine.
14:58This is really a good start.
15:02Analysis of the papyrus fragments
15:04they've discovered
15:05shows they are inscribed with Greek letters,
15:08the language of Roman Egypt.
15:12The team has uncovered evidence
15:14that the Romans held these mines
15:16sometime after the fall
15:18of the last Egyptian pharaoh,
15:20Queen Cleopatra.
15:22This is one of the questions
15:23we had in there.
15:24Was there some kind of
15:25recording system
15:26for the emeralds
15:27extract in there?
15:28Well, it seems that
15:29probably yes.
15:30So hopefully we'll find
15:31more of those.
15:33The mine entrance is clear
15:35and the archaeologists
15:36venture inside
15:37for the first time this season.
15:44There we go.
15:46Ooh,
15:47que sitio más estrechito.
15:48They squeeze through holes,
15:51some as tight as 15 inches in diameter,
15:55dug by the ancient miners.
15:59In the tunnels,
16:00they find small ledges
16:02chiseled into the walls.
16:04Este es a lucernario.
16:07Where the Roman miners
16:08balanced their oil lamps
16:09as they worked.
16:14Joanne's team reaches
16:15one of the main chambers.
16:17From here,
16:18tunnels lead off
16:19in all directions.
16:20There is all these veins
16:22of mineral,
16:23which are where the guys
16:25were actually trying
16:26to find the emeralds.
16:30The tunnel walls
16:31reveal the working methods
16:32of the miners.
16:35Scrape marks are left
16:36where they used
16:37iron chisels
16:38and picks
16:39to carve out the rock
16:40as they followed the veins.
16:43The miners were digging
16:45through schist,
16:46a flaky stone
16:47that's easy to split,
16:48so it's inherently weak
16:50and prone to collapse.
16:52David!
16:53Yes!
16:54We're waiting, David!
16:55We're waiting, David!
16:56We're waiting, David!
16:57We're waiting, David!
16:58We're waiting, David!
17:03Pisa up,
17:04and that's it!
17:09After almost an hour
17:10of crawling through
17:11the narrow tunnels,
17:12Joanne reaches a blockage.
17:15Joanne reaches a blockage.
17:23You can see the veins
17:24that they were following
17:25in there.
17:26They ducked a match
17:27and the ceiling collapsed.
17:31The tunnel behind
17:32the collapse
17:33may have been sealed off
17:34for almost 2,000 years.
17:39If this is the case,
17:40the team wants to see
17:42what the miners
17:43may have left behind
17:44if they escaped
17:45the collapse.
17:47We have everything
17:48untouched inside.
17:49It could be like
17:50a kind of photograph
17:51of a mining workday
17:52inside of the mines.
17:53They've worked
17:54over two seasons
17:55documenting
17:56this vast mine.
17:57This is the first
17:59sealed section
18:00they have discovered.
18:02Oh!
18:03David!
18:04Drank it!
18:05Si, si!
18:10It's perfect!
18:11Oh!
18:12Oh!
18:13Oh!
18:14Oh!
18:15Oh!
18:16Oh!
18:17Oh!
18:18Oh!
18:19Oh!
18:20Oh!
18:21Oh!
18:22Oh!
18:23Oh!
18:24Oh!
18:25Oh!
18:27On the island
18:28of Elephantine,
18:29at Egypt's border
18:30with ancient Nubia,
18:31archaeobotanist
18:33is removing a mud brick
18:34from the vast perimeter wall.
18:35Her analysis of mud bricks
18:36on this island so far
18:38suggests the materials used
18:40could indicate
18:41the status of a structure.
18:42I'm looking for the organic material in it
18:44and also the inorganic one
18:45so I know what kind of a mixture it was.
18:49The recipe changes in mud bricks
18:51depending on the structure.
18:53For smaller buildings like houses,
18:55ancient Egyptians mixed mud from the Nile
18:57with some of the materials used
18:59and the materials used
19:00could indicate the status of a structure.
19:03I'm looking for the organic material in it
19:05and also the inorganic one
19:06so I know what kind of a mixture it was.
19:07The recipe changes in mud bricks
19:08depending on the structure.
19:10It used to extract mud from the Nile
19:12with sand, straw
19:13and small pieces of ceramic.
19:17As this mixture dried in the moulds
19:19it could shrink and crack
19:22weakening the bricks.
19:26Bricks made with extra organic material
19:29like dung and grass
19:31were more flexible
19:32so produced fewer cracks.
19:36These bricks were stronger
19:38and more durable
19:39ideal for military or royal structures.
19:48Jessica's analysis of the brick
19:50could tell her more
19:51about how the resources on this island
19:53were used in the construction of this wall.
19:56Okay, that's enough.
19:57Perfect.
19:58What we do is we just soak it in water.
20:00The island of Elephantine had limited organic resources.
20:09It's founded on granite
20:10making it hard to grow crops on most of the island.
20:15It's possible that the island's precious organic material
20:18would have been prioritized for larger state-run building projects
20:22like a city wall.
20:23Like a city wall.
20:24Okay.
20:25So, the mud brick dissolved now.
20:29They sieve the mud, separating it into two grades of material, heavy and light.
20:36I'm trying to also figure out how did the landscape look.
20:41Because the mud brick captured, like a little time capsule, all the information from the environment around it.
20:48For me, it's information about how people lived, how the environment looked, how they managed and adapt to the environment.
20:55Tomorrow, these bags will be dry, and Jessica can analyze the brick recipe,
21:02which might give clues to the purpose of this settlement on the frontier with Nubia.
21:11In the eastern desert, at Wadi Secade.
21:16Whoa!
21:17My goodness.
21:18Joanne and his team are the first to enter this area of the emerald mine
21:22on the border of Egypt and ancient Nubia for almost 2,000 years.
21:28Look, Joanne.
21:30The Roman basket.
21:31Oh!
21:34I told you it must be.
21:35Some baskets.
21:36It's perfect.
21:38It's totally preserved.
21:39There are three more inside.
21:41Three more, yes.
21:42Two of them are in a pretty good state, but this one is the best one.
21:46The best one.
21:47Look at that.
21:49The team has uncovered a cache of stunning hand-woven baskets from the Roman period.
21:55There are no skeletons, which suggests the miners escaped, hurriedly leaving their baskets as the roof collapsed.
22:03Wow.
22:05See that?
22:06It's perfect.
22:07Well done, Tada.
22:08Extracting these fragile 2,000-year-old baskets will take great care.
22:21We need to be very careful.
22:24Very fragile.
22:25But it seems also intact.
22:30Basically, it's perfect.
22:32You can see the handles and everything.
22:35Unbelievable.
22:37This is clear that they were made not to carry heavy things.
22:43You see, thin handles just to carry precious things,
22:49like emeralds, for instance.
22:51Not to carry the debris or stones, of course.
22:56The veins of mineral containing the emerald
22:59were too hard for the miners' hand tools,
23:02so they dug out the softer schist around the veins
23:05to extract the emerald carried in these baskets.
23:10The three baskets are too large and too fragile
23:13to safely maneuver through the narrow tunnels to the surface.
23:18The team has no choice but to carefully document them in situ
23:23and leave them in this safe, dry environment.
23:27There are names here.
23:39Amazing.
23:40It was key that they were attaching these tacks to the baskets.
23:43It was a property or the work of Elis and Phoebus.
23:53Even the miners' lunch has been preserved in these dry conditions.
23:58Remains of onions.
24:00They find the stopper of an amphora for water or wine
24:05and a harness for carrying the amphora.
24:08This is a photograph of a mining day, exactly.
24:12This is what they were using one day while they were working.
24:15It's everything in there untouched.
24:17It's like mining Pompeii, you know,
24:20because they left all as was one day 2,000 years ago.
24:25This undisturbed area of the emerald mine is shedding new light
24:31not only on the ancient working practices,
24:34but also on the people who worked here.
24:38And the incredible finds keep coming.
24:41What happened?
24:44It's a ring!
24:46No!
24:51In Luxor,
24:54Arto is searching for evidence of how Egypt's new Kushite rulers,
24:59having overthrown the great pharaohs,
25:01held onto power for almost 100 years.
25:04He's come to the vast temples of Medinit-Habu,
25:09where the Kushite kings might have left clues.
25:13Now you might think that an invading force
25:16would want to erase evidence of past glories,
25:20but that's not what the Kushite kings seem to have done.
25:27Ramses III built Medinit-Habu around 1175 BCE
25:32as a temple to the god Amun.
25:39A maze of giant halls and spacious courtyards,
25:44it featured monumental gates
25:47adorned with scenes of the kings' victories in battle.
25:54Instead of demolishing this monument to the Egyptian god,
25:57the Kushites added to it,
26:00building chapels
26:03and dedicating them to the wives of Amun.
26:10The gods' wives of Amun were not themselves goddesses.
26:15They were real people with real economic power.
26:20Kind of like a female equivalent to the high priest.
26:24The office of wife of Amun had existed since the beginning of Egypt's golden age.
26:32But by the time of Kushite rule, their influence had increased to the point where they were almost on a par with the king.
26:41Look at this one right here.
26:46This is the god's wife of Amun, Amenirdis.
26:51Even though she's depicted as an Egyptian, we know that she was the sister of King Pianchi.
26:58So she was in fact Kushite and she was installed into this position by her brother as a power play.
27:11The invading Kushites did not want to destroy Egyptian traditions.
27:18Instead, they worked inside the structures of Egyptian politics, seizing power from within.
27:25They didn't want the Egyptians to see them as conquerors, but rather as the rightful inheritors of power.
27:36From her position of power, Amunirdis could wield influence on Pianchi's behalf.
27:45But with Egypt secured, what did the Kushite kings do with their power?
27:50On the island of Elephantine, at the ancient border between Egypt and Nubia.
28:02This is fine.
28:04The mud from the brick is dry and ready for Jessica to analyze.
28:08So, here's my treasure.
28:13The lightest sediment is most likely to contain organic material.
28:17We have fragments of straw, grachis and little seeds, charred seeds also.
28:25It's a lot.
28:27This mud brick was very rich in organic material.
28:31They used the processed chaff from bakeries and from also dung.
28:39It's clear this was no ordinary mud brick.
28:41The plant material allowed the brick to flex as it dried, reducing cracks and strengthening the wall.
28:52The limited organic resources on this island appear to have been prioritized for this wall.
28:58Suggesting it was part of a state-run building program.
29:03Perhaps to protect against attacks from Nubia to the south.
29:06What I love about working in Egypt is that the material is so perfectly preserved due to the dry conditions.
29:16I sometimes find onion skins, 3,000 years old onion skins, but they look like the ones that I threw away in my apartment two weeks ago.
29:24It's breathtaking in my opinion.
29:25If this was a military outpost on the frontier with Nubia, what can the other buildings here tell them about what went on within the fortress walls?
29:37Martin?
29:39Yes, I'm coming.
29:42Oh, wow.
29:43On the island of Elephantine, the ancient gateway on the Nile between Egypt and Nubia.
29:56If we open the ground, we don't know exactly what would come out.
30:00The team is now digging down to the bedrock to investigate the earliest structures here.
30:05This is like the goal of the season to find as much as possible the first building phases in this area.
30:15Martin's team has uncovered the basis of two grain silos, built to store barley and emma, to make bread and beer for the inhabitants of the town.
30:24The silo, which is already founded on top of the granite over there, we can say, okay, this is the first phase of building.
30:35Just wanted you to see what we found.
30:38What do we have?
30:40Embedded in these earliest structures, archaeologist Fernanda is finding pottery that allows the team to date the beginnings of the settlement.
30:49It seems we have a mar clay vessel, storage vessel.
30:52Oh, wow.
30:56The rim and other bits of the vessel tell us about the form, the type and thus the dating.
31:02So it is for us like the safest way of how to date within a layout.
31:10The earliest structures date to shortly before the oldest sections of the wall, confirming the wall was built around a pre-existing settlement.
31:19They also uncover the base of an ancient furnace.
31:24At the bottom there was not so much heat.
31:27No.
31:29It started somewhere.
31:31From here, it's getting the orange colored.
31:34This is probably reworking.
31:36You have old copper tools and you made it again to make a new copper tool.
31:39These discoveries seem at odds with the theory that this was a fortress.
31:46The furnace could not produce heat high enough to forge weapons.
31:50And they can only find two grain silos.
31:55Not enough to feed an army.
31:59Although the thick perimeter wall appears it might have had a defensive function.
32:05Inside the perimeter, Martin has found no evidence of military activity.
32:10Instead, he thinks this was a place of trade between Egypt and Nubia.
32:18A lot of objects which came from south of Egypt.
32:23Ivory, ebony wood, pearls and also ostrich feathers.
32:27They must have been traded here through Elephantine.
32:30The wall and settlement inside date to the earliest years of a unified Egyptian state.
32:39The fortified wall is likely to have been a royal effort to distinguish an Egyptian border.
32:46Laying claim to the island of Elephantine as a trading post.
32:50Both sides benefited from that exchange.
32:53But the pharaonic culture, taking here the island of Elephantine,
32:58in order to have the control of what is going in and what is going out.
33:03Martin's work is adding valuable evidence to our picture of this ancient border.
33:10Over 2,000 years, from the earliest pharaohs until the reign of the Kushite kings,
33:15the Egyptians dominated the Nubians, using diplomacy and trade to exert control over their southern neighbors.
33:30In Wadi Seket, 150 feet below the eastern desert.
33:36I can't believe it.
33:39It's a ring.
33:40No way.
33:41No way.
33:42You are kidding.
33:43The ring is here.
33:44The ring is here.
33:45The ring is here.
33:46The ring is here.
33:47The ring is here.
33:49Look at that.
33:50Unbelievable.
33:52Do you see?
33:57Joanne's team has found a stunning silver ring in this untouched area of the emerald mine.
34:03It's amazing.
34:04I've never found anything like that.
34:06This is typical for miners to work with these tools.
34:10With a ring, it's dangerous.
34:11So it was hanging on a tiny rope.
34:12Do you see?
34:13The ring was clearly precious to the miner, unable to stop to find it as they escaped the
34:22collapsing tunnel.
34:24There is like an inscription.
34:27To understand the significance of this find, Joanne will make a close analysis of the objects
34:32back at camp.
34:33It's the most amazing finding we've made in a mine so far.
34:37All these things together in the same spot.
34:39Because probably they were running away and leaving everything.
34:42This opens a whole new perspective in this area, of course.
34:46Unbelievable.
34:47In just one morning, Joanne and his team have made their greatest discovery in the seven
34:54years they have been exploring these mines.
34:59A mining moment, frozen in time.
35:02The increasing in the knowledge of how these people are working and living there, it's
35:06completely astonishing.
35:07So, yeah, for sure we will dedicate the rest of the season just in this part of the mine,
35:11for sure.
35:21In the team's research tent, Joanne and his wife Delia are logging and analyzing the mining
35:28treasure trove they have uncovered.
35:31Okay, so this is an amazing piece.
35:34It is a silver ring.
35:35It was found just close to the baskets.
35:38And at some point he lose it.
35:40And, of course, probably this was at this moment where the ceiling collapsed.
35:45And this guy had to run out for his life.
35:49And he left the ring in there and never came back.
35:52The detail on the ring is exquisite.
35:55At the beginning we thought it was some kind of horseman.
35:57But now that it's cleaner we think that it's probably a lion.
35:59A lion eating someone or some animal.
36:03And this is interesting because it's not a typical ring that you should expect on a guy
36:07working on a mine.
36:08It's a silver ring.
36:09It's a good ring.
36:10So it gives some ideas about that.
36:13Maybe another general idea of poor people, slaves working in the mines.
36:16Maybe it's not the case.
36:20Joanne and Delia hope the ceramic name tags found with the baskets can tell them more about
36:26the individual miners.
36:27They have greater names on them.
36:30So we think that those were kind of tags attached to the baskets to know who was the person
36:35that was extracting these emeralds and taking them out.
36:39And this is extremely interesting because it is showing that it was a strict register
36:44of all the work that they were doing inside.
36:46So they can get paid in relation with this amount of emeralds.
36:49The discovery of these name tags challenges modern views of this type of work.
36:56We have here Phoebus and these two are from Elis.
37:00We think that maybe this could be a female.
37:02In the eastern desert, at Wadi Sikate, these name tags suggest women once worked in the
37:15emerald mines here.
37:17If we can confirm that, that would be extremely interesting because it would help to break
37:22another of these typical ideas about the people working in the mines, that they could only
37:25be men.
37:27Until today's discovery, it was generally assumed only men braved the harsh conditions
37:33in these emerald mines.
37:35But it looks like women also came here to get their share of the riches.
37:43It's a remarkable find.
37:47We could show that, in fact, there were females working inside of the mines.
37:52Joan thinks these finds date to after the last great pharaoh, Queen Cleopatra, when the
37:59Romans ruled Egypt.
38:01Now he wants to find out if the Nubians ever challenged the mighty Roman Empire for these
38:08valuable borderlands.
38:12So he's come to the Temple of Sikate, a huge complex of chapels and shrines, carved into
38:18the rock.
38:19It was important for them to have the protection of the gods.
38:24So they created this building, one of the most impressive religious structures probably
38:29in all the eastern desert.
38:31We have materials coming from the Egyptian tradition, we have materials from the Greco-Roman
38:35tradition, and we have also materials from this Nubian, Blemian tradition, which means
38:39that these Blemians arrived here and they reused this temple again as a religious space.
38:44The evidence here shows it was a Nubian tribe called the Blemis, who finally conquered this
38:49region after a power struggle lasting hundreds of years.
38:55The Blemis were nomads from Lower Nubia, who took over the emerald mines from the Romans around 400 CE.
39:09While the Romans had greatly expanded the mines, the Blemis continued to mine emeralds from the existing tunnels.
39:18They wanted to control probably the economic resources of the area, which were huge.
39:25Probably still with an important relationship of trading with Romans, for sure.
39:29But being, let's say, the bosses in the area.
39:32The Blemis patiently waited until the Roman Empire weakened, before claiming the riches of the eastern desert.
39:41Just as a thousand years earlier, their Nubian cousins, the Kushites, had taken on the Egyptian Empire and won the throne.
39:50Back in Luxor, Arto has returned to Karnak Temple in his search for evidence of the Nubian Kushite kings' approach to ruling Egypt.
40:06Deep in the heart of the temple complex, he finds an immense column.
40:12This here is both beautiful and awe-inspiring in equal measure.
40:21This gigantic column of stone is shaped like a graceful papyrus plant.
40:28It was built by King Taharqa, and I can see his cartouche right there.
40:35Taharqa was the fourth Kushite king to rule Egypt.
40:38By building this here, Taharqa was showing his reverence to Egyptian gods.
40:45So clearly, the Kushite kings were very big on respecting ancient Egyptian religion.
40:53During Taharqa's reign, Karnak was the most sacred temple complex in Egypt.
40:59And it's here that he decided to make his mark.
41:02The Kushite king erected two rows of columns shaped like papyrus plants, symbolizing youth, life and vigor.
41:13He paved the area with luxurious rose-colored granite.
41:17In the center, he placed a polished calcite shrine, perhaps to support the boat of Amun.
41:24Part of an ancient Egyptian religious ceremony.
41:29This was quite possibly all part of the Kushite's grand plan.
41:37Egypt was in crisis for most of the 300 years since the collapse of the new kingdom.
41:44So when the Kushite kings came in, they did not see themselves as conquerors, but restorers.
41:50Rather than impose Nubian culture on their Egyptian subjects, the Kushites chose instead to reboot Egyptian traditions, breathing new life into the kingdom.
42:05The Nubians had come to adopt ancient Egyptian theology.
42:10They had begun to worship ancient Egyptian deities.
42:13It was a renaissance.
42:17One question remains.
42:19If the Kushites brought back stability and tradition to ancient Egypt, why have they been so overlooked by historians?
42:28There was this prejudice by early archaeologists.
42:33How could these black pharaohs from the south of Egypt, how could they possibly match the ancient Egyptians?
42:40But here's the thing, the more that people have studied Nubian culture, the more of an appreciation has evolved for these great kings.
42:52So maybe it is time to give them a bit more credit.
42:56To get more credit.
42:57To get more credit.
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