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00:00Gateways between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
00:09The Egyptian pyramids and necropolises have withstood the test of time.
00:16For 3,000 years, these tombs have sheltered the exceptionally well-preserved bodies we know as mummies.
00:30In ancient Egyptian civilization, death had a very special significance.
00:37For the ancient Egyptians, death was a very important event because they believed that you could live eternally.
00:43I don't think they were afraid of dying. They just wanted life to go on.
00:52Convinced of their survival and the afterlife, they built pyramids, dug tombs deep underground,
00:57and above all, made every effort to render their bodies immortal.
01:05An incredible discovery at Saqqara has revealed the recipe of the unguents used to protect the bodies from the ravages of time.
01:15And has shed light on the network of trade about which we had previously known very little.
01:20Death was always a big business for the ancient Egyptians.
01:29Recent archaeological finds and technological innovations
01:33We removed the bandages and...
01:35...have unlocked the last secrets of the realm of the dead in ancient Egypt.
01:39Let us embark on an immersive and unprecedented quest to discover the secrets of ancient Egyptian mummification...
01:58...and a legendary people in pursuit of immortality.
02:01Saqqara, to the south of Cairo,
02:02Saqqara, to the south of Cairo,
02:04is an unprecedented quest to discover the secrets of ancient Egyptian mummification...
02:08...and a legendary people in pursuit of immortality.
02:10ancient Egypt's largest necropolis.
02:20Saqqara, to the south of Cairo in Egypt, is where we find ancient Egypt's largest necropolis.
02:35For me, Saqqara is the largest cemetery in the world.
02:46It has never been stopped, used as a cemetery.
02:50We have tombs from the first dynasty, 5,200 years ago, and we have tombs from modern Egypt.
02:57It is a wonderful case study for Egyptologists and archaeologists who are studying Egyptian civilization.
03:03This site is today the hub of numerous discoveries lifting the curtain on the secrets of immortality in ancient Egypt.
03:18The word mummy doesn't come from the ancient Egyptian's language.
03:21It was first used in medieval Latin, as mummia, in around the year 1000.
03:28And this word comes from an Arabic word meaning tar, and even further back from a Persian word meaning wax.
03:39We'll accompany the archaeologists to some extraordinary sites as they uncover new facts about the process of mummification.
03:45Saqqara is very important because almost every new thing happened in this wonderful cemetery.
04:00At the foot of the pyramid of the Pharaoh Unas, at the heart of Saqqara, a team of Egyptologists is working on a funerary complex from the 7th century BCE.
04:10This team of Germans and Egyptians is directed by Suzanne Beck, an expert in hieroglyphs.
04:24In 2016, archaeologists made an unprecedented discovery here.
04:42At a depth of 13 meters, they found a strange room, 5 meters by 8, equipped with a ventilation duct.
04:49A structure like a table carved out of the rock itself, and a huge incense jar.
04:58While all these clues seem to point to it being an embalming workshop,
05:03the presence of hundreds of ceramic containers left no doubt.
05:09The room held a secret stock of pots of unguent.
05:12The Saqqara discovery of this embalming workshop is one of the keys to our understanding how mummification took place.
05:25And really, it is perhaps going to be the one that unlocks some of the major secrets of mummification.
05:30Although most of the pots found were empty, it is now possible to determine the recipe of the unguents they contained.
05:42Thanks to innovative technology provided by Maxime Rajot.
05:54In this secret room, sheltered from the pollution of the modern world,
05:58the archaeologist takes powder samples from the pottery,
06:02which has preserved the chemical memory of the plants it once contained.
06:05My field of research is biomolecular archaeology.
06:14What this means is that we look for ancient molecules.
06:18And the aim is to try to identify certain organic substances which are no longer visible to the naked eye,
06:25or which can't be seen with a conventional microscope, or the human eye.
06:29So we extract these invisible molecules to try to identify what substances and products were used.
06:50Before, what we had were the containers themselves, which are really interesting to study.
06:55And you can even carry out a chemical analysis of the clay.
06:59But now, it's even possible to determine what sorts of substances and whether they are processed in any way.
07:05Were oils extracted from them? Were animal fats also extracted? Were the products heated?
07:10With animal fats, if it's been heated, new markers appear, which tell us that a heating process was involved.
07:16And all this because of what they leave in the pottery.
07:18On some of the pots found in the secret room, there are inscriptions in hieratic script, a popularized cursive form of hieroglyphs.
07:35These inscriptions give either the name of the product or its function, for application to the head, to make the odor pleasant, or to be wrapped up with.
07:54The main issue is this inscription, basically, for making the odor pleasant. It's very, very raw.
08:02We have only two of them. The other one is in the storeroom, this one is only here.
08:06The idea is to have two, three, four, five vessels with the same inscription.
08:11And at one point, we identified the same kind of project with the same inscription.
08:15That means, okay, we have safety in our interpretation.
08:17Often we have these words, but we never knew exactly what they meant.
08:24But by testing the contents of the jar, we are able to recreate some of the recipe of mummification.
08:32And that is one of the greatest triumphs of this excavation.
08:36The scientists are poised to solve one of the greatest mysteries of mummification, that of rendering the flesh immortal.
08:48Especially as a recent discovery revealed some precious information about the unguents used for the process.
08:55Continuing their dig in the proximity of the secret room, the archaeologists found a funerary complex from the same era, which they called K-24.
09:04At a depth of 30 meters, this contained mummies as well as canopic jars.
09:12During the mummification process, the dead person's embalmed organs were placed in these jars.
09:18It was considered necessary to preserve the vital organs, the liver, intestines, lung and stomach separately.
09:26This new discovery is crucial for Suzanne Beck and Maxime Rajot.
09:34Since these vases contain the final embalming recipes, the researchers can now check the function of the ingredients previously found in the pots of the secret room M-23.
09:44It is here, in the Saqqara storerooms, not far from the archaeological site, that the wonderful objects found in the K-24 complex are carefully stored.
09:58The fact that we found all these canopic jars in the same place, shut away together, is quite exceptional.
10:05We'll be able to compare 10 canopic jars all from the same site with their different organs, and maybe different embalming techniques.
10:12This will give us a much more complete idea of the products used to embalm the organs.
10:19When I open a canopic jar, you can see here, there's still the remains of the substances used to embalm the organ.
10:27It's full to the top. What we have here is pure organic material.
10:31Sometimes you can still smell the products.
10:35You can smell them when you open the jar.
10:38As the jar was sealed, it trapped in the fragrant molecules.
10:41That's pretty amazing.
10:43And it's only in Egypt, in these contexts, that you get to experience that.
10:49These jars represented the four sons of Horus and symbolized the four points of the compass.
10:54Each entity was the guardian of a particular organ.
11:01This one belongs to Hapi, one of the sons of Horus.
11:08And it starts with words to be said by the goddess Nephthys.
11:14And basically, she's offering, yeah, protection for this intestine inside this canopic jar.
11:22And this was, belonged to Tarihor.
11:26Tarihor, that's the name of the deceased.
11:29It was a woman who was buried in one of the loci in tomb number six in the burial shaft K24.
11:38I'm interested in finding out what substances were used to embalm the organs.
11:50Up until now, our research had been into the preparation of the balms.
11:53How were the balms made?
11:55Now we're finding out how they were used for the mummification of the body itself, but also for the organs that were preserved in the canopic jars.
12:07This one's really nice because you can actually see the embalmed organ.
12:11And those black marks there are the pure balm, all around also.
12:16So all of that is the embalming substance.
12:20So the balm, which was used to embalm the organ flowed all around the jar, that's the black colour on the sides.
12:29It's pure organic matter.
12:32Usually.
12:34Of course we'll need to do tests to confirm that.
12:41All the sample bottles go to the National Research Centre in Cairo for analysis.
12:47In the chromatographic lab, Maxime is going to identify the different molecules present in the samples from Saqqara.
13:11Here I'm crushing some of the balm, which was used to embalm an organ.
13:16The liver, in fact.
13:18The aim is, since we have solid fragments, to reduce them to a powder so that we can more easily extract the organic matter in solvents and then analyse it.
13:30The first stage is to dilute the samples in a solvent.
13:36In order to separate the organic elements from the pottery dust, Maxime gives the solution a burst on the mixer.
13:42The organic elements are left on the surface.
13:50I take what's floating at the top, which is the organic solvent full of the embalming substance.
13:55It's not always that dark.
14:00The sample has a high concentration of embalming products, so we've been quite lucky.
14:06But usually, when it's that dark, it can mean there's a high concentration of resin.
14:10Anyway, this is the concentrate that we're going to analyse.
14:13He and Mohamed Ibrahim, the lab's director, analyse the process samples using the chromatograph.
14:25Using the chromatograph, you can separate each molecule making up the mixture by its molecular size or according to its physical chemical properties.
14:36Each peak we see corresponds to a molecule that's been separated, and we are able to identify the types of molecule we have in the mixture.
14:44The chemical analysis thus undertaken by Maxime achieves results beyond any research done on the site.
14:55Until now, no written source or archaeological dig had made it possible to draw up an inventory of all the plants used in the embalming process.
15:04When we click on that peak there, we get the mass spectrometry result, and this molecular fragmentation corresponds to this compound.
15:19And this is a molecular compound which is characteristic of cedar.
15:23So what we're looking at here is the analysis of the extraction from a jar that contained the lungs, which is a canopic jar with the baboon's head.
15:32And what we see here is that the balm used to embalm the lungs was not just one substance, but was a blend, in which there was some wax, maybe beeswax or a plant wax.
15:44There's definitely pistachio tree resin mixed with this wax, along with traces of cedar oil.
15:50Now we have to check whether this mixture was specifically used for the lungs.
15:54This mix is specific for the lungs.
15:56The milan is anti-microbial resin. It is isolated the organs from oxidation or something like this.
16:05They have a very good knowledge about the chemistry and microbiology and biology.
16:10biology the results of the analyses will finally tell us what the parts contained
16:17and with the help of the inscriptions the researchers will be able to associate the
16:20contents with their exact uses in the pot with the inscription to make the odor pleasant
16:27they have identified animal fat from ruminants and elemi an antiseptic and anti-amoebic oil
16:34and in the pot with the inscription for application to the head there were oils from the juniper bush
16:42olive tree and cedar animal fat and elemi and pistachio tree resins
16:49all plants carefully chosen for their cosmetic properties
16:53do you know the pistachio resin is not activate in egypt they bring it from outside from maybe
17:00libanon or something like this and the cedar is the same it's present in mediterranean but not
17:06in egypt so we have the cedar which come from yeah as you say libanon turkey or if there's this one
17:13from northwest africa probably because of the connection with egypt should be i guess the eastern
17:18mediterranean this may be the most surprising discovery in the seventh century bce the egyptians
17:27were part of an immense trading network by means of which they could procure pistachio resin from north
17:32africa or the adriatic and cedar from what is now morocco and lebanon but the biggest surprise has been
17:41the discovery of damar resin known in southeast asia for its purifying properties revealing the presence
17:48of a trade route previously unknown
17:50i never imagined before doing this work that we'd identify such far-reaching trade networks most
17:58remarkably to southeast asia but also all over the mediterranean and it's amazing to have been able
18:04to show this via embalming practices these products which were known for their antiseptic properties
18:11were needed so they were willing to set up trade routes to procure them even to extremely distant places
18:18if necessary the valley the discovery of these plants provenance is evidence of a vast trade network
18:26in which the requirements of the embalmers played a major role death was always a big business for the
18:32ancient egyptians you had your tombs to carve you had your tombs to decorate your coffins sarcophagi
18:39and of course preparing your body so mummification was big business and really a massive part of egyptian
18:47economy these recent discoveries have revealed unsuspected maritime networks we already knew of
18:55expeditions in the time of hatchepsut the new kingdom female pharaoh from bar reliefs in her temple
19:08today thanks to science we're able to identify the regions in question
19:12the discovery of the secret room used by the embalmers in saqqara
19:20was one of the ten great archaeological finds of the beginning of this century
19:25it has shed fresh light on the ancient techniques for preserving dead bodies
19:29having stabilized the flesh for eternity the embalmers then passed on their work to the priests
19:42now came the next stage where mummification was no longer a merely medicinal procedure
19:47but became a deeply religious act
20:01the wrapping in bandages was the sacred phase of the process
20:05it would enable the deceased to regain human form and called on the gods to provide their protection in
20:10the afterlife
20:17the wrapping was done in a very precise way first each lid was wrapped separately then the entire body
20:25was wrapped as a single piece to protect the mummy as much as possible it was a sort of shell in fact
20:33to protect the body and preserve it as long as possible eternally if possible
20:45at the american university in cairo egyptologist and mummy specialist salima ikram is carrying out
20:51some experimental archaeology on an embalmed fish to try to better understand the wrapping process
21:03to wrap up the fish the egyptians would take linen bandages because of course we only had linen in
21:08ancient egypt so here because we put the resin on the bandage sticks very nicely and so it's
21:15relatively easy to just carry out this wrapping a lot of textile was used so you would have you know
21:26almost a kilometer of wrapping on a human being
21:33and also the resin is often used like glue so that you can secure your bandages and see if this
21:42one needs to be pressed down and sometimes the embalmers would correct things so if you'd lost your
21:50tooth they would sometimes put a fake one or if people had broken an arm they would
21:54make it look good again so it's it's it's um early plastic surgery and of course if i were a better
22:03embalmer i would have folded the final bandages in the beginning the ones underneath they don't care
22:10and then right at the end you can see them making a lot of an effort and doing things beautifully
22:14what's also nice as you can see we've got the oil and the resin that's soaked through already
22:20and that of course you also see in ancient embalming because sometimes one area has soaked
22:26through and nowhere else and it's because just you put on extra stuff there and sometimes you also
22:33see the fingerprints of the embalmers with the resin like i have left my fingerprint there
22:43over the centuries they attained perfection in the wrapping technique examples of which we can see in the
22:48louvre museum in paris dating from between the first century bce and the first century ce
22:58this mummy's wrapping is in geometrically perfect straight lines
23:07this mummy is amazingly well preserved completely intact the really interesting thing is how the
23:13mummification well the wrapping was done with so much care using linen bandages of different qualities
23:20and weaves the fingers are all wrapped separately the arms are wrapped separately and the really incredible
23:32thing is the design of the bandages on the face the nested squares the process being employed here really
23:40was one of preserving the body with in fact an aesthetic dimension in the way the wrapping was done
23:46then it was all finished off with protective measures but which would also help the deceased to be reborn
23:53which provided the mummy with certain advantages for their survival in the afterlife
23:59this protective outer casing represents divinities surrounding the deceased
24:03it's a whole defense package set up to protect the deceased's soul
24:17before re-inhabiting the body the soul of the deceased would have to face the fearsome ordeal of judgment
24:23by the god osiris that of the weighing of the heart
24:26in ancient egyptian religion the soul of the deceased first had to offer up their soul to be tested
24:36on the scales in order to gain entrance to the realm of eternity
24:41the heart was placed on scales to be weighed against a feather of mat
24:46the goddess of justice if the deceased's life had been upright free of lies murder and treason
24:54the heart would be lighter than the feather and the deceased could join osiris
25:01if not the heart was thrown to be gobbled up by a monster with a taste for lost souls
25:10but the egyptians were very clever they had insurance and they wrote
25:15texts their funerary texts are basically answers to all the questions that the gods would ask them
25:22so the hearts could be in balance so they would say i did not lie i did not steal i did not bear false
25:28witness i did not cheat etc so you have this confession written down so in case they got
25:34nervous they could look at their papyrus and say look see i didn't do any of it and they could make
25:38their way to the afterworld the papyrus which accompanied the deceased into the afterlife
25:47was called the book of the dead it was a written guarantee of the deceased's blameless life clearing
25:54them of any possible misdeeds
25:56of the new kingdom would be without this passport to eternity
26:08one example is that of a mummy carefully preserved in the reserves of the louvre lance museum
26:20helen guichard general curator at the louvre has come today to inspect the outer casing of this mummy
26:26so this mummy is that of a scribe called niha who lived around 3 000 years ago somewhere in egypt
26:45in upper egypt and he's still enclosed in his outer casing
26:56so we're so familiar with ancient egyptian coffins that when we look at this we think it's made of
27:05wood but not at all what you're looking at here is fabric it's layers of linen which were soaked in
27:12glue and stuck together until they formed a shell that's about a centimeter thick once this dried and
27:20hardened it became an impregnable cocoon these outer casings are far from being unadorned they're all
27:31decorated and this decoration isn't just to look pretty it has a vital purpose if you look here you
27:38can see this central scene an essential scene since it's the moment when the deceased niha whom you see
27:45here looking very elegant in a transparent tunic with a cone of perfumed grease or unguent on his head
27:54all of this presents him in the best light and he's being led by the hand by the god horus to the lord of
28:02the dead himself the god osiris so this scene portrays the fateful moment where the deceased gets to
28:09plead his cause and we'll find out whether he's to be admitted into eternity or not the rest of the
28:17program is mainly divinities and protective spirits it's an entire magical religious program designed
28:23both to protect the deceased and to associate him completely with the god osiris because in this era
28:30when someone died and managed to get through all the ordeals that separated them from the afterlife
28:35they themselves became an osiris i think that one of their concerns was to keep protections around
28:46the body the more symbols the body was surrounded with the greater it was protected they enveloped the
28:52body with a whole panoply of protections
28:54and called a being of the human being of the great angels
29:02and the great angels
29:03bezen soul museum has a funerary ensemble belonging to a mummy three thousand years old
29:08this is the mummy of sarannon one of the priests of the god amon
29:18his protection was such a concern that like a russian doll
29:22his mummy was encased in not just one, but three sarcophagi, a veritable fortress.
29:28Here again, the illustrations weren't for decorative purposes. They protected the mummy.
29:36There are extracts from the Book of the Dead to guarantee the deceased entry into the afterlife.
29:43And every inch of space had to be covered in order to appeal to the gods.
29:52As well as extracts from the Book of the Dead on the sarcophagi, amulets were placed not
30:01only inside the bandages, but also actually inside the deceased's body.
30:08There were various types of amulets. They might represent the Eye of Horus, the backbone of
30:13the god Osiris, or the winged scarab beetle, symbol of rebirth. They all had the power to
30:19protect the mummy against the forces of evil.
30:27With the latest cutting-edge technology, we can now even study amulets inside a mummy's body.
30:34Today, Saruman's mummy is about to reveal to us the secrets of his survival in the afterlife.
30:44It is being transported to a clinic equipped with an extremely powerful scanner.
30:51In 2007, Saruman underwent a first scan, which revealed inside his body a necklace of amulets
30:58of different protective animals.
31:03One of a scarab beetle had especially intrigued the researchers because there appeared to be
31:07hieroglyphs on it.
31:11We already scanned it once, with a classic medical scanner, and we saw that there was a
31:18lot that was very interesting, as regards the anatomy, the pathology, and the amulets.
31:24For example, on the amulet of the heart scarab, we could see some lines and we thought they
31:29were probably hieroglyphs. But the spatial resolution wasn't sufficient for us to completely confirm
31:35that, and to recognize the characters. So now, a few years later, the technology has moved on.
31:44And we thought that maybe by putting it in the photon-counting CT scanner, we could get some answers.
31:54We're deciphering a hieroglyph on an amulet inside a mummy, using the cutting-edge technology of the
31:59latest scanner, a first in the field of Egyptology.
32:02Radiologist Samuel Merigeau and Egyptologist Émile Joubert await the first results.
32:08We remove the bandages, and all of that appears.
32:15The shape of the scarab is really clear.
32:20The resolution looks pretty good. We can see small irregularities on the belly of the scarab.
32:26If we fix on the plane of that surface, that looks really good. We'll zoom in.
32:37For the first time ever, legible hieroglyphs appear on the scanner's screen.
32:42I think that's not bad at all. It's relatively legible.
32:48So, Émile, what do you think?
32:51At the start of the first line, I can make out Osir, which means Osiris. So I suppose that
32:58introduces a title sequence and the name Ceremon. On the second line, there's the sign Per,
33:05which means house or domain. So that too could be part of a title.
33:09We are hindered slightly by the fact that we have a flat image, but the surface of the
33:15scarab is convex.
33:17At the end of that line, and the beginning of the fourth line, we can see Inimuti-i-ati-Inimuti.
33:26So, the heart of my mother, organ of my mother, which is a passage you find in spell 30b of
33:33the Book of the Dead. And it's what you'd expect to find on a heart scarab. This spell is used
33:39to prevent the heart testifying against the deceased. This is a pretty amazing experience,
33:48seeing the inside of a still intact mummy. This is how you get a better sense of the
33:53embalming process.
33:57This latest scanner in Lyon has afforded us a view of one of Ceremon's keys for unlocking
34:02the gates of eternity.
34:11Armed with his protective amulets, the mummy was ready.
34:19His soul would be able to be reunited with the body in a ceremony known as the Ritual
34:23of the Opening of the Mouth.
34:28Just before the actual funeral ceremony, a ritualist priest would use various accessories
34:34to touch different parts of the mummy's body, in particular the eyes, the nose, the ears and
34:40the mouth, thereby giving back breath, sight and hearing for eternity.
34:46And this is when the mouth is open and all the senses are restored to the body so you can
34:52live again in the afterlife. So during the 70 days you're sort of in limbo. And then after
34:58the opening of the mouth you are interred and then you begin your journey to the afterlife
35:03where you will live forever with all your senses.
35:08A mummified body, ready to enter eternal life, deserved a special abode.
35:20In every era, the ancient Egyptians spared no effort to build the most beautiful tombs, residences
35:26for all eternity.
35:32While the research into the embalmer's secret room at the Saqqara necropolis rightly stirred
35:36plenty of interest, there was another extraordinary discovery further south.
35:46In 2019, a tomb of the Old Kingdom, that of a dignitary called Koui, was discovered by Egyptologist
35:53and dig director Mohamed Megahed.
35:59The complex as a whole comprised an accessible funeral chapel for family and friends of the
36:04deceased to visit.
36:08The tomb itself was inaccessible and private, sealed and hidden several meters underground,
36:15so that the deceased would have peace and quiet in his second eternal life.
36:33Besides the beauty of these frescoes, this tomb of the ancient empire provides a unique insight
36:39into the past.
36:41It's an extraordinary place, which for the moment is closed to the public.
36:49When we look to the overall decoration of the tomb, it just takes you.
36:55This is a lifetime discovery for anybody.
37:00And when we entered here for the first time, it was just amazing.
37:05We were in front of the most beautiful, coloured Old Kingdom tomb ever found in Saqqara necropolis.
37:15We have Koui sitting in front of the offering table, and on the offering table we have pieces
37:20of bread.
37:21Bread was very important for ancient Egyptians, bread and beer.
37:25This was the main meal for them.
37:27And even above him, we have a huge amount of offering depictions.
37:32Fruits, vegetables, wine, beer, pieces of meat.
37:36This was how Koui imagined his afterlife, full of happiness, full of food, because he was
37:44feasting every day.
37:49The pictorial composition of the tomb leaves nothing to chance.
37:54The tiniest detail is there to ensure the deceased's survival, for the spiritual beings
38:00that inhabited the mummy had to be fed.
38:04The deceased entities were living in this tomb and needed sustenance.
38:12In the civilization of ancient Egypt, the spirit was a complex notion, being twofold.
38:21One part was a winged spirit, the Ba.
38:25The Ba is a sort of breath of life, but at the same time, it's the personality, the consciousness
38:33of the deceased.
38:34But you have to imagine that there are moments when the mummy would be all alone without its
38:39Ba.
38:40Where the Ba was by itself, wandering around on earth.
38:45Then there were the moments, described in the texts, when the Ba came back into the body.
38:53In addition, the Ba was indissociable from the Ka, the life force of the deceased with
38:58arms held aloft.
39:00Like all living beings, the Ka had essential needs.
39:03The Ka was above all the life force of a person.
39:08It was the Ka that enabled the dead to go on taking in sustenance, to eat and drink and
39:15therefore build up the vital energy they would need for their eternal life.
39:20So it was to the Ka, for example, that food offerings were made.
39:29I think ancient Egyptians invented this kind of magic, which can transform the 2D to 3D,
39:37transforming the reliefs towards like real offering and real boats and real life and
39:42music and agriculture.
39:44So I think in their imagination, they wanted to enjoy all of this in their afterlife.
39:49In the funerary beliefs, everything painted on the walls assumed a virtual life to nourish
39:57the Ka of the deceased.
40:00Without these offerings, the spirit would die.
40:03Hence, the necessity for the painters to be as realistic as possible.
40:08One of the details is very interesting.
40:11They don't want to show just cutting the animal, they wanted to show even the blood when they
40:16were cutting the animal, so they make perhaps drops with the brush to show here the blood.
40:23Another interesting detail is shown when they are sharpening the knife for the slaughtering.
40:29You can see the drops coming from sharpening, sharpening the knife coming down.
40:34So in general, the scenes are very unique.
40:38It tells you how important this tomb is and how important is adding to our information from
40:44historical point of view or from cultural point of view.
40:47And we understand much better the old kingdom reliefs and civilization.
40:51Another detail, which is very interesting, is what I call the fingerprint of the artist.
40:58It seems the artist or whoever was working here, making these wonderful scenes, when the colors
41:05were still wet, he leaned on the wall with his ball, with this part, and he left for us
41:11his fingerprint.
41:12It gives you the human touch about those people.
41:15The tombs were decorated with paintings and bas-reliefs for 3,000 years, granting us insights into
41:25aspects of everyday life about which the great monuments and other treasures tell us nothing.
41:35Thanks to these tombs, a new door has been opened onto the past.
41:45During the Middle Kingdom, they even created models showing the different professions of
41:49the time.
41:55Just like Lego and Playmobil today, these mini scenes and their little figurines, all made
42:00of wood, bring to life the activities of those times.
42:05We have fishing scenes, granaries, even bakeries, incredible little time capsules.
42:15The ancient Egyptians spared no effort creating these reconstructions of the life that the
42:21deceased would have known as realistically as possible.
42:24Some think that as these are representations of the deceased's property, with his servants
42:34taking care of the deceased's wealth, prestige, and power.
42:43But another idea is that they represent what the deceased wanted in the afterlife, which is
42:49more of the same with his servants, his goods, and so on.
42:55The two ideas aren't incompatible, but there are those two interpretations.
43:02I myself think that the ancient Egyptians were a very joyful people, who loved life and the
43:16pleasures of life, and so they hoped it didn't end when their life on Earth ended.
43:27I don't think they were afraid of dying, they just wanted life to go on.
43:38Death in ancient Egypt wasn't an end, but the beginning of eternal life, which one started
43:44to put in place during one's lifetime.
43:47The body had to keep alive the deceased's spirits for all eternity.
44:03To render the flesh immortal, the unguents used have preserved these bodies for centuries,
44:09assuring that they achieved a posterity which, with the Egyptomania of the 19th century, exceeded
44:16anything they might have imagined.
44:39The divine planet for life.
44:42The very nature of everything was created.
44:50The secundumary is now and of the nature of the
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