Original subtitles

On a dusty desert plain

75 miles from Cairo...

Okay, so... let's see.

...archaeologists dig for buried treasure.

Ah.

They are looking for high-status items.

I think I've got us something.

From the time of Queen Cleopatra.

This is something very rare, extremely rare.

This is unbelievable.

Cleopatra, one of the most beguiling figures

of Ancient Egypt.

The great queen managed to successfully steer her kingdom

through some of its most troubled times.

Yet, little actual evidence of her reign remains.

Today, archaeologists and scientists

are searching for new clues from Cleopatra's era.

Their finds are painting a picture

of how wealthy people used a surprising array of objects,

including perfume to project their power...

giving new insight

into how Queen Cleopatra built up her legendary status.

At the ancient settlement of Philadelphia...

Basem Gehad is searching for new insights

into life and death during Cleopatra's era.

In past years, Basem has unearthed dozens of burials

from Philadelphia's vast cemetery.

So, we could see here spots of areas and tombs

that were excavated the previous season.

Now, guided by aerial photographs,

he's on the hunt for potential new tomb sites.

But we need to see what we could have

in this flattened area.

The city of Philadelphia was founded by Cleopatra's ancestors

around 2,000 years ago.

A period when European art and religious influences

were beginning to infiltrate Egyptian culture.

Basem hopes his excavation will open a precious window

into the lives of wealthy Egyptians during this unique time period.

Looking at this area we could see traces of walls,

presumably these walls are tombs.

Long walls that could be up to 9, 10 meters,

which is a huge thing.

We get more and more enthusiastic to see more in this area.

Cleopatra wasn't Egyptian by blood.

She came from a long line of rulers,

originally from Greek Macedonia.

Under their reign, a new type of tomb became popular,

the mausoleum,

a rectangular walled structure

above an underground burial chamber.

Usually, the greater the area of ruined wall above,

the higher the status of the person beneath.

Therefore, the more likely their burial

will be accompanied by valuable grave goods,

signs of wealth and power.

The team splits in two, searching for clues.

So, the guys here now are investigating one tomb.

So, we can see the walls here

and it's a huge rectangular space.

The team hunts for a break in the tomb wall,

marking the stairway to the underground space.

The mission now

is to try to identify at the entrance of this tomb.

It's a hard job and it needs a lot of focus

of every single evidence you collect at the site.

It will take time to see more,

because we need to remove hundreds of meter cubes of sands

from this area.

As one half of the team continues their search,

the other half call Basem over.

It looks like there is something interesting there.

They have found a second tomb.

Hmm.

Looks like he's finding some plaster.

This is a very, very good start for this day...

an entrance of one of these tombs.

What is really remarkable for this tomb,

is that unlike many of the tombs that we have found,

the stairs that start to be exposed now is plastered,

meaning that this tomb was for a rich family.

The state of preservation of this plaster is quite outstanding.

Finely decorated plaster like this

would only be found on the tombs of high-status individuals.

Its near-perfect preservation

suggests the rest of this tomb may be intact.

I just can't wait to see where these stairs leads to.

South of Luxor at the Temple of Horus in Edfu,

Egyptologist and vintage clothes enthusiast

Colleen Darnell

is exploring how one particular luxury,

perfume,

was used in Cleopatra's Egypt.

This is one of the most

perfectly preserved temples in Egypt.

This is a great place to learn more about the reign of Cleopatra,

because this temple was constructed

by generations of her dynasty.

Completed just before Cleopatra came to power,

the temple's walls are swathed in carvings.

These images contain vital clues,

the objects that royals like Cleopatra

used to flaunt their status and power,

including perfume.

All throughout the temple are representations

of the kings and queens of Cleopatra's dynasty,

making various offerings to the gods.

Chief among the offerings is incense.

Incense is solid perfume,

releasing its intense fragrance when burnt.

Daily rituals demanded vast amounts

of this expensive substance,

all sent up in smoke to appease the gods.

This temple would have been filled

with the divine aroma of incense

that priests burned nearly continuously.

This sweet smell pleased the gods,

but it also meant that the god himself became present.

The temple hosted an array of fragrant festivals,

including one that would have been of particular interest

to Queen Cleopatra.

Here, the king is before the god Horus

and a very significant deity,

the goddess Hathor,

in a divine template for queenship.

Horus was the Egyptian sky god

who decapitated his mother for siding with a rival.

She was given a cow's head and transformed into Hathor,

the Goddess of Love, Beauty, Fertility and Perfume.

Seemingly unperturbed by Horus's violence,

Hathor became his wife and bore a son

who wore the royal crown of Egypt,

creating a spiritual link between the pharaohs,

including Cleopatra,

and the gods.

Every year, a spectacular commemoration

of Hathor's wedding would flood this room with incense,

evoking the goddess.

During the course of multiple days,

the priests celebrated the sacred marriage

of Hathor and Horus

in a festival known as the Beautiful Reunion.

We don't know if Cleopatra ever came to Edfu

to participate in the festival,

but she certainly identified herself with the goddess Hathor.

And as Queen of Egypt,

Cleopatra would have been well acquainted

with the use of fragrances and incense in temple ritual.

Incense gave Ancient Egyptians

a way to connect directly with their gods.

Now, Colleen wants to find out more about these heavenly scents.

In Ancient Thmouis...

Jay Silverstein in searching for signs of perfume making

during Cleopatra's era.

I'm really excited to come back

and expand this excavation.

Archeology is Jay's second career.

Solving the ancient world's mysteries

is quite a sidestep from his first,

in the police force.

As a police officer, I hated when an investigation ended

and in archaeology the investigation never ends.

You're trying to solve a mystery that can never be solved

so you're always on the hunt, you're always on the chase

to find a little bit more information, find more facts.

Jay and his team have spent 15 years

excavating the ruins of Thmouis,

once a bustling city of 20,000 people.

When Cleopatra ruled Egypt,

this city was a-- a thriving metropolis.

In 2012, Jay's Egyptian colleagues

made a startling discovery in this corner of the site.

Sometimes in archaeology you're confronted with

something that's brand new,

something you haven't seen before.

And that was the case of what happened here.

Archaeologists unearthed what seems to be a manufacturing workshop,

centered around a mysterious apparatus.

It's made up of two large vats

possibly for heating or baking things.

A pipe runs from the vats to two rows of broken amphorae.

It's not clear how this worked,

but it seems to be an ancient site for making or mixing chemical ingredients.

Scattered all over the site,

the team found shards of very fine clay.

They were once containers for tiny volumes of liquid.

What did they hold?

Jay hunts for clues amongst the four tons of pottery

excavated from the site.

What's particularly interesting is,

is that we have a lot of bottles of a particular size

that were being manufactured here.

So, here's a really fine little ceramic one.

The bottles have one thing in common...

they hold the same volume of liquid.

It seems to be a standardized measurement

for whatever is being held in these bottles.

Perhaps, these are the bottles being manufactured

for the sale and export of perfume.

The question is what can we do now to test our hypothesis,

that we have in fact discovered a perfume workshop?

Alongside the small bottles,

Jay has unearthed many larger amphorae at the site.

Some of these ancient storage pots

could still have chemical clues attached.

If this workshop is for perfume,

that means that those amphorae were used for processing the perfumes,

and that means that there's a fair chance

that residues would be in the bottom of those amphorae.

If Jay can confirm his hypothesis

once and for all,

he'll be one step closer to experiencing a fragrance

from 2,000 years ago.

Is there some way those can help us reconstruct

the formula for the ancient perfumes,

to reconstruct the smellscape of Cleopatra?

At the temple in Edfu...

Colleen is investigating how perfumes were used

in Cleopatra's Egypt.

Now, she wants to find out what made up these heavenly scents.

One room's entrance offers clues.

Above this doorway are representations

of a tremendous amount of incense and sacred fragrances.

I think that gives us a clue as to the function of this room.

This is not a typical hieroglyphic inscription

that you find in a temple.

It has an abundance of numbers and even fractions.

It seems to be an ancient recipe.

Seven different aromatic herbs, finely ground and sieved.

As well as a base of raisins from the oasis,

wine, as well as honey.

Now, after these materials were mixed together,

they had to be reduced in volume.

Or as the Ancient Egyptians say,

"consumed by fire."

And the result of this entire process

was excellent kouphi for use in temple ritual.

Kouphi, or kyphi,

is one of the most renowned incenses in the ancient world.

It predates Cleopatra by more than 2,000 years,

going back to the time of the ancient pharaohs.

Old Kingdom priests burned kyphi in their temples,

to purify these sacred spaces

and entice the gods to visit.

Expeditions to faraway lands would secure exotic ingredients,

like frankincense resin, and even sapling myrrh trees.

In Cleopatra's day,

kyphi was produced on a large scale,

a laborious process of grinding and cooking

16 separate ingredients

that took many months to complete.

Kyphi was often burned in the evening,

its sacred smoke spreading through the temples

and palaces of pharaohs.

In their day-to-day lives,

the Ancient Egyptians would have experienced

a lot of unpleasant odors,

but a smell of incense was divine.

And kyphi didn't just purify a place

for gods to visit,

it had a medicinal role, too.

For those who could afford it, kyphi's soothing properties

were believed to cure everything from bad dreams

to liver and lung ailments.

Next, Colleen wants to investigate

how Cleopatra took incense one step further,

applying the power of perfume to the world of politics.

In Ancient Philadelphia...

Basem's team is unearthing a tomb from Cleopatra's era.

As they dig deeper, they find more signs

it was created for high-status people.

Very nice plaster stairs.

This is the finest example that we have ever seen,

an expensive way of taking care of your afterlife.

Hopefully, we could reach the entrance by the end of the day.

As the team scrapes the sand away,

one archaeologist spots something.

Hmm.

Painted scraps of wood.

So, this is a-- a very good indication,

this is the fragments of the rare mummy portraits.

I would say that this is part of the dress,

the tunic of the owner.

I know that this is small fragments that might looks not important,

but this is really a precious material.

In a previous season,

Basem found more painted pieces which he was able to reconstruct.

It's a portrait of a well-dressed young woman.

It has a lifelike European style,

a striking departure from older, stylized Egyptian art.

In one hand she holds a bottle,

most likely containing precious perfume.

The painting would once have adorned the individual's mummy,

an expensive image

to ease their passage into the afterlife.

For the afterlife,

keeping the characteristic of the face

is something really important,

so that the soul could identify the owner of each mummy.

And lifelike mummy portraits

don't just reveal these people's hopes for the afterlife,

they reflect how Egyptian culture in Cleopatra's time

was absorbing European ideas.

A rare example, a unique piece,

and it's a good indication of what we can see in this tomb.

Only the rich could afford a portrait.

They're found on very few mummies in this region.

As the team digs deeper,

more signs emerge this tomb belonged to wealthy individuals.

So, see the decoration now of the entrance,

and it's a-- kind of an arch.

This is the first tomb that we have seen

to have this entrance with an arch.

It needs a very well-skilled people who could build this.

With a tomb this grand,

who knows what might lie underground.

It's going much deeper and deeper inside.

In Cairo...

...Jay is looking for final proof

his 2,000-year-old site at Thmouis

is a fragrance factory.

And if it is, what the perfume may have smelt like.

Today's the day where we're gonna have

the answers to a question that we've been studying for 10 years.

What are the ingredients underlying this-- this residue?

Is it a perfume?

And if it's a perfume, what type of perfume is it?

It is a flower-based perfume, or is it kyphi,

this very powerful and ritualistic incense?

He's come to the Research and Conservation Center of Antiquities.

I'm very excited to be here.

Yes. That way.

Jay has brought the broken bottoms of amphora,

ancient jars once used to hold liquids.

Well, this is kind of exciting.

So, let's see if we can find one that has some residue in it.

Yeah.

If the amphora once made perfume,

then these fragments could be coated with vital chemical clues.

- This one looks very good. - Yeah.

Mohammad Hassan

is an expert in extracting and analyzing ancient chemicals.

We have, uh, organic residue here, or maybe...

It looks like it, yeah.

-Maybe perfume? -Yeah.

Do you think we have enough residue to make the-- it work?

Yeah, I think we have enough residue

to make analysis.

To discover exactly what the amphora once held,

Mohammad and his colleague Soha

grind the residue into a powder.

Then, they add a solvent.

This will release organic molecules,

chemicals from plants or other living material,

including ingredients from potential perfumes.

Astonishingly, these can still be present

even after 2,000 years hidden in the ground.

With the solvent, to make extraction.

Funny to think that that little sample of soil

contains 2,000 years of history.

- Yeah, that's right.

The team places the flask

into an ultrasonic water bath to shake the liquid gently.

If the sample contains ancient perfume,

plant-based chemicals will start to appear in the solution.

After 10 years of work,

Jay must wait one last hour for the results.

In Ancient Philadelphia...

Basem's team has unearthed an underground tomb

from Cleopatra's era.

Bring me the flashlight quickly please.

The signs so far,

have led Basem to believe it's the final resting place

of a high-status Egyptian family.

Okay, so... let's see.

Now, we have reached the internal part of the tomb.

The tomb is a catacomb with 10 burial places,

very large ones.

However, the internal part of the tomb is filled by sand.

We need to investigate more and to go inside this.

The team starts to dig.

After three days, they've removed several tons of sand.

Basem returns with high hopes.

Now, we have an accessibility

to the internal part of the tomb.

Let's go and see.

The first signs are not encouraging.

When I saw the upper part of this tomb,

it looks fancy,

and it give me the impression

that we would see something really unusual.

But, it looks intensively looted,

not only one time but many times.

Mudbrick barriers that once would have sealed

the mummies into burial niches

have been torn down.

Most of the niches are occupied with sand and debris.

Omar.

What are you doing?

Ah.

Mummy portraits.

Yeah.

This was originally part from the mummy portraits

that were placed on the face of the mummy.

Just a tantalizing trace of what once would have been here.

It's a disappointing result.

But, on the other side of the site,

there is better news

from the first tomb Basem looked at.

The team has found the entrance

and cleared away enough sand to peek inside.

We just wanted to go down to see what's going on.

Fortunately, I can see internally,

from the first impression,

that we still have mummies in situ in place.

Near Aswan...

Colleen is continuing her investigation

into how fragrances were used in Cleopatra's Egypt.

Now, she wants to explore

how the great queen used perfume

to enhance her political power.

Cleopatra made a crucial voyage by boat in 41 BCE,

when she was summoned by Roman General Mark Antony.

The Roman historian Plutarch

describes the moment that Cleopatra arrives

to meet Mark Antony in a boat.

"She came sailing up the River Cydnus

"in a barge with gilded stern and outspread sails of purple.

"She herself, lay all along under a canopy of cloth of gold,

"dressed as a Venus in a picture.

"Her maids were dressed like sea nymphs and graces,

the perfumes diffused themselves from the vessel to the shore."

Cleopatra needed Mark Antony on her side,

or she risked losing her empire to the superpower of Rome.

Under Emperor Julius Caesar,

Rome was Egypt's greatest threat.

To help save her kingdom,

Cleopatra seduced Caesar and bore his son.

When Caesar was assassinated,

Cleopatra needed a new Roman leader for an ally.

The queen had to win Mark Antony's favor.

Perfumed incense is a key component

of her overtly theatrical appearance.

It's a deliberate power move.

The Romans thought Cleopatra's display

was inappropriately ostentatious.

That's something a Roman would never do.

But for Cleopatra, as an Egyptian queen,

she had a very different frame of reference.

This temple at Philae,

built by Cleopatra's ancestor,

holds a clue to why scent was part of her ploy

to save her empire.

It is dedicated to Isis,

the most important goddess in Ancient Egypt.

Here in the sanctuary, we see one of Cleopatra's ancestors

praising the goddess Isis.

She's the great one, mother of the god,

who fills the palace with her beauty,

lady of charm,

her hair drips with myrrh.

As we learn from other temple inscriptions

and classical sources,

Cleopatra directly identified herself with Isis.

Cleopatra's use of scent at her crucial meeting

deliberately evoked her god-like status.

Her performance for Mark Antony

from her clothing and attendants,

to the fragrance,

shows him that she is divine, she is the goddess Isis.

It worked.

Antony forged an alliance with Cleopatra.

She bore him three children,

and their relationship protected the Egyptian Empire

from Roman invasion.

Cleopatra played on the power that perfumes could wield

beyond ritual and medicine.

Scents could be seductive, too.

Next, Colleen wants to explore how Cleopatra exploited

a thriving market for Egypt's exotic fragrances

to sustain her rule.

In Cairo...

-Finished? -Yeah.

Excellent.

...Jay Silverstein is about to find out

if he's uncovered ancient perfume,

dating from Cleopatra's era.

You see the solvent become colored?

-Yeah. -Because the solvent take

all the organic residue from the sample.

A colored liquid is a positive sign.

It means chemicals from plants or other living material

are in the sample,

possible ingredients from a perfume.

We take amount of the solvent we're seeing.

The chemical residues are-- are captured now

-in this solution? -Yeah.

Mohammad and his colleague Soha

carefully pass the liquid through a filter.

Their goal is to remove any leftover soil

or clay particles from the original amphora.

These would contaminate the analysis,

destroying all their hard work.

-Do you see... -Yeah.

...it's a clear solution, without soil?

Finally, Jay's sample is ready for the last step,

using gas chromatography

to detect which chemical molecules are in the liquid.

The hope is this fingerprint will point to a perfume.

It's an anxious moment for Jay and the team.

In Ancient Philadelphia,

Basem's team has now reached the burial chamber

of the first tomb they discovered.

What I can see is that just after this soil heap,

there are lots of mudbricks and fragments of mummies.

Some of the mummies have been pulled

from their burial niches,

a sign this tomb was also found by looters.

But it seems these robbers were not as thorough.

The wrapping of the mummies are exceptional.

So excited, it's a good moment, it's a good day today.

I mean, finally we have archaeological materials

that is quite well-preserved in the tomb.

Basem's team will need to work fast.

An approaching sandstorm threatens to undo all their hard work.

This is not the favorite condition you could work

when-- at the desert, I mean.

The wind will blow the sand in your eye.

It's very difficult.

Finally, the team manages to clear the entrance.

This is the first time to see a mummy in the site,

from the-- these kind of tombs, in its original location.

The still-wrapped mummies

give the team hope they may find valuable funerary objects.

The items high-status people were buried with.

This is part of amphora for wine.

So, enjoying the afterlife,

you must have something to drink.

Imagine who could offer a large quantity of wine,

expensive wine,

who else except someone from the elite?

Strings of beads emerge,

made from hundreds of date seeds.

Now we have more,

even more of these coming.

How nice is this?

These perhaps formed a necklace,

or a decorative shroud,

draped over the mummy.

And the amazing finds keep coming.

A piece of glass with organic materials inside.

This was used for perfumes, for oil, for scents...

it's very rare to find glass inside a tomb

because it's really fragile.

Egypt was one of the first places on earth

to master the art of glassmaking.

This expensive bottle and its perfume contents

are more signs these were high-status individuals.

This is just the beginning.

I would imagine how much material is left in this tomb.

Near Aswan...

...Colleen is exploring the upper reaches of the Nile,

the highway that connects Egypt's major cities

to the wider world.

This spot was the southern border of Cleopatra's empire,

the gateway to trade routes from Egypt to the Red Sea,

across to Arabia and as far east as India.

Cleopatra was a savvy ruler.

She realized alliances with other nations were essential

to build and maintain her kingdom's wealth and power.

So, she made trade deals with neighboring rulers,

enhancing the flow of luxuries, including perfume,

in and out of Egypt.

In Cleopatra's kingdom,

the exotic ingredients for fragrances

were in huge demand.

Perfume making took place on an industrial scale.

The raw materials were imported from India,

Arabia and East Africa,

then fine fragrances were sold across the Ancient World.

Thanks to huge demand for high-end perfumes,

Egypt became an olfactory superpower.

Cleopatra used incense and perfumes

to enhance her image and project her power.

Her astute decision-making brought a time of peace

and prosperity to Egypt.

As a woman, as a queen, as a goddess,

perfumes were essential to Cleopatra's identity.

In Cairo...

the first chemicals

making up the 2,000-year-old mystery residue

start to emerge.

It's a tense moment for Jay.

This is myristic acid, yeah, good.

Which is the type of acid found in many plants.

Chemicals found in plants,

a strong sign they're on the right track.

Cinnamon, yeah, cinnamon.

Oh, yes, limonene,

acid that's related to fragrant fruit.

The marker of pine tree resin.

Pine tree?

- Yes. -Good.

So, those are some

-really key ingredients, then. - Yes...

The sample contains chemicals found in pine resin,

and cinnamon,

both strong-smelling ingredients.

It's definitely some form of fragrance.

The question is,

which one?

In Cairo,

Jay is trying to work out which perfume was made

at the 2,000-year-old industrial site.

This is bitumen?

Bitumen, yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

The bitumen makes me think

-more of kyphi. - Yeah.

Bitumen is a crucial ingredient in kyphi,

the most sacred perfume.

This is exciting, this is what we were hoping to see.

-Is that we're-- - Yeah.

We're seeing results that are confirming our idea

that we have not just a perfume,

but probably what's appearing to be closest to kyphi.

It's an incredible result,

and one of great significance.

It isn't possible to match every plant's image on temple walls

with species we know of today.

So, until now, a complete list of kyphi ingredients

has eluded archaeologists.

Once the team can do more analysis,

Jay's sample might reveal the missing links.

Now, we can start to refine it, both at the chemical level,

but also the-- the process of making the perfume.

This is one sample, but when we complete the work

we will get another information.

Yeah.

Jay and his team

have uncovered a perfume factory,

the first found in Ancient Egypt.

And come a step closer to experiencing a real fragrance

from Cleopatra's world.

For an archaeologist, the days don't get much better than this.

This is a major discovery.

Now, we have the chemical evidence to prove the fact

that this was indeed a fragrance factory

and it's clearly producing kyphi.

I feel closer to Cleopatra.

I can understand a little bit more

about the fragrances that she so cherished,

and that she was obviously passionate about.

In Ancient Philadelphia...

Basem's team continues their excavation

of the newly discovered tomb.

We have one leg of one mummy here.

One leg of another mummy here.

And a third mummy on top of them.

It will take a while to clean and excavate.

As they dig around the mummies,

Basem spots something.

It looks that there is something...

Ah...

Uh-oh.

This is unbelievable.

This is something very rare, extremely rare.

Yeah, this is a golden sheet.

A golden sheet resembles a tongue,

it was placed, um, in the skull

so that it act, uh, as part of the flesh of the gods.

It is, uh, one of the finest things

that I have ever found here in Philadelphia.

We have never find something like this before.

We even have never find any gold things in Philadelphia.

This is the first time.

Gold was hugely important in Cleopatra's day.

Its rarity meant it was coveted by the rich and powerful.

In her crucial kingdom-saving meeting with Mark Antony,

Cleopatra offered golden vessels.

And as gold was considered the flesh of the gods,

the rich were mummified and buried with golden tongues

to allow them to speak to Osiris, Lord of the Underworld.

Gold's everlasting shine would sustain long into the afterlife

where a golden tongue ensured you could breathe,

speak, and eat for eternity.

Buoyed by the best find of the season so far,

the team finishes off their excavations.

And once the tomb is fully revealed,

Basem makes one final inspection.

Yeah, I'm so excited and I'm absolutely happy.

We were able now to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

We have got the conclusion and could build the whole story

about the objects and, uh, the owners of this tomb.

They were elite and high social status.

For them, afterlife is a new life,

that's why they have to be very well equipped.

The mummy portraits,

the perfume bottle,

and the golden tongue are amazing finds.

They are clear signs

of the ways Egyptian elites used precious objects

to manifest their power,

even after death.

Cleopatra herself

was the ultimate master of status symbols.

Her savvy knowledge of the value of luxuries and perfume

helped her to hold onto her empire,

crafting a legend that still thrives today.