All language subtitles for Egypts.Unexplained.Files.S01E09.Armageddon.on.the.Nile.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.

With modern technology,
we are gaining an insight

into the way
the ancient egyptians lived

and the manner
in which they died.

Narrator: This time,
the mysteries behind

the decline and fall
of ancient egypt.

Did volcanic eruptions
thousands of miles from egypt

help take down the pharaohs?

Darnell: Climatic
and political instability --

that's when it's going
to cause a major change.

Narrator:
Can scientists recreate

the face of a wealthy woman

who lived in
ancient egypt's final years?

Carroll: We're essentially
bringing her back to life.

For the ancient egyptians,
this is life after death.

Narrator: And are the monuments
that did survive egypt's fall

now doomed to destruction?

We risk losing
egypt's heritage forever.

Narrator:
Ancient clues unearthed...

Long-lost evidence reexamined...

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

for over 3,000 years,

egypt was ruled by the pharaohs.

But over the course
of three centuries,

they slowly lost their grip
on power

to leave egypt
facing a chaotic downfall.

Open revolt in the streets
and famine.

Manning: Dramatic tales
of political chaos

and everything breaking down.

What might be triggering
this chaos?

Narrator:
Now can climate science

and clues buried
in the polar ice caps

explain the terminal decline
of the ancient pharaohs?

Manning:
There's so many changes,

so many shocks that
a society can withstand

before it breaks.

Narrator: 305 b.C.E. --

The ptolemaic dynasty
begins its rule of egypt.

The ptolemies were
the descendants of ptolemy,

who was one of the generals
of alexander the great.

Ptolemy managed to seize egypt,

and his family then ruled egypt

the next 300 years.

Narrator: Under their rule,
egypt flourished

as a cultural
and economic powerhouse,

building great monuments like
the lighthouse of alexandria.

But this era was still marked
by civil unrest

caused by famine.

Suddenly,
there's no food available,

or at least food
is in short supply.

And if it wasn't being dealt
with to their satisfaction,

then they would want
to rise up and revolt.

When the agricultural cycle
does not look great,

you can understand that
people are going to panic.

The king is someone who is
supposed to

promote justice and order
and destroy chaos.

Narrator:
Famine after famine

undermined attempts
by the ptolemies

to govern egypt effectively.

Now egyptologists are searching
for clues to explain

why famine hit this era
so often.

Their first clue is the nile.

The river's annual flood
was crucial to life in egypt.

Without the floods,
they can't grow the crops.

And if they can't grow
the crops, then they can't eat.

Narrator: Historical records
reveal periods

in the ptolemaic era

when the nile floods
didn't arrive.

An international team
of climate scientists

search for evidence
to explain why.

They uncover clues
thousands of miles from egypt

in the polar ice caps.

The scientists drill core
samples from the ice.

They reveal geological records

stretching back
thousands of years.

Naunton: They found in a number
of these cores sulfur particles,

which arrived there as a result
of volcanic eruptions.

Narrator: Scientists know that
giant volcanic eruptions

can have a direct effect
on global weather patterns.

Manning: We know volcanoes are
an important forcing mechanism,

climatologists say,
for global climate for cooling.

Narrator: When volcanoes erupt,

they blast clouds
of sulfur dioxide

high into the stratosphere.

It forms a layer
of sulfate particles,

which reflect sunlight back into
space, lowering temperatures

and changing patterns
of rainfall around the globe.

It has to be
a certain size eruption

that puts sulfates and ash
into the stratosphere,

and that circulates
globally or hemispherically.

That reduces the amount of sun
hitting the earth's surface...

...Which, in turn, affects how
the monsoon is operating.

Narrator: Now scientists ask if
volcanic eruptions could explain

the failure of the nile to flood
in ptolemaic egypt.

Researchers analyze
the ice cores

in their field labs.

They detect spikes in
the concentration

of sulfate particles,

which allows them to date
ancient volcanic eruptions

with astonishing precision.

For the volcanic record
in the ice cores

in greenland or the antarctic,

we can understand volcanic
eruptions in a sequence

plus or minus a single year.

♪

naunton: And what's really
interesting about this

for egyptian history
is that those eruptions

seems to have taken place
in the ptolemaic period.

Narrator: But could these
eruptions really have affected

the flooding of the nile?

Research teams at nasa

create computer simulations
to test the theory.

Manning: Scientists can measure
temperature changes,

reconstruct temperature patterns
in the world,

reconstruct rainfall patterns
in the world in some detail.

Narrator:
The computer modeling reveals

the massive sulfate particles
from volcanic eruptions

in the northern hemisphere

pushes the monsoon rains
further south, away from egypt,

starving the river nile
of water.

Johnston: As a direct result
of these eruptions,

there is suppressed rainfall
in africa,

and particularly around
the area of ethiopia,

which would directly affect
the nile.

Manning: Large eruptions
and multiple eruptions

closely spaced together can
perturb a river like the nile

for, sometimes, a decade,
possibly even longer.

Narrator: Researchers now
compare the dates

of these volcanic eruptions
with the dates of famine

and social unrest in egypt.

They uncover a compelling link.

Johnston: In the 40s b.C.,
we have evidence from

the ice cores of major eruptions
happening throughout the globe.

And in egypt, we have
the roman writer pliny

recording the nile has reached
its lowest ebb ever seen.

This results in major starvation
throughout egypt

and also in major civil unrest.

Surely, this must be
more than mere coincidence.

Carroll:
The two pieces of information,

the historical
and the scientific,

are really working together

to build a bigger,
clearer picture of this.

Narrator: The ptolemies
finally lost control of egypt

to the romans in 30 b.C.E.,

but science has now revealed

that it was not just the romans
they had to battle.

For centuries, their rule
was undermined

by dramatic climate events

brought on by volcanic activity
thousands of miles away.

Darnell: Climatic instability
coming at the same time

as political instability,

that's when it's going
to cause a major change.

Johnston: We have outsiders
sitting on the throne of egypt,

and what the egyptians see
is starvation.

They see the nile
failing to flood.

They have genuine concerns
about the people

who are running the country.

The climate change undoubtedly
destabilizes egypt.

♪

narrator:
Hidden deep in the vaults

of an australian university --

the long-forgotten head
of an unidentified mummy.

This mummified head
had been in storage.

Carroll: It'd basically been
left in the vaults

for near a hundred years.

Narrator: Now can this mummy's
head reveal vital clues

to the life and death
of an individual

from one of the last generations

to live under the rule
of the pharaohs?

And can the very latest
3-d printing technology

reveal their true face?

Can we say anything about
who this person was?

When did they live?
How did they die?

Narrator: 2016.

A long-forgotten mummified head
is discovered in a collection

at the university of melbourne.

Experts are unsure
of its origins.

They turn to radiocarbon dating
and analyze

a fragment of detached bandage
from the head.

This process can reveal

when this person
may have lived and died.

Radiocarbon dating,
it's one of the greatest tools

for archeologists
and scientists.

We can actually
give a date range.

Narrator: Scientists reveal
the mummified head dates

to between 300 b.C.E.
And 30 b.C.E. --

The final years of egypt's
last pharaohs,

the ptolemies.

Now researchers want to find out
what clues this individual

could reveal about
this remarkable era.

But they're worried that
after nearly a century

locked in a vault,
the head may have deteriorated.

Because the head was wrapped,

there may be decay happening
beneath the bandages.

Naunton:
There was a great concern

that its condition had worsened
and was continuing to worsen,

and something needed to be done.

Narrator: For the first time
in 90 years,

the head is
scientifically examined.

It's tightly bound in bandages
darkened with embalming oils,

evidence of the highest grade
of mummification

and a major clue
to who this person was.

Johnston: The very fact
that this individual had been

mummified suggests that
they are part of egypt's elite.

Mummification
was a time-consuming,

expensive process.

Narrator: The team hopes
the head will reveal

further clues
to this person's story.

But there's a problem --

the bandages are preventing team

from studying the skull
in detail,

and removing them
is out of the question.

To actually unwrap the mummy
would be, you know,

a slightly undignified
and disrespectful.

Naunton: After all,
this is the remains

of a deceased human being.

It was very deliberately
wrapped in this way,

and they wanted, as far
as possible, to maintain that.

Narrator:
Science offers a solution --

a c.T. Scan.

It allows researchers to see
right inside the head

without damaging the bandages.

They're astonished
by what is revealed.

Far from having deteriorated,

the skull is
in near-perfect condition.

It allows researchers to take
precise measurements

that determine the gender and
age of this ancient egyptian.

Naunton: Based on the bone
structure, the angle of the jaw,

the roundness
of the eye sockets,

this was definitely
the skull of a woman.

Carroll:
To determine the age,

the first thing that we would
look at is the teeth.

They were able to age
that this is a young female

of 18 to early 20s.

Narrator: The researchers
name this woman meritamen.

It means "beloved of amun,"

the king of the gods
in ancient egypt.

Meritamen would have witnessed
great changes

to the egyptian way of life

brought about by the ptolemies.

Naunton:
They influenced egyptian culture

in numerous ways.

The greek language
becomes established

as the principal
administrative language.

They introduce currency,
architecture,

and art takes on
a new greek influence.

And this is the world
in which meritamen lived.

Narrator: Meritamen may have
been of high status,

but researchers discover
evidence in the c.T. Scans

that while she may have enjoyed
the privileges of wealth,

she also endured agonizing pain.

The scans reveal missing teeth,
vast amounts of tooth decay,

and exposed dental roots.

Johnston:
For the ancient egyptians,

tooth decay frequently came
about from the amount of sand

that was to be found
in processed foods.

And this sand would gradually
erode the enamel of the teeth,

exposing the roots
and causing severe pain

at a time when there really was
no dental medicine to speak of.

Narrator:
This is a vivid insight

into the agony meritamen endured
right up until the day she died.

But the team wants to reveal
even more detail

about this woman,

and undertake
an ambitious challenge --

to reconstruct her face.

They use the precision data
from the c.T. Scans

to program a 3-d printer.

Johnston:
It is a time-consuming process,

and, certainly,
for this particular skull,

it took 140 hours.

Narrator: Slowly, a precise
replica of meritamen's skull

materializes inside the printer.

When it's complete,
the model reveals

further tiny
but crucial details,

clues hidden inside the cranium

that suggest
a serious blood disorder.

Carroll: The c.T. Scanning
and with the 3-d model

showed evidence for thinning
and pitting on the skull itself.

It's looking like
she was possibly anemic.

And with anemia, there's a lack
of red blood cells.

The body is essentially
struggling for oxygen.

And when that happens,
the bone marrow starts to swell.

And this has created
what appears on the skull

of the mummy's head.

Narrator:
The draining effects of anemia

would have taken a heavy toll
on meritamen,

robbing her of all energy.

This diagnosis shines
yet more light

on the final stages
of her short life.

It's almost certain that
during her final days,

this young woman would have
been confined to her bed.

She would have been unable
to move about.

She would have been exhausted.

And although we don't as yet
know precisely how she died,

there are two major
contributory factors there.

Narrator: Now researchers hope
to uncover even more

by revealing
exactly what she looked like.

A forensic artist attaches
3-dimensional plastic markers

at key points
on the face and head.

Naunton: And these represent
tissue depth,

which is based
on population averages.

And this could then be used
to recreate the soft tissue,

the musculature, in clay.

And, slowly, the team
could begin to build up

a picture of the face
of the individual.

Narrator: Using her specialist
knowledge of anatomy,

the forensic artist
then meticulously builds up

the layers of muscle and tissue.

Slowly, layer by layer,
the face of a woman

from the time of egypt's
last pharaohs begins to emerge.

Carroll:
By recreating the face,

we're essentially
bringing her back to life.

And we've given her now,
you know, a personality

which,
for the ancient egyptians,

you know,
this is life after death.

♪

narrator: Finally, the true face
of meritamen is revealed.

She was a high-status
young woman

who lived over 2,000 years ago,

witnessed the unique rule
of egypt's last pharaohs,

and may have succumbed

to the debilitating effects
of anemia

and severe,
untreated dental infection.

Through this process,

we have now recreated
a young woman,

and we have shown not just
an object in a museum

but someone who once lived
and breathed in ancient egypt.

♪

narrator: For decades,

archaeologists have looked for
a lost ancient capital

that seems to have vanished
from the face of the earth.

It was known as itjtawy.

Wendrich: This was the capital
in the middle kingdom.

It's the center of egypt
at that period.

So where did it go?

How do you pinpoint a lost city,
buried beneath the sand?

Narrator:
Now can egyptologists combine

the tried and tested method

of ground coring with
remote sensing technology

to finally track down
this missing metropolis?

Narrator: Itjtawy was once
a flourishing capital,

until it experienced
a fatal decline

and was lost forever.

In 2015, archaeologists
initiated a new search

for this ancient city.

They began by looking for
written clues.

We have textual references
to itjtawy,

the middle kingdom capital
of egypt

in the 12th dynasty.

Wendrich:
The kings of the middle kingdom

hail from an area
near to faiyum,

so we can expect an enormous
city, but it's not there.

Narrator:
Itjtawy was documented

as egypt's capital
for 350 years,

until around 1785 b.C.E.

But no physical evidence
of the city has ever been found.

The written records link
the city to king amenemhat,

a ruler from the middle kingdom.

His pyramid still stands at
el-lisht in the faiyum region.

The theory is that it was built
to overlook the capital

he once ruled.

Wendrich: We know approximately
where it is, but that area

is still 10x10 kilometers,
which is a big area to research.

Plus, it has been buried
probably under meters of mud.

And that's really not possible
with the traditional techniques.

Narrator: The location
of the ancient king's pyramid

is a starting point,

but investigators need a way
to narrow down the search area.

They turn to satellite imagery
for help.

It allows them a wider view
of the landscape of this part

of egypt from 450 miles
above the earth's surface.

Lacovara: We have to rely on
satellite imaging now.

New techniques are helping add
to our tool kit in order to try

and find these cities when
they're lost without a trace.

Satellite archaeology
enables us to find

all these disturbances
and differences in the surface.

If you see differences
that don't look natural

but that form straight angles
or lines or circles,

then you know something is up.

Narrator: Satellite imagery must
be analyzed for telltale clues.

Ancient texts record that
itjtawy was built

on the banks of the nile.

But the river has shifted
its course over the years.

Now archaeologists ask if this
could explain

the ancient city's
ultimate demise.

Naunton: If the nile has moved

and itjtawy was built
on its banks,

is it possible that the river
might have moved

and swallowed it up over time?

Narrator: The movement
of the nile

has left subtle traces
in the desert landscape.

When scientists study
a satellite image of an area

where the river once flowed,

they discover
an exciting clue --

a raised expanse of ground

located close to amenemhet's
pyramid shows signs

that it was once
densely inhabited.

The data from the satellite
imagery allows us to see

that there is an area
which is somewhat raised.

It seems to indicate human
interaction with the landscape

on a large scale,

which allows us
to ask the question,

"could this be the site
of itjtawy?"

narrator: Satellite technology
can only take the search so far.

The fundamental techniques
of archaeology

must now be used to try
and solve this mystery.

You have to do what
we call ground truth.

One way of doing that is by
coring, by drilling a deep hole,

and pulling out a cross section
of centuries of history

and just analyzing carefully
from every layer in that core.

Naunton: Rather than covering
a single large area

very comprehensively,

you send a kind of probe
into the ground

just to look for
cultural material.

Narrator: The coring team probe
5 meters beneath the surface.

The layers of the cores reveal
different periods

throughout history.

Archaeologists are searching for
any signs of human habitation.

They find key evidence
dating to the period

of egypt's middle kingdom,

when itjtawy would have been
a prosperous city.

♪

the cores yielded fragments
of middle kingdom pottery.

Johnston:
There are potsherds

and various other pieces
beneath the ground,

which seem to indicate
this has been an inhabited area.

Narrator:
The pottery sherds date to

when itjtawy was
a flourishing capital.

But as the large-scale
coring project continued,

many of the samples
amazed archaeologists,

as the evidence
of a jeweler's workshop

is discovered within them.

Wendrich: You don't get
a workshop with gemstones

in your average village.

So this indicates
that we are hitting

a very important settlement.

Lacovara:
Agate and carnelian

that had been smashed
to make jewelry,

and often these kind
of jeweler's workshops

are associated
with the royal palace.

Narrator:
This is a crucial clue.

Evidence of a luxury industry,
like a jeweler's,

suggests this was once the site

of a vibrant,
wealthy ancient city.

This may then be a thriving city
and possibly itjtawy.

♪

narrator:
After decades of study,

full-scale spade and
soil excavations can now begin,

and this ancient, fallen capital
may finally be uncovered.

♪

precious ancient sites
and artifacts are under attack

as new discoveries
are found submerged in water.

This is a major threat
to the archaeology of egypt.

Narrator: Now cutting-edge
satellite technology

is being used to try to explain
why archaeological sites

that were once dry as dust
are now soaking wet.

How might we explain
this bizarre phenomenon?

Narrator: 2017 --
a suburb east of cairo,

and an incredibly rare
find is made --

a 206-year-old monument
of pharaoh psamtik the first.

Johnston: Excavators discovered,
quite by chance,

a colossal, 26-foot-high,
quartzite statue.

Narrator:
But archaeologists are dismayed

by the conditions
the statue is found in.

The soil is waterlogged.

Even though the statue was found
not too far beneath the surface,

it was as though
the statue had to be pulled

out of a pool of water.

Narrator: This is
not an isolated incident.

At the 2,000-year-old

kom el shoqafa
catacombs of alexandria,

rising groundwater has damaged
the breathtaking stonework.

It took emergency engineering
works in 2019 to save it.

Meanwhile, at the colossal
temple of luxor,

the stones are being eroded
by water damage.

We're beginning to see signs
of surface damage

on the stonework and on
the carvings and on the reliefs,

appearing as
a crystallized white powder

on the stonework itself.

And in its most extreme
examples,

whole areas of carving

just simply crumble to dust.

Clearly, this is putting
some of the country's

major archaeological sites
at severe risk.

Scientists are trying
to find out

where this water's coming from
and how they can hold it back.

Narrator: Many researchers
believe the root of this problem

can be traced back to the 1960s

and the construction
of an engineering giant --

the aswan high dam.

Naunton: This was undertaken

to provide egypt
with hydroelectric power,

but also to allow the land
in the nile valley

to be farmed
throughout the year.

Narrator: The dam provided
water for the crops

by flooding extensive areas.

Several of egypt's
ancient monuments

had to be relocated along
with over 90,000 citizens.

But 50 years after
its completion,

the problem of rising water
is getting worse.

Modern scientists are studying
the landscape

for clues to explain why.

Carroll: Scientists are using
remote-sensing g.I.S. Techniques

to look at how the land
has changed

over the last few decades.

Narrator: Analysts collect data
from a camera

known as the advanced spaceborne

thermal emission
and reflection unit.

This is mounted on the terra
satellite, which orbits earth.

♪

satellite images taken over
the course of the last 30 years

allow scientists to show
that urban areas have expanded

and developed very rapidly with
the loss of agricultural land.

Narrator:
The images show changes

to how the remaining farmland
is being cultivated.

Areas of desert are now
being reclaimed for farming,

which means that water is now
being introduced

into parts of the country

which were previously
completely bone-dry.

Narrator: Scientists believe
that the flooding

caused by the aswan dam
to help farmers

has also led to a rise
in the level of groundwater.

Now as modern farming
and irrigation intensifies,

the water level is continuing
to rise even further.

Naunton: All this agriculture
requires an awful lot of water

to sit on the land
more or less permanently,

right the way
throughout the year.

And this has had
a knock-on effect.

Carroll: They're basically
pumping out more water

from the nile,
and this is causing

more of a runoff of water,

which in turn is then going to
affect the archaeological sites.

Egypt is turning slowly
into a swampland.

Dodson: Walls which were
many meters away

from any source of water

now have water directly
underneath them.

Narrator: For archaeologists,
this is disastrous.

Some of the nation's
most important sites

are facing imminent danger.

But even more alarming,
the rising waters

may be destroying a multitude

of undiscovered artifacts
right now.

Dodson: The reasons why

we have so much material
from ancient egypt

is the dry conditions
have meant

that organic materials
have survived.

The rise in the water is
worrying simply 'cause it means

that far less
is going to be preserved.

Naunton: The more vulnerable
ancient monuments are

to things like
rising groundwater,

the more those things
stand to be lost

before archaeologists
get to them.

Narrator: Now egyptologists
and scientists

are working more closely
than ever to search for

and save egypt's hidden history
before it's too late.

Carroll: It's actually crucial
that we act now

to protect these monuments.

Johnston: We need
to resolve this problem

quickly and affordably.

Otherwise, we risk losing
egypt's heritage forever.

♪

narrator: These portraits
were found alongside

carefully preserved mummies.

They're unlike any depictions
of ancient egyptians.

They show the faces
from after the fall,

a new ruling class revealed
in unprecedented detail.

Carroll: You're instantly
struck by their expression.

They're so lifelike.

Narrator: Now scientists ask if
the extraordinary details

of these paintings
could contain clues

to the rare health conditions
suffered by egypt's new elite.

Can the pharaoh mummy portraits

tell us even
how those individuals lived

and possibly died?

♪

narrator: 2016.

A team at chicago's
northwestern university

analyze a selection of
striking images.

They were discovered
south of cairo in faiyum.

Many of these portraits
were found covering

the face of a mummified body.

Where earlier egyptian artwork
was highly stylized,

these images
are extraordinarily lifelike.

Altaweel:
It doesn't look like something

they would put on a mummy.

They literally
look like just portraits,

like as if you'd put a picture
on a wall of someone.

They really wanted you to see

a more lifelike representation
of the person.

Narrator: The portraits depict
wealthy egyptians

who lived during
the first three centuries a.D.

This was a time during which
the roman empire

consolidated its rule over egypt

and mediterranean customs
influenced daily life.

This time, egypt's quite
a multicultural place.

You see greek and roman files.

The depictions of the faces,
for instance,

very roman-looking realism,

greek style of decorations in
terms of the hair, the jewelry.

But then a very egyptian idea
of putting a body

in a sarcophagus
and mummifying it.

The portraits represent
the cosmopolitan nature

of egyptian society at the time.

Narrator: But scientists believe
these portraits can tell us

about much more than
the changing culture of egypt

under the romans.

The faiyum portraits,
incredibly,

might offer scientists
an opportunity

to say something about
the health of the individuals

and the diseases that they might
have been suffering from.

Narrator: Researchers
at northwestern university

begin by analyzing each image

under different wavelengths
of light.

Johnston: With modern
scientific techniques,

we're able to analyze
the faiyum mummy portraits

in the way that
we might be able to analyze

a renaissance painting.

Altaweel:
Using photogrammetry techniques,

we can begin to understand
the sort of processes used

to make the object,
technologies,

but also the kind of materials

that would go into
creating these objects.

Narrator:
This process reveals

the special pigments
and complex techniques

used in each portrait.

For researchers,

it's clear the artists went
to great lengths

to create
the highly realistic images,

like this portrait
of a young man.

Medical experts ask
if the drooped features

depicted in the portrait
could be evidence

of a neurological disorder.

To find out, scientists turn to
his preserved skull

and subject it to c.T. Scanning.

♪

naunton:
What appears in the portrait

to have been an anomaly
in the soft tissue on the face

is backed up by the measurements
from the skull.

The individual was suffering
from some kind of atrophy

of the soft tissue
and the bone underneath.

The scientists concluded,
therefore, that in this case,

he was indeed suffering
from parry-romberg syndrome.

Carroll:
The study actually revealed

significant
neurological conditions,

signs of a very rare condition,
which is parry-romberg.

And what this does
is it actually causes shrinkage

to the face.

Narrator: The details
of the faiyum portraits

may reveal even more.

Scientists know that evidence
of neurological disorders

can be found
not just in the skull,

but also in our eyes.

Altaweel:
Medical science beginning

to just use people's faces
to recognize disease.

For instance, strokes or other
kinds of ailments that may occur

can be recognized using
a facial recognition software.

Naunton: The eyes are often
the first part of the body

to be affected
by neurological diseases.

Narrator: Researchers now ask

whether the highly detailed
depictions of eyes

in the faiyum portraits

could hold further clues
to other disorders

suffered by these egyptians.

We can begin to apply
the same technologies

to look at
these ancient portraits.

Narrator:
In modern medicine,

doctors measure
how light is reflected

from a patient's corneas.

If these corneal reflections
are not symmetrical,

it can be a sign
of a neurological disorder.

In the faiyum portraits,
the corneal reflections

are represented
as flecks of white paint.

♪

carroll:
Now modern scientists

are actually looking at this
for evidence,

possible health disorders from
a neurological point of view.

Narrator: Just like doctors
diagnosing a modern patient,

researchers measure the position
of the corneal reflections.

When they compare
the results to data taken

from the actual skulls,
they're astonished.

Naunton: Scientists are able to
say that the way the eyes look

does suggest that they were
accurately capturing

what are the signs
of neurological diseases.

Altaweel: Science is telling us
that these faiyum portraits

are more than
just pretty pictures.

Naunton:
In many cases, it seems

the artist did accurately
capture the conditions

that some of these people
were suffering from.

Narrator: The portraits
of the faiyum mummies

are not idealized,
airbrushed images,

but are as close as we have
to photographs

of egypt's
new cosmopolitan elite.

♪

only 28 egyptian obelisks
remain standing,

each of them a towering giant.

Obelisks are
the ancient world's skyscrapers.

Godenho:
From miles and miles away,

people could see these things
standing tall.

They're ancient feats
of engineering.

Narrator: Now modern researchers
are asking

just how the egyptians,
equipped with only basic tools,

carved these behemoths.

Fletcher:
Now it's almost miraculous

how the ancient egyptians

create these amazing structures
from solid granite.

How did they do it,
and what tools were they using?

Narrator: Obelisks could be
over 100 feet tall,

each carved from
a single piece of granite,

cut whole from the rock face.

For the pharaoh who ordered
this gargantuan task,

the obelisk was a statement
of divine authority.

Godenho: When you look at
the form of obelisks,

they end with
this pyramid on top.

That's a symbol of the sun god.

So we're talking about
the relationship

between the king
and the sun god.

Altaweel:
Obelisks really symbolized

the entryways of the gods,

the connection between our world
with higher powers.

Narrator: Ancient egyptians had
to cut through solid granite,

one of nature's hardest rocks,

yet only had tools
made of soft metals

like copper and bronze.

How did they do it?

A vital clue can be found
at a quarry in aswan --

an enormous unfinished obelisk,

abandoned by workers
3,500 years ago.

Godenho: Looks like this thing
was almost ready

to be released from the quarry
it was carved in,

but then a crack
was exposed in the obelisk,

and so it had to be abandoned.

Bianchi: If it did not
develop a crack,

it would have been the largest
standing obelisk that we know.

Narrator: The unfinished obelisk
shows signs

of what seem like strike marks.

We know ancient egyptians
carved soft rock,

like limestone,
using copper chisels.

But to cut granite, it would
take a harder metal like iron,

which had not yet been
discovered.

Harrison: The evidence
on the aswan obelisk implies

that it was being hammered

and beaten out of the ground
using copper chisels,

but this seems slightly unusual

because copper
is quite a soft metal

compared to
the very hard granite.

Narrator: Other scholars believe
it's more likely

that the ancient workforce

used rocks made of dolerite
to free the obelisk.

Bianchi: Using pounders

about the size
of a modern bowling ball

upon the granite

until the granite was worn away.

It's almost inconceivable
that such a simple technology

could do this,
but possibly with enough people,

you could move something
this large this way.

Narrator: But now
researchers are reevaluating

an important clue

discovered in the 19th century

by the father of egyptology,
flinders petrie.

Godenho:
Petrie working at giza,

where the pyramids are,
near cairo,

he found
granite-drilled cores --

lumps of granite that look like
they'd been removed

from the earth
by drilling action.

Narrator: This could be
a crucial piece of evidence

in solving this mystery.

Petrie's theory was that while
the drills were made of copper,

craftsmen needed the help
of some other substance

to cut through granite.

Petrie believed that in order
for these drills

to be effective,
they needed a hard cutting edge.

So something else,
not just the metal.

And so he thought something
like diamond

would be suitable
for that cutting action.

Altaweel:
We use diamonds to drill.

Presumably, they would have
used something

sort of comparable
in hardness as diamond.

Narrator:
21st century researchers

may have found the answer
to this mystery

in new york's
metropolitan museum of art.

Naunton: There is an object

which perhaps
doesn't look like much

but actually is telling us
an awful lot

about how the egyptians were
able to work stones like this.

Narrator: This piece
of ancient sculpted stone

was discovered in amarna
in the late 19th century.

Contemporary researchers
are intrigued by a hole

on the back of the artifact.

A tubular cutting edge,

a tubular drill
had been used on this.

And at the bottom of that
drill hole,

you can see a circular area.

Naunton: There are traces of
some kind of abrasive powder

that they used
to remove this section.

Narrator: This fine powder
could finally explain

how egyptians cut through
hard granite with soft copper.

The fragment is taken
immediately to the lab

to be examined.

Naunton: This powder's been
studied by electron microscopy,

and it's been shown to be made
of a mixture

of various substances,
but two of those stand out.

There are green fragments
which seem to be

from bronze and copper,
perhaps the remains of a drill.

And there are red angular
crystals in there as well.

Narrator: Scientists analyze
the red crystals

and identify them as corundum.

It is one of nature's
hardest materials,

second only to diamond

and many times harder
than granite.

Godenho: Corundum's actually
a super-hard crystal,

and that's what we seem
to have fragments of here.

But it's still used today
because it can scratch

just about any other gem.

Narrator:
Today, corundum is used

to coat the cutting surfaces
of industrial drills

designed to cut through rock.

Now science has revealed
that 3,000 years ago,

ancient egyptians
did exactly the same thing

to carve their vast obelisks.

Altaweel: The obelisk is
beginning to reveal

new information to us.

Now we're learning much more.

We're learning about the way
they were made.

That's beginning now to be
peeled away by new techniques

and technologies
available to us.

Narrator:
It's evidence of the ingenuity

of the ancient egyptians

and of their ability
to make the most

of their natural resources

to overcome
seemingly insurmountable tasks.

Bianchi: The more we study
ancient egypt,

the more we are aware

of just how attuned they were

of how nature works.

♪