Original subtitles

Narrator: In a tomb deep underground,

Archaeologists carefully remove the lid

From an ancient stone sarcophagus.

(man yells)

Inside lie the mummified remains of an egyptian priest,

Hidden for the past 2,500 years.

Man: Oh, my god. This is beautiful!

Narrator: On closer inspection, though,

The mummy isn't what it seems.

Man: No way.

Narrator: And the investigation takes a surprise turn...

Man: There is something quite mind-blowing.

Narrator: ...Forcing the team to question

All that it's found so far.

Man: I might be wrong, but I would be very surprised

If there is no more surprises in this complex.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Narrator: Inside the ancient cemetery of saqqara,

Renowned egyptologist dr. Ramadan hussein

And his team of archaeologists

Are excavating a remarkable new site.

Ramadan hussein: When I started archaeology,

I never thought I would be discovering

Something on that magnitude.

Narrator: Extensive 3d scans

Reveal a unique ancient egyptian funeral complex,

Dating from around 600 bc,

Where the dead were brought to be mummified and buried

In an assortment of chambers deep underground.

♪ ♪

Salima ikram: This tomb complex dates to the 26th dynasty,

And that's about 700 years after tutankhamun

And about 600 years before cleopatra

And the end of egyptian history as we knew it.

This time period is interesting, because this is when egypt

Had had a huge renaissance in religion and burial ideas,

So this find is really a snapshot in time

And crucial to our understanding of mummification.

(man yells)

Narrator: Today, ramadan and his team are investigating

A pair of stone sarcophagi.

They lie in a small chamber,

Almost 100 feet below the surface.

Ramadan: We have two sealed sarcophagi.

One in what we call an anthropoid sarcophagus--

It means it takes the human form--

And another one that is a rectangular sarcophagus.

Narrator: What makes them so special

Is that unlike the other sarcophagi in this complex,

They're both inscribed with text.

Ramadan: Once we discovered this writing,

We understood how valuable this is,

So we have put protective paper here.

This is our means of communication with the ancients.

Narrator: The inscriptions are carved on one sarcophagus

And painted on the other,

And they provide fascinating clues

About the people buried inside.

Ramadan: For me, it is a moment

That I can read the minds of these two persons,

To be able to know what they wanted to convey us,

What they wanted to tell us.

Narrator: The ancient egyptians believed that remembering

The name of the deceased by writing it down

Would lead to their immortality,

And the text on the caskets reveals a pair of male names,

Tjanimit and ayput.

But the text also contains

Another vital piece of information: Their jobs.

And interestingly, they both match.

Ramadan: So far, from the text material we have collected,

We have two priests.

This is tjanimit.

Right behind me here is another priest, and his name is ayput.

Narrator: While this is priceless information,

It raises an important question.

Why are these two priests here?

Is it purely by chance that they share the same tomb,

Or could they be in some way connected?

Ramadan: That is pretty much the mystery.

Why do you have two priests right next to one another?

This is a question to be answered

When we lift up this lid.

(man yells)

Narrator: To learn more about the two priests,

Ramadan must open up the sarcophagi

And investigate their contents in forensic detail.

Narrator: Led by their foreman, ammar,

The team is starting with

The rectangular sarcophagus of tjanimit.

Narrator: The first task is to break open the thick layer

Of mortar running round the edge of the lid.

Intended as a seal to deter grave robbers,

Its presence can mean only one thing.

Ramadan: This sarcophagus is 2,600 years old,

And it hasn't been touched since tjanimit was buried inside it.

(men speaking arabic)

This is a three-man job,

So we'll see how successful this is going to be.

Ramadan: It is a very intense moment for me.

What is inside this sarcophagus?

Ramadan: Seems to be working.

Narrator: Now the casket is partway open,

Ramadan uses an inspection camera

To take a preliminary peek.

Ramadan: This is unbelievable.

Narrator: What it reveals is like nothing else

From the complex.

Ramadan: Ah. Glittering stuff.

Narrator: A 2,600-year-old mummy,

Adorned from head to toe

In an elaborate beaded burial shroud,

And amazingly, still in one piece.

Ramadan: This beautiful beaded net, it is so elegant.

This is so beautiful.

Not as pristine as you would see it in museums,

But this is a mummy

That carries the dust and aging of 2,600 years.

This is a remarkably decorated mummy.

♪ ♪

This definitely stands out

As one of the most remarkable sarcophagus

That I have ever opened.

I have a job to bring tjanimit back to life.

We want his story to be told,

And I think I'm going to tell the story of tjanimit

From now until I die.

I have so much to do.

Narrator: Beneath the ancient pyramids of saqqara,

The task of opening tjanimit's stone sarcophagus

Is well under way.

Narrator: After glimpsing a beaded shroud

Lying on tjanimit's mummy,

Project director ramadan is keen to learn more

About this mysterious priest.

Ramadan: Ammar and his team has just lifted up the lid.

Ramadan: It's a difficult job.

It's a lot of labor, a lot of sweat.

Ramadan: Before we roll it out, we need to make sure

That nothing will fall on this beautiful mummy,

So we're spreading a cloth underneath the lid.

Ramadan: Ammar?

We're good to go.

Narrator: The lid, carved from solid limestone,

Weighs almost 2,000 pounds,

And the team will slide it out on steel rollers.

Ramadan: When you move a large piece of stone like this lid...

You don't want this stone to smash somebody's bones.

That's first.

Second is not to damage and destroy any object

Inside the sarcophagus.

So those are the two main concerns.

The safety of the living, and also the safety of the dead.

(men talking)

Ramadan: Now I think we're gonna have a full look

At the mummy of tjanimit.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Oh, my god!

It's just unbelievable.

It is as if, actually, it was made yesterday.

It's just beautiful.

Narrator: Made from hundreds of glazed clay beads,

Tjanimit's perfectly preserved burial shroud

Was intended to protect him in the afterlife.

Its quality and craftsmanship are a clear sign

That tjanimit was a wealthy individual.

Ramadan: This is the work of an artist

That was done 2,600 years ago,

And now we're getting a first look at it, bit by bit.

The color is coming out.

It's so beautiful, also beaded right here.

The head of the mummy.

♪ ♪

It's still wrapped,

But see his eyes and the nose and the eyebrows

And even the mouth drawn on these linen bandages.

This is one of the most beautiful mummies

I have ever seen in my life.

What is so amazing is the preservation of the beaded net

And the necklace after 2,600 years.

It's unbelievable.

It's just beautiful.

♪ ♪

But now the question that is on my mind,

Who is this person

To have deserved such an elaborate burial?

♪ ♪

Narrator: To shed light on why a priest like tjanimit

Was able to afford such luxuries,

Project consultant salima ikram

Has come to one of the most iconic sites in all of egypt.

The historic city of luxor on the banks of the river nile.

Among the many nearby tombs is a vast mausoleum

Belonging to a priest called pediamenopet.

Salima: It was always in ancient egypt good to be a priest,

Because, of course, religion was of the utmost importance,

And also you enter into this hierarchy of the temples

And the religion, and so it's sort of like a brotherhood.

Narrator: For most priests,

Serving one of the many egyptian gods or goddesses

Was a full-time job,

But for an elite few, like pediamenopet,

It was a career that brought wealth and status.

Salima: One of the most striking things about pediamenopet's tomb

Is the fact that it is huge.

It's the largest non-royal tomb in all of luxor.

The workmanship is exquisite, and it's lavishly decorated,

And it would originally have been painted,

And you can still see some of the vestiges of paint,

Which means that he must have been one of the richest

And most influential men when he died.

Narrator: Almost every wall of this enormous, 22-room tomb

Is covered in either paintings or inscriptions.

And they contain important information

About pediamenopet's life,

Including how he was able to amass such wealth.

Salima: Priests were very important in egyptian society,

And pediamenopet here, you can see, was a priest,

A lector priest, someone who reads.

But he was also a royal scribe, he was known to the king,

He was a courtier,

And he, like many other priests, had lots of jobs.

So priests weren't just religious beings,

They were political, they were industrial.

Some of them were even in the military.

They really had their fingers in all kinds of pies.

And so you wind up with people who have enormous wealth

That they can amass from a huge number of different sources.

♪ ♪

Narrator: So could tjanimit's elaborate burial be a clue

To the sort of life he led as a priest?

Ramadan is hoping to find some answers

In the painted text on his sarcophagus,

Now that its protective covering is being removed.

♪ ♪

Ramadan: Text is so valuable for every archaeologist.

It is that joy to be able to read the minds of the ancients.

What we're reading here is, if we can draw any analogy,

An identification card of this person.

And right here, for example,

We see the name of the deceased, tjanimit,

Which literally means "the little child of the cat."

The worship of the cat among egyptians was very, very common,

And it was notably common

Among a segment of the egyptian society

That is mostly libyan immigrant.

So the name tjanimit, could that be an indication

That we're dealing with a libyan descent of some sort?

Narrator: And tjanimit's heritage isn't all

That's contained in the inscription.

Ramadan: So, working backwards,

We see some of his priestly titles.

Here, for example, we could see that he is a priest

Of the goddess sekhmet and the goddess isis,

Two of the most important goddesses

In the ancient egyptian pantheon.

Then we continue to see more of his priestly titles.

♪ ♪

Narrator: In other words, just like the priest pediamenopet,

Tjanimit held more than one position.

Ramadan: We're talking about somebody

Who had evidently a long career as a priest.

This must be somebody who accumulated

A certain kind of wealth.

Narrator: So what brought such a distinguished priest

Here to saqqara?

Ramadan: This burial chamber has already given us

A lot to think about.

Narrator: And how, if at all, is tjanimit connected to ayput,

The other priest buried in the chamber?

Narrator: Inside the priests' burial chamber,

Ramadan's team is preparing to remove tjanimit's mummy

From the sarcophagus so they can examine it for more clues.

Matthias lang: A little bit up. A little bit to the right.

Narrator: As there's a chance of damaging the mummy,

The project's digital team is first creating a perfect copy,

Using a technique called photogrammetry.

Matthias: So, first of all, I took, like,

Thousands of pictures of this mummy,

And we can put all these pictures then in a software.

Philippe kluge: And then the computers figures out

What we have done with all the pictures

And creates out of all the pictures, a 3d model.

Matthias: And it's a complete new approach

Understanding archaeological sites like this.

Philippe: Especially when they're underground.

Narrator: The 3d map of the tomb complex

Now contains tjanimit's open sarcophagus.

And the real beauty of this technique

Is that it records each stage of the excavation,

Allowing the team to go back and re-examine key details,

Like the faded text on tjanimit's sarcophagus,

Where ramadan has spotted a mysterious name.

Ramadan: We're looking now at the titles of tjanimit,

Connecting him to several gods and goddesses

From ancient egypt, very prominent ones.

But what is so intriguing here

Is that he's a priest of a goddess, a serpent goddess.

Her name is niut-shaes,

With this circle and then a rectangle below it,

Then a bolt, and at the end, a serpent.

When I first saw the name niut-shaes,

I had trouble reading it,

Because we don't see

That name a lot.

Sounds really very strange.

Narrator: While this latest discovery

Is an important development,

It now leaves ramadan with a new set of questions.

Who was this obscure serpent goddess?

And why was a priest of some of the most important deities

In egypt in her service?

In search of clues,

Project consultant salima is once more in the city of luxor.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Salima: We're here at luxor temple,

Which is one of the most important temples in this area,

Because it contains lists of gods and goddesses.

And if we're in search of a particular deity,

This would be the place to go.

Narrator: Among the many hieroglyphs

Covering the temple walls is what's brought her here:

A tiny but familiar-looking inscription.

Salima: And it's right up here where you've got that circle

Up there with the cross in it,

And beneath that, there's a funny hook

And this lovely snake.

Narrator: One of the very few mentions of niut-shaes

To be found anywhere in egypt.

Salima: And, in fact, this is the first time

Her name occurs ever.

Narrator: What's significant is the inscription's location,

Inside a separate chapel within the temple,

Dedicated to one of the most eminent

Of all egyptian deities,

The great goddess mut.

Salima: Mut was so important

Because she was the consort of the god amun, king of the gods.

So basically, she's queen of the gods,

And mut is also the great mother goddess,

And, in fact, the word for mother in egyptian is "mut,"

And she was in charge of the fertility of the land,

The people, the herds, and a great protector of women.

Narrator: Mut was so revered by the ancient egyptians

That they depicted her in many different ways:

As the mother of the pharaoh,

As a powerful ruler,

Even as a lioness.

Salima: And so here in this chapel

We have mut in all of her different guises,

In all of her different aspects.

Narrator: And one of mut's other lesser-known guises

Was the serpent-like niut-shaes.

Salima: Here you see that niut-shaes is really

Just an aspect of the goddess mut,

And an aspect in serpent form, like you can see from her name.

She's not very significant, it would seem,

And there are only a handful of mentions

Of this very elusive mythological figure

That we have throughout egyptian history.

Now, 600 years later at saqqara in the tomb of tjanimit,

It's a different story,

Because tjanimit is a priest of the goddess niut-shaes,

And this means suddenly

Niut-shaes is an independent entity.

Suddenly she becomes somebody.

Narrator: A fully fledged goddess in her own right.

And what's remarkable is that tjanimit wasn't alone

In worshipping this new deity.

In a small tomb next to the priests' chamber,

Ramadan and his team have made an extraordinary discovery:

A mummy wearing a priceless gilded silver burial mask,

The first found in egypt for almost a century.

One of the fascinating things about this find

Is that the text on the coffin

Reveals that its owner was a priest, just like tjanimit,

And that he, too, worshipped

The serpent goddess, niut-shaes.

Which means that niut-shaes must have become

A very significant goddess indeed.

Ramadan: All of a sudden in our complex here,

We have two individuals that are connecting themselves

To the goddess niut-shaes, being priests of this goddess.

This is definitely a revolution

In what we know about this goddess.

We're hoping for more information about her.

Narrator: In light of the discovery

That tjanimit was a follower

Of the obscure serpent goddess niut-shaes,

Ramadan is keen to find out more

About the other priest from tjanimit's tomb.

Ramadan: Today is going to be a very interesting day,

Because our attention turns to the second sarcophagus

In the burial chamber that we've been working in,

And now it's the time to learn more about ayput.

Narrator: He is hoping that a closer inspection

Of ayput's casket might reveal

Why the two priests share the same tomb.

Ramadan: The sarcophagus of ayput stands out in this complex

Because it is the only anthropoid sarcophagus,

A human form sarcophagus,

And you could see the fingerprint of the person

Who applied this mortar in the process of sealing the lid.

Narrator: Anthropoid sarcophagi were intended to portray

An ideal of egyptian beauty.

And on ayput's, ramadan spots an intriguing detail.

Ramadan: Interestingly, you could see the face here.

That very triangle-shaped nose,

This very pointed, very sharp nose,

And that very thin lips,

It is not egyptian facial features.

It looks to me like possibly a foreign person.

And the sarcophagus is inscribed,

Giving us the name of the person who is buried inside, ayput.

It's very interesting

Because it doesn't sound like an egyptian name.

It does sound a foreign name, particularly libyan name.

Something similar to what we've seen with tjanimit.

Narrator: If ramadan is right,

And both tjanimit and ayput were of libyan descent,

Then could that explain why they share the same tomb?

Remarkably, the links don't stop there,

Because the inscriptions on ayput's sarcophagus

Also reveal the gods whom he served,

And they include a now familiar name.

On the foot of ayput's casket

Is the telltale symbol of a serpent.

The same goddess, niut-shaes,

Ramadan saw on tjanimit's sarcophagus,

And the coffin of the priest with the silver mask.

Ramadan: There are strong similarities and connections

Between these two persons.

One is both of them were priests.

Second, they served the same goddess, niut-shaes.

Third, both of them possibly libyans,

Possibly libyan immigrants who settled in egypt.

♪ ♪

Narrator: In the search for more evidence,

The team's next step is to look inside ayput's sarcophagus.

Ramadan: Ammar.

Ramadan: We are in a very tight space.

Ramadan: And we have to move this human-size lid.

Ramadan: We have to maneuver, turn around,

And make sure nothing falls inside the sarcophagus

That could damage the mummy.

(man yells)

Ammar. Ammar.

(man yells)

Ramadan: Ammar.

Narrator: While the team has a rest,

Ramadan takes a quick look inside ayput's sarcophagus.

Ramadan: It's beautiful.

What we have here is a mummy similar to tjanimit's mummy,

Similar mummification to connect with the two of them.

It's very interesting.

We see a lot of beads at the feet of this mummy.

Looks like they were put around the mummy, not really threaded,

And this is something that I haven't seen before.

So we need to look closely to the face and the body of ayput.

(man yells)

Narrator: Finally, for the first time in 2,600 years,

Ayput's mummy is fully revealed.

♪ ♪

Ramadan: A very beautifully wrapped mummy

Coated with this black bitumen.

You could see the old bandages here,

The mummy wrappings right here.

Narrator: Looking closer, ramadan tries to make sense

Of the shape of the body beneath the mummy wrappings,

And he spies something totally unexpected.

Ramadan: There is something quite mind-blowing.

Looking at the sarcophagus of ayput and the text,

And his name that is written right here,

And the title being a priest of niut-shaes,

All speaks to me as a man,

But now looking at the mummy, I'm seeing something different.

Could see a silhouette of that left arm over the chest,

And then another protrusion here,

Possibly the right shoulder

Going all the way down along the body.

So what we have here is the left arm crossed over the chest,

While the right arm extended along the body

And possibly reaching the pelvic area.

This is the position that is restricted

To women of high status.

Narrator: In other words, what the arm position suggests

Is that instead of being a priest of niut-shaes,

Ayput may, in fact, have been a priestess.

Ramadan: All these months I'm talking about ayput as a man,

And all of a sudden I have a mummy

With a hand and arm position that is for a woman.

I might be wrong, but I would be very surprised

If there is no more surprises in this complex.

Now we need to have this question answered,

And the identification of the sex of this mummy

Confirmed by x-ray.

(man shouts)

Narrator: After the shock discovery

That the priest, ayput, may in fact be a woman,

Ramadan is keen to re-investigate

The sex of another of the priests from the complex,

The priest with the gilded silver mask.

Salima: You were thinking it's male?

Ramadan: Yeah, but now we might have a very big surprise

In terms of the sex of this mummy.

Narrator: Now that the painted wooden coffin has been removed,

Project consultant salima is able to identify

A crucial telltale feature.

Salima: I mean, certainly I can see from the brow,

It's quite sharp.

That's certainly a female trait.

It's quite extraordinary.

Narrator: Just as revealing

Is the mummy's crossed arm position.

Salima: When you have one arm crossed over your breast

And one along your side,

That pose is something that is only seen with female mummies,

And so the fact that this body has the same pose

Would really argue, in addition

To all of the physical characteristics on the skeleton,

That this is a woman.

Ramadan: This is a surprise.

Narrator: The potential discovery of a second priestess

Is a fascinating development.

Salima: Having priestesses buried here is significant,

Because it tells us what ancient egyptian women were like

And what their social status was.

They had the same social economic class,

They had the same level of wealth,

The same level of prestige and privilege,

And, really, it emphasizes the point that in ancient egypt,

More than any other ancient culture,

Women had many more rights

And were far more equal to men than elsewhere.

Narrator: To be sure of the priest's sex, though,

What ramadan needs is hard evidence.

So he's arranged for the mummies to be x-rayed.

Starting with the priest, tjanimit.

Woman: It's completely decayed, so I'm trying to lift the mummy,

One piece, but I think it's very hard.

Narrator: Held together by a protective gauze...

Narrator: The fragile mummy is carefully lifted out.

Woman: Okay. Yeah, good work.

Yeah, we get the mummy one piece.

(laughs)

Narrator: As the remains are too delicate

To be hoisted to the surface,

The team has created an x-ray lab underground.

Narrator: Radiologist professor sahar saleem

Will x-ray the mummy in stages.

Sahar saleem: Ah, okay, clear, please.

Narrator: Starting with the head.

Sahar: Okay, shoot.

Wow.

♪ ♪

Oh.

Unfortunately, this doesn't look good.

Narrator: It's disappointing news.

Sahar: This doesn't look good at all.

The skull is so scrambled.

Narrator: Tjanimit's skull is too damaged

To glean any information from it.

Sahar: Unfortunately, I cannot tell

Whether this is a man or a woman,

So we'll go to the other clues to determine the sex.

I'm counting now on the pelvis.

Narrator: Female pelvises are usually wider and rounder

Than a male's...

Sahar: Shoot.

Narrator: ...Making them a reliable indicator of sex.

Woman: It is bad news.

Sahar: Unfortunately, the pelvis is totally destroyed.

You cannot see any recognizable part of the hip.

Narrator: Unable to tell tjanimit's sex,

The team switches to ayput,

The priest with the male name but the female-looking mummy.

Ramadan: Ayput is a mummy that keeps me thinking all the time.

The name is for a man, the title is for a priest,

But we're still really not sure

Whether ayput is a man or a woman.

Narrator: 100 feet beneath the desert, inside a makeshift lab,

Radiologist sahar saleem is getting ready to x-ray

The 2,500-year-old mummy of ayput the priest.

Sahar: Clear, please.

Narrator: She's hoping the scans will confirm

Whether ayput's skeleton is male or female.

Sahar: Okay. I'll do my best.

I feel responsible for making everybody happy.

Narrator: And the first thing to check is the arm position.

Man: When we opened the sarcophagus of ayput,

Dr. Ramadan was suspicious about the position of the arm.

Now we are going to x-ray this mummy

And figure out the real position of the arm.

Sahar: Okay, ready?

Shoot.

Narrator: The first x-rays confirm

The team's initial suspicions.

Sahar: Okay, good.

Ayput arm position, the crossing of the left arm over the chest,

It looks like the burial of a woman.

It is very clear.

Narrator: Further scans reveal other specific clues.

Sahar: Shoot.

The skull is not really in a good condition,

But this bone beneath the ear, it is smooth,

And the roundness of the skull,

I have this feeling that this could be a woman.

This pelvis?

The pelvis also is not that intact,

But there is a big, round cavity just towards a female.

Also the blades of the iliac region, they are more flat.

This is also with a woman.

Ramadan: The x-ray is telling me that ayput is a woman,

Not a man.

My journey in understanding ayput

Is like a roller coaster of understanding.

It go up on point, and then all of a sudden you drop down.

This is what makes archaeology so interesting.

Narrator: And while there's no evidence to suggest

That tjanimit was a woman, what the team can be sure of

Is that the two priests, ayput and tjanimit,

Shared a similar status and background.

Ramadan: This chamber presented us with a trove of information

In the form of two beautiful sarcophagi,

Inscribed for two persons.

Their names alone says something about them being libyans,

Immigrants who lived in egypt

And become completely egyptianized.

Narrator: Even more significant is the goddess

These two libyans,

Along with the priestess in the silver mask, worshipped.

Ramadan: Shaft k24 has the largest number of mentions

Of the goddess niut-shaes in one place

In the entire country of egypt.

I think we discovered a new cult in ancient egypt,

The cult of a goddess we didn't know much about,

With priests and priestesses who served her.

Narrator: And to ramadan, a new cult suggests something more.

Ramadan: Did niut-shaes have her own shrine

In the immediate vicinity of shaft k24?

Or a temple with economic revenues

That allows the priesthood to amass such wealth

That is reflected in the richness of their burials?

Narrator: It's questions like this

That are the reason why the team is still digging.

Ramadan: Ammar.

Narrator: And if the discoveries so far

Are anything to go by,

Then there will surely be more secrets to uncover.

Salima: The only reason to do egyptology

Is because you enjoy it and you love it,

And you love the ancient egyptians.

We really want to find out what they were doing,

What they were thinking, how they were functioning.

It is also lovely, because you realize they might have lived

3,000, 2,000 years ago,

But there's very little difference between them and us.

Ramadan: Our mission here, what we're doing

Is looking for information and rewriting the story

Of every individual we discover here,

And we're still gonna gather more of it.

This is, for us, a lifelong research project.

♪ ♪

Captioned by side door media services