[josh gates] tonight my exclusive access
To an ancient egyptian necropolis continues.
Do you know that you are the only foreigner
To come here to my site?
[josh] beneath the sands of saqqara,
I'm on the hunt to unravel
The secrets of egypt's old kingdom.
Everywhere you dig here,
You have no idea what you're gonna find.
-Mohammed! -Yes?
Hold on. I got something.
I think it's a face.
Can cutting-edge technology
Help solve a 4,000-year-old mystery?
This mummy we scanned is unbelievably historic.
As we put together the clue
Of how one of the greatest civilization of the ancient world
Fell into chaos...
[woman] the entirety of upper egypt was dying of hunger.
...There's no telling what secrets these tombs hol
This is the first tomb to be decorated underground.
-Ever found in egypt? -Ever found.
It's expedition unknown right now.
[dr. Waziri] look at those beautiful colors, josh!
[josh] amazing. Look at it!
-[josh] are those bones? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
Oh, yes. We got a skull right here!
My name is josh gates.
Hello!
Explorer, adventurer...
Amazing.
Help!
...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.
Oh, [bleep]! Phew, that was exciting.
With a degree in archaeolog
And a passion for the unexplained...
Ya-haw!
...I travel to the ends of the earth investigating
The greatest legends in history.
Okay, let's punch it.
This is expedition unkn
Egypt's old kingdom. The age of pyramids.
Stretching from about 2,7000 bce to 2,200 bce,
It was a flourishing cultur
Where dynasties of all-powerful pharaohs
Acting as gods on earth
Commissioned many of egypt' grandest monuments
And then suddenly it all came crashing down.
Egypt mysteriously fell into a dark time
Known as the first intermediate period.
But why?
Now, after 4,000 years,
The old kingdom is finally giving up its secret
In a desert cemetery called saqqara.
In the shadow of the sixth dynasty pharao merenre's pyramid,
Archaeologists are excavatin a necropolis
Where nobles of merenre's ti
Were entombed for their eternal afterlife
And I have an all-access pas to explore the dig.
In a couple of minutes of working,
We can find the entrance of this tomb.
[josh] dr. Mostafa waziri I secretary general
Of egypt's supreme council of antiquities.
He's invited me to help excavate
Some of the site's burial shafts
For the very first time.
Oh! Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, here!
We've got an opening!
Our hope is that these tomb
Can help explain the fall of the old kingdom.
We've already found a perfectly preserved offeri
Of more than 40 intact vesse
That showed us how rich these elite citizens were.
And the badly damaged mummy of a child
Interred here in a simple coffin,
Reminding us of the disparity of wealth
In this ancient society.
And there are other mysteries as well.
Because the old kingdom descended into chaos and civil war,
All of the great pyramids from this period were looted
And no mummy of an old kingdom pharaoh
Has ever been found.
Or has one?
I climbed into the collapse pyramid of the pharaoh meren
Where at the end of a long sealed corridor,
A controversial mummy was found over a century ago
[josh] it may be the remain of the young king.
If it could be proven, it would be historic,
And the oldest royal mummy ever discovered in egypt.
To help confirm its identity
We performed the first-ever 3d digital scan
Of the would-be pharaoh.
It's unbelievable. It's perfect.
Now, while the scan is being processed,
I've returned to the saqqara dig site
Where we had previously discovered a large burial shaft.
After repairing a collapsing wall
And moving literally tons of sand,
I, along with dr. Waziri and his colleagues
Dr. Mohamed el-saidy and mohammad youssef,
Have descended into the pit
Where we make a remarkable discovery.
[josh] we got a vault.
-[dr. Waziri] oh, no. Josh! -[josh laughing]
[josh] oh, my god!
It's a tomb!
[dr. Waziri] a-ha!
-It's fully decorated! -[dr. Waziri speaking in foreign language]
-[dr. Waziri laughing] -look at this!
[josh] holy [bleep]
Oh, my god.
[crew cheering]
[josh] the crew sings in celebration of the find,
And dr. Waziri wastes zero time in exploring the new chamber.
[dr. Waziri] I can't wait. I can't wait.
It's beautiful colors!
[exclaiming in foreign language]
[josh] dr. El-saidy and I follow.
Coming in. [groans]
-Unbelievable. -[dr. Waziri] josh! Josh!
[dr. Waziri] look at these beautiful colors, josh!
[josh] oh, this is insane.
Oh, amazing. Look at it!
Look at this place.
Every inch of every wall
Is covered in stunning decoration.
Scenes of offerings and hundreds of hieroglyphs
All painted by hand
And all unseen for thousands of years.
[dr. Waziri] look at those beautiful, beautiful colors.
We can see red. We can see white.
We can see black.
If we start looking at the top here
-We can see hieroglyphic inscriptions. -[josh] yeah.
All of them are talking about the titles of the guy himself.
-His name is there! -Ha ha!
-[dr. Waziri] his name is henu! -[josh] henu.
Here, he was a mayor.
-He's the mayor? -Oh, yes.
-And also he was a sole friend to the king. -[josh] uh-huh.
This is something typical.
One famous title
-Of those guys of the old kingdom. -Right.
-Like I'm your sole friend. -You are my close friend.
-Sole friend. -Okay, sole friend.
-[josh snickering] -look.
[josh] waziri and I have bee so focused
On looking up at the walls
That we almost miss something lower down.
[dr. Waziri] wait, wait, wait! Wait, josh! Josh, josh, josh!
-Oh, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! -Whoa!
[dr. Waziri] the seven sacred oils!
[josh] ha ha!
[dr. Waziri] this is something really very important.
[josh] known to the egyptian as merhet or sometimes the eye of horus,
Seven different scented oil were considered
The divine breath of the god
Used to anoint the deceased for the afterlife.
[dr. Waziri] if you start counting here this is one, two, three,
Four, five, six and seven.
[josh] used in mummification rituals,
The refinement of these oil
Is the ancient prototype for modern perfumes.
The oils were offered up in tombs like this
In precious stone and crysta carved vessels.
Look.
Look at this one.
-[josh] absolutely beautiful. -[dr. Waziri] look how beautiful!
-I like it, josh. -Stunning.
Ah, yes, it is.
-It's really stunning. -Wow.
[josh] we know that these belonged to henu
Because, well, the receipt I literally on the wall.
Look at that. Those are the seven sacred oils right there.
-Unbelievable. -[dr. Waziri] yeah, this is really perfect.
Ah, we can see here is the facade of the palace,
Or what you call it, like this.
-So, it's symbolic representation of the palace. -It's true.
[josh] just like the tomb of the noble named yaret that we saw earlier,
This is meant to imitate the tomb of a pharaoh:
The symbolic representation of the palace on the walls,
The ceiling painted to resemble granite.
By going to these lengths,
Henu was taking some of the power that only a pharaoh had,
Which even for a mayor took some big stones...
Literally.
This is old kingdom, yes? No question?
-This is for sure. No question. -[josh]
It's old kingdom,
And we believe that it's sixth dynasty.
The sixth dynasty. This is the pharaoh merenre,
Which the pyramid is right next door to us here.
After our excavations,
So, we believe that we may find connections
Between this guy and the king merenre.
Right. Because if he is a mayor,
Sole friend of the king,
He would have been someone who was an elite under merenre.
-[dr. Waziri] right. -Yeah.
[dr. Waziri] have you ever seen something like this
In all of your life?
Just have been discovered?
What a sensation to come into this tomb
To be the first people in here.
-After 4,000 years. -[chuckling] I know.
It's a feeling that you are never, ever gonna forget
-For the rest of your life. -I know.
I'm trying not to cry. It's unbelievable.
I'm shaking with excitement here in the tomb,
But there's much more left to do.
We're on top of about five feet of sand
And much of the painted wall
And perhaps henu himself, lie beneath us.
We'll need to vacate the chamber
In order for the workers to continue.
Okay.
Shall we?
We'll let them start sifting the sand,
And we'll investigate the other side of the site, yeah?
-Yes. Yeah. -Okay.
-We'll be back. -Okay.
Ha ha! This is unbelievable.
[josh] henu's tomb is a major discovery,
And we've only begun to dig it out.
I ascend by bucket and head over
To the other corner of the site
To explore progress on a smaller burial shaft
Being excavated by the team
-Mohamed! -[dr. El-saidy] yes?
-[josh] you fall down there? -[dr. El-saidy] no, no.
-[josh] you okay? -[dr. El-saidy] yes, I'm okay.
Okay.
Thank you.
Protect that for me, will you?
[josh] a few days ago,
This area was simply a low hill of sand.
Then digging revealed a hug collection of beer vessels
Next to a burial shaft.
So, I count more than 40 vessels now.
This is huge.
Now, we're ready to see what's at the bottom.
Not enough space for both of us.
-I'm not sure there's enough space for one of us. -Yes.
[josh] burial shafts were constructed
With a smaller vaulted upper chamber
Where we are now.
This space would often hous offerings for the deceased
Who was interred in a burial chamber below.
Okay.
[straining]
All right. Back in my hole.
-Mohamed? -Yes?
Hold on. I got something.
-[dr. El-saidy] oh, good. -[josh] come here.
-[josh] here, the edge of something. -[dr. El-saidy] show it to me.
-[josh] it has paint on it. -[dr. El-saidy] good.
-So, it's ceramic? -I don't think so.
I think it's a face.
[dr. El-saidy] face of what?
A face of a person.
-[dr. El-saidy] you mean a statue? -[josh]yes!
-I think it's a statue. -[dr. El-saidy] good, good.
-[dr. El-saidy] good. -Ha!
-[josh] yes. -[dr. El-saidy] good, man.
There's more here. Look.
-[dr. El-saidy] I think this is a leg. -[josh] oh! There's a leg.
Oh, my lord.
This is unbelievable.
We have this wooden offering here.
-This does not represent the owner of this tomb, right? -[dr. El-saidy] no.
-[josh] who is this? -[dr. El-saidy] one of his servants.
-So that he has someone to serve him in the afterlife? -Yes.
[josh quietly] wow.
This doll is known as a shab
And is actually here to serv the god of the dead osiris,
In place of the deceased,
Releasing him from having to work in the afterlife.
A wooden statue
That has survived for four millennia down here.
It's still painted. Look at the detail.
Look at the eyes and the eyebrows and the hair.
Be really careful with that arm.
Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Look at that!
-Unbelievable. Okay, I'm gonna pass him to you. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-You got it? -[dr. El-saidy] yes, I got it.
-You got that arm? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-Okay, he's yours? -[dr. El-saidy] I have it.
Let's get a look at in the light.
Whew!
Awesome.
Oh, oh! Come on.
Oh, it's beautiful.
Look at the details still.
[dr. El-saidy] details. The color white and the black.
Look at the color. It's still painted.
-Look at these wooden nails, -[dr. El-saidy] mmm.
So that the arms actually articulate.
-[dr. El-saidy] yes. -[josh] look at that. The arms.
It's something to say he is really for serving.
-Right. -Yes.
-He's ready to... Right. -Moving, yes.
[josh] he's ready to serve. Wow.
-This is a 4,000-year-old action figure. -Mmm.
[chuckling] it's amazing.
[josh] this wooden statue in this condition
Is an exceedingly rare find
A true treasure in this archaeological gold mine.
[josh] okay, let's get him up to safety.
-[josh] yeah? You got it? -[dr. El-saidy] yes, sure.
[josh] okay.
Another find and a lot more to dig.
And dig they do,
Moving sand until they expos
The main burial chamber below the vault.
After what we found in the last shaft,
Dr. Waziri wants to be here to see firsthand.
-This is where we found the wooden statue, yeah. -Where it was found, yeah.
-[dr. Waziri] yes. -[josh] and now it's all been cleaned out.
Nothing else found in this upper vault,
So we're gonna try to take this down,
-This layer? -[dr. Waziri] yes.
We are about to discover something.
-Oh! -Yes, yes.
-Here. Paint. -Yes, yes.
-Yes, yes, yes. -We have paint.
There's a cavity behind it.
-[dr. Waziri] oh, no. Oh, no. -[josh chuckling]
Oh, my word.
Another tomb.
Okay, let's see what's going on in here.
Okay. Coming in.
[straining]
Oh, my word.
Like henu's tomb,
This chamber is ornately painted.
The deceased's biography on the walls
Like a morbid book jacket.
And here is the name of the guy, pepi nefhany.
-[josh] pepi nefhany. -Pepi nefhany.
[dr. Waziri] he got the title that he was also a [speaking foreign language]
-So... Oh! Look at this! -[dr. Waziri] oh!
[josh] look at this!
Oh!
Look at this!
His foot is right in front of me.
I didn't even see that.
We're in a newly excavated chamber
In the necropolis of saqqara
And we're not alone.
Oh, my word. This is his skeleton.
This is a tomb and this is its owner.
Look at the nails on his toes.
So, we've got his foot, his femur, his leg
-And then where's the other foot? -[dr. Waziri] here it is.
[josh] oh, look at that. It's all the way down there.
[dr. Waziri] yeah, we can see linen.
[josh] unbelievable.
The position of the body suggests that this tomb was likely robbed
With the mummy dislocated in the process.
Clearly this is a disturbed burial.
-I mean, he is... -[dr. Waziri] it is.
It is, but it was disturbed 50 or a hundred years after his death.
Maybe robbed but robbed in ancient times.
This tomb was likely looted
In the first intermediate period,
The chaotic time that followed the collapse of the old kingdom.
It is perhaps a clue
That despite the prosperity of the upper class,
Not everyone at this time was thriving.
And though this mummy's burial was disturbed,
It is still a remarkable fin
You know, to read his titles,
To hear his name and then to have him here with us,
It's something.
So, a lot of very careful work
To do in here with these remains.
-Okay, another tomb. -Okay, yeah.
[josh] there's far more wor to be done here
At the site in saqqara.
But while the workers continue to dig,
I'm off to continue my work
On another old kingdom mystery.
A cold case involving a missing pharaoh.
Earlier I had joined
Renowned archaeologist, dr. Mohamed megahed
Inside the nearby partially-collapsed pyramid
Of the old kingdom pharaoh, merenre.
The interior was first explored in 1881,
And an unusual mummy was fou in the tomb's inner chamber
Unusual because all old kingdom royal tombs were looted,
And no mummies of pharaohs of the old kingdom have ever been found.
For this reason, many assume that the mummy found here
Was some interloper who poached the tomb
Much later in history.
The mummy was moved to a nearby museum
Where we were given unprecedented access to scan it
Using state-of-the-art equipment.
The scans are now complete,
And I'm hoping to use them
To unravel the mummy's identity.
To do that, I'm headed to a place
That isn't just off-site,
It's off-road.
A positive id of the supposed mummy of merenre would be huge.
But there's this on-going debate
That an old kingdom mummy shouldn't look so sophisticated.
The mummy we scanned in the museum is incredibly lifelike
Thanks to the application of layers of resin,
A substance used by master embalmers in ancient egypt
To preserve the dead.
But scholars long believed
That it wasn't used until the new kingdom
A thousand years after the reign of merenre.
It's the main reason that our mystery mummy
Was discounted as being from the old kingdom.
So, what's an old kingdom mummy supposed to look like?
To find out, I've been granted special access
To another tomb in northern saqqara.
So, this is the tomb of nefer,
And it is an absolute stunner.
Nefer lived about 4,500 years ago
During the fifth dynasty.
So, this is just before the reign of the pharaoh merenre.
But nefer here, he wasn't a pharaoh,
But he was a high official.
This is him on the wall of the tomb,
And here's his name.
This is nefer.
His titles over here say that he was a chief of the palace,
And a supervisor of artisans.
The walls of this tomb are covered in scenes from nefer's life:
Drinking, fishing, sacrificing goats.
All the good stuff.
The really remarkable thing about this tomb
Other than its preservation is that nefer himself
Is still here.
Actually, he's down there.
Let's go.
Okay.
And here...
Underneath this glass,
This is the man himself.
Look at this mummy.
This is the mummy of nefer,
And he is absolutely incredible.
You could see he has this false beard,
This necklace that he's wearing
With these beautiful blue-green stones
And just remarkably lifelike.
So, this is a true old kingdom mummy.
Something for us to compare to the mummy that was found
In the pyramid of merenre.
And we have our scans back from the museum,
So we can compare them with this confirmed
Old kingdom mummy.
Time for us, and the world,
To get our first look at a detailed scan of our mummy.
This is unbelievable!
Outrageous detail here.
We can see every millimeter of this mummy at the museum
At face value, no pun intended,
They do look really similar in a lot of ways.
We have this appearance of preservation,
But it is kind of just an appearance.
It's a bit of an illusion
Because our mummy in the museum,
It actually is really well-preserved.
We can see that these features,
His nose, his eyes, his bone structure,
It's really him.
Here, with nefer,
We have something that's more cosmetic.
We can see an almost plastering on him.
Look at his chest.
We see this layer and we see it on his face as well.
So, what we have here is the appearance of real life.
And our mummy in the museum is real life.
So, I have to say this is kind of a serious knock
On the idea that our mummy in the museum is merenre.
Those that have dismissed this mummy
Because of this difference in sophistication,
Well, they have a point,
Which means we have more work to do.
Thanks, nefer.
Our suspect in the museum does look more sophisticate
Than this confirmed old kingdom mummy.
So, things aren't looking go
For him being the pharaoh merenre,
But that may change as I ge a call from dr. Megahed.
-[car door shutting] -[josh] hello, hello! How are you.
Good morning.
Look at you hard at work.
[josh] dr. Megahed recently discovered and excavated
This old kingdom tomb.
He believes the mummy found inside
May help settle our mystery
Look at this tomb. I mean, this looks like...
Like something for a king.
This is like the site of a pyramid. Look at this.
[dr. Megahed] josh, you have a very good eye.
Those stones are made of white limestone,
Which were only reserved for kings and queens.
Right. But this is not a king.
No, no, no, no. This is a high official.
[josh] like the phenomenon we observed at our dig site
High officials in the old kingdom
Are becoming so powerful,
They're acting like pharaohs themselves
When it comes to their burials.
In this case, the owner of this tomb
Even tried to emulate a pyramid-like exterior
With an entrance door to the north
Just like a royal tomb.
Josh, I have good news and bad news.
-Good news, we can enter the tomb. -Yeah.
-The bad news, I'm not sure that the air is safe. -Right.
What about the snakes and scorpions?
Well, it depends
If you are good or bad as a person.
That's what depends on whether I get attacked?
If you are sure you are a good person, it's fine.
-[dr. Megahed] are you sure? -I don't think that's how snake safety works.
Are you a good person?
-Yes. -No snakes.
[dr. Megahed] no scorpions.
Oh, boy.
-[josh] ready? -I'm ready.
-Oh, boy. -Yes.
Here we go.
Who's going first?
-I think me. -Yeah.
That's a great answer.
It feels like that's appropriate.
Hope you're a good person.
I'm a good person.
-We'll see. -[dr. Megahed] yeah.
[hisses]
All right. Here we go.
This passage is known as a descending corridor.
Try and guess why.
How deep is this?
The lower we go,
The thinner the air feels.
Turns out there's a reason for that.
Oh, and here we are.
Wow.
So, we got a little room here now.
Yeah, it's like a pyramid exactly.
Through a descending corridor,
You come to a vestibule.
-But we have to check the air. -Yeah.
[josh] tombs often lack sufficient breathable air
And can be filled with ancient toxins.
A portable gas meter like th takes precise measurements
To let us know if it's safe to proceed.
[automated voice] attention, please.
Oxygen low concentration.
[alarm blaring]
[josh] that's good. That's a good sign.
-19.1% -[alarm blaring]
[josh] 19.5%.
19.7%. So, we're gonna live.
A little under normal, but
-I think we'll make it. -We can go.
-It doesn't look for snakes, though. -Yeah.
-Here we go. -Okay.
All right. Nobody breathe too much.
Oh, my god.
[dr. Megahed] wonderful, huh?
[josh] are you kidding me?
Look at this.
Are you kidding me?
To pinpoint the identity of a mystery mummy,
Which could be the only old kingdom pharaoh ever found,
Dr. Mohamed megahed has brought me to a recentl discovered tomb
That is unlike any I've ever seen.
I mean, this is insane.
Look at the details.
Different paints, different colors. It's...
-...Interesting. -This is absolutely unbelievable.
Would you like to see a fingerprint of ancient egyptian,
Who lived 4,400 years ago?
-Like a real fingerprint? -A real fingerprint.
-Where? -Come here. Look.
-Oh, my word. It's an actual fingerprint. -Yes.
[josh] I have chills looking at that
Because suddenly, it's human.
This accidental signature reminds us that an individua
No different than you or I,
Stood here four millennia ag to decorate this tomb.
And those decorations are extraordinary.
Delicately painted owls,
Finely speckled fish,
And scenes of sacrifice complete with splattering blood.
There's a real artistry here. This is, uh, animal slaughter?
[dr. Megahed speaking]
[josh] wow.
-[josh] he's pictured. -Yes.
This is him. This is the owner of the tomb.
[josh] and do we know his name?
And do we have his titles?
But he's not like the top man.
[josh] viziers were the underbosses
Of the ancient egyptian pharaohs.
Right below the king in the social hierarchy.
You'd think a tomb this luxurious
Would be for someone at least at that level.
It isn't.
So hold on a second, but all of this...
All of this imagery, this decoration,
And even him being depicted here,
Like at this time in the old kingdom,
You don't see this underground in people's tombs.
Never before him. Never.
This is the first tomb to be decorated underground.
-Ever found in egypt. -Ever found.
[chuckles]
And so, he served under which pharaoh?
He was working under king djedkare.
[josh] chui, the owner of this tomb,
Was a judge during the reig of 5th dynasty pharaoh, djedkare,
Who ruled less than a centur before merenre.
And in djedkare's pyramid, in his tomb,
-Is it decorated like this? -No.
So hold on a second.
The pharaoh's tomb isn't decorated, but this is.
Exactly.
So the pharaohs are taking their cues from officials?
It's supposed to work the other way around.
Yes, we used to know that the change comes from the king to the people.
So the pyramid text that we saw in the pyramid of merenre,
That whole idea
-Is starting here. -The seed is here.
Right and what's so crazy about this is that
This isn't just decoration,
This is religion.
This is your connection to the afterlife. How you get to the afterlife.
Josh, it's a revolution.
[josh] we've already seen that toward the end of the old kingdom,
Wealthy bureaucrats have been flexing their power in their tombs
By copying the pharaoh's.
But this is something else entirely.
It now seems that these high ranking government officials
Are so bold that later pharaohs begin copying them.
So these officials, they're not just getting more power,
They're rewriting the playbook on how to die and transition.
They are changing the afterlife forever.
After chui, every king started to create his underground.
-This is a huge find. -It's fantastic.
And so, in terms of our man chui here,
-Is his burial chamber behind this? -Yes.
-Let's see. -Let's go.
Wow. Look at this.
And just all limestone lined, all of it.
So his sarcophagus is where? Was here?
-Was here. -Was right here.
Was right here and this is remains of the sarcophagus.
-And this tomb had been looted. -It was looted. Yes.
And what about chui himself?
Well, remains of his human body was found scattered here.
-So you did find him. Right? -Yes.
And where are they?
Our store room here on the side.
-He's still here. -Yes.
-Can we see him? -Absolutely.
-Come on. -Let's go.
I gotta meet this guy.
In my continuing search for whether the mummy in the museum
Could be the oid kingdom pharaoh merenre,
I now have a chance to view another mummy that's even older than his.
We go to the nearby store room,
Where artifacts from dr. Megahed's dig are being preserved.
[josh exclaims]
[josh] you got the ark of the covenant in here?
[dr. Megahed laughs] yes.
[josh] this is amazing.
It's where we keep all our materials
To study them and to go on with our work.
And, chui.
-What's left of chui. -What's left of chui, you are right.
-Yeah? -Yes. But...
Gloves.
Oh, wow.
There he is.
[dr. Megahed] this is what we collect from his burial tomb.
[josh] wow, so I mean, really quite destroyed.
So we've got bits of the spine here.
-[dr. Megahed] ribs, yeah. -Chest cavity here, ribs.
-Spine, part of the leg. -Is this his leg?
So he really was scattered around the tomb.
[dr. Megahed] but we collected it, we brought it here
And we found out that he was mummified.
-He was mummified. -He was mummified.
[josh] carbon-14 dating has confirmed
That chui's mummy is one of the oldest ever discovered.
Older than our friend from merenre's tomb.
The supposed mummy of merenre would be 100 years later than this.
-Absolutely yes. -Right?
So, okay, what do we see? We have our scans of the mummy from the merenre pyramid.
So the first thing we see he
Is linen and actually it looks like quite a few layers of linen.
It's more than one layer and it's very fine linen.
[josh] mmm-hmm. Similarly wrapped as the mummy in merenre.
[dr. Megahed] yes, yes, similar.
-Another big similarity is the use of resin. -Resin.
This resin on the mummy from merenre's pyramid,
This is one of the big point of contention, right?
-[dr. Megahed] yes. -Because the idea was we shouldn't be seeing
This resin in the old kingdo
They weren't using it back then.
-We see it a thousand years later. -Right.
-But it's here. -It's here.
[josh] so this dark material.
-This dark material everywhere, it's resin. -Yes.
[josh] all in here, like we see on our scan.
So that's kind of a smoking gun in of itself.
Ancient egyptians knew the technique of mummifications,
At least a thousand years earlier than what we thought.
[josh] detractors of the mummy in merenre's pyramid
Argue that the mummificatio techniques were far too mode to be from the old kingdom.
But I'm looking at an old kingdom mummy that says otherwise.
Dramatically so.
So let's bring this back around to the mystery mummy of merenre.
Doesn't this put a lot of heat on the fire that in fact it is merenre?
Josh, I'm confident that this scan belongs to king merenre.
[josh] that would mean that this is the only complete pharaoh
That we have from the old kingdom.
Yes.
It also means that this mummy we scanned is unbelievably historic.
We are rewriting history.
[josh] dr. Megahed is convinced that the mummy in the imhotep museum
Belongs to merenre.
It seems all but certain no that we met an egyptian pharaoh
More than 4,000 years old.
A king who led egypt during the age of pyramids.
Josh, I think you met the oldest royal mummy ever found in egypt.
-You met the king. -I met the king.
This is awesome.
All right, should we let chui rest here?
I think we should let him in peace. As he always wanted.
That's right. All right.
Thank you, chui. Nice to meet you.
The case of the mystery mummy seems all but solved.
It was the recently discover tomb of chui
That gave us the final puzzle piece.
It also showed us that high ranking officials like him
Were becoming incredibly bol in the decoration of their tombs.
As the old kingdom expanded,
And as the population grew,
So did the power of these high officials.
But it turns out there may be other reasons why the old kingdom collapsed.
To see just how the old kingdom descended into a century of discord,
I'm headed south to another of egypt's great cities.
I travel 400 miles south to the city on the banks of the nile
That's synonymous with ancient egypt.
All of this was once part of thebes,
One of the most powerful and richest cities in ancient egypt.
On the west bank of the nile, the world of the dead and the valley of the kings.
Final resting place for some of egypt's greatest pharaohs.
And here on the east bank, the world of the living
And massive temples like luxor and karnak.
Back at the end of the old kingdom,
This was a trade out post
Ruled for a time by a regional governor named ankhtifi.
I head south of the ruins to see his tomb
And to meet with egyptologis dr. Ines torres.
-This is the tomb of ankhtifi. -Yes, it is.
Ankhtifi lived in the perio right after the old kingdom
And by that time, we see that these regional rulers
Become more and more powerful.
-Right, so this is the first intermediate period? -Exactly.
Historically, this has been thought of as a time of
Some chaos and strife and change.
There is a major shift in the centers of power.
And there are some really interesting examples of this in this tomb.
-If you would like to have a look. -Yeah.
[dr. Torres] so, josh.
-Whoa. -Welcome to the tomb of ankhtifi.
[josh] this is awesome. Look at this place.
[dr. Torres] isn't it amazing?
First of all, I can't believe this is not a royal tomb.
I know, it's massive.
Right? This is bigger than where I live.
And let's talk about all of this beautiful imagery.
-Is this our guy? -That's him. That's our guy.
-Ankhtifi. -Wow.
And what about all these inscriptions we see on the columns?
[dr. Torres] so ankhtifi inscribed his so-called autobiography
In every single one of these columns.
And if you want to learn more about him, we can let him tell us.
[josh] the walls of this tom are filled with clues
And ankhtifi himself may be able to tell us
Why the old kingdom fell apart.
-I love this. Okay, what does he have to say? -Go and have a look.
[dr. Torres] let's start here
Because in here, he lists all of his titles.
This is his resume?
-Yes, absolutely. -Okay.
At a tomb near luxor dated from egypt's chaotic first intermediate period,
Dr. Ines torres is helping m understand how the ancient old kingdom
Descended into a dark age.
Okay, who is he?
-So he tells us that he is a dignitary. -Sure.
-Um, a governor. -Okay.
-Uh, royal seal bearer. -That's important.
[dr. Torres] and he also tells us he is the regional ruler.
And a bit of a bragger.
He is, in fact, next to his titles,
He tells us that he is the beginning of men and the end of men.
And that no one like him was ever born, nor will he be.
-I say that, though, sometimes. -[dr. Torres laughs]
That's on my business card, actually.
Is that inappropriate to have that on there?
It's incredible to think that we go from this,
Like, iron grip on power that the pharaohs seem to have in the old kingdom,
To people building these, like, lavish tombs for themselves.
It's a huge shift.
[dr. Torres] absolutely.
[josh] but the decline in the pharaoh's absolute authority
Is only part of the story.
The walls of ankhtifi's tom reveal another reason the old kingdom fell apart.
So when we get to this column,
Uh, we see ankhtifi telling us a little bit about possible historical events.
He's highlighting a period of crisis.
He tells us that the entirety of upper egypt
Was dying of hunger.
And every man was
Eating his child.
And probably saying that metaphorically, like, they have no food.
Absolutely.
[josh] references to this famine appear
In multiple tombs from this period.
In addition, scientists have conducted sediment test,
Showing that around 2,200 b.C.E.
At the time of the collapse of the old kingdom,
Certain lands around the nile were bone dry.
The start of a decades long drought.
Add to that governors, like ankhtifi,
With growing power and a need to feed people in their own region.
And things get dangerous.
So this kinda feels like a powder keg.
Because now you've got power in the hands of lots of different people,
You've got a scarcity of foo
You've got a drought,
And these regional rulers are controlling resources.
[dr. Torres] yes, absolutely
Those are typically, historical the conditions for war.
Yes. And in fact, elsewhere, in this tomb ankhtifi tells us
How he's been at war against enemy coalitions of different regions.
And it shows that there was fights for power within egypt.
Among these regional leaders.
Right.
The tombs we've explored in saqqara
Those belong to yaret, wahtye, and henu
Show the road to ankhtifi's time.
A time when the pharaoh is no longer in control of his kingdom.
And a kingdom in dire need of food, water, and securit for its people.
To see how those puzzle piec fit into the tombs we're continuing to explore,
I head from luxor back to saqqara,
For one last trip to our dig site.
To excavate the final layer of this mystery.
I descend down into the impressively painted tom that belonged to henu.
A mayor in the time of the pharaoh, merenre.
The excavations have progressed further down.
So that the finer archaeological work can continue.
Okay.
I'm alive!
I'm alive.
Okay, so, some real progress here.
This is not what I expected to see here.
Blocking half the tomb here we have this mud brick wall.
And have any of the tombs here had this?
Not in these sites, a very rare feature here.
It is not common to find something like this.
Is this feature part of the original tomb do we think? Or is it later?
I think it's later. But not much later.
So still in antiquity?
-Someone added this shortly after the tomb? -Yes.
-So does that mean this tomb has been reused? -Maybe.
All right, the mystery continues. More digging.
For this kind of excavation in tight dusty spaces
We need to use respirator masks to protect our lungs.
So this kinda the tedious part of the process.
We're literally gonna scrap sand from the back of the vault toward the front,
And just take it down, like, an inch at a time.
[dr. El-saidy] oh, josh.
-[josh] got something? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] hold on, he's got something here.
-Something painted? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-It's an offering. -[josh] an offering?
-[dr. El-saidy] yes, it's a goose. -[josh] it's a goose?
Yes, look at the wing. And this is the neck.
Kind of offering.
It's a kind of offering.
So this would have been a small carved limestone statue?
-Carved into the shape of a goose. -Yes.
-And left as an offering. -Yes.
Wow!
And you can imagine them trying to imitate the yellow color
-With the skin of the goose. -Right.
And so this is the neck, and the head of the goose, bend backwards.
-This offering bring for henu. -[josh] right.
-So this is matching with the original tomb. -Right.
Okay, let's start again.
Remember when you were a kid and you use to play in the sand at the beach?
It's just like that.
Except there might be a human...
...Corpse under here.
It's a lot of sand.
I can almost sit up, which is an improvement.
And then I find something that makes me sit up.
Here, here, here, here. Is that wood or a bone?
-Bone. -[josh] piece of bone.
-Piece of bone, yes. -[josh] long bone, yeah?
[dr. El-saidy] long bone, yeah.
[josh] okay. Human remains here.
Looks like we've got another long bone here.
[dr. El-saidy] another long bone.
[josh] so we've got a burial up against this wall here.
[dr. El-saidy] this is a foot.
[josh] that a foot?
Got part of the foot here looks like.
-Both feet! -[dr. El-saidy] both feet.
[josh] oh, my word. Oh, man. Look at this.
So we've got a body that's laid out this way along the edge of the tomb.
-So this is definitely an intrusive burial, yeah? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] intrusive burials were a common practice in ancient egypt.
People would break into tomb
Discard the original residen
And reuse the space for their loved ones.
By surrounding them with offerings and spells,
Even from someone else's tom
The belief was that this might have ensured a journe to the afterlife.
We've got somebody who was laid here, in the tomb, after the owner.
-And no sign of a coffin, yeah? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] this skeleton looks like it's going kinda down angle.
So it may be that the rest of him is laid out right under here.
We can see traces of linen on the leg bone.
So this is a mummy.
Obviously in a really, really bad state of preservation.
He was mummified and placed here.
But definitely after the owner of our tomb.
[josh] uh-huh.
Got a whole body here, except for a head.
Where's his head?
Oh, hold on.
Oh, yes! We got a skull right here!
[josh] it may seen obvious, but it's also easy to forget
If you can see me, it means I'm not alone.
Mac, you coming to work today or what?
My crew is with me every step of the way.
Even when that step is a long way down.
-All right, guys. Prefect. -[josh] welcome to the office.
But there are times when I have to toughen these guys up.
Mac, this guy's working, you're not working.
Okay, this is not work.
-[mac] this is easy. -This is easy, what's happening.
So I engineer a little trade
Here we go, this is more like it.
That's right, mac. Not so easy now, is it?
That's good, that's good.
Okay. I'm done. Let's switch.
-Can I have my camera back? -That's good, mac. You lasted 10 seconds.
[josh] look at this!
-Teeth. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-[josh] in the mouth. -Mouth.
[josh] we have a skull.
In the burial shaft of a 6th dynasty egyptian noble named, henu,
We've discovered an uninvited guest.
An intrusive burial laid to rest after the tombs owner.
Top of the skull here, coming into view.
Look at his mouth. Look at the preservation.
Nose is coming into view here.
This body shows the mummification technique
That were the norm for the old kingdom.
This really is an old kingdom mummy here.
We have a life-like appearance.
But it's almost molded on.
You can see the way his lips are.
The way his nose is preserved.
We don't see any of those resins,
Any of those advanced techniques we would see later.
So very much like the mummy of nefer that we saw.
There's something just...
...Overwhelming about digging down through this sand.
And just coming, literally coming face-to-face with...
...With a person.
It's meeting someone from the past.
So we'll dig this out a bit more,
-And then photograph it, yeah? -Yes.
The remains are quickly and carefully removed.
So we can continue digging down toward henu's burial layer.
[josh] oh!
Hold on.
Got some wood here.
Could this be from the coffin?
From the original coffin of henu.
-You think so? -Yes.
[dr. El-saidy] we are now in the layer down the burial.
Right, so we're at the burial layer now.
-So his burial is definitely disturbed then. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
You see that man who came after henu, he's poor man.
He's just... They put his body above the sand.
-Right. -So if we have a wooden coffin,
We must find something around his mummy.
-Right. -We have nothing.
So the mummy we found earlier, the later mummy,
He came in here, and what? Destroyed this coffin?
[dr. El-saidy] yes.
We think of these tombs as such sacred places.
As the ancient egyptians, clearly, had such respect for the afterlife,
For their religion, for their gods.
Yet they were willing to come in,
And desecrate a tomb like this, for themselves.
This is the end of the old kingdom in a nutshel
Traditions throw aside as chaos reigns.
-But you can imagine if this man was desperate. -Right.
Well he's desperate, he comes here, destroys the original burial,
-To make an afterlife for himself. -Yes.
The great henu.
He was the mayor. He was the soul-friend of the king.
He was this powerful guy in the palace.
And it all comes to this.
We step out as the very las layers of sand are swept ou of the tomb.
This is likely as clean as it was on the da henu first occupied it.
All done. Nice work.
Thank you.
-All right look at this place. It's beautiful. -[both dr's] yes.
[josh] a tomb fit for, not a king, a mayor.
-And for someone else who came after. -[both dr's] yes.
All right, come on. Let's walk out. Here we go.
Look how far we've come.
This is, maybe, 25 feet deep.
And in the beginning it was just sand all the way to the top.
So how much sand do you figure we moved out of here?
2,000 cubic feet of sand.
You can imagine its weight 200,000 pounds.
We moved 200,000 pounds of sand.
And look at that, at the bottom of all this,
-There are incredible things to find. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
All right, can we get out of this shaft now?
Yes. Just say for them rayya
Rayyah!
The mystery and allure of ancient egypt
Has kept archaeologists digging through its sand for centuries.
Well in my brief time here, I've helped move my share of that sand.
And I can tell you that the necropolis at saqqa
Is worth all of that effort and more.
I've never been at a dig sit where so much history felt so immediate and urgent,
Asking to be unearthed.
Got a burial up against this wall here.
The discoveries here show that powerful officials
Undermined the absolute authority of the pharaoh.
That combined with famine, drought, and rising regional governments
All conspired to bring the old kingdom to its knees
At the same time, we may well have put a face on one of its rulers.
Scanning and identifying the only old kingdom pharaoh ever found.
I know the discoveries will only continue.
As intrepid archaeologists across saqqara, and beyond,
Along with their tireless teams, continue to dig.
After all, the sands of egyp have many more stories to tell.
And many more mysteries to reveal.
Listen carefully.
Because the past calls out from just below our feet.
Waiting patiently to be hear