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00:01Ancient Egypt. For over three thousand years, the world's most vibrant and puzzling civilization flourished through war and peace.
00:14The Egyptians built great cities, enduring monuments. They advanced mathematics and technology. Their astonishing legacy survives to this day.
00:26What transformed a simple community of riverside farmers into a great empire outlasting all others?
00:34Archaeologists have uncovered new clues from Dynasty Zero, Egypt's very beginning.
00:41A five thousand year old tablet tells a fascinating tale of warfare just before the founding of Egypt.
00:49But is it really Egypt's birth certificate? Or civilization's oldest lie?
00:55Experts have begun to unravel the mystery of what really happened.
00:59They are uncovering the truth about the enigmatic King Narva.
01:04The man who may have been the first pharaoh. The man who possibly created Egypt.
01:21Egypt around 3000 BC. The time of Dynasty Zero.
01:27Around one million people live on the Nile. Fishermen, farmers, hunters.
01:32No single pharaoh rules this divided country. Not yet.
01:40But history may hinge on a royal messenger. He's been traveling upstream on the Nile for weeks.
01:51He carries an urgent reply to a message sent by King Narva, the ruler of the country south.
01:58The response could shape the destiny of the entire country.
02:03Uniting it in peace. Or plunging it into war.
02:09King Narva wants to expand his increasingly powerful southern kingdom to include the disparate tribes of the north.
02:18But the principalities of the delta in the north have always remained beyond his reach.
02:23Until recently, little was known about this crucial period in Egypt's history.
02:30We are learning about Dynasty Zero only for the past 10 or 15 years.
02:36We had no idea prior to that time that there were kings, powerful rulers in Egypt.
02:45King Narva has demanded that the northern tribes bow to his rule, preferably without a fight.
02:51The messenger finally arrives with a response the king has anxiously awaited.
02:59Control of the northern people would magnify Narva's power and wealth.
03:03But the news is disappointing.
03:06The tribal chiefs of the Nile Delta defies demands.
03:10They want to remain independent.
03:14But their decision apparently won't quell Narva's grand ambition to rule the whole of Egypt.
03:21All the way to the Mediterranean.
03:26Experts are just beginning to speculate about Narva's actions and his actual role in history.
03:37After five millennia, it's difficult to separate fact from propaganda.
03:43Supposedly, this relatively obscure king took up the simple spears and stone clubs of his day and went to war,
03:50vanquishing his enemies and uniting the tribes and towns of Egypt into a single kingdom.
03:58At least, according to what is now known as the Narva planet, the most important source from that time.
04:06The five thousand year old stone inscription shows Narva wearing two crowns, representing all of Egypt.
04:13But does that mean, Egypt was founded by force?
04:38Some Egyptologists speculate that the tribal leaders had fought each other for generations.
04:43But King Narva sees the bigger picture.
04:47He has consolidated his power in the south and assembled several hundred men to expand his domain.
04:56The king tells his men that the northern tribes refused to fall under his rule and that the time to
05:03strike is now.
05:08But Egyptologist Kent Weeks sees another origin for the Egyptian empire.
05:16I think, myself, it was largely a peaceful operation.
05:21And I think, too, that it was something that was the result of a long period, a gradual period of
05:29assimilation.
05:30I don't mean thousands of years, but I certainly mean several generations, during which time this gradual emergence of a
05:38unified culture came about.
05:41Could Egypt be united in peace?
05:44Or would it take a vicious war to bring the country together in a single empire?
05:51Was an act of suppression an absolute victory over enemy peoples necessary to create a great civilization?
06:00The answer to this question is crucial to our understanding the next 3,000 years of Egyptian history.
06:11To find that answer, scholars must gather evidence from every corner of the empire.
06:18The swampy lands of the Nile Delta swallowed the secrets of this pre-dynastic period.
06:26But the southern desert hides many surprises, including a political power center dating to Dynasty Zero, a place called Abydos.
06:40Abydos.
06:41It was a magical settlement, nestled in the desert lowlands next to the Nile River Valley.
06:50In this sacred center, the graves of the first pharaohs were discovered.
06:58Abydos may help scientists unravel how Egypt was founded.
07:11The excavation here has been the life's work of Egyptologist Günther Dreyer.
07:21The ancient ruins speak volumes about early Egyptian architecture, but they are practically silent about how Egypt was founded.
07:32These tombs, looted repeatedly over the last 5,000 years, hold little except broken pottery.
07:40Dreyer's team spent 30 years meticulously sifting through mountains of sand.
07:46Some of the most spectacular finds are no larger than a fingernail, like this evidence of perhaps the world's earliest
07:54writing.
07:58Next to the tombs of the very first pharaohs lie some of the oldest graves so far, dating back to
08:05the 4th millennium BC.
08:11It's here, at the edge of this ancient cemetery, that archaeologists found the tomb of the mysterious King Nama.
08:21In fact, it's surprisingly modest for the man who portrayed himself as a great war leader and founder of the
08:29Egyptian Empire.
08:29And it wasn't even built to last.
08:36The gräber are actually just shrubs with a rope and very fragile, sometimes even in the ancient times.
08:45We have been sent to them after the excavation and construction, so that they will be maintained.
08:53These photographs from Dreyer's 1981 excavation show what Nama's tomb once looked like.
09:03It consisted of two simple brick-lined chambers, one for a body, one for a few funerary ornaments.
09:12Nama's generic tomb seems to contradict his grand claim as Egypt's unifier.
09:22Just a few hundred years later, Egyptian tombs would grow to epic proportions, taking thousands of workers decades to complete.
09:31And entombed within them were rulers so powerful they were venerated like gods.
09:36Such achievements were only possible in a unified kingdom, with a single ruler.
09:48If Nama truly unified Egypt, one would think he'd rate that sort of monumental funerary treatment for himself.
09:57But apparently not.
10:01Could Nama's glory be nothing but an elaborate fiction?
10:08Perhaps.
10:11The most important monument to this king is the Nama Palate.
10:16A document to recount a battle that may or may not have happened.
10:25For the next three thousand years, every Egyptian king portrayed himself as a victor.
10:32Even if he never fought a war, Nama may have been no different.
10:40There's another important center of Dynasty Zero that might help solve the mystery of the Nama Palate.
10:46It's 250 kilometers south of Abydas, in Hierakonpolis.
10:55This city had a pivotal role in the founding of the Empire.
11:03For 500 years, this was one of the great power centers of the south, a vital part of King Nama's
11:11rule.
11:17And here, during the 19th century, archaeologists found the Nama Palate.
11:28Archaeologist Rene Friedman has been working at Hierakonpolis for more than a decade,
11:33piecing together the few remaining traces of the ancient city.
11:36She and her team have painstakingly assembled a picture of what this place must have looked like.
11:45They've learned to tease vital information from mundane ruins.
11:51Like this foundation of a simple house.
11:54She can even determine who it belonged to.
11:58This is the house of a potter who, fortunately for us, burnt his house down with his own kiln.
12:05Ensuring its incredible preservation.
12:07Because it's been cut into the native dirt.
12:11And otherwise it would have eroded away.
12:14But because he burnt it and made it like pottery.
12:17It's red like pottery now because of the fire.
12:20It's preserved it against the wind and the elements.
12:22So we can see and get a feel for how the ancient Egyptians at this time actually lived.
12:31Until tragedy burnished his place in history, the potter lived with his family in a simple clay house like many
12:38of his neighbours.
12:46In the adjacent shop, he produced pottery for inhabitants of Hierakonpolis.
12:51At that time, one of the greatest settlements in the world.
12:55Nearly 10,000 people lived here.
12:57Where a huge temple dominated the city centre.
13:01But fire isn't the only way the structures of Hierakonpolis survived.
13:07Archaeologists have excavated remains of central breweries and bakeries.
13:15The most remarkable discovery, however, came from outside the city.
13:20It's a cemetery for the Egyptian elite with about 200 tombs.
13:25And not just people were buried here.
13:29Antelopes, two elephants and several dogs have been found in the sand.
13:34With our elite, they were all buried with many animals surrounding them.
13:40And it's unique in Egypt.
13:41We don't know exactly why they chose to do this, but we think it's a symbol of power.
13:45It's a symbol of their wealth and their control of nature.
13:51Their burial practices may seem strange to us, but life and Hierakonpolis seems orderly and strikingly civilised.
14:00The city stretched for five kilometres along the Nile.
14:08When most Europeans still lived in fragmented settlements, the residents of Hierakonpolis enjoyed a flourishing society based on trade and
14:17cooperation.
14:22And that suggests that Nama's battle never happened.
14:27And that the Egyptians of the countries north and south united peacefully.
14:33But it doesn't really prove it.
14:35To get to the truth, we need to dig further back into history.
14:39To discover where the ancient Egyptians actually came from.
14:43The search for routes of the very first Egyptians takes us 500 kilometres across one of the driest deserts on
14:51Earth.
14:52The Sahara.
14:55Prehistorian and climatologist Rudolf Koopa has been exploring Africa's deserts for over 30 years.
15:02Now he heads to the Gilf-Kabir Plateau to examine a cave tourists discovered a few years ago.
15:10The drifting sands of the Sahara have partially hidden the cave's interior.
15:16As the archaeologists go to work, they bring to light images unseen for up to 9,000 years.
15:25But Koopa and his team have years of work ahead of them uncovering and interpreting the significance of this site.
15:33It may well be one of the world's largest prehistoric paintings.
15:38The pictures on the cave walls show ancient people dancing like snapshots from a vivacious prehistoric world.
15:48Strange creatures.
15:49Beasts without heads.
15:53Hunters chasing deer.
15:56Children at play.
15:59And animals not associated with the desert.
16:02Antelopes.
16:03Ostriches.
16:04Even giraffes.
16:07We have seen a few paintings there where we feel that there is music from the wall.
16:13There was, if you can express it, there was something going on.
16:19But who lived here, and why, remains a mystery.
16:26Prehistorians Heiko Riemer and Franziska Barth are part of the expedition.
16:32Everywhere, they've discovered evidence of early human habitation.
16:41As they carefully examine the area around the cave, they make some surprising discoveries.
16:51Layers of sediment, deposits of an ancient lake, reveal why people could live in this deserted area long ago.
17:01The landscape looked very different back then.
17:069,000 years ago, the climate here supported a savannah.
17:216,000 years ago, the human hunter-gatherers had more than enough to eat.
17:26Then, the rains stopped. The savannah turned to desert.
17:53As the Sahara dried out, it became the motive force of Egyptian history.
17:59The expanding desert drove humans before it. Their search for water took them to the Nile, where they stopped and
18:10settled.
18:14Many generations later, the people of the Nile constructed some of antiquity's greatest buildings and became one of history's longest
18:24-lived civilizations.
18:26A civilization forged from diverse, embattled tribes by the power of King Narma. At least, according to the Narma palette.
18:40Now, the King's soldiers prepare for war. Their weapons include not just lances and maces, but also bows and arrows,
18:48like their ancestors hundreds of years ago in the savannah.
18:54They train well, always ready for battle.
18:59Narma, his country's most senior warrior, senses that war there will be.
19:18And when it comes, he is prepared to lead.
19:26But more than a military leader, Narma controls just about everything else as well. Taxes, religion and the annual harvest
19:36fall under his command.
19:42As the chief administrator, he travels with his family through the Kingdom of the South. The well-being of his
19:49subjects falls squarely on his shoulders.
19:55But there is one thing he can't control. One thing even more powerful than himself.
20:05The mighty Nile.
20:11The rising and falling tides of this gigantic river determine the welfare of the whole country.
20:22Jutting into the Nile River, the island of Elephantine marks Egypt's southern border.
20:29The early Egyptians considered it the source of the Nile, and therefore, all life.
20:38As early as Dynasty Zero, pilgrims flock to Elephantine, one of the oldest sacred sites in Egypt.
20:45They come to worship the goddess of the Nile floods.
20:51Sartet.
20:53Called the donor of the cool water which springs from Elephantine, Sartet plays a pivotal role in Egyptian life.
21:05The real sources of the Nile weren't discovered until the 19th century.
21:15Some of its water springs from the mountains of Ethiopia.
21:17It feeds into the Blue Nile, providing almost 60% of the Nile's volume.
21:25And there's a second tributary, the White Nile in Sudan.
21:31It's here that one can see what the Nile looked like at the time of the first Egyptians.
21:40A menagerie of African animals thrived in the river's fertile floodplains.
21:51Papyrus and lotus plants flourished in the marshes.
22:00At Khartoum, in the Sudan, the White and the Blue Nile merge to form the longest river in the world.
22:10And once a year, the river lets loose its fury like no other, delivering bounty or destruction along its entire
22:20path.
22:23Each summer, weeks of severe rainfall in the Ethiopian highlands swell the waters of the Nile enormously.
22:37Kilometre by kilometre, the flood advances northward, leaving only small islands poking above the water.
22:46Depending on the amount of rainfall, the water rises between 2 and 8 metres.
22:55The flood waters finally swallow the Nile Delta, turning much of it into a shallow lake.
23:07For some of the first settlers, the flooding Nile often meant disaster.
23:12If they built their house on low-lying land, they could lose everything.
23:15To survive, they had to learn to live with the flood and use it.
23:23The ancient Egyptians learned fast.
23:29At the time of Dynasty Zero, they would wait keenly at Elephantine for the first sign of the flood.
23:38Their descendants even built a Nile-o-meter.
23:45Here we have a Skala with markings, through which one could be seen by the Nile-o-meter.
23:54It was important to control the Nile-o-meter.
23:57Because they are the basis for them to see how the land will be developed in the same year.
24:09They could be destroyed by the flood or the flood.
24:14So that they could be destroyed by the land and the land.
24:23For the ancient Egyptians, the height of the water is no random event.
24:28It flows as a blessing or a curse directly from their gods.
24:36The people must be worthy.
24:38As the water surges, it carries hope along with it.
24:43The king is crucial to the process.
24:48If he displeases the gods, his people will perish.
24:53So King Nama performs spiritual ceremonies to ensure that the flood waters flow in the proper volumes.
24:59To bring a healthy harvest each year.
25:05The rising waters renew the annual bond between the gods and the people.
25:11And to ensure this great gift isn't squandered, Nama has to see that the water is properly managed.
25:21Controlling the Nile flood, ensuring that there were healthy crops each year, was one of the many duties that fell
25:27on the Pharaoh.
25:28It was his task to ensure that the gods treated us properly by raising the Nile.
25:34Not too much, not too little, but just enough for a good flood.
25:38By producing adequate crops to provide surplus foods for trade and in case of emergencies and so forth.
25:47The river brought dual gifts to the people of Egypt.
25:51Not one, but two great elements essential for the development of an advanced culture.
25:59This is the reason Egyptian civilization could exist.
26:03The river Nile.
26:04It not only provided water essential for all life, but every year about a millimeter of fresh Nile silts were
26:11deposited over the landscape of Egypt.
26:14The nutrients in these silts made possible the richest agricultural landscape on the face of the planet.
26:21And the Nile's silt does more than just feed the fields.
26:25This muddy sediment provides the building materials for huts and palaces.
26:32Whole cities rise from mud bricks.
26:37In its marshes, papyrus flourishes, providing the raw material for the very first paper.
26:44For the chronicles of the scribes.
26:48The letters of the living.
26:51And the books of the dead.
27:01But mud alone can't guarantee a good harvest.
27:06People have to learn how to manage the Nile's great gift.
27:11Through dams, reservoirs and irrigation canals,
27:14the Egyptians learn to manage their agriculture.
27:18Simply, but very effectively.
27:21Even today, many farmers along the Nile use the same time-proven methods as their ancestors.
27:29The ancient Egyptians recognize only three seasons.
27:34Flood, planting and harvest.
27:37That's all that matters.
27:41Each sowing season, they plant an area of two and a half million hectares.
27:47A ceremonial mace from the time of Dynasty Zero shows a king inaugurating an irrigation canal.
27:56The opening of the sluice gate is a ritual reserved for the king.
28:00It demonstrates the reverence of the ancient Egyptians for the mighty and temperamental river.
28:07After the flood subsides, the stored water is channeled to irrigate the fields.
28:17In the rich soil of the Nile Valley, the wheat grows faster than anywhere else in the world,
28:24producing enough grain to feed an estimated one million people at the time of Dynasty Zero.
28:36Ancient tomb paintings depict cattle breeding and the bounty that Egypt's agricultural society relied on.
28:49Grain becomes the country's currency and also Egypt's most important export.
28:59Early on, the Egyptians realized that cooperation amongst themselves was going to be key to their success.
29:06And by success, I mean having agricultural surpluses that could see them through the bad times.
29:12Or having the ability to repair damage that might be caused by a flood that was a bit too high.
29:18This kind of cooperative effort also provided something extremely important,
29:23and that was the ability for specialists to develop in Egyptian society.
29:30The Nile provides more than bumper harvests.
29:34It is also the country's main thoroughfare.
29:39With no regular roads to connect the Egyptian towns, people rely on the Nile to get around.
29:46Boats are indispensable.
29:48For food and transportation, the Nile provides a dual lifeline for the people of Dynasty Zero.
29:56By boat, Naama and his family visit the entire kingdom.
30:01Every village is in easy reach.
30:08They travel south using wind power.
30:12When they go back north, they are carried by the current.
30:16The wind is faster than the current.
30:20One cruises upstream at about 4 kilometers an hour.
30:25Traveling from the delta to the far south takes just 30 days.
30:36Hundreds of model boats have been found in Egyptian tombs.
30:40A testimony to their value, even in the afterlife.
30:45Boats can carry crops, building materials, people and their ideas.
30:52Everyone possesses a boat.
30:56The farmers and fishermen use small papyrus boats.
31:00They are perfectly adequate for crossing from one bank of the Nile to the other.
31:06For longer journeys, they sail in more substantial vessels,
31:10built from tougher materials, with more sophisticated construction methods.
31:16These are boats built out of wooden planks.
31:18And we know that not only by their shape, but because we found one from about the same age.
31:23These wooden planks are held together in a way that nobody else in the world has built boats.
31:28And it's a way that actually reflects the construction of the papyrus raft.
31:34The Egyptians built their earliest boats by lashing papyrus reeds together,
31:39lifting the ends out of the water and forming a crescent to cut through the waves.
31:52A straw roof gave shelter and oars steered.
32:01The first wooden boats mimicked the shape of the papyrus boats and were constructed in the same way.
32:13Wooden planks were sewn together with straps made of grass or papyrus.
32:17They were strong enough to haul heavy cargo over long distances.
32:21But they could also be taken apart and carried over land.
32:26They formed the backbone of the Egyptian trade and transport system, which began during Dynasty Zero.
32:35Boats were the major means of transportation and, having said that, they were also a major means of bringing together
32:43the country, of unifying the country.
32:49According to most of the archaeological evidence, 5,000 years ago, a prosperous agricultural and trading society flourished peacefully along
32:59the banks of the Nile.
33:01But one would never guess that, looking at the Nama palette.
33:06The stone is a monument to war, with graphic depictions of violence, the slaughter of enemies and prisoners bound through
33:15their noses.
33:17How can both accounts be right?
33:20How can archaeologists reconcile the contradictions?
33:28The Nama palette was discovered in the Temple of Hieracompolis.
33:32So archaeologists believe King Nama offered it to Horus, the god of kings to whom the Temple was dedicated.
33:43The palette proclaims that Nama, the unifier of both lands, laid the foundation for a great future.
33:53But this could be part of the official cult of the king, rather than historical reality.
34:00Nama's great battle could be a metaphor, or an exaggeration.
34:07In Cairo, Belgian Egyptologist Stan Hendrix is allowed to examine the Nama palette for the first time in a hundred
34:15years.
34:15The tiniest detail could provide clues about events of 5,000 years ago.
34:23He and his team assessed the data in the research facility in Belgium.
34:31Perhaps some overlooked detail could solve the great mystery that has confounded Egyptologists for decades.
34:41Is the Nama palette, does it refer to historical facts, or is it only a symbolic representation of the power
34:51of Egyptian kings and of the violence that is related to this power?
34:56But even with precise copies of the reliefs, the images remain cryptic.
35:02There's a figure with papyrus growing out of its back, the enemy, but we still don't know anything about him
35:08apart from his name.
35:10Yet the weight of the evidence, Hendrix believes, suggests that the war really happened.
35:17There are too many details referring to apparently specific places, a specific person who the name of his principal victim
35:29is mentioned.
35:31There are too many of this kind of details to accept that it is just a purely symbolic representation.
35:39In his headquarters in Abydos, Professor Günther Dreyer searches for evidence among the fragments he has excavated.
35:49Most of these ivory and clay tablets refer to shipments of oil and wheat.
35:58But the oldest of them has some special information.
36:02It dates an oil delivery to a specific year.
36:07The year that Nama defeated the papyrus people.
36:16This tiny piece of clay has rewritten history.
36:24Man weiß aus späterer Zeit, dass man in der ersten Dynastie die Jahre nicht gezählt hat, Jahr 1, 2, 3
36:32eines bestimmten Königs,
36:33sondern benannt hat nach dem wesentlichsten Ereignis des jeweiligen Jahres.
36:38Und dieses Täfelchen ist das erste überhaupt dieser Art.
36:41Und da wird eben dieser Sieg über die Papyrusleute genannt.
36:47Proof at last that descriptions of violence and warfare from Dynasty Zero are more than simply mythical.
37:06Archeologist Maria Gatto, working deep in southern Egypt, has found more evidence.
37:13Rock art, long thought lost, that tells of a king whose power reached all corners of the kingdom.
37:22These pictures have been vandalized over recent decades.
37:28Luckily, they were photographed many years ago.
37:37To study the pictures better, Aria Gatto has transcribed them onto paper.
37:43The drawings show an impressive, sweeping royal procession.
37:48There was a king with the white crown and a stick.
37:53Then there was a fan bearer behind him.
37:56And then there was a dog in the center.
37:58So because of this iconographic connection with the Narmer Palette
38:02and because of this presence of the dog, we are wondering if this king might be Narmer.
38:08Perhaps King Narmer wanted to impose his authority here too, far from the center of his power.
38:15Many other similar depictions have been found across the region.
38:19A reminder of who was in charge.
38:24And so it seems likely that King Narmer did unify Egypt by force.
38:33When the north refuses to succumb to the rule of the south, King Narmer plans for war.
38:49Controlling the north is now essential for the rulers of the south.
38:54As their prosperity and population have grown, so has southern demand for luxury goods
39:00that can only be supplied via the near east.
39:21Nama and his invading army set off on the long march north through unforgiving terrain.
39:30The locals watch anxiously as Narmer's warriors pass.
39:38The Papyrus people are determined to preserve their independence.
39:44But Narmer has other plans and hundreds of warriors behind him.
39:54We now know that the Narmer Palette depicts actual historical events.
40:00The outcome of Narmer's battle against the Papyrus people unifies and transforms Egypt.
40:11This is one of the first great battles ever recorded.
40:17Somewhere in the Nile Delta, 5,000 years ago,
40:22King Narmer's royal forces of the south clash with the principalities of the Delta to the north.
40:28In a battle without mercy.
40:32At stake is the independence of the northern people.
40:37But eventually,
40:40Narmer and his army triumph.
40:47One of Narmer's ceremonial maces shows a victory parade.
40:52Narmer sits under a canopy with the crown of Egypt.
40:55His standard bearers behind him.
41:01The hieroglyphics record the booty.
41:05One hundred and twenty thousand captives.
41:10More than a million goats.
41:13Four hundred thousand cattle.
41:16On the Narmer Palette, the king inspects the lines of enemy dead.
41:23They've been beheaded and castrated.
41:28Warfare is not only violence but also psychology.
41:34So humiliation of your opponent may break the resistance of your opponent.
41:44For Narmer, victory is complete.
41:47On the front of the Palette, he wears the crown of Upper Egypt.
41:52On the back, the crown of Lower Egypt.
42:01King Narmer has finished what his predecessors began.
42:07The unification of the Empire.
42:11And to symbolize that unity, the two crowns of Lower and Upper Egypt are combined into one.
42:18From now on and for at least three thousand years to come, every pharaoh will wear it.
42:25Something truly new has begun.
42:29The regime of Narmer is a turning point in the Egyptian history.
42:35The transition from the pre-dynastical time to the dynastical time.
42:41Narmer's victory ushers in three thousand years, thirty-one dynasties of godlike pharaohs.
42:50Great names will follow.
42:52Names we still remember.
42:53Thutmose, Thutmose, Amenhotep, Akhenaten, Ramses, Hatshepsut and many others.
43:15At last, the lotus of the south and the papyrus of the north are linked.
43:24From now on, the pharaoh's most important task is to protect the unity of the kingdom and to defend its
43:31borders.
43:37Egypt has become the first territorial state in history, the first empire.
43:46Before long, the country subdivides into administrative districts, the gnomes.
43:5222 in the north, 20 in the south.
43:57When King Narmer dies, after a successful reign, the entire country mourns.
44:07In Abydos, Narmer's body begins its final journey.
44:13Even here, at the time of Dynasty Zero, the people of Egypt believe that death is the portal to eternal
44:21life.
44:23Mummification is important, but not yet perfected.
44:29Beneath the desert sand, an eternal home receives the crudely preserved body of the founder of the kingdom.
44:43Burial here is a simple affair compared to what would come later.
44:56The end of Narmer's reign marks the beginning of a new era.
45:05By the next generation, royal tombs are growing considerably larger.
45:15At Abydos, construction starts on a new cemetery area.
45:21The necropolis of the first pharaohs of a unified empire.
45:29The energy that was before in the formation of Egypt was not necessary anymore.
45:37It could fly somewhere else. And here it flows into architecture.
45:44The kings, now pharaohs, are no longer obsessed with war,
45:50but with eternal life awaiting them in the beyond.
45:54And so they turn their architectural ambitions to the construction of tombs.
46:04Each successive pharaoh will build a grander underground tomb.
46:10And the monuments above them will reach new extravagant heights.
46:17They culminate in the pyramids,
46:21an expression of the glory and power of the united Egyptian state.
46:29The pyramids dazzled visitors then, as they still do today.
46:36Born out of warfare, Egypt's peaceful and collaborative traditions ultimately prevailed.
46:43The blessings of the Nile gave rise to a civilization of plenty,
46:49where ample food created a wealthy culture.
46:55Civilizations sprouted and flourished, united under godlike kings.
47:02The age of the pharaohs had begun.
47:12The age of the pharaohs had begun.
47:39The cheese fall off at событиす fat days within the pię importan world.