- 2 days ago
- #ancientegypt
- #archaeology
- #history
Beneath Saqqara, millions of sacred animal-mummy bundles hid a jaw-dropping secret: many contained only bones, feathers—or nothing at all. Were they sincere offerings or an ancient scam? Explore the catacombs, uncover the CT-scan surprises, and discover the mummies’ bizarre afterlife. #AncientEgypt #Archaeology #History
Subscribe for more fascinating investigations.
Comment: what surprised you most?
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@kirtop-channel
0:01 - The Saqqara Labyrinth
3:04 - Counting Millions of Burials
5:37 - The Business of Votive Offerings
8:05 - The Dark Side of the Cult
10:36 - Inside the Embalming Industry
12:39 - What the CT Scans Revealed
14:44 - Bundles, Craftsmanship, and Possible Fraud
18:29 - Mummies, Fertilizer, and Lost Meaning
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/03446o1UkrphwLdUErZj1B
Subscribe for more fascinating investigations.
Comment: what surprised you most?
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@kirtop-channel
0:01 - The Saqqara Labyrinth
3:04 - Counting Millions of Burials
5:37 - The Business of Votive Offerings
8:05 - The Dark Side of the Cult
10:36 - Inside the Embalming Industry
12:39 - What the CT Scans Revealed
14:44 - Bundles, Craftsmanship, and Possible Fraud
18:29 - Mummies, Fertilizer, and Lost Meaning
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/03446o1UkrphwLdUErZj1B
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Beneath the sands of Egypt's Sahara lies a giant labyrinth.
00:04For seven centuries, millions of sacred mummies were brought here.
00:09People gave two months wages for them, hoping for the salvation of their souls.
00:13But when modern scientists scanned these bundles with a CT scanner,
00:17they couldn't believe their eyes.
00:19Why was emptiness being sold to the gods for centuries?
00:22And how did the cult of the afterlife turn into the most secretive industry of ancient Egypt?
00:29The secret labyrinth beneath Sahara.
00:31The first thing that surprises you about these catacombs is their size.
00:35Underground, there isn't just one hall packed with mummies.
00:38There is a long central passageway with dozens of burial galleries branching off to the sides.
00:43On the floor plan, the whole thing really looks like a massive fish skeleton.
00:47The central corridor serves as the spine, side galleries branch out from it like ribs,
00:51and the longest ones cut into the rock for about 30 meters.
00:54Today, many sections look almost empty.
00:57Bones, pieces, fabrics, dust, and the remains of destroyed mummies lie on the floor.
01:02That's why the initial reaction is completely understandable.
01:04Where are the 8 million?
01:06You can't see millions of mummies with your own eyes.
01:09The catacombs were discovered a long time ago.
01:11Their layout was published back in the late 19th century.
01:14But researchers only truly grasped the scale much later,
01:17when they walked through the galleries again, measured them,
01:20and began studying the surviving layer of remains.
01:22It turned out that some chambers used to be packed much more densely.
01:25In some places, the remains still lie in a layer nearly a meter deep.
01:30In others, almost nothing is left.
01:32There's another crucial detail.
01:33Judging by the layout, the western part of the complex was expanded later.
01:37People carved out new galleries when the old ones were no longer enough.
01:40The very fact of such an expansion speaks volumes about what was happening.
01:44Offerings kept pouring in, space was running out, and they solved the problem in the most straightforward way.
01:49They dug deeper into the rock.
01:51In doing so, the builders broke into older tombs that had appeared here long before the dog catacombs.
01:56Sometimes, new passages intersected the old chambers and shafts.
02:00Saqqara is actually structured like a massive, multi-layered archive,
02:04where one era literally cuts through another.
02:06Here, they built pyramids, buried nobles, and dug shafts.
02:11Then, centuries later, they would return and use adjacent areas for new cults.
02:15Therefore, even a simple passageway can turn out to be younger than the chamber it passes through.
02:19There's another detail that conveys the scale really well.
02:22In some places, the canine remains lay in a dense mass.
02:25You don't see a single, visually striking mummy with a recognizable face and neat wrappings.
02:29You see a layer of bones and tissue that has decayed and mixed together over the centuries.
02:34That is precisely why photos of this place can be deceiving.
02:37They look far less impressive than a golden sarcophagus,
02:40even though the number of burials here is on an entirely different scale.
02:44Now, at least one thing is clear.
02:45These catacombs were used for a long time.
02:48They were expanded, filled, and expanded again.
02:51So the 8 million wouldn't have appeared overnight.
02:54They accumulated gradually.
02:56But even if you stretch all of this over centuries,
02:58the number is still enormous.
03:01A scale that shocked the scientists.
03:03The figure of 8 million sounds so wild that if I were the viewer, I would ask,
03:08who was even sitting underground counting these bones one by one?
03:12Obviously, no one was walking around down there with a calculator.
03:15Most of the burials have long since been smashed to dust.
03:18Archaeologists acted like forensic scientists.
03:20They measured every meter of the gallery,
03:22took the surviving layers,
03:24and calculated the concentration of bones per cubic meter.
03:26And when they multiplied that concentration by the entire volume of the catacombs,
03:31their hair stood on end.
03:327.7 million animals.
03:34In conversations, this figure is usually rounded up to 8.
03:38Of course, no one will find 8 million intact scrolls there now.
03:43Time and grave robbers have turned most of it into dust.
03:46But the volume of the voids and the density of the bones prove it.
03:50Millions of lives passed through these galleries.
03:52That's more than the entire population of Egypt during Ramsey's reign.
03:56We're talking not about thousands or even hundreds of thousands.
04:00Archaeologists were able to establish clear time frames
04:03for the operation of this bone assembly line.
04:05The earliest dog burial beneath Saqqara dates back to around 750 BC.
04:10And the priests brought the last bundles into the catacombs around 30 BC.
04:15Right at the moment when Egypt was conquered by the Roman legions of Octavian Augustus.
04:19This insane industry operated continuously for over 700 years straight,
04:24surviving dozens of pharaohs.
04:26There's another catch.
04:27Only isolated bones might have been preserved inside a single bundle.
04:31In the mixed layer,
04:32the remains of one animal could easily end up next to the remains of another.
04:36That's why the researchers didn't just count individual bones.
04:39They looked for recurring skeletal elements
04:41and tried to determine the minimum number of individuals.
04:43It's a standard archaeological task.
04:46Except here, it's scaled up to a completely absurd level.
04:49But the age of the animals changes things even more dramatically.
04:53A great deal of the remains belong to very young puppies.
04:56Some had lived for only a few weeks,
04:58others just a few days.
05:00That's why so many burials could even fit into these galleries in the first place.
05:03A small body takes up very little space.
05:06Thousands of burials can lie where our imagination pictures just a few hundred adult animals.
05:11Around 90% of the examined remains are linked to dogs.
05:14Jackals, foxes, cats, mongooses, and birds also turn up.
05:19This complicates the picture a bit,
05:20but it doesn't change the overall meaning of the place.
05:23The catacombs were closely linked to the cult of Anubis.
05:26And now, a question arises,
05:28which, for me personally,
05:29is even more interesting than the numbers themselves.
05:32Why did the ancient Egyptians need to bury so many dogs?
05:36Why did the Egyptians buy up mummies?
05:40Most of these animals were never the pets of the people who paid for them.
05:44A person would come to the temple with a request.
05:47One had a sick relative.
05:48Another was about to set out on a journey.
05:51A third wanted protection, good luck,
05:53or help with something he couldn't control himself.
05:56Anubis was associated with burial,
05:58embalming,
05:59and the realm of the dead.
06:00And the animal became part of an appeal to God.
06:03Such gifts are called votive offerings.
06:05The word sounds dry,
06:07but the idea itself is very simple.
06:08A person gives an offering to a deity
06:10in hopes that his prayers will be heard.
06:12A similar logic existed far beyond the borders of Egypt.
06:15People left figurines, food, jewelry,
06:18and other items at shrines.
06:20Here, the role of the gift was fulfilled
06:21by a mummified animal associated with a specific god.
06:24After preparation and burial,
06:26the dog remained in the sacred place.
06:28For a person,
06:29this could have been more important
06:30than the mummy itself as an object.
06:32He wasn't buying a souvenir,
06:33and he wasn't taking it home.
06:35The meaning emerged precisely after the offering
06:37ended up beside the god.
06:38If you strip away the complex words,
06:41the behavior becomes much clearer.
06:42People feared for their loved ones,
06:44asked for protection,
06:46and searched for a way to influence the future.
06:49The desire itself is familiar to everyone.
06:52It's just that the way they chose
06:53looks kind of strange today.
06:55Over time, the cult became so massive
06:57that a familiar service developed around it.
06:59You come with your problem.
07:01The temple offers a clear way to appeal to the deity,
07:04after which the offering continues its journey without you.
07:08From the surviving papyri of neighboring temples,
07:10scholars learned how much such a service cost.
07:13Buying the mummies,
07:14the ritual,
07:15and a spot in the catacombs
07:16cost a pilgrim around two debon of silver.
07:18For an ordinary Egyptian peasant,
07:20this was a huge amount of money,
07:22his net earnings for a month and a half
07:24to two months of hard labor in the fields.
07:26People were literally giving up their last penny
07:28for the sake of one short prayer to God.
07:30It sounds almost too modern,
07:32but it's this very mass scale
07:33that helps us understand
07:35how millions of animals
07:36could end up underground in the first place.
07:38It remains unknown
07:39how personally involved a person was in the burial.
07:42He could choose an offering,
07:43pay, and leave.
07:44The burial itself might have taken place later,
07:46along with a large number of other mummies.
07:48Mass ceremonies are known in similar cults,
07:50so such a setup is entirely possible here as well.
07:54But now, let's return to the age of the animals.
07:57If a person wanted to appeal to Anubis,
07:59why were puppies,
08:01only a few days old,
08:03used for this so often?
08:05The Dark Underbelly of the Sacred Cult
08:09From this point on,
08:10the story ceases to be just a tale
08:12of an ancient religion.
08:14There are adult dogs in the catacombs.
08:16There are separate burials
08:17that might have held special significance.
08:19But most of the studied material
08:21points to very young animals,
08:23and such a ratio is hard to explain
08:26solely by the natural mortality of dogs
08:28around the temple.
08:29Researchers, therefore,
08:31consider it possible
08:32that the animals were deliberately bred
08:33for the cult.
08:34No one knows yet
08:35where exactly such breeding farms were located.
08:38They haven't been found
08:39with a sign saying
08:40dogs for Anubis were raised here.
08:42We only see the result.
08:44A huge number of very young animals
08:45were constantly brought to the burial site,
08:47and the source of this flow
08:49is still unknown.
08:50Now think about it.
08:51Dogs don't give birth
08:52on the schedule of religious holidays.
08:54If the catacombs were continuously
08:56replenished for centuries,
08:57there must have been
08:58a massive dog breeding operation
09:00around Sikara.
09:01Hundreds of breeding females,
09:02tons of feed all year round,
09:04a continuous stream of litters,
09:06and regular deliveries to the vault.
09:07This was not a spontaneous ritual,
09:09but an actual industrial conveyor belt
09:12made of live dogs.
09:13And here,
09:14an uncomfortable question arises.
09:16Did the people paying for the offering
09:17realize just how young the animal was?
09:19Perhaps they did to them
09:21the puppy's death
09:21might have been perceived
09:23quite differently.
09:24If, after the ritual,
09:26it was considered consecrated to God,
09:28gaining eternal life at his side.
09:30Biologists have two theories
09:31on exactly how these animals died.
09:33The first is that terrible,
09:34unsanitary conditions
09:35prevailed on the giant farms.
09:37And infections wiped out the litters.
09:40But research by Paul Nicholson's team
09:42revealed a different picture.
09:43Unlike cat mummies,
09:44which often had their necks broken,
09:46the puppies from Sikara
09:47have almost no fractures.
09:49It seems they were simply
09:50taken from their mother
09:51right after birth
09:52and left to die of hunger and thirst.
09:55A puppy's life lasted
09:56just as long as the priests needed
09:58to secure a fresh body
10:00for the next temple feast
10:01or a specific order from a pilgrim.
10:03We were talking about
10:04thousands of animals every year.
10:06And up above,
10:07an impeccably tuned system
10:09operated,
10:10seamlessly keeping
10:11that supply flowing.
10:12Just think about
10:13the cynicism of it.
10:14They built a religion
10:15around the veneration
10:16of sacred animals
10:17and exalted Anubis
10:19to the skies.
10:20Yet for the sake of hard cash,
10:22millions of newborn puppies
10:23were simply condemned
10:24to an agonizing death
10:26in the dark.
10:27It's hard to call that faith.
10:29What we are looking at
10:30is the most cold-blooded
10:32and ruthless business
10:33in history,
10:34dwarfing any modern corporation,
10:37the secret embalming industry.
10:39A mummy begins long
10:41before the moment
10:41it is laid in a gallery.
10:43First, you have to get the animal.
10:45Then the body has to be prepared.
10:47In some cases,
10:48resins, oils,
10:49and natron were used.
10:51That is a natural mixture
10:53of soda and salt.
10:54For many small animals,
10:56the process could have been simpler.
10:57They were dried out
10:58in the hot and dry climate,
11:00then wrapped in linen.
11:01So you shouldn't imagine
11:02that every puppy
11:03underwent the same elaborate ritual
11:05as a wealthy human.
11:06But even a simple option
11:08requires work.
11:09You need fabric.
11:10You need people
11:11who know how to wrap.
11:12You need spaces
11:13where bodies are dried and stored.
11:15You need those
11:15who carry the finished bundles.
11:17You need priests
11:18to conduct the ritual.
11:19You need stonemasons
11:20when the old galleries fill up.
11:22That's why the word industry
11:23comes to mind
11:24almost automatically here.
11:26Of course,
11:26this isn't a factory
11:27with an assembly line
11:28and scheduled shifts.
11:29It's just that the scale
11:30is too grand
11:31for a rare ritual
11:32conducted from time to time
11:34by a handful of priests.
11:36Saqqara must have been
11:37a very busy place
11:37during such periods.
11:38People would come to the temple,
11:40bring offerings,
11:41buy small figurines,
11:42and consult the priests.
11:44Nearby craftsmen
11:45and suppliers
11:45plied their trade.
11:46For a pilgrim,
11:47the visit might have been
11:48the event of a lifetime.
11:50For those preparing the offerings,
11:51it was routine,
11:52recurring work.
11:53It's very easy to assume
11:54that because religion
11:55involved money,
11:56people were necessarily
11:57being scammed.
11:58But we don't have any evidence
11:59for that conclusion yet.
12:01The temple could have
12:02genuinely served
12:02a religious function
12:03while simultaneously
12:04providing a livelihood
12:05for a huge number of people.
12:07One doesn't preclude the other.
12:09There's another point
12:10that I think is important.
12:11Once the ritual was completed,
12:12the mummy completely
12:13disappeared from human life.
12:15It wasn't displayed at home,
12:16nor was it passed down
12:17to children.
12:18Its value lay precisely
12:20in the fact
12:20that it went into the catacombs.
12:22Therefore,
12:23its appearance
12:24might have been important
12:25during the ritual.
12:26But after the burial,
12:27no one was going to admire it
12:28for centuries.
12:29But that will come in handy
12:30a bit later
12:31when we get to the bundles
12:32with the strange contents.
12:34Now,
12:35let's look inside.
12:36What did the first CT scan show?
12:38Now for the most interesting part,
12:40my friend.
12:41Let's see what's inside
12:42the dog bundles.
12:43On the outside,
12:44they look almost identical.
12:45A linen cocoon
12:47soaked in resin,
12:48sometimes with a painted face.
12:49A pilgrim would buy
12:50such a bundle
12:51outside the temple,
12:52having no idea
12:53what lay beneath the bandages.
12:54Two things provided the answer.
12:56First,
12:57the catacombs themselves.
12:58A team led by
12:59British archaeologist
13:00Paul Nicholson
13:01from Cardiff University
13:02examined the remains
13:03directly on site.
13:04About 92% of them
13:06turned out to be dogs.
13:07The rest were jackals,
13:09foxes,
13:09cats,
13:10falcons,
13:10and even mongooses.
13:11And most of the dogs
13:12were puppies
13:13that had lived
13:13only a few hours or days.
13:15The second method
13:15is X-ray and CT scans.
13:17In 2015,
13:19scientists from Manchester
13:20decided to run
13:21a thorough check
13:22on the ancient priests.
13:23They X-rayed and CT scanned
13:25more than 800
13:26of these mummies.
13:27And what the screen revealed
13:28left the scientists
13:30completely stunned.
13:31Only a third of the bundles
13:32contained a real body.
13:33Another third
13:34had just a couple
13:35of random bones
13:35sewn inside.
13:36And in the remaining
13:37third of the mummies,
13:38there were no animal bodies
13:39at all.
13:40Just clay,
13:41dry sticks,
13:42eggshells,
13:42and feathers.
13:43So basically,
13:44every third bundle
13:44turned out to be
13:45a complete fake.
13:47Among millions of puppies,
13:49archaeologists
13:49occasionally come across
13:50adults,
13:51buried in separate niches
13:52and with special honors.
13:54Most likely,
13:55they lived right at the shrines
13:56and were revered
13:57as living incarnations
13:58of Anubis.
13:59But they were the exception.
14:01The vast majority
14:01came in a steady stream.
14:03Why then did the bundle
14:04so often contain a puppy,
14:05a piece of a skeleton,
14:07or nothing but clay?
14:08It's easiest to call it fraud.
14:09But the investigators
14:10themselves don't think so.
14:12For an Egyptian,
14:13the connection to the animal
14:14was what mattered.
14:15Feathers,
14:15eggshells,
14:16nesting material,
14:17were also considered
14:18part of the sacred creature.
14:19And God,
14:20as they believed,
14:21accepted the intention,
14:22not the weight of the bundle.
14:23The demand was huge.
14:25There weren't enough animals
14:26for everyone.
14:27And the priests managed
14:28as best they could.
14:29So the CT scanner
14:30doesn't invalidate
14:31the estimate of 8 million.
14:32It just reveals
14:33what they were actually made of.
14:35It's not 8 million
14:36perfect mummies,
14:38but 8 million bundles,
14:40mostly containing
14:41a newborn puppy,
14:42and sometimes
14:43just a piece of one.
14:44The Secret Archives
14:45of North Saqqara.
14:47For a long time,
14:48one bundle
14:49was considered
14:49a snake mummy.
14:50When it was scanned,
14:52they found
14:52three shrew skulls inside.
14:55There was no snake
14:56in there at all.
14:57A small animal
14:58resembling a mouse
14:59was inside the bundle,
15:00which had previously
15:01been cataloged
15:02as a snake mummy,
15:03solely based
15:04on its external shape.
15:06The funniest thing
15:07is that there is nothing
15:08to blame
15:08the ancient craftsmen
15:09for here.
15:10The mistake was made
15:11by modern people
15:12who judged the contents
15:14by its shape.
15:14We are used to
15:15considering the wrapping
15:16as packaging
15:17that must accurately
15:18match what is hidden inside.
15:19In Egypt,
15:20this rule didn't always apply.
15:22These objects
15:23come from another area
15:24of North Saqqara,
15:25which was explored
15:26back in the 20th century.
15:27There,
15:28an ancient tomb
15:28was reused
15:29and filled with vessels
15:30containing animal mummies.
15:32The archaeologist
15:33working on the site
15:34was actually looking
15:35for the famous tomb
15:35of Imhotep.
15:37It turns out
15:37to be quite ironic.
15:39He was hoping
15:40the animals
15:40would lead him
15:41to a much bigger discovery.
15:43And decades later,
15:44these very small bundles
15:46became a mystery
15:46of their own.
15:48Researchers scanned
15:49several more similar items
15:51from another part
15:51of North Saqqara.
15:53One bundle contained
15:54only a bird's wing
15:55with feathers.
15:56In others,
15:57they found feathers
15:57and eggshells.
15:58There was no whole animal
16:00in there at all.
16:01In two of the bundles,
16:02the core was actually formed
16:04by fabric rolls
16:05surrounded by feathers
16:06and shells.
16:07In other words,
16:08the craftsmen
16:08had to shape the object,
16:10wrap it,
16:10and design it
16:11to look like
16:12a finished offering.
16:13Time was clearly
16:14put into this work.
16:15Out of the small group
16:16of studied bundles,
16:17a whole animal
16:18was found
16:19in only a few cases.
16:21Yet the design
16:22could still remain
16:22quite intricate.
16:23The fabric
16:24was laid out carefully.
16:25Sometimes they made
16:26patterns and appliques.
16:27In other words,
16:29the craftsmen
16:29spent time
16:30on the appearance
16:31even when there was
16:32just a single wing
16:33or feathers inside.
16:34The greatest hoax
16:35of the pharaoh's era.
16:37Researchers are paying
16:38attention to the design.
16:39If the goal
16:40had merely been
16:41to quickly stuff
16:42the casing
16:42with whatever was on hand,
16:44it would be strange
16:45to spend time
16:46on careful wrapping
16:47and decorative details.
16:48Modern experiments
16:49with a similar technique
16:50show that even
16:51for an experienced person,
16:53such work takes
16:54quite a bit of time.
16:55In one modern experiment,
16:56researchers tried
16:57to replicate
16:58the intricate wrapping
16:58of an animal mummy.
17:00Even with the materials
17:01at hand
17:01and an understanding
17:02of the technique,
17:03the work took
17:03a lot of time.
17:05An ancient craftsman
17:06with experience
17:06was surely faster.
17:08But the fact remains,
17:09a beautiful bundle
17:10required skill.
17:11Therefore,
17:11the idea that they
17:12simply threw trash inside
17:13and made a pretty wrapping
17:15on the outside
17:15in just a minute
17:17seems overly simplistic.
17:18Of course,
17:19this doesn't prove
17:20that fraud didn't exist.
17:21People are people
17:22and the desire
17:23to make money
17:24certainly didn't appear yesterday.
17:26But an x-ray alone
17:27is not enough
17:28to call a specific bundle
17:29of fraud.
17:30We see the contents.
17:31We don't hear
17:32the conversation
17:33between the priest
17:33and the person
17:34paying for the offering.
17:36And this is where
17:37the main question arises.
17:38Was it a cynical deception?
17:40On the one hand,
17:41if the buyer was promised
17:42a sacred dog,
17:43but they wrapped up
17:44a bunch of dry grass,
17:45to us,
17:46it is pure fraud.
17:47But on the other hand,
17:48if the ritual
17:49originally allowed
17:50that a feather
17:50or a piece of bone
17:51carried the power
17:52of the entire deity,
17:53then for the Egyptian himself,
17:55there was no substitution at all.
17:56True,
17:57the pilgrim paid silver
17:58for this offering
17:59earned over two months
18:00of hard labor.
18:01Did he know
18:02he was holding
18:03an empty cocoon?
18:04Or were the priests
18:05simply taking advantage
18:06of people's blind faith?
18:08The answer to this question
18:09was lost beneath the sands.
18:11But 2,000 years later,
18:14nobody cared anymore
18:15whether there was
18:15a whole dog inside
18:16or just a handful
18:18of dry grass.
18:19These mummies
18:20gained an entirely different,
18:21utterly wild value
18:23that the priests
18:24couldn't have even imagined
18:25in their worst nightmares.
18:26A cynical finale
18:28for an ancient sanctuary.
18:29The wildest finale
18:31to this story
18:31came in the 19th century.
18:34Europeans approached
18:35the catacombs
18:35not as a sanctuary,
18:36but as a quarry
18:37of free raw materials.
18:39In 1888,
18:41a dry cargo ship
18:43arrived in Liverpool
18:43carrying 19 tons
18:46of animal mummies.
18:48They were auctioned off,
18:49sent into industrial crushers,
18:51ground into bone meal,
18:52and scattered across
18:53the fields of Yorkshire
18:54as fertilizer
18:55for cabbage and turnips.
18:56A person paid
18:57for the offering,
18:58the priests prepared
18:59the body,
18:59and the mummy
19:00was taken underground
19:01where it was meant
19:02to remain beside God.
19:03Over 2,000 years pass
19:05and another man
19:06looks at that very same bundle
19:07as fertilizer for a field.
19:10I think this moment
19:11best illustrates
19:11just how quickly
19:12an object's meaning
19:13vanishes
19:14along with the culture
19:15that created it.
19:16To one man,
19:17a mummy was a way
19:18to appeal to God.
19:19To another,
19:20it is merely dried up
19:21organic matter
19:22to be put to practical use.
19:24Today,
19:25such an attitude
19:25toward ancient remains
19:26seems almost unthinkable.
19:28But in the 19th century,
19:30the boundary
19:31between an archaeological site
19:33and a source
19:33of raw materials
19:34was completely different.
19:36Ancient sites
19:37were dismantled
19:37for stone,
19:38fertilizers were extracted
19:39from old organic deposits,
19:41and valuables
19:42ended up in private collections.
19:44Saqqara survived
19:44all these interests at once.
19:46We don't know
19:47how many mummies
19:48were actually taken from here.
19:49But the condition
19:49of the galleries
19:50shows that the catacombs
19:51have lost much
19:52of their original contents
19:53over the past few centuries.
19:55Some things were looted
19:56by robbers,
19:57some decayed,
19:58and some remains
19:59were probably taken
20:00in modern times.
20:01That is why researchers today
20:03see only the remnants
20:04of what once filled
20:05these corridors.
20:06And along with the mummies,
20:07a part of history itself
20:09has disappeared.
20:10As long as the remains
20:11stay in their original places,
20:12one can understand
20:13how the burials were arranged,
20:15where puppies were found
20:16more frequently,
20:17where adult dogs lay,
20:18and which sections
20:19were filled earlier
20:20or later.
20:21Once all of this
20:22is cleared out
20:22and mixed together,
20:23an individual bone
20:25might still tell
20:26the animal's age.
20:27But it will say
20:28almost nothing
20:28about what the burial
20:29itself looked like.
20:31The main mystery
20:33of the Egyptian priests.
20:34Eight million mummies
20:36beneath Saqqara
20:37didn't appear overnight.
20:39It was the work
20:40of a religious machine
20:41that ran for centuries.
20:42People came
20:43with their troubles
20:44and hopes,
20:45the temples grew rich,
20:46and meter by meter,
20:47new galleries
20:48were carved underground.
20:49Yet,
20:50what's most striking
20:51about this story
20:52isn't the monstrous scale,
20:53but how easily
20:54we judge antiquity
20:55by our own modern standards.
20:57We are used to
20:58weighing goods
20:59on a scale,
21:00but for an ancient Egyptian,
21:01the hope of salvation
21:02could fit into
21:03a simple bird feather
21:04or a handful
21:05of river silt.
21:06The only question
21:07is where sincere faith
21:08ended
21:09and the cynical calculation
21:11of those selling
21:12that hope began.
21:13Millions of lives
21:14went into the ground
21:15for the hope
21:15of salvation,
21:16and 2,000 years later,
21:18some of these sacred mummies
21:19became fertilizer
21:20for English cabbage.
21:22What do you think?
21:22Was this the ancient world's
21:24greatest scam?
21:25Or did people genuinely
21:26believe in the empty bundles?
21:28Let me know in the comments.
21:29Hit that like button
21:30and subscribe to the channel.
21:31Until next time,
21:33in our upcoming investigations.