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00:21Sakara is one of the iconic sites of ancient Egypt, because it was used throughout Egyptian
00:28history, and is first and foremost a vast necropolis, a burial ground not only for the pharaohs,
00:35but for private citizens, too.
00:45This site is obviously dominated by Pharaoh Djoser's huge funerary complex, which occupies
00:51the central area with its pyramid, enclosure wall, and various ceremonial structures.
01:03And here, in this part of the desert, we have the Serapium.
01:09The Serapium is a cult complex devoted to the Apis bull.
01:18And this Serapium included not only temples and chapels, but also, and above all, a necropolis
01:27devoted exclusively to the Apis bull.
01:34This is the story of a sacred bull interred in a mysterious underground necropolis.
01:47In the Sakara desert, a few kilometers from the city of Cairo, the tomb of the sacred bulls
01:54was discovered in 1850 by the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette.
02:03There, he found dozens of magnificent artifacts shared between Egypt and France, some of which
02:09are now housed in Paris' Louvre Museum.
02:15And he would likely have discovered many more if one of the underground passages had not
02:20collapsed, rendering part of the necropolis inaccessible.
02:32Today, a team from the Louvre Museum is picking up where Auguste Mariette left off.
02:39Some 30 workers, supervised by the rice, the excavation's foreman, and a dozen French and
02:46Egyptian scientists.
02:52The dig began a few days ago.
02:55The aim is to find the entrance to the unexplored part of the tomb of the sacred bulls.
03:04This is a sandy area, not surprisingly, since we're in the Sakara desert.
03:09And we're in the process of removing this layer of sand in order to reach the plateau,
03:15the uppermost layer of rock.
03:17And if we're doing this right here, it's because we want to work underneath, in what's beneath
03:23our feet, namely a large underground gallery comprised of a central corridor with lateral chambers
03:30each side of it.
03:34So, we're currently clearing the entire area, the surface above these galleries, in order
03:42to find the location of the collapse.
03:48This collapse, the one that prevented Auguste Mariette from completing his excavation, likely
03:54occurred a very long time ago.
03:59Even today, it means part of what are now known as the lesser vaults is inaccessible.
04:13This is the descending passage leading to the lesser vaults.
04:17It's a kind of artificial canyon, carved out of the rock by humans, in order to descend
04:24to the level necessary for digging this huge underground gallery.
04:44We're now in the lesser vaults of the Serapium, in other words, this underground gallery in
04:49which the sacred Apis bulls, the sacred bulls of the god Ptah, were interred.
04:57This gallery is an ideal shelter for all of our activities, all of the behind-the-scenes work,
05:02the work that's not in the open, not in the spotlight, but which is essential in any
05:07archaeological mission, the documentation work.
05:13Behind me is Audrey, who photographs the artifacts excavated from the site,
05:18and behind her there's Patricia, who is in charge of documentation,
05:22and Amira, Amira Hamdi, who is Egyptian, and a member of our Franco-Egyptian mission.
05:27The pair of them record all of the artifacts.
05:36This gallery was begun in the reign of Ramses II, in the 19th dynasty, in the New Kingdom period.
05:44It was Ramses II's son Camoiset who initiated the construction of an underground catacomb,
05:52consisting of a long central gallery lined with separate side chambers for each Apis bull.
06:11You have to imagine that the ceiling of this chamber was once roughly level with my head.
06:17There still remains of plaster on the walls.
06:20The walls were coated with this pinkish plaster.
06:23And when you see this, you understand how a chimney can form over time in the rock,
06:28shatter it, and cause the surface to collapse.
06:33And that's what happened a bit further down the corridor.
06:46This is where the accessible part of the gallery ends.
06:51It is still possible to squeeze through, but the ceilings are extremely fragile.
06:58It's dangerous and, of course, impossible to work in here.
07:07We've reached the end.
07:10Well, not at the tunnel, because we're only halfway along it, but this is as far as we can go.
07:24When Mariette came here, the ceiling had already collapsed, but he managed to crawl around the rubble to see the
07:31end of the gallery.
07:35He was able to measure it, too.
07:37We know that it's roughly 68 meters long and that there are also side chambers, just like in the first
07:43part of the vault.
07:53It's impossible to get through here now.
08:00And so we're now looking on the surface for this doline or sinkhole.
08:05The interruption, the rupture in the rock ceiling, which corresponds underneath to this hole here,
08:12and presumably to the extensive collapse through which the sand entered.
08:17The desert sand.
08:18In other words, the sand that's on the surface and which, as a result, is preventing us from going any
08:25further.
08:31The Louvre Museum's Egyptologists intend to clear out the rubble from the surface in order to explore the inaccessible section
08:39of the underground vaults.
08:43This is where they hoped to find several sacred bull graves and maybe even an intact tomb with all of
08:53its grave goods.
08:58In this way, they would complete the excavations begun by their distant predecessor.
09:04He, too, was sent by the Louvre to Saqqara over 170 years ago.
09:12Auguste Mariette, the pioneer of scientific archaeology in Egypt.
09:20I think he really stood out from the rest. Not only physically, we actually know his height.
09:26He was one meter 83 tall, which was big for the time.
09:29And he wasn't in great health and he had a bit of a bad back. He held himself like so.
09:33It's easy to recognize him on the old photos, even those without captions, because of his very characteristic posture.
09:41He had pale blue eyes. With his skin tanned by the desert sun, his imposing height and those eyes of
09:47his, I think he must have been very striking.
09:5320 years after his first expedition to Egypt, Auguste Mariette described the circumstances of his discovery.
10:01While staying in Cairo and Alexandria, he was invited to the homes of several Egyptian dignitaries.
10:09These cultured and wealthy men all had small, identical sphinxes in their gardens.
10:20Sphinxes that Mariette immediately associated with the account of a famous author of antiquity.
10:26The geographer Strabo, who visited Saqqara in the first century CE.
10:37He mentions a temple reached via a long processional way flanked by hundreds of statues with lions' bodies and human
10:45heads.
10:53This temple is in a spot so sandy that the wind causes the sand to accumulate in heaps, under which
10:59we could see many sphinxes.
11:03Some of them almost entirely buried, others only partially covered, from which we may conjecture that the route leading to
11:12this temple might be attended with danger if one were surprised by a sudden gust of wind.
11:23Thanks to Strabo's description, he made an assumption, and he was correct.
11:28He assumed that they were the sphinxes of the Serapeum, and his excavation proved him right.
11:37Auguste Mariette followed the path that Strabo had indicated.
11:41He saw sphinx protruding from the sand, then unearthed its pair.
11:46Every six meters, as he related in his account, he found two new statues.
11:54Along the way, he made several spectacular discoveries.
11:59Tombs, some of which contained masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art.
12:11He describes, for instance, how he found a shaft to the north of the Alley of Sphinxes, in which there
12:16were a number of statues dating to the Old Kingdom, including the Lusre seated scribe, which has nothing to do
12:23with the Serapeum.
12:24It was a perk of his dig.
12:26When trying to find a sphinx, he came across something else whilst clearing the sand.
12:32The far end of the Alley of Sphinxes goes around a small hill.
12:43Here, in ancient times, there was a processional way flanked by several chapels leading to the sanctuary's entrance.
12:53Among the ruins of these monuments, Auguste Mariette found the statue of a bull,
12:57now housed in the Louvre Museum.
13:04It was the representation of an apis.
13:08This was proof to Mariette that his goal, the necropolis of the sacred bulls, was within his reach.
13:18But before reaching it, he had a final surprise.
13:24Some 300 bronze statuettes buried beneath the processional way and the necropolis's enclosure wall.
13:33These included, for instance, statuettes of Imhotep, the architect of Djoser's Step Pyramid, who was deified long after his death.
13:47As well as representations of the apis bull, to which the serapaeum is dedicated.
13:58In Saqqara, the rumour was that these statuettes were made of gold.
14:04And Mariette made others green with envy.
14:10His rivals said, we're going to have problems with this guy.
14:13He isn't like us.
14:15And Mariette found his excavation banned.
14:18The authorities demanded a furman from him.
14:20He was furious because this was not something they asked of the other archaeologists, who were busy digging holes in
14:26the desert.
14:26He actually says as much in his letters.
14:32Mariette was not granted a furman or official permit.
14:38So, from then on, he conducted his excavation at night.
14:45And he eventually unearthed the tomb of the sacred Apis bulls, starting with the most monumental section of the catacomb.
14:58Known today as the Greater Vaults.
15:10He entered the burial vaults at night.
15:13The night of November 12, 1851, I believe.
15:23And that night, he explored the vaults.
15:27They were accessible then, not filled with sand.
15:35He documented everything immediately.
15:38Counted the number of monumental stone sarcophagi.
15:42He found 16.
15:43He counted the number of niches for these sarcophagi, which he named chambers.
15:47And he found 28.
15:53This gave him a rough idea of the layout of the tombs of the sacred bulls of the god Ptah,
15:59which he had found after searching for an entire year.
16:08The Greater Vaults occupy the largest part of the building,
16:13but also the most recent.
16:20The sacred bulls were interred here from the 7th century BCE to Cleopatra's era,
16:27700 years later.
16:39We know that in the lesser vaults, the coffins in which the Apis bulls were interred were made of wood.
16:46But by wood, I mean carpentry, marquetry, cabinetry.
16:50It was exquisite work, very ornate, intricately carved.
16:58And then, for reasons of luxury, for ceremonial reasons,
17:03they decided to go for something monumental, hence these huge sarcophagi.
17:12One of the explanations could be that there was a desire to return to very ancient models,
17:18those of the Old Kingdom,
17:20when sovereigns were interred in enormous rectangular stone coffins.
17:30Year two, third month of the season of Akhet,
17:37under the majesty of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt,
17:42Kabash, living eternally,
17:45the friend of Apis Osiris,
17:49of Horus of Khakem.
18:03These burial vaults fell out of use 2,000 years before Mariette arrived.
18:11And you can imagine what can happen in the space of 2,000 years.
18:18The fact is, everything was looted.
18:21And I mean completely plundered.
18:24There's absolutely nothing left.
18:27Nothing remains of the mummies or of the grave goods that were buried with the bulls.
18:31All that is left are these monumental coffins, these sarcophagi.
18:35But there's also another astonishing ensemble which evidently did not interest anyone at the time.
18:40And that's the steles, what we now call the Serapeum steles.
18:47And the steles of this type come in all sizes.
18:50They can be as small as this or 1.5 meters high.
19:00Auguste Mariette found several hundred steles in the underground galleries of the Serapeum.
19:10Most are dedicated to the sacred bull Apis by private citizens.
19:16But some, the most monumental, were dedicated to Apis by the pharaoh himself.
19:31Embedded in the walls or placed on the ground, they accompanied the bull at his funeral.
19:41These funerals were significant events in the region of Memphis.
19:48The largest city in ancient Egypt, which lay a few kilometers away in the valley.
19:59There is nothing left of the ancient city save the remains of its vast religious complex.
20:12Standing before these ruins today, it is hard to imagine that we are in one of the most important monuments
20:19in the history of Egyptian civilization.
20:25The Apis bull once lived in this huge structure and was the object of a cult.
20:31Along with Patal, one of the ancient Egyptian's creator gods.
20:39The temples of the Egyptian Delta all met the same fate.
20:44They were used for millennia as quarries.
20:49There was granite here, quartzite, all sorts of rock useful for construction.
20:56And this explains the advanced state of destruction of these monuments today.
21:06This is what the Temple of Ptah might have looked like in the days of Ramses II.
21:13A huge walled compound, two colossal statues of the pharaoh, and a monumental gate greeted visitors.
21:29Then a vast space whose roof was supported by giant columns.
21:35The hypostyle hall, one of the largest in all of Egypt.
21:46In the center of the temple, a chapel, the naus, hewn from a block of granite, inside of which was
21:54the deity.
21:59The effigy of the god Ptah, entirely covered with gold leaf.
22:05Only a select few were entitled to come here to venerate it.
22:15Ptah created the universe according to a principle known to us through the Bible, for instance.
22:23He named things. He created the universe by naming things, thanks to the power of the word.
22:34The god Ptah, creator of the universe, was inaccessible for the vast majority of Egyptians,
22:41who possessed neither the words nor the rituals to communicate with him.
22:48He was a mysterious force out of reach to all except the pharaoh and high-ranking priests.
23:02However, everyone could communicate with the Apis bull, who served as an intermediary.
23:10In a manner of speaking, Apis was the god Ptah's representative among the living.
23:20When an Apis died, he was replaced by a new bull, chosen by the Egyptian priests who identified him as
23:27the incarnation of Ptah,
23:28thanks to a number of special markings.
23:36The bull had to have a certain mark on its tongue, a crescent moon on the forehead,
23:42as well as markings on the back and so on.
23:46Together, these signs were proof that the bull was indeed the new incarnation.
23:57Once identified, the Apis bull was taken to Memphis and kept in a sacred stable where he was attended by
24:06a staff of priests.
24:08They took care of him his entire life, until he died.
24:17In his temple, the god Ptah possessed a protected area.
24:22However, the Egyptians could approach his intercessor, the Apis bull,
24:28pray to him, put questions to him about the future, and make offerings.
24:35Ptah was a remote deity. Apis, a god of the everyday.
24:45Back to the excavation of the serapaeum.
24:50After two weeks' work, the first surprises emerge under two meters of sand.
25:08It turns out that what we have here is not an irregular rupture front, but something cut, very rectilinear,
25:18and which into the bargain appears to have been coated with a layer of muna, a type of lime plaster
25:23used to level walls.
25:31In fact, it's a rather shallow pit.
25:33And this pit was hollowed out of this layer of limestone and given a floor.
25:39In other words, the bottom of it was smooth, but for what purpose, that remains a mystery.
25:46However, we have a lot of pottery fragments, which we've excavated,
25:50as well as a piece of pottery that appears to be intact, or complete at any rate, which is still
25:54in place.
25:55We'll remove it later in order to determine its relationship to the rest of the site.
26:04Literally embedded in the rock, what is this complete piece of pottery doing here?
26:13Is there a link with the surrounding pit?
26:17A pit that may have contained vases used for ceremonies, for instance?
26:24For now, no one knows the answer.
26:31And the mystery thickens the following day when, a few meters from the piece of pottery, two statuettes are unearthed.
26:40Two statuettes that appear to have been forgotten or quite simply discarded.
26:46We've reached the upper level of the rock at last, and here we have two statuettes.
26:51On the right, a terracotta funerary servant, and on the left, a small figurine that appears to be made of
26:58limestone.
26:59We'll know more once we've removed it.
27:02It's possible that it's a funerary servant, but it could be something else entirely.
27:06We can only see it's back for now, so we'll see.
27:17Funerary servants were small figurines that were placed in tombs with the deceased in order to serve them in the
27:23afterlife and to carry out all manner of tasks required by the deceased.
27:27The Egyptians were extremely practical people, and so they made sure that their afterlife would be as comfortable and peaceful
27:36as possible, so they thought of everything, and took funerary servants with them.
27:41This type of statuette, dressed in a long apron, is an overseer.
27:46Magnificent.
27:47He was responsible for coordinating the work of the other servants in the afterlife.
27:52He's slightly damaged.
27:55Isn't it superb?
27:56Yes.
27:58And its polychrome decoration is well preserved.
28:02It's a limestone statuette.
28:05A male figure, with a long, wrap-around, ankle-length skirt.
28:25A few hours after the find, Usama Sabri, the expedition's Egyptian restorer, sets about cleaning the statuette.
28:37And he reveals details concealed beneath the crust of sand.
28:48Okay.
28:50Okay.
28:52Okay.
28:52Okay.
28:52Okay.
28:52Okay.
28:53This statuette is highly original.
28:56The entire figure is well executed, including the back.
29:02And it has a small base on which his feet and the whole statuette rest.
29:06It's definitely a funerary servant, but of a fairly rare type.
29:11It holds two accessories which are not common on funerary servants.
29:16The jed pillar, which is the symbol of Osiris, and on the other side, a tit knot.
29:22The tit knot is the symbol of Isis.
29:27The statuette dates to the Ramessid dynasty.
29:30It is about 3,000 years old.
29:38The following day on the dig, the team achieves its first objective.
29:45The workers have uncovered half of the collapsed area.
29:50And a clue, on its perimeter, immediately catches the eye of the Louvre's Egyptologists.
29:57A clue that sets them on the trail of Ramesses II's oldest son.
30:03Prince Cam was set.
30:13We were looking for the hole, and we found it.
30:18I'm standing in the middle of the spot where the ceiling of the lesser vaults underground collapsed.
30:29Beneath my feet, we have the lesser vaults main corridor.
30:33On the sides, the ceilings of the side chambers have also caved in.
30:37And where we were hoping it might just be a limited collapse, we now realize that it's actually extensive.
30:46And what is very interesting here is that all around the collapsed area, there are heterogeneous, irregular surfaces.
30:55The rock crumbled and fell.
30:57But here, we have something rather special.
31:01Because this is not rubble from a collapse, it's cut stone.
31:16Here we are in the middle of the lesser vaults main corridor.
31:23We're above the collapse that Mariette saw in his day.
31:27He managed to go a bit further, but we're not able to for the time being.
31:34And among the rubble, the rubble from the collapsed ceiling, Mariette actually found what is now known as Camoisette's treasure.
31:44Which is a collection of jewelry, of amulets.
31:47And the remains of what at the time was still a mummy, covered with a gold mask.
31:53Everything apart from the mummy is now housed in the Louvre Museum.
32:15No one has ever understood how all of these artifacts, these lavish grave goods, came to be in the necropolis
32:22of the sacred bulls.
32:37It's not implausible to imagine that Camoisette's tomb was located somewhere above the underground gallery, cut in the rock, that
32:46it collapsed at the same time as the lesser vaults ceilings, and that its contents spilled out inside the lesser
32:52vaults.
32:58It's just a theory, of course, but it's true that when you find something like this, in this spot, in
33:07other words, at this depth and in this location, you can't help but dream.
33:16Eight artifacts, once part of Camoisette's treasure, were discovered in 1853 by Auguste Mariette.
33:27If the theory of the prince's tomb checks out, other artifacts could well be buried somewhere among the rubble.
33:41The excavation continues.
33:45It is time for the Egyptologists to come back to the piece of pottery whose upper part was freed a
33:50few days ago.
33:55It's really strange. It looks as if it's set in a small taffler ring.
33:59It certainly does.
34:07It's ever so fragile, but it appears to be intact.
34:14We'll see when we reach the bottom. And it isn't impossible that it will break, because it's full of sand,
34:21so it's very heavy, and the terracotta is evidently weakened.
34:26We'll try to remove it ever so carefully. The great thing is that it still has its lid, which is
34:32broken, but we can clearly see the fragments of the lid, which are slightly sunken.
35:00What could be in it?
35:04In my humble opinion, nothing.
35:08Then again, these types of pots were everyday pottery that were used to preserve foodstuffs, that sort of thing.
35:16So it's possible we'll find a few organic remains, maybe some seeds or the remains of fruit. It's certainly possible.
35:26At the same time, it's also possible that it was left here and that it filled with sand when it
35:31was empty.
35:31We could be in for a surprise tomorrow.
35:39Could Hélène Guichard be wrong?
35:43Could the jar possibly contain ancient artifacts?
35:49The following morning, Elisabeth David and Oussama Sabri explore the jar's contents. And it has a wonderful surprise in store.
36:01There we go.
36:05It appears to contain small statuettes that look like shabtis.
36:16For now we can see four heads, and when I dip my spoon in it to remove the sand, I
36:21can feel a little bit of resistance underneath.
36:23But as we saw on the site yesterday, the jar does not stop here, it goes down a fair way.
36:30So there should be. There's room for a second layer.
36:42It's starting to look like a clock face. There are tops of heads sticking out, one, two, three, four, five,
36:47six.
36:48Apart from the shabtis that were just above this, we really do have a small circle of heads, all at
36:54the same level.
37:03But what's already certain is that the two shabtis whose heads appeared first, those that are at the very top,
37:09belong to the same individual.
37:12They are of the same type, and their inscriptions start in the same way, and I think the third will
37:17too.
37:18So it is possible that it is a series belonging to one individual.
37:30So far we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.
37:46Before removing the statuettes, Usama sits about consolidating the paint on the terracotta surface.
37:57The very fine layer of paint is flaking in places. He has to collect it and replace it, here on
38:04the inscription indicating the individual's name.
38:13It's a lady, it's a woman, Mrs. Mutte, at least I think it is.
38:20Nebet's pair is the mistress of the house, and I'm sure the sign is a mutte.
38:33The first statuette to be removed from the jar is an overseer, an individual who supervised the ordinary servants, still
38:43dressed in the costume of the living.
38:48In the afterlife, each overseer would head a team of ten workers, recognizable by their mummy-like appearance.
39:03Once removed, Usama administers first aid to them.
39:23This is the end of the arrangement. We can clearly see that they started with this one and then arranged
39:28the others in a spiral around the inside of the jar, which is not quite vertical.
39:32It was less orderly after, but this is a really amusing arrangement. It's worth making a record of it.
39:45There are twelve statuettes in all. Two overseers and ten workers. One for each day of the Egyptian week.
40:03This inscription is complete, which means we have the whole formula.
40:06Sehej Uziya, may the Osiris be illuminated, mistress of the house Mutte.
40:13And probably Shed, because it goes all the way to the feet. So she wasn't just called Mutte, but Mutte
40:19and Shed.
40:21Theophoric names, that is compound names that contain a divine name like this lady's name, were common in the Third
40:26Intermediate Period from the 11th to the 7th century BCE.
40:44The way in which the Shabti box is put together provides us with information.
40:52Because, although the principle was the same for millennia, the way of doing things changed from one period to the
41:00next.
41:00There were literally fashions. Methods practiced in one period, abandoned after a while, replaced by others.
41:08So the actual form of this Shabti box is interesting, as it enables us to date the burial by comparison.
41:20This type of Shabti box tells us it was a modest burial.
41:26But you have to understand what I mean by modest. The deceased belonged to the middle class.
41:34Already, to have a Shabti box such as this, they would have had to be one of the happy few.
41:40But within the lower echelons of this middle class.
41:50The funerary servants have left the jar in which they were stored for some 3,000 years.
41:59This contact with the atmosphere is a brutal shock for their services, which require lengthy attention from Usama.
42:13From what I can see, these inscriptions have lost the binder used to fix the colour, the product the ancient
42:19Egyptian artist applied.
42:21I'm now trying to fix the characters on the pottery surface.
42:29A name on a Shabti gives it a new life.
42:32We discover an object with this information, the information that the ancient Egyptians wanted to pass on to us, or
42:39wanted to pass on into the afterlife.
42:46It will take Usama several hours to fix the paint on these statuettes.
42:52He will then hand over every last one to the Egyptian authorities responsible for their conservation.
43:08Back to the dig.
43:12The Louvre's Egyptologists have already cleared part of the site.
43:19Now the entire perimeter of the collapsed area is being exposed.
43:33We've hit the rock.
43:35That's the first good news today.
43:38And after all this sand, the terrain is changing.
43:41And it's changing just as we expected.
43:47Now that the modern road via which tourists accessed the site has been demolished and rebuilt a short distance away,
43:55we've been able to clear that section.
43:57And we can now go and look underneath to find the entire perimeter of the collapsed area of this depression.
44:05In two days' time, this huge mass of sand will have been removed, and our site will be clearly visible,
44:11and we'll have a much clearer picture.
44:17Meanwhile, the team continues to excavate above the underground gallery in order to lighten the load on its ceilings.
44:25And in the northern part of the collapsed area, the workers and the Rais Ahmed make a new discovery.
45:03It's a funerary servant with a bull's head.
45:07This type is only found in the Serapium.
45:10It's a servant of the Osiris Apis, or Osirapis, the deceased Apis bull.
45:17But it's quite far from the lesser vaults.
45:21But it means that looters and other visitors to the site left a few artefacts behind here, including some wonderful
45:27surprises.
45:29Because this one's beautiful.
45:31Right, let's remove it now.
45:40It's intact, too.
45:42Good luck, Ahmed.
45:44Thank you, Ahmed.
45:45Thank you, Ahmed.
45:46Thank you, Ahmed.
45:47Thank you, Ahmed.
45:49Thank you, Ahmed.
45:52Thank you very much.
45:56There are so many looted relics, so many discarded artefacts around this hole, that it's obvious that, even though it
46:04was by no means easy to access the lesser vaults in this way, many people sneaked in through here to
46:11visit the vaults,
46:11and see if there was anything worth taking.
46:20In the space of a few days,
46:23two sacred bull shaptis are discovered on the dig.
46:28In the 19th century, Auguste Mariette found 100 or so.
46:38At the time of its burial,
46:39each oppis bull would probably have had a complete set of funerary servants,
46:45just like any high-ranking figure.
46:52But how were they arranged?
46:55How were the sacred bull's grave goods laid out?
47:02Auguste Mariette discovered a single intact tomb in the Serepium.
47:08He chanced upon it while exploring the lesser vaults.
47:14The very first apis bulls to have been buried in Saqqara
47:17were not interred in the lesser vaults or, of course, in the greater vaults.
47:22They were buried in what are known as isolated tombs.
47:25We know of six isolated tombs.
47:28So these were not communal underground tombs or catacombs.
47:31They really were individual tombs in which there were one, two, three, or four bulls, but no more.
47:39When Mariette discovered the lesser vaults,
47:42he realized that one of the walls sounded hollow when he took his pickaxe to it.
47:47And as a result, he found the very last isolated tomb,
47:51the one in which two bulls from the reign of Ramses II were buried.
48:03When Auguste Mariette opened the canopic jars,
48:06when he removed their lids,
48:08he found a black, resinous, tar-like substance in them.
48:12What's interesting is that he also reported the presence of a great quantity of gold flakes.
48:18This proves that the ancient Egyptians spared no expense
48:21when it came to sending the sacred bull into the afterlife.
48:27In this isolated tomb,
48:29Mariette collected these magnificent objects,
48:32but he did not keep the mummy or the contents of the canopic jars.
48:40The Egyptologists now hope to find another intact tomb
48:44in order to better understand how the sacred bulls were interred.
48:51Last day of the dig at the serapaeum
48:54and a spectacular turn of events.
49:00At the very last moment,
49:03the Rais Ahmed spots a passage large enough to crawl into the lesser vaults.
49:35It's always like this on the last day.
49:37We sift through sand for weeks on end,
49:40and then, on the last day, interesting things start to appear.
49:43We re just going to have a quick look and take a photo or two.
49:55It's deep, too.
50:00Wow.
50:04This is amazing.
50:11We re not at ground level.
50:13It's collapsed on the other side.
50:15We re not at ground level.
50:24We re not at ground level.
50:32We re not at ground level.
50:45the impression that over there behind there's some kind of small blockage or
50:48obstruction. It's hard to tell from here. We'll explore all of this later. But we
50:55really do have two Apis Bull burial chambers on either side and very
51:00probably another two over there at the back of that space because we're just
51:05beyond the gallery here. Mariette said that it was 68 meters long in all which
51:11means there's a good 20 meters or so to the north that's still inaccessible.
51:19There could be plenty more Apis Bull tombs. Fantastic.
51:33The passage leading to the unexplored section is immediately blocked up so
51:38that no one can get into it in the absence of the Louvre Museum team.
51:47The cavity cleared out by the workers is filled back in. Next season the gallery
51:57ceilings will be consolidated so that the team can work in it safely.
52:05This archaeological adventure can then resume with the promise of excavating the
52:10as-yet unexplored section of the lesser vaults. At least six burial chambers, some
52:19of which the scientists hope will contain more of the sacred bull's treasure.
52:28No doubt there will be many more fascinating discoveries in store for the Louvre's archaeologists.
52:35The End
52:36The End
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