00:00A gruesome discovery took place in Egypt some years ago.
00:03You want to hear about it?
00:04Sixteen human hands, carefully buried in four 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.
00:17No left hands were in sight.
00:19It turned out that it points to the practice of an ancient dark ritual.
00:24Old Egyptian art and tales talked of a ceremony
00:27where warriors would present the right hand of their adversaries
00:30as proof of victory and ask for gold in return.
00:35Egyptians believed in the afterlife,
00:37so cutting off someone's hand meant you cut off their power eternally.
00:41Guaranteeing this type of defeat was interesting to the winning party.
00:45Here, the fight was between Egyptians versus Hyksus,
00:48who lived in what was once known as Canaan.
00:52Egypt has always been the center of some history-changing findings.
00:56And some time ago, this papyrus was found.
00:59If we stretched it open,
01:01it would be just a tad bigger than the height of a skyscraper.
01:04The world's tiniest skyscraper, I mean,
01:07which is located in Wichita Falls, Texas.
01:09When humans didn't write on their Notes app,
01:14they wrote on this thing,
01:15made from the medulla of a papyrus plant.
01:18Around 2,000 years ago,
01:20ancient Egyptians wrote something reminiscent of a book
01:23where they described most of their funerary traditions
01:26and their visions of the afterlife.
01:28It's considered one of the most important texts from ancient Egypt
01:32and is still sold in bookstores to this day.
01:34This ancient manuscript was unearthed from a chamber
01:38located just south of the Pyramid of Dozier,
01:40located in Saqqara.
01:42Oh yes, Dozier is the oldest pyramid in Egypt
01:45and not the Giza pyramids like most people think.
01:48So recently, the site of Saqqara buzzed with excited archaeologists,
01:52who probably found one of Egypt's oldest complete mummies.
01:56They believed that this beautiful and well-preserved mummy
01:59was that of a wealthy man.
02:00He was discovered in a deep shaft,
02:03covered in layers of gold leaves.
02:06There are many symbols that show he was an important and wealthy man,
02:09like the band he wore on his head,
02:12the bracelet on his chest,
02:13and 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
02:21was finding the resting place sealed with mortar,
02:25just as the ancient Egyptians had left it 4,300 years ago.
02:29Now, this may sound weird,
02:31but back in 2008,
02:33archaeologists discovered a missing pyramid.
02:36Now, it went missing because it deteriorated
02:39over the span of 4,000 years.
02:41Today, you can only see its base.
02:43It was a pretty important site back in ancient times.
02:47It is said that around the area of the pyramid,
02:49the ancients hosted a special type of ceremony,
02:52where high priests would carry mummified remains of sacred bulls.
02:56Now, here's a fun fact.
02:58Ancient Egyptians believed that Apis bulls
03:00were earthly incarnations of the city deity of Memphis
03:03and was connected to rites of fertility.
03:06It wasn't just any Apis bull, though.
03:09They needed to be all black,
03:10with a single white mark between its horns
03:13and a bunch of very specific characteristics.
03:16They were selected by the local priests
03:18and honored until they passed away.
03:20After that, they were mummified
03:22and buried in underground galleries.
03:26Meanwhile, this missing pyramid
03:28sort of disappeared around the 1800s.
03:31It was a German archaeologist
03:32who first found it in the village of Sakura.
03:35He called it the Headless Pyramid
03:37when he first found it.
03:38But then, years after the official discovery,
03:41the desert sand came along
03:42and covered the whole thing.
03:44There were some excavations
03:45between the 19th and 20th centuries,
03:48but they weren't too systematic.
03:49That's why scientists were so thrilled
03:51when they dug an entire pyramid's base
03:53after removing the 25-foot mound of sand
03:56that was covering it.
03:58Oh, and it turns out
03:59American archaeologists
04:01are excavating a cemetery in Egypt
04:03that could contain
04:04over a million mummified bodies.
04:07So far, archaeologists have dug
04:09around 1,700 mummies.
04:12One of the main differences
04:13from other classic Egyptian mummies
04:15is that these people weren't kings and pharaohs.
04:17They were commoners
04:18that most likely lived
04:20about 1,500 years ago
04:22when Egypt was controlled
04:23by the Roman and Byzantine empires.
04:25The name of the cemetery is cool, though.
04:28The Way of the Water Buffalo.
04:29Just in case you want to check it out
04:31on your next trip.
04:33Other than bulls and buffaloes,
04:35ancient Egyptians also liked baboons.
04:37Are you seeing a pattern here?
04:39In the beginning of the 20th century,
04:41archaeologists discovered a site
04:43filled with mummified baboons
04:45in a place called, guess what,
04:47the Valley of Monkeys.
04:48An animal wouldn't have been mummified
04:50if it wasn't considered important.
04:53Certain animals were more important than others
04:55since they were linked to specific deities.
04:58Jackals were connected to Anubis,
05:00the ancient god of the afterlife.
05:02And cats were likened
05:03to the female deity Bastet.
05:05Baboons were a pretty big deal
05:07since they were believed
05:08to be connected to Thoth,
05:09the deity of wisdom
05:10and advisor to Ra,
05:12one of Egypt's supreme deities.
05:13The archaeologists who studied these animals
05:17weren't too happy.
05:19They think these baboons were kept inside
05:21and were deprived of sunlight
05:22for most of their lives.
05:24They had extreme vitamin D deficiencies
05:26and they were poorly fed.
05:28Maybe Thoth got angry
05:29with these baboon keepers.
05:31Just a guess.
05:33Since there's never a boring day
05:34for archaeologists in Egypt,
05:36they also found human mummies
05:38with golden tongues.
05:40Since Egyptians were all about the afterlife,
05:42they believed that golden tongues
05:44might help a person speak
05:46once they pass to the other side.
05:48I mean, it's a long shot,
05:49but hey, why not?
05:51Some of these mummies were placed
05:53in wooden coffins with goods,
05:54such as necklaces, pottery,
05:56golden artifacts in the shape of lotus flowers
05:59and scarab beetles.
06:00And iPhones.
06:01Just kidding.
06:03A new temple was also unearthed recently in Egypt.
06:06Scientists believe it was dedicated
06:07to honor Zeus Kassios.
06:10That deity would be a cross between Zeus,
06:12the almighty Greek deity of the sky,
06:15and Mount Kassios.
06:16While digging around the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt,
06:19archaeologists spotted two pink granite columns
06:22poking out of the ground.
06:23And bingo!
06:25They believe these columns represented
06:26the temple's front gate
06:28and collapsed during an earthquake many years ago.
06:30And, speaking of deities,
06:33there weren't only super-serious deities.
06:36Recently, scientists unearthed a golden ring
06:38in 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,
06:47officially named best.
06:48This deity is often described in sacred texts
06:51as a happy chubby dwarf.
06:54Today, many tattoos we get
06:56are sorta deprived of any sense
06:58and are made of aesthetic purposes only.
07:00In ancient Egypt, though,
07:02women would get tattoos
07:03as a token of protection for childbirth.
07:06That's what scientists think, at least.
07:08Around the Nile region,
07:10scientists found some mummies
07:11that had well-preserved tattoos,
07:13which is a rarity
07:14since the skin deteriorates so easily.
07:17Two of these women tattooed their lower backs,
07:19and the drawings were simple.
07:20They were mostly pictures,
07:22including that same chubby dwarf
07:24we just talked about, Bess.
07:25He also had a side hustle
07:27as the protector of women during childbirth.
07:29Now, would you believe me if I told you
07:32ancient Egyptians invented robots?
07:34No?
07:35Well, that's because that's not entirely true.
07:38Sure, they were astronomers,
07:39mathematicians, and engineers,
07:41and somehow, they also squeezed
07:42an eccentric invention into that package.
07:45An automated deity
07:46some scientists called Hathor.
07:48This wooden statue
07:50had been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
07:52for years
07:53before someone noticed its secret.
07:55With the help of an x-ray machine,
07:57specialists discovered
07:58a mechanical operating system inside it.
08:01The pulley-like axis
08:02goes from the statue's shoulder
08:04to her left leg.
08:05When the system rotates,
08:06the statue raises and lowers her hand.
08:09Hey, pick me!
08:10Pick me!
08:11I got my hand up here!
08:12Pick me!
08:12Pick me!
08:12Pick me!
08:12Pick me!
08:13Pick me!
08:13Pick me!
08:14Pick me!
08:14Pick me!
08:15Pick me!
08:15Pick me!
08:15Pick me!
08:15Pick me!
08:16Pick me!
08:17Pick me!
08:17Pick me!
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