All language subtitles for Egypts.Unexplained.Files.S01E08.Ramses.Forbidden.City.720p.WEB.x264-CAFFEiNE[eztv]

Narrator:
Pyramids, temples, tombs --

these ancient wonders promise
even greater secrets

still to be found
beneath the sands of egypt.

Now cutting-edge science

decodes the mysterious land
of the pharaohs.

We are gaining an insight

into the way
the ancient egyptians lived

and the manner
of which they died.

Narrator:
This time, the mysteries
behind egyptian genius.

Can scientists explain bizarre
markings in the desert

first spotted from outer space?

Rose:
The landscapes are like these
post-apocalyptic wastelands,

like an explosion went off.

Narrator:
Can a new lab experiment reveal
egyptians as the first surgeons?

Harrison:
Do they understand medicine

hundreds of years
before the greeks?

Narrator: And can modern
technology shed light on

how a pharaoh's capital city
was discovered in two places?

Naunton: Without the advent
of a new scientific technique,

we wouldn't be able
to understand that story.

Narrator:
Ancient clues unearthed,

long-lost evidence re-examined,

precious artifacts brought into
the light of the 21st century.

These are
"egypt's unexplained files."

-- captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

1939 -- the great archeologist
pierre montet believed

he found the remains of a great
pharaoh's lost capital --

pi-ramesses.

He was kind of dazzled
by the statues

and the obelisks
and the inscriptions.

Narrator:
Then in the year 2000,

the results of a 30-year
magnetic scanning project

appeared to blow
montet's theory apart.

It shows the location of
the city nearly 20 miles away.

How can these two places just
separated by miles be connected?

Narrator: Tanis, in the
northeast of the nile delta --

french archeologist
pierre montet marvels

at his incredible discovery
at monuments

all dedicated to one of the
greatest pharaohs of all time.

All around him he sees
monuments of ramesses ii.

His name and his image
is everywhere.

Narrator: For 30 years,
it was believed montet

had found the lost capital
of pi-ramesses,

until experts began
to question his findings.

He didn't really try to confirm
it by looking for pottery,

by looking for small finds,
which really would tell you

scientifically
what the date of the site was.

Narrator: In the late '60s,
archeologists begin to examine

the small artifacts
from the site.

Astonishingly,
none actually date

from the time of ramesses ii,

instead they're from
1,000 b.C.E.,

two centuries after his reign.

Archeologists now ask,

"could the great montet
have been wrong?"

some people jump to
the wrong conclusion

that this had to be that city.

Narrator:
The search for pi-ramesses
begins all over again.

For archeologists,

the lore of this lost city
is irresistible.

A great capital extolled
in ancient poetry

and named in the bible itself.

Lacovara: It was a huge city.

It's been suggested
30 square kilometers,

the size of manhattan,
bigger even.

It's a huge, thriving
metropolis -- temples, palaces,

obelisks, colossal statues.

It was a monument to
ramesses ii's power and might.

Narrator: Egyptologists
re-examine the evidence.

Montet had just one clue
to the location of pi-ramesses,

an ancient hymn dedicated
to the great capital city.

Naunton: It just tells us
that pi-ramesses

is on the eastern-most branch
of the nile in the nile delta.

It doesn't, though,
give us its exact location.

Narrator:
The nile flows into the
mediterranean in northern egypt.

Here the river delta splits
into many branches.

Geologists know many of these
have run dry

and shifted location
over millennia.

Naunton:
So, when we're looking for
the site of pi-ramesses,

we have to look not only
on branches of the river

which exist now,
branches of the river

which might have existed
in the past

but are now dried up.

Narrator: Montet searched along
a drained stretch of the nile,

known as the tanitic branch.

He believed this to be
the eastern-most part

of the delta
described in the ancient hymn.

But 30 years later, austrian
geologists study contour maps,

they search among the ridges
and valleys

for evidence
of ancient river runs.

They're amazed to discover
another dead branch

of the nile delta
even further east --

the pelusiac branch,
20 miles from tanis,

near the modern city of qantir.

It's 1970, and archeologists
begin to dig near the city,

uncovering thousands of tiny
but crucial clues.

The ceramics found in the area
date to the time of ramesses ii.

So, it's really in the shards
and the objects of daily life

and the little bits
that tell you the true story.

Narrator: Egyptologists now ask
an intriguing question --

could these tiny finds
be evidence

of the city of pi-ramesses,

nearly 20 miles from
where montet believed it stood?

Then they make
another astonishing find.

Most intriguingly of all,
we have evidence

of a colossal statue
of ramesses ii

in a farmer's field,
and this leads archeologists

to want to look
more closely at this site.

Narrator: It's another clue this
could be the site

of pi-ramesses.

Archeologists
need to look much deeper.

They use handheld magnetometers

to undertake the largest
underground scan

in the history
of egyptology.

The results are astonishing.

An entire ancient capital city

just revealed
almost in an instant.

Narrator:
Networks of ancient streets
and foundations of buildings

all dating to the time
of ramesses ii.

But there's a problem --

if the foundations of the
capital city are here in qantir,

then why did montet
discover the great monuments

to ramesses ii nearly
20 miles away in tanis?

Once again, long-term changes
in the nile delta

could hold the clue.

The branch that pi-ramesses
was located on --

the pelusiac branch --
silts up gradually

so it eventually
makes the site useless,

it's not a good port anymore.

Narrator:
Without a flowing river,
the city could not function.

Lacovara:
The harbor was no longer usable.

There was no way for trade
to get there

and so the city was kind of
gradually starved for income.

Narrator:
Egyptologists believe 150 years
after pi-ramesses was built,

its fortunes began to suffer

when the pelusiac branch
of the nile ran dry.

Experts now propose
a novel theory

that egyptians moved buildings

and statues
20 miles west to tanis,

the ancient site
montet discovered.

It sounds an impossible
undertaking,

but experts know the egyptians
had done it before.

They were of course well used
to this colossi of memnon

of amenhotep iii had been taken
from the quarries near cairo

all the way down to luxor.

They weighed 800 tons
and that was 400 miles.

Bianchi: It's not uncommon
for egyptologists

to find monuments
from an earlier period

in a more recent context.

The egyptians were
great recyclers.

Narrator:
Yet this was a recycling project
on an unimaginable scale.

Some of the obelisks weigh up
to 1,000 tons.

Naunton: It would have been
involving a very significant

part of the population.

It would have been the big event
of the time in egypt.

Lacovara: We don't know exactly
how long it took, you know,

they would have probably
taken it piecemeal

as they were picking
over the city.

Naunton:
It's a phenomenal undertaking,

a massive undertaking to move
all of that stone that distance.

Narrator: This is an almost
superhuman effort

on the part of the egyptians,

but actually one
that would save time and effort.

Naunton:
The alternative would have been
to build from scratch,

and that would mean
quarrying stone anew

and bringing it from quarries,

which would have been
a long way away,

further away from tanis
than pi-ramesses is.

It was a lot cheaper to try
to retrofit older monuments

and you would get it up
in a hurry.

Narrator:
In pi-ramesses, it's likely
thousands of men were needed

to move these great monuments
to tanis to rebuild once again.

Naunton: It's a great
revivification of a city

which becomes great again,
just in a different location.

Narrator:
This astonishing achievement
meant that 5,000 years later,

it was not pi-ramesses
that montet discovered,

but a new city built
with borrowed stone

carried across the desert
from the great capital.

Montet's discovery
was in fact evidence

of how the egyptians pulled off

one of the greatest engineering
feats of the ancient world.

♪

recent satellite images of egypt

reveal a strange
unexplained phenomenon --

giant holes in the ground
next to some of the country's

most important
archeological sites.

And what's really scary is
that number of these holes

is increasing.

Narrator:
Scientists rush to investigate.

But what are they?

Narrator: Satellite technology
offers archeologists

the latest tool in the search
for clues to ancient past.

But these images
taken from space in 2012

have baffled the experts.

The landscapes near
these archeological sites

are like these pockmarked,
post-apocalyptic wasteland.

It's like an explosion went off.

Many of the sites end up
looking like swiss cheese.

Narrator:
As they seek an explanation
for these deep craters

near precious ancient sites,

a new and unusual clue
comes to light, not in egypt,

but over 400 miles away
in jerusalem, israel.

Paul:
Israeli authorities actually
found two egyptian sarcophagi

in an antiquity shop
in jerusalem.

Narrator: To experts,
it's uncommon to see treasure

such as these
for sale outside egypt.

It's not unheard of that
you would see egyptian artifacts

excavated from israel,
however, a large sarcophagus,

that's not typical in israel.

Narrator:
The two ancient artifacts have
been treated with little care,

both were damaged beyond repair.

Investigators believe
these treasures have been looted

to be sold illicitly
in israel.

The seller may say the item
is authentic,

that doesn't mean it's legal.

Narrator:
Could the holes in the desert
be evidence of criminals

digging for sarcophagi
and other prizes of antiquity?

Ancient egypt's riches
have certainly

always been under threat
from thieves.

Clark:
It's a very old practice.

As far as crime's concerned,
you could in fact say

it's the world's
second-oldest profession.

One of the most famous
tomb raiders was an italian

who operated
in the early 19th century.

There was one man, an italian,
giovanni belzoni,

who was a master tomb robber.

Narrator: Belzoni had an unusual
set of skills

that made him perfect
for the job.

Cooney:
He was trained as a circus man,

and he was actually
a crack engineer,

also self-trained.

And he was hired by a number
of wealthy men in europe

to get stuff for them.

Narrator:
Belzoni earned his reputation

by stealing some of egypt's
most impressive artifacts

with stunning bravado.

Well, belzoni makes his name
initially by removing

the bust of ramesses ii
from outside the ramesseum

and hauling it down
the nile to cairo

for shipment to England.

Narrator:
Stealing priceless treasures and
smashing others in the process,

belzoni also brazenly left
his calling card

at the scene of his crimes.

Cooney: Belzoni wasn't shy
about putting his name

everywhere he could,

and if you're a tourist
in egypt today

and you climb into the burial
chamber of king khafre,

on of the great pyramids
on the giza plateau,

you will see the name belzoni
as big as possible on the walls.

Narrator:
The story of belzoni is evidence

of the extreme lengths
tomb raiders will go to

to steal egyptian artifacts.

The experts now examine
the satellite images

for the proof
of 21st-century grave robbers.

Cooney: When archeologists are
using satellite imagery,

sometimes if they compare
the satellite images

from 10 years ago to today,

they start to see more holes
in the ground

that weren't there before.

Narrator: Clustered around
key archeological sites,

these holes are revealed,
on closer inspection,

to be deep vertical shafts,

tunnels dug by modern thieves
searching for ancient treasures.

Paul: So, there's really
a race between archeologists

who are trying to properly
record and excavate

and tomb raiders

who are stealing artifacts
at astronomical rates

like we've never seen
before in egypt.

But why is there
such an enormous spike

in illegal digging?

Many believe it's connected
to the egyptian revolution

which exploded in 2011.

Civil unrest followed for years.

Experts now believe
important sites

were ransacked
during the chaos.

And sometimes that looting
can be a couple of people

coming in and digging
a hole here or there.

In other cases, that looting
is very systematic.

Rose: As they go in there
and they're taking out

all the valuable objects,
they're destroying the site.

They're causing irreparable
damage to that archeology.

Cooney: You see people coming in
with earth movers,

with bulldozers to come in
and sweep away parts of a site

to quickly look for ancient
materials they can sell.

Narrator: Between 2011 and 2013,
researchers recorded

an average
of 38,000 annual lootings

of egypt's precious
archeological sites.

Artifacts are being stolen
on an industrial scale

to feed a global market.

Paul: The people buying
these artifacts

tend to be
from wealthier countries

so that's countries
in the west,

like the united states,
like the u.K., France, germany.

Narrator:
It's a trade that leaves
archeologists deeply troubled.

But as long as there are people
willing to pay

for stolen artifacts,

there will always be people
willing to steal them.

Cooney:
The greatest tomb robbers of all

are all of the people
who are currently buying them.

When that demand stops,
then the tomb robbery will stop.

♪

narrator: Produced to create
beautiful art 4,600 years ago,

the world's first artificial
pigment -- egyptian blue.

Egyptian blue was
extraordinarily important

throughout the ancient world.

Incredibly,
researchers now believe

this material
may hold within it

the key to revolutionize
forensic science.

Could egyptian blue be used
to solve 21st-century crimes?

♪

narrator:
For the ancient egyptians,

blue was a sacred color.

It has connotations as a color
with fertility, with creation,

with everything relating
to the skies above them.

They wanted to incorporate this
cherished color into their art,

but there was a problem.

Blue is not available
naturally.

It doesn't occur naturally
in too many substances.

Reds, yellows are common among
different kinds of pigments,

but blue is something
difficult to create.

Narrator: In 2,600 b.C.E.,

to overcome this,
the ancient egyptians embarked

on a chemical experiment
and made a breakthrough.

Colleen:
I think that we can pretty
safely say that the egyptians

were phenomenal chemists
of the ancient world.

And they clearly
experimented.

Egyptians found a way
to create egyptian blue

using substances around
them basically --

sand, using copper, calcium.

So, these are very
common substances.

Narrator: Balls of the mixture
were placed into clay jars

and put into ovens heated
at 1,000 degrees celsius.

The finished product was then
thoroughly ground down,

and they had the world's
first artificial pigment.

It's chemical name --
calcium copper tetrasilicate,

the color a striking blue.

The ancient egyptians
were incredibly resourceful,

and there essentially
was not a problem

that they couldn't solve
through tenacity

and use of the resources
at their disposal.

Narrator: This vibrant color
stunned the ancient world,

but now, thousands
of years later,

it's egyptian blue's
hidden qualities

that are exciting
modern forensic scientists.

Centuries ago,
reliefs like these

were once painted
with the famous pigment.

The color has faded
to the naked eye,

but using high-tech
infrared cameras

under the right
lighting conditions,

the remains
of the egyptian blue pigment

reveals itself in
a dazzling luminescent glow.

This paint thousands
of years old can show up

using a modern
scientific technique.

Despite differences
in temperature,

oxygen levels,
lighting conditions,

this substance can still be
found after thousands of years.

Johnston: The ancient egyptians
in creating this blue color

that was so desirous to obtain,

they actually stumbled
across something

that was extraordinarily
durable,

even if not to the naked eye,
several millennia later,

would still be detectable.

Narrator:
2016 -- a team of researchers

at curtin university
in perth, australia

see an opportunity.

Could egyptian blue's
twin qualities of luminescence

and durability be the key
to solving a long-term problem

in the forensic field
of fingerprinting?

This could then potentially be
a game changer for forensics.

Narrator: When forensic teams
arrive at a crime scene,

they dust surfaces with a powder
of contrasting color

which sticks to the fingerprints
left behind,

traditional fingerprinting
powders, for instance,

are made out of plant resins
or a kind of soot.

Narrator:
But these crime-scene teams
are facing a challenge.

On particular problem surfaces,

the traditional powders
are just not working.

Johnston:
With modern technology,
polymer bank notes,

highly patterned surfaces,
it's incredible difficult

to be able
to obtain fingerprints

for a number of these surfaces.

Colleen: Researchers were
intrigued by egyptian blue,

because it might have
an application

for dusting for fingerprints.

And even in a patterned surface,
using egyptian blue

might enable the fingerprints
to stand out more

in scientific testing than
traditional techniques.

Narrator: The researchers
at curtin university

believe egyptian blue's hidden
power -- bright luminescence

and an ability to stick
to a surface for so long --

means it may have the answer
forensic science is looking for.

Following the ancient recipe
in the lab,

they mix the egyptian
blue compound

and then grind it down
into microscopic particles.

They dust
the egyptian blue pigments

onto fingerprints
on a polymer bank note,

a surface on which traditional
dusting powders can falter.

The surfaces are then
illuminated in white light

and photographed
with a special camera,

which can detect infrared rays.

The images are astonishing.

Altawheel: Even though it's
a surface that would otherwise

not leave the preservation
of a fingerprint.

This particular substance,
egyptian blue,

actually left
some residue behind.

Narrator: The researchers
compare the testing methods

on soft-drink cans.

First,
using traditional powders,

and then with
egyptian blue pigment.

It reveals a vast improvement.

Applying the blue pigment
to other problematic surfaces

including patterned tiles
and glass,

the prints are incredibly clear.

Colleen: It's amazing.

Even though it's not visible
to the naked eye,

it glows under
the near infrared light.

The pigment's quality of
exhibiting luminescence

narrator:
Coupled with its ability
to retain this luminescence

for centuries demonstrates
it could have a major impact

in law enforcement.

Johnston: What I find
absolutely incredible

is the fact
that ancient technology

through the synthetic pigment,
egyptian blue,

is being used now
in the 21st century.

Altawheel: It's kind of amazing
to think that egyptian blue

could actually be used
to catch criminals very soon.

♪

narrator: In the
ancient-egyptian city of amarna,

dutch archeologists uncover
the skeletal remains

of an ancient female,

attached to the skull --

a flamboyant, multicolored
mass of braided hair.

All of a sudden,
she cried out, "look.

They have hair extensions."

fletcher:
The body is basically a skeleton
and yet the hair survived,

and it's styled into these
amazing hair extensions.

Narrator:
The dutch team are baffled.

How has the hair survived
when the bodies have rotted?

And what is the significance
of the ornate braided hair?

Wendrich:
Was this something unique?

Was this something that
had a special meaning?

There are so many mysteries.

Narrator: 2014 -- and a team
of researchers examine

this strange skeleton
in a grave.

The female body's discovered in
literally a hole in the ground,

a standard pit grave
in the sand.

Narrator:
The excavation team find this
woman's remains are not alone.

They unearth a vast cemetery,

countless humble graves
filled with the poor.

It rapidly becomes apparent

that this woman
isn't an isolated incident,

that there are others,
hundreds of other bodies.

Narrator: In grave after grave,
they find a similar outlandish

hairpiece matted
to the skulls of the dead.

Head after head,
person after person,

woman after woman,
had hair extensions.

Narrator:
Bone experts are called in

to examine the skeletons
of the women.

They search for clues
that might help explain

the presence of the hair.

1341 b.C.E., the city of amarna
is constructed

as pharaoh akhenaten's
eternal capital.

Now forensic archeologists
find clues suggesting

the city's inhabitants endured
a lifetime of hard labor.

From the skeletal remains, it's
clear they had a very hard life.

We can see that they had
very strong arms,

that they had very big muscles.

We can see from their spines,
they are damaged,

they were carrying
a lot of heavy stuff.

A lot of these people
had serious health problems.

Narrator:
These women were the workforce

who kept akhenaten's
city running.

In death, the workers
are found buried together

in a mass cemetery.

They're discovered wrapped
in mats and laid in the ground.

Wendrich: There are just slots
excavated in the sands,

simple graves where ordinary
people from amarna were buried.

Narrator:
The bodies are not mummified,

a practice restricted
to the wealthy elite.

The flesh has rotted away,
leaving just bone,

yet the hair
is perfectly preserved.

It's taken for close examination
to a special lab in cairo.

Researchers want to find out
why it is frozen in time.

Tests reveal that the hair has
been treated with animal fats.

Wendrich: If you live in such
a dry climate,

then you want to put grease
in your hair.

And grease was also the way
to perfume

so everything
that smelled nice --

pressed flowers or resins --
were dissolved in fats.

Which has preserved the hair

almost perfectly
for 3,500 years.

Narrator: Analysis of the fats
used in the hair

reveal it comes
from cows and goats.

It appears to have been
fashioned into a gel

and worked into the hair.

And so they're styling the hair
with styling product,

which gives an extra layer of
protection to the hair itself.

And so these things
can survive thousands of years.

Narrator:
The lab technicians make
another astonishing discovery.

The hair used to make the braids
appears to come from

multiple sources.

The archeologists are finding
more people at amarna

with extensions of hair
made not only from their own,

but of different colors
and textures.

Wendrich: They used hair
extensions of real human hair

so probably young girls
could donate their hair,

could sell their hair maybe.

♪

narrator: Examining the braids,
the experts note how tightly

and neatly
they have been dressed.

They conclude this work
would have been too intricate

to carry out in the final stages
of a dying woman's life.

Instead, they believe the
process took place after death,

in preparation for burial.

Wendrich: They couldn't afford
to be mummified,

but they could afford

some measures
to remain in the afterlife.

Narrator:
Investigators want to understand
the significance of preserved

hairpieces for the impoverished
women in their graves.

They look for answers in the
complex egyptian burial rituals.

Fletcher: So, we know
that wealthy people are buried

in splendid stone-built tombs.

Wendrich:
They're hacked out in the rocks,
they are beautifully decorated.

While the rest of the
population, the working people,

are just buried
in a hole in the ground.

Narrator: Pharaohs fill their
tombs with gold thrones,

jewelry, perfumes, and wines.

They want to retain
all their riches

and bring them to the afterlife.

The only item these poor
working women can afford to take

with them to the next world are
these elaborate hair extensions.

Now, scholars have hit on
a final theory to explain why

this artificial hairpiece was
so crucial for the afterlife.

It lies with the goddess hathor

who personified beauty
and rebirth.

In the afterlife,

it was believed she would help
the dead to be reborn.

Hathor was the goddess
of femininity

but also had a role
as a goddess of the dead.

Narrator:
Crucially, she was recorded
in ancient-egyptian myth

for her distinctive
and beautiful hair.

Fletcher: Goddess hathor,
a mother goddess figure,

who was called
"she of the beautiful hair,"

"the lady of the locs,"

and so if she spotted you
as one of her own,

you were set
for the glorious afterlife.

Narrator:
These amarna women may have
been using their only asset

to attract the attention
of this goddess.

Dodson:
It's possible that these women
were using hair extensions

to allow them
to be associated with her

in their transformation
into the next world.

Narrator: Egyptologists now
believe the women in amarna

were undergoing this simple
post-mortem beauty ritual

to be as beautiful as possible
for their eternal afterlife.

Hair and beauty were
extraordinarily important

to the ancient egyptians.

Where to look you best
meant everything.

Wendrich:
People wanted to be beautiful.

They make themselves beautiful
in life and in death.

The way they wanted to live
in the afterlife,

that's the way they were buried.

Narrator:
The working poor of amarna
did not have the vast riches

that filled
the great pharaohs' tombs.

What little money they had
they used to buy a precious wig,

a beautiful headpiece
which would see them

recognized by the goddess hathor

and welcomed for eternity
into the next world.

♪

2017 -- a rock face
50 miles south of luxor.

Archeologists are amazed when
they discover a collection

of giant hieroglyphs,
each one 2 feet high.

Why were the hieroglyphs so big?

This is almost like
an ancient billboard.

Narrator: These unique
and mysterious signs

are some of the earliest
ever found.

Over 5,000 years old,

they predate the pyramids
and the sphinx.

This was really about the last
thing we expected we would find.

Narrator:
The experts' task is to
decipher these ancient symbols

and reveal this message
from antiquity.

What are these hieroglyphs
trying to tell us?

Narrator: 100 feet above
an ancient crossroads,

by the egyptian village
of el-khawy.

A team from yale university
lead by professor john darnell

examined the earliest
hieroglyphs found on this scale.

John: This is big.

It's out in a public space.

It's overlooking these roads.

It's definitely meant to be seen
by people from a distance.

Narrator: These mysterious
hieroglyphs date

back to the birth of the entire
language at around 3200 b.C.E.

Three of them depict birds.

Two large storks
standing back to back between

and slightly above them
we have an ibis.

Narrator:
Professor darnell recognizes
these symbols instantly.

That arrangement evokes
the horizon for the egyptians --

the two horizon hills
with the sun rising in between.

The solar cycle,
we feel pretty confident

that it's a statement
of cosmic power.

Johnston:
The solar cycle is the rising
and falling of the sun each day.

It affects this life,
it affects the afterlife.

Ancient-egyptian religion at its
very core is a solar religion.

Narrator: Cosmic power
and the solar cycle,

the first clues to the meaning
of the message on the rock face.

But to the untrained eye,

the remaining hieroglyph
on the wall

is more difficult to decipher.

Armed with the knowledge
of early egyptian iconography

and inscriptions,

professor darnell knows he has
seen this hieroglyph before.

Back in 1995,
the site of gebel tjauti,

25 miles northwest of luxor,

he and his team made
another incredible discovery

as they scrutinized
scratchings in the rocks

also dating back
over 5,000 years.

The scorpion tableau
is a rock art scene

with early hieroglyphic
annotations.

It appears to date to the same
as the el-khawy inscription.

The scorpion king tableau
shows the king, king scorpion,

in battle.

Narrator: The scorpion king
was the first king

of the unified upper egypt.

Beside this figure of the king,

a familiar symbol
can be identified.

The symbols that were found
on the scorpion tableau

were very similar to the symbols
that were found by yale team.

John: The exact same sign
appears in that tableau as well.

Narrator:
Professor darnell has a theory
as to what this symbol carved

into both walls in the same
time period actually is.

The sign of a bull's head
on a pole.

It is identical.

Narrator:
A clue to what the bull
represents comes in the form

of one of ancient egypt's
most iconic artifacts,

also dating back
almost 5,000 years --

the narmer palette.

So-called narmer palette, which
is heavily adorned with images

which seem to show
the unification of egypt

by one king.

Narmer is depicted as a raging
bull that is trampling an enemy

and knocking down the walls
of the enemy fortress.

So it shows a kind of royal
authority taking over the land.

Narrator: It's clear that in
the egypt of 5,200 years ago,

the figure of the bull
symbolized the royal leader.

The bull is a symbol of power.

We can say that the symbol of
the bull represents the ruler,

the pharaoh of egypt.

Narrator: Now the world's oldest
hieroglyphs of this size

on the cliff face at el-khawy
can be pieced together.

And professor darnell can reveal
this message from antiquity.

John:
This seems to be a statement

that now there's
a central authority.

Now there's a focus
for religious activity.

Now there's a representative
of these cosmic powers on earth.

The king is showing his
absolute authority to subjects.

Colleen: What this billboard
is advertising

is royal power and control.

The king is the one
who is actually in charge

of the solar cycle,
that makes him the god.

Narrator: In 3200 b.C.E., this
message was carved

in large hieroglyphs
into the rock face

so that every traveler pausing
at these crossroads

could be left in no doubt of

who was in total control
of both the land

and the sky that surrounded
them -- the pharaoh.

♪

the discovery of a mummy

bearing a wooden toe
excites archeologists.

Is this an early form
of prosthetic?

Harrison: Do they understand
medicine and surgery

hundreds of years
before the greeks?

Narrator: Or is part of
a strange burial practice?

Dodson:
Is this something which was made
to wear during her lifetime

or is it simply something
to allow her mummy

to be complete
in the next world?

We need to sort the magic
from the medicine.

♪

narrator: This curious artifact
is uncovered

in a tomb west of luxor.

The toe is found attached
to the foot of a female mummy

and is nearly 3,000 years old.

They found this female mummy
with a toe

that was made out
of leather and wood

and it was wrapped around
and attached to her foot.

Narrator:
Many archeologists believe
this relic is a symbolic token

added during
the mummification process

to replace a missing toe.

We would assume that these have
actually been placed there

to complete the body
for the soul in the afterlife

so that they would have
use of that limb.

Narrator: Researchers
in biomedical egyptology

at manchester university
are not convinced.

In 2011, studying evidence
of wear and tear on the toe,

they theorized that this could
actually be

a fully functioning prosthetic
worn in life.

Aziz:
A few of the researchers from
the university of manchester

decided to put it to the test.

They find two volunteers,

both of these volunteers have
their big right toes missing.

Narrator:
The technicians construct
a replica of the female

mummy's wooden toe and attach it
to the volunteers' feet.

A series of tests to track
their movements begins.

If the toe is functional,
this would be the earliest

working prosthetic
ever discovered.

Will the results
of the experiment

finally show egyptian
medical knowledge

was far ahead of the rest
of the ancient world?

Could the discovery of a toe
on a mummy point us

in the right direction?

Narrator: Egyptologists also
examine ancient medical papyri

that surfaced
in the mid-19th century

when the black-market trade
in these scrolls was booming.

Rose: A few of these documents
point to egyptian physicians

as possessing far more
advanced medical knowledge

than we ever thought possible.

Narrator:
The details within the papyri
show that the ancient egyptians

had a deep understanding
of the human body.

Harrison: They show that the
egyptians understood things

like the heart
pumping fluids around the body.

They understood anatomy.

They understood certain organs.

They understood the human body
probably better

than any other
ancient civilization.

Narrator: A document known
as the "edwin smith papyrus"

reveals advanced egyptian
medical expertise.

It's a manual, basically,
for trauma victims.

Narrator:
It shows that egyptians were
using technologies similar

to those modern doctors treating
body trauma employ today.

Dodson: The egyptians had
a good knowledge

of practical medicine --
surgery,

particularly to do
with orthopedics, bone damage.

If the wound was quite deep,
then they would stitch it up.

I mean, they were remarkable
at stitching.

Narrator: Experts realize
ancient egyptians were using

tools that were comparable to
those used in a modern surgery.

If you go to a tomb
or a temple inside

and you see some of
these medical equipment,

it's the same that we use today,
in a lot of cases.

The egyptians were at forefront
of understanding

how the human body works.

Narrator:
Back at manchester university,
the egyptologists want to put

this documented
medical prowess to the test.

The volunteers are asked to walk
on a 10-meter walkway

wearing ancient-egyptian
style sandals.

Firstly, with the replica toe
attached and then without.

The results are surprising.

They helped both
volunteers balance

so it definitely
could have been used.

The replica wooden artificial
toe makes it much easier

for the volunteers to walk
in the egyptian-style sandals.

This toe was actually
a workable prosthetic.

This was fascinating.

We were amazed by this.

The toe could indeed
have functioned

as a lifetime prosthesis.

Narrator: Experts believed that
the artificial toe

found on the mummy

was used in her daily life
to aide her walking.

Also, that is was readjusted
for size as she got older.

Rose:
It was there to help her balance
and to give her function back.

So what this tells us is that
ancient-egyptian medicine

was far more advanced than
we ever gave them credit for.

Aziz:
Technologically, scientifically,

and medically the ancient
egyptians were really advanced.

And this is oldest functional
prosthetic ever found

in history.

Narrator:
This incredible artifact and the
clues from the ancient papyri

are completely overturning
our assumptions

about medical knowledge
in antiquity.

Rose: We think about these
ancient civilizations,

and we tend to think
that they're all backward.

No, egyptians are one of
the most advanced civilizations

when it comes to medicine.

Narrator: 2,500 years ago, far
exceeding their contemporaries,

the egyptians were laying
down the blueprint

for what would become
the field of modern medicine.