1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,280 With its mighty pharaohs, multiple gods, and magnificent art, it's easy to think that 2 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:20,160 ancient Egypt was always powerful and successful. 3 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:27,000 But there were also darker times, conflict, civil war, famine, and an overall feeling 4 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,160 of catastrophe. 5 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:37,079 And the only way it could survive was through its own resilience and the strongest of... 6 00:00:37,079 --> 00:00:45,359 Now this is Sosostris III, who ruled Egypt almost 4,000 years ago. 7 00:00:45,359 --> 00:00:49,760 He's strong and he's muscular, everything a pharaoh should be. 8 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:53,560 And yet look at his face. 9 00:00:53,560 --> 00:01:00,840 These scowling features have been interpreted to suggest his harsh rule and his large ears, 10 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:05,359 his ability to hear any plots against him. 11 00:01:05,359 --> 00:01:12,240 Sosostris embodies the way Egypt's monarchs ruled during its turbulent times. 12 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:18,140 This king controlled his enemies through a series of military fortresses and through 13 00:01:18,140 --> 00:01:20,040 magical curses. 14 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:27,480 But this is a new era in Egypt's history, not only ruled by military power, but by 15 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,560 fear and suspicion. 16 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:37,160 And Egypt's darkest times threatened to destroy its entire civilization. 17 00:01:37,159 --> 00:01:50,519 I've already explored how Egypt's ancient culture began thousands of years earlier, 18 00:01:50,519 --> 00:01:58,359 blessed by the river Nile and a rich natural environment, and a society united by a... 19 00:01:58,359 --> 00:02:00,359 ideology. 20 00:02:00,359 --> 00:02:11,319 But in this episode, we'll see how the massive self-confidence of the pyramid age... 21 00:02:11,319 --> 00:02:19,759 to last, as a dark age brought this civilization to the brink of annihilation. 22 00:02:19,759 --> 00:02:25,120 Make no mistake, this is the home of the dead and we're in amongst them. 23 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:30,640 These were times of famine, civil war and anarchy. 24 00:02:30,640 --> 00:02:35,640 Kings have been reduced to something on a miniscule level. 25 00:02:35,640 --> 00:02:44,240 But this collapse triggered one of the greatest revivals of ancient times, with... 26 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:50,080 more powerful and wealthy than ever before. 27 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:52,920 Welcome to my story of ancient Egypt. 28 00:02:55,120 --> 00:03:12,040 Saqqara, where Egypt's great pyramid age began. 29 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:18,719 But among its glories, there's also evidence of a far less well-known side to Egypt's 30 00:03:18,719 --> 00:03:19,719 story. 31 00:03:19,719 --> 00:03:32,199 It's descent into a dark age. 32 00:03:32,199 --> 00:03:37,960 The zenith of Egypt's old kingdom was the Great Pyramid at Giza, and only 200 years 33 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:45,520 later King Unas Causeway was created. 34 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:51,680 It might not look much today, but it's the highlight of Unas Pyramid Complex, a 750 35 00:03:51,680 --> 00:04:02,719 metre long causeway which symbolically connected life and death. 36 00:04:02,719 --> 00:04:08,020 It goes right from the Nile Valley all the way up onto the high desert plateau, right 37 00:04:08,020 --> 00:04:11,320 to the foot of the pyramid of Unas. 38 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:14,719 So it would have been used for his funeral procession, but it would also have drawn up 39 00:04:14,879 --> 00:04:21,279 that life-giving force from the valley below up to the city of the dead here at Saqqara. 40 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:26,560 A narrow slit in the roof once allowed enough lighting, but the extraordinary thing is 41 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:38,680 that this causeway was designed for a sole purpose, the king's funeral procession. 42 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:42,980 Carved upon its walls are scenes revealing both sides of life. 43 00:04:42,980 --> 00:04:46,960 The forces of order and of chaos. 44 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:53,240 It first portrays an idealised version of Egypt, a time of plenty. 45 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:59,900 Here we can see typical scenes within an Egyptian temple or funerary context, scene... 46 00:04:59,900 --> 00:05:06,939 rich bounty of Egypt, all the fruit, the vegetables, the crops, the meat, the fish,... 47 00:05:06,939 --> 00:05:12,200 of the natural environment of Egypt which was all obviously brought to the land through 48 00:05:12,199 --> 00:05:15,639 the good officers of the king, the bringer of all bounty, the intermediary with the 49 00:05:15,639 --> 00:05:16,639 gods. 50 00:05:16,639 --> 00:05:23,899 But also this causeway contained something rather more disturbing, evidence that dark 51 00:05:23,899 --> 00:05:27,599 forces were at work. 52 00:05:27,599 --> 00:05:38,139 Further on down the causeway emerged a counterpart image, the flip side of bounty. 53 00:05:38,139 --> 00:05:44,579 An image so unusual it's now displayed in Saqqara's museum and it really is one of 54 00:05:44,579 --> 00:05:51,899 ancient Egypt's most haunting and revealing works of art. 55 00:05:51,899 --> 00:05:59,360 Here we see these dark forces at work, what we have are two rows of emaciated victims 56 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:04,919 of famine. 57 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:10,280 These poor people, they're weak with hunger, they're falling down, they're suffering 58 00:06:10,280 --> 00:06:16,199 and this is basically ancient Egypt coming face to face with reality because these are 59 00:06:16,199 --> 00:06:21,040 believed to be the Bedouins who inhabited the desert fringes of Egypt so it's as if 60 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:26,700 this kind of idea of suffering, the forces of chaos are on the periphery of Egypt but 61 00:06:26,700 --> 00:06:29,560 they're getting ever closer to the Nile Valley. 62 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:34,819 Egypt is starting to waken up to the fact that chaos isn't all that far away. 63 00:06:34,819 --> 00:06:40,439 This is ancient Egypt beginning to suffer. 64 00:06:40,439 --> 00:06:45,079 Such gritty realism had rarely been portrayed before. 65 00:06:45,079 --> 00:06:49,360 Chaos depicted as the suffering of real people. 66 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:54,800 This isn't happening in some esoteric realm of the gods where chaos is sort of portrayed 67 00:06:54,800 --> 00:07:00,860 as some sort of disparate magical force, very detached from reality. 68 00:07:00,860 --> 00:07:05,560 This is reality. 69 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:10,520 Through such realistic images the Egyptians were expressing their fears to the gods, 70 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:16,199 appealing to them to keep these forces of chaos at bay. 71 00:07:16,199 --> 00:07:24,199 But instead the starving famine victims would turn out to be a chilling omen. 72 00:07:30,860 --> 00:07:45,080 Up until now Egypt's prosperity had flowed from its one source of water, the river Nile, 73 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:52,980 whose annual floods enriched the soil, allowing life and agriculture to flourish. 74 00:07:52,980 --> 00:07:58,540 This natural abundance was the very bedrock on which Egypt and its perpetual world order 75 00:07:58,700 --> 00:08:02,460 was able to thrive. 76 00:08:02,460 --> 00:08:08,920 But this lifeblood was about to run dry. 77 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:15,720 Evidence shows that at the end of the third millennium BC the Nile flood levels fell... 78 00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:21,080 As the very thing that brought them life began to diminish, the Egyptians believed... 79 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,060 gods had begun to abandon them. 80 00:08:24,060 --> 00:08:39,179 And for the next century the ancient texts talk of suffering, starvation and even... 81 00:08:39,179 --> 00:08:45,100 Traditionally Egyptian society had been built on the belief in the divine power of its 82 00:08:45,100 --> 00:08:46,100 kings. 83 00:08:46,100 --> 00:08:51,019 Without this belief the pyramid age would never have been possible. 84 00:08:51,019 --> 00:08:56,059 But now, in its time of need, Egypt's king seemed increasingly powerless in the face 85 00:08:56,059 --> 00:09:00,899 of such natural disaster. 86 00:09:00,899 --> 00:09:09,480 And this would come to a head with a ruler who was well past his prime. 87 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:14,620 Claimed to have lived for a hundred years, he was Egypt's longest lived monarch, King 88 00:09:14,860 --> 00:09:21,299 Pepe the second. 89 00:09:21,299 --> 00:09:26,379 And this space was once a ceremonial running track, the type of place where Pepe would 90 00:09:26,379 --> 00:09:31,580 have to display his physical prowess to prove himself to his people. 91 00:09:31,580 --> 00:09:37,419 Now when any pharaoh had celebrated 30 years' reign they had to perform the jubilee... 92 00:09:37,419 --> 00:09:41,220 and this involved running the ceremonial jubilee race. 93 00:09:41,220 --> 00:09:45,320 Four times round this circuit as king of the north, four times round the circuit as 94 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:46,779 king of the south. 95 00:09:46,779 --> 00:09:52,660 It was the ultimate public display of their fitness to rule and their strength. 96 00:09:52,660 --> 00:09:56,019 It really showed who was in charge of Egypt. 97 00:09:56,019 --> 00:10:00,580 But that's where Pepe's advancing age would eventually let him down. 98 00:10:00,580 --> 00:10:05,540 Of course when pharaoh was relatively young and fit this would have been a great... 99 00:10:05,579 --> 00:10:10,980 But in the case of poor Pepe, then in his 90s, it became all too clear that pharaoh 100 00:10:10,980 --> 00:10:16,779 was no living god and this really undermined the whole concept of what it was to be a 101 00:10:16,779 --> 00:10:21,339 pharaoh. 102 00:10:21,339 --> 00:10:26,459 Clearly as mortal as his subjects, any natural disaster must have seemed the faul... 103 00:10:26,459 --> 00:10:31,579 less than superhuman king. 104 00:10:31,620 --> 00:10:39,500 And his combination of a weakening pharaoh and failing harvests led to rapid decline. 105 00:10:39,500 --> 00:10:46,320 Ancient Egypt now faced its first major political crisis for the power and apparen... 106 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:57,320 of the pharaoh that had been so very important in the pyramid age had now... 107 00:10:57,320 --> 00:11:04,640 Everything that bound Egyptian society together had begun to fall away and Egypt ... 108 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:11,840 into a dark age. 109 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:16,720 In this time of growing uncertainty, when the Egyptians had lost faith in both the 110 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:36,080 monarchy and state-run religion, they increasingly turned to the power of magic. 111 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:40,040 This is a rather unsettling thing. 112 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:42,320 It's an ancient Egyptian mask. 113 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:49,160 It's almost 4,000 years old and it's made of linen covered in a thin layer of plaster 114 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:56,920 and then painted predominantly black with colours picked out on various features. 115 00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:02,640 Of course, the Egyptians are well known for making elaborate arrangements for their... 116 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:08,100 The death mask placed over the mummified body recreated the features of the dead to make 117 00:12:08,100 --> 00:12:11,000 them recognisable to the gods. 118 00:12:11,879 --> 00:12:14,320 But this mask is different. 119 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:16,919 It was made to be worn by the living. 120 00:12:16,919 --> 00:12:23,440 And we know this because of the very distinctive eye holes, which you can see... 121 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:26,480 This would allow the wearer to see around them. 122 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:31,320 You can imagine when this was applied to the face, fastened on, tied on behind the head. 123 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:37,039 It would transform that individual into a completely different entity. 124 00:12:37,079 --> 00:12:41,919 Traces of paint on the linen reveal how it might have helped the wearer embody some 125 00:12:41,919 --> 00:12:46,679 form of magical being. 126 00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:52,919 Whoever wore this was going to some effort to transform their appearance, to try and 127 00:12:52,919 --> 00:12:57,000 tap into the hidden forces of the gods and to control the world in which they lived. 128 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:01,719 It's as if the Egyptian individual that wore this was trying to take charge of their own 129 00:13:01,719 --> 00:13:02,719 destiny. 130 00:13:07,719 --> 00:13:10,839 But the mask isn't the only evidence of magic. 131 00:13:14,599 --> 00:13:21,399 For in their dark ages the Egyptians increasingly began to write out curses and... 132 00:13:21,399 --> 00:13:24,839 and figurines. 133 00:13:24,839 --> 00:13:32,240 Scrolled across one was the curse, Die, Henui, son of Inteth, a form of magic... 134 00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:36,959 small scale to be performed within their own homes. 135 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:41,519 One of the most graphic ways they did this was to take a piece of clay or a simple pot 136 00:13:41,519 --> 00:13:48,000 like this one and write upon it the thing or the person that they wanted to control. 137 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:54,320 They often used red ochre because red was associated with the powers of destruction. 138 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:58,840 So if I was doing this I'd put on it the thing I'd want to stop, which are early... 139 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:03,400 calls and alarm clocks. 140 00:14:03,399 --> 00:14:08,319 So you've got to imagine Egyptians from all walks of life doing this, the priest wanting 141 00:14:08,319 --> 00:14:15,559 to protect the pharaoh, the soldier in battle against an enemy or simply a hated love... 142 00:14:15,559 --> 00:14:21,559 So all sorts of Egyptians could be on the receiving end of something like this. 143 00:14:21,559 --> 00:14:31,759 And then to activate the curse they smashed the pot. 144 00:14:31,799 --> 00:14:38,159 It was a symbolic act to annihilate the name of the enemy and therefore to control that 145 00:14:38,159 --> 00:14:39,159 enemy. 146 00:14:39,159 --> 00:14:41,939 Oh that does feel better. 147 00:14:41,939 --> 00:14:47,279 Not unlike Voodoo, such practices are found in many ancient cultures and Egypt was no 148 00:14:47,279 --> 00:14:48,279 exception. 149 00:14:48,279 --> 00:14:55,480 But it's far from the way we imagine the formal, time honoured rituals of the templ... 150 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:59,879 the king at the head of the religious hierarchy. 151 00:14:59,879 --> 00:15:05,840 This is an Egypt that's becoming more suspicious, more fearful and more aware of... 152 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:11,639 to their world, natural disasters, political breakdown and foreign powers. 153 00:15:11,639 --> 00:15:17,820 And this little wax figurine is a means to control anyone that threatens the balanced 154 00:15:17,820 --> 00:15:22,919 order of Egyptian life. 155 00:15:22,919 --> 00:15:28,159 Welcome to the Age of Fear. 156 00:15:28,159 --> 00:15:35,319 A time when every element of Egypt's world view was in doubt. 157 00:15:35,319 --> 00:15:43,559 Their faith in their king, in their land and even in their gods had all faltered. 158 00:15:43,559 --> 00:15:49,439 This is one of the lowest points in Egypt's long story and its effect reverberated... 159 00:15:49,439 --> 00:15:52,879 the Nile Valley. 160 00:15:52,879 --> 00:15:58,439 The king, traditionally based in the north, was no longer the source of wealth so royal 161 00:15:58,439 --> 00:16:05,120 officials abandoned court and relocated back to their home towns throughout the country. 162 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:11,039 Disunited Egypt reverted back to how it had been a thousand years earlier. 163 00:16:11,039 --> 00:16:15,799 Breaking up into a series of local regions called gnomes. 164 00:16:15,799 --> 00:16:21,120 And now a new kind of leader emerges to dominate the dark ages. 165 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:34,279 No longer a single king, but multiple warlords. 166 00:16:34,279 --> 00:16:39,060 And we know much about one of them because he left his detailed autobiography in his 167 00:16:39,060 --> 00:16:49,820 rock-cut tomb at Moalla, well away from the usual tourist sights. 168 00:16:49,860 --> 00:16:54,980 His name was Anktifi. 169 00:16:54,980 --> 00:17:00,980 Now Anktifi is a small-time official who's worked his way up through the ranks to become 170 00:17:00,980 --> 00:17:04,460 the regional governor or gnomarch as it's known. 171 00:17:04,460 --> 00:17:10,299 And in the decline in central government, the power vacuum that opens up is now filled 172 00:17:10,299 --> 00:17:15,180 by the Anktifis of this world. 173 00:17:15,180 --> 00:17:20,660 Anktifi's tomb is quite modest by ancient Egyptian standards, but its interior walls 174 00:17:20,660 --> 00:17:24,600 tell of his rise to power. 175 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:30,340 And Egyptologist Gary Shaw is going to help me unravel Anktifi's story. 176 00:17:30,340 --> 00:17:31,340 You can see the man himself. 177 00:17:31,340 --> 00:17:32,340 Ah, the great man. 178 00:17:32,340 --> 00:17:35,340 The great man, carved, standing there. 179 00:17:35,340 --> 00:17:37,340 He's got a great hairstyle. 180 00:17:37,340 --> 00:17:38,340 He does. 181 00:17:38,340 --> 00:17:39,340 That is lovely. 182 00:17:39,340 --> 00:17:40,340 I'm liking him already. 183 00:17:40,340 --> 00:17:44,799 Yeah, the man himself, he has a great tomb as well. 184 00:17:44,799 --> 00:17:49,879 The hieroglyphs and images that fill the walls reveal how Anktifi exploited the power 185 00:17:49,879 --> 00:17:56,879 vacuum at the end of the pyramid age, reducing the king to nothing more than a... 186 00:17:56,879 --> 00:18:03,039 The only time you see the name of a king in the entire tomb is right here. 187 00:18:03,039 --> 00:18:04,039 This tiny little cartouche. 188 00:18:04,039 --> 00:18:05,039 Oh, it couldn't be any smaller. 189 00:18:05,039 --> 00:18:06,039 Look at the size of that. 190 00:18:06,039 --> 00:18:07,039 It says Nifikare, and that's it. 191 00:18:07,039 --> 00:18:08,039 Is that it in the old tomb? 192 00:18:08,039 --> 00:18:09,039 The old tomb, the one mention of a king. 193 00:18:09,039 --> 00:18:10,039 And just that thing that really emphasised the name of the king. 194 00:18:10,039 --> 00:18:11,039 That is extraordinary. 195 00:18:11,039 --> 00:18:12,039 I think that cartouche alone of everything in the tomb encapsulates this whole period. 196 00:18:12,039 --> 00:18:13,039 Kings have been reduced to something on a miniscule level, and the local rulers are 197 00:18:13,039 --> 00:18:14,039 shown on a scale of a thousand. 198 00:18:14,039 --> 00:18:15,039 I think that's the key to the story. 199 00:18:15,039 --> 00:18:16,039 I think that's the key to the story. 200 00:18:16,039 --> 00:18:17,039 I think that's the key to the story. 201 00:18:17,039 --> 00:18:18,039 I think that's the key to the story. 202 00:18:18,039 --> 00:18:19,039 I think that's the key to the story. 203 00:18:19,039 --> 00:18:20,039 I think that's the key to the story. 204 00:18:20,039 --> 00:18:21,039 I think that's the key to the story. 205 00:18:21,039 --> 00:18:22,039 I think that's the key to the story. 206 00:18:22,039 --> 00:18:23,039 I think that's the key to the story. 207 00:18:23,039 --> 00:18:24,039 I think that's the key to the story. 208 00:18:24,039 --> 00:18:25,039 I think that's the key to the story. 209 00:18:25,039 --> 00:18:26,039 I think that's the key to the story. 210 00:18:26,039 --> 00:18:27,039 I think that's the key to the story. 211 00:18:27,039 --> 00:18:34,240 I think that cartouche alone of everything in the tomb encapsulates this whole period. 212 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:39,119 Kings have been reduced to something on a miniscule level, and the local rulers are 213 00:18:39,119 --> 00:18:43,720 shown on a huge scale, and it's all about them, isn't it? 214 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:49,119 Anc Tiffy had enhanced his own political career and wanted to ensure the gods were ... 215 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:51,700 doubt as to his importance. 216 00:18:51,700 --> 00:18:56,980 So the elaborate language, once exclusive to the king, was now part of Anc Tiffy's 217 00:18:56,980 --> 00:18:59,460 own boastful propaganda. 218 00:18:59,460 --> 00:19:02,420 This warlord was an egomaniac. 219 00:19:02,420 --> 00:19:08,940 He also says that he's a hero without equal, without peer, and you get that here. 220 00:19:08,940 --> 00:19:12,660 I'm a hero without peer. 221 00:19:12,660 --> 00:19:17,480 And pretty much almost every inscription in this tomb ends or includes this statement 222 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:18,480 at some point inside. 223 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:21,299 And what did he do to kind of justify these claims? 224 00:19:21,899 --> 00:19:24,500 He emphasises all the good things he did for the people. 225 00:19:24,500 --> 00:19:29,480 This was meant to be a time of drought and famine, so we're told in the texts, and he 226 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:31,019 tried to guide them through this. 227 00:19:31,019 --> 00:19:35,099 He was managing it by feeding everybody and doing all sorts of good things, giving bread 228 00:19:35,099 --> 00:19:41,740 to the hungry, ointment to those without ointment, and sandals for those who were... 229 00:19:41,740 --> 00:19:44,240 and wives for those without wives. 230 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:47,099 So it's basically telling us about a time of turmoil. 231 00:19:47,099 --> 00:19:51,279 Yeah, but he's probably just over-exaggerating, because the more he... 232 00:19:51,279 --> 00:19:54,899 awful it is, the more great he looks when he says, well, these are the nice things 233 00:19:54,899 --> 00:19:56,519 I did for everybody. 234 00:19:56,519 --> 00:19:57,519 And you get this here. 235 00:19:57,519 --> 00:20:01,240 He talks about the entire South dying from hunger. 236 00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:02,240 Oh, look at that. 237 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:04,240 That's a really graphic hieroglyph. 238 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:05,240 I love that. 239 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:06,240 The guy falling over, yeah. 240 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:07,240 Oh, dead body. 241 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:08,240 He's definitely dead. 242 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:11,519 But then it gets even worse, though. 243 00:20:11,519 --> 00:20:15,359 It says that every single man is eating his children. 244 00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:18,039 He didn't allow this to happen in his gnome, of course, where he lived. 245 00:20:18,039 --> 00:20:19,039 Everything was fine. 246 00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:22,399 And at the same time, he's also a fantastic warrior, we're told over here. 247 00:20:22,399 --> 00:20:23,399 Oh, inevitably. 248 00:20:23,399 --> 00:20:25,200 I didn't know that was coming. 249 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:26,200 Yeah, absolutely. 250 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:31,079 These texts on this particular column talk about his abilities as a warrior. 251 00:20:31,079 --> 00:20:37,680 In his biggest boast of all, Aunt Tiffy, the local hero, almost claims the status of a... 252 00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:42,599 I am the beginning and the end of mankind. 253 00:20:42,599 --> 00:20:46,599 Since nobody like myself existed before, nor will he exist. 254 00:20:49,159 --> 00:20:56,399 In Egypt's Dark Age, warlords like Aunt Tiffy had replaced the real kings of Egypt. 255 00:20:56,399 --> 00:21:01,759 And Aunt Tiffy's delusions of grandeur, so vividly expressed inside his tomb, are even 256 00:21:01,759 --> 00:21:07,240 more emphasised on the outside because he chose burial inside a rock shaped like a 257 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:08,799 natural pyramid. 258 00:21:08,799 --> 00:21:11,519 He wanted to be the local pharaoh. 259 00:21:12,519 --> 00:21:20,519 And in a way, he was, because whoever fed and protected the people also led the people. 260 00:21:23,519 --> 00:21:29,519 But as the power of warlords like Aunt Tiffy grew, so did the conflicts between them. 261 00:21:30,519 --> 00:21:36,519 And over time, as they either defeated their neighbours or formed alliances with them, 262 00:21:36,519 --> 00:21:40,519 two separate dynasties of warlord kings emerged. 263 00:21:41,519 --> 00:21:46,519 One in the north at Heracleopolis, where they wore the red crown of lower Egypt, 264 00:21:47,519 --> 00:21:53,519 and one in the south at Thebes, symbolised by the white crown of upper Egypt. 265 00:21:53,519 --> 00:22:00,519 Egypt was a divided kingdom of two lands, and between them lay a war zone. 266 00:22:00,519 --> 00:22:17,519 Situated at its centre lay Egypt's most sacred site, its earliest royal burial... 267 00:22:17,519 --> 00:22:22,519 and still today an evocative and atmospheric place. 268 00:22:22,519 --> 00:22:29,519 This was the resting place of Egypt's first kings, whose mummified bodies were buried 269 00:22:29,519 --> 00:22:32,519 in elaborate burial chambers beneath the desert floor. 270 00:22:33,519 --> 00:22:37,519 A safe place for their souls, or so they thought. 271 00:22:46,519 --> 00:22:52,519 But hostilities between the two warring factions were about to plumb new depths of... 272 00:22:52,519 --> 00:22:58,519 With an assault so blasphemous, it would change the face of Egypt forever. 273 00:22:58,519 --> 00:23:03,519 One of the most violent acts was recorded in later texts as the Vile Deed, 274 00:23:03,519 --> 00:23:07,519 for the northern warlord kings, fighting their southern opponents here, 275 00:23:07,519 --> 00:23:10,519 actually desecrated these royal tombs. 276 00:23:12,519 --> 00:23:17,519 For their troops set fire to the tombs and destroyed the royal mummies. 277 00:23:18,519 --> 00:23:23,519 At a stroke, Egypt's physical link to its ancient past was severed. 278 00:23:23,519 --> 00:23:27,519 Such an act of desecration was completely unimaginable, 279 00:23:27,519 --> 00:23:30,519 and the Egyptian people were rightly appalled. 280 00:23:30,519 --> 00:23:35,519 Although the northern kings deeply regretted what their troops had done, 281 00:23:35,519 --> 00:23:41,519 the destruction was irreversible, and the origins of Egypt's royal past lost forever. 282 00:23:43,519 --> 00:23:48,519 Of course, the problem with such times of destruction is that there's very little le... 283 00:23:48,519 --> 00:23:50,519 for us Egyptologists to find. 284 00:23:50,519 --> 00:23:53,519 But clues do remain if you know what you're looking for. 285 00:23:55,519 --> 00:24:00,519 Today, what's left of the violation of this royal burial ground is surprising. 286 00:24:01,519 --> 00:24:04,519 Thousands upon thousands of broken pots. 287 00:24:05,519 --> 00:24:08,519 Although most are not part of the destruction itself, 288 00:24:08,519 --> 00:24:14,519 they represent centuries of atonement for the loss of Egypt's physical connection with i... 289 00:24:14,519 --> 00:24:18,519 Now, not long after the desecration, this became a place of pilgrimage, 290 00:24:18,519 --> 00:24:24,519 where people came with little pots like this one, filled with food, drink, incense, 291 00:24:24,519 --> 00:24:28,519 which they offered up to the souls of the dead kings once buried here. 292 00:24:31,519 --> 00:24:37,519 It was believed that at death these souls of the kings had joined with the dead kings, 293 00:24:37,519 --> 00:24:39,519 and they were buried here. 294 00:24:39,519 --> 00:24:46,519 It was believed that at death these souls of the kings had joined with the soul of Osir... 295 00:24:46,519 --> 00:24:49,519 And as this place became a site of pilgrimage, 296 00:24:49,519 --> 00:24:55,519 it's as if the people of Egypt were trying to make amends for the desecration of the past. 297 00:24:58,519 --> 00:25:02,519 Egypt's spiritual connection to its royal ancestors was all it had left 298 00:25:02,519 --> 00:25:06,519 after the northern warlords had destroyed their physical remains. 299 00:25:07,519 --> 00:25:11,519 And the desecration soon provoked violent retaliation. 300 00:25:14,519 --> 00:25:17,519 Directly across the desert from Abidos, 301 00:25:19,519 --> 00:25:20,519 lay Thebes, 302 00:25:22,519 --> 00:25:25,519 the stronghold of the southern warlords. 303 00:25:27,519 --> 00:25:30,519 And they would soon rise up against their northern rivals, 304 00:25:30,519 --> 00:25:34,519 and attempt to resurrect Egypt as a united land. 305 00:25:37,519 --> 00:25:41,519 Back in 2000 BC, Thebes was a one-donkey town, 306 00:25:41,519 --> 00:25:46,519 and yet its warlords had two distinct advantages over other leaders. 307 00:25:46,519 --> 00:25:49,519 They lived on a bend in the Nile called the Kennebend, 308 00:25:49,519 --> 00:25:53,519 a strategic control point of rich farmland. 309 00:25:53,519 --> 00:25:57,519 And their local god was Montu, the god of war. 310 00:26:01,519 --> 00:26:04,519 The warlords of Thebes would reunite Egypt 311 00:26:04,519 --> 00:26:07,519 and one in particular came to the fore. 312 00:26:07,519 --> 00:26:11,519 His images were carved into the walls of his Theban tomb complex, 313 00:26:12,519 --> 00:26:14,519 and his name tells as much. 314 00:26:17,519 --> 00:26:21,519 This is the Theban warlord, Monta Hoteb. 315 00:26:22,519 --> 00:26:26,519 And there's a real clue as to what was happening at this part of Egyptian history 316 00:26:26,519 --> 00:26:31,519 because his name, Monta Hoteb, means the local war god Montu, 317 00:26:31,519 --> 00:26:35,519 is content, because Hoteb simply means content and happy. 318 00:26:35,519 --> 00:26:38,519 So if the war god was happy with Monta Hoteb, 319 00:26:38,519 --> 00:26:41,519 this means that he was a very powerful military figure. 320 00:26:41,519 --> 00:26:44,519 And this is a wonderful scene. 321 00:26:44,519 --> 00:26:47,519 There are a lot of little clues here to tell us what's going on. 322 00:26:47,519 --> 00:26:52,519 And if you look really closely, you can see hands embracing him, 323 00:26:52,519 --> 00:26:56,519 flanking him at his back, at his front, around his middle. 324 00:26:56,519 --> 00:26:59,519 He's been embraced by the gods. 325 00:26:59,519 --> 00:27:02,519 Chief amongst whom is Monta himself, and there he is, 326 00:27:02,519 --> 00:27:04,519 he's nose to nose with the king. 327 00:27:04,519 --> 00:27:09,519 He's giving him the breath of life and infusing him with his own divine power. 328 00:27:12,519 --> 00:27:14,519 It was the power of victory, 329 00:27:14,519 --> 00:27:18,519 one that finally brought an end to Egypt's first dark age. 330 00:27:19,519 --> 00:27:24,519 Monta Hoteb really did live up to his name as a true son of the war god 331 00:27:24,519 --> 00:27:26,519 because he took his armies north, 332 00:27:26,519 --> 00:27:29,519 he conquered the north, and he reunited Egypt. 333 00:27:29,519 --> 00:27:32,519 But best of all, he's got the red crown on. 334 00:27:32,519 --> 00:27:35,519 And this is the red crown of the north, 335 00:27:35,519 --> 00:27:38,519 because Monta Hoteb is declaring to the world, 336 00:27:38,519 --> 00:27:41,519 I might be a southerner, I might be from Thebes, 337 00:27:41,519 --> 00:27:43,519 I should be wearing the white crown. 338 00:27:43,519 --> 00:27:46,519 But look at me now, I have the red crown. 339 00:27:46,519 --> 00:27:49,519 I am the king of the north, I'm the king of the south, 340 00:27:49,519 --> 00:27:51,519 and I have reunited Egypt. 341 00:27:52,519 --> 00:27:54,519 As Egypt's new king, 342 00:27:54,519 --> 00:27:56,519 he became Monta Hoteb the second. 343 00:27:57,519 --> 00:28:00,519 But his victory came at a high price. 344 00:28:01,519 --> 00:28:04,519 The grim details of what his soldiers went through 345 00:28:04,519 --> 00:28:07,519 can be found on Thebes' west bank at Deir el-Bahri. 346 00:28:10,519 --> 00:28:12,519 It was inside one of the tombs here 347 00:28:12,519 --> 00:28:16,519 that the remains of Monta Hoteb's warriors were uncovered in 1923. 348 00:28:17,519 --> 00:28:21,519 Their bodies, silent witnesses to Egypt's civil war 349 00:28:21,519 --> 00:28:23,519 of 4,000 years ago, 350 00:28:23,519 --> 00:28:27,519 which careful analysis revealed in fascinating detail. 351 00:28:28,519 --> 00:28:32,519 Now, the archaeologists found around 60 bodies in the tomb, 352 00:28:32,519 --> 00:28:35,519 and these are the original excavation photographs. 353 00:28:37,519 --> 00:28:40,519 All of them had been naturally preserved. 354 00:28:40,519 --> 00:28:42,519 They were all found in the tomb. 355 00:28:43,519 --> 00:28:45,519 All of them had been naturally preserved, 356 00:28:45,519 --> 00:28:48,519 naturally mummified in the hot, dry climate, 357 00:28:48,519 --> 00:28:51,519 so you've still got the skin and the hair. 358 00:28:51,519 --> 00:28:55,519 And crucially, evidence of how these men had fought and died. 359 00:28:56,519 --> 00:28:59,519 Some of these bodies had been pierced by arrows. 360 00:28:59,519 --> 00:29:02,519 This one goes right into the left side of the chest. 361 00:29:02,519 --> 00:29:04,519 Others had actually been buried 362 00:29:04,519 --> 00:29:07,519 with these leather wrist guards that archers use. 363 00:29:07,519 --> 00:29:10,519 Ten of the warriors had been killed with ebony-tipped arrows. 364 00:29:12,519 --> 00:29:15,519 But in others, the wounds are even more brutal. 365 00:29:16,519 --> 00:29:20,519 You can see here somebody's hit this man on the head with a real whack, 366 00:29:20,519 --> 00:29:24,519 and you can see this very, very graphic area of damage there. 367 00:29:26,519 --> 00:29:28,519 And after these series of furious blows 368 00:29:28,519 --> 00:29:30,519 had been rained down on these poor guys, 369 00:29:30,519 --> 00:29:32,519 they lay helpless on the field of battle, 370 00:29:32,519 --> 00:29:34,519 their bodies picked up by vultures, 371 00:29:34,519 --> 00:29:36,519 and you can see here the dreadful damage. 372 00:29:36,519 --> 00:29:38,519 It's such a profound image. 373 00:29:41,519 --> 00:29:45,519 The bodies reveal evidence of the weapons used against them 374 00:29:45,519 --> 00:29:47,519 as they fought for control of Egypt. 375 00:29:50,519 --> 00:29:52,519 Arrows, slingshots, and even rocks 376 00:29:52,519 --> 00:29:54,519 had been hurled at the warriors from above. 377 00:29:56,519 --> 00:29:59,519 Eventually, their bodies were collected from the battlefield. 378 00:30:00,519 --> 00:30:03,519 Eventually, their bodies were collected from the battlefield 379 00:30:03,519 --> 00:30:05,519 and carefully wrapped in linen. 380 00:30:06,519 --> 00:30:10,519 This linen bore the insignia of the Theban Tomb complex, 381 00:30:10,519 --> 00:30:12,519 belonging to their leader, Montehotepe. 382 00:30:13,519 --> 00:30:16,519 But just as significant as the bodies themselves 383 00:30:16,519 --> 00:30:19,519 was where Montehotepe chose to bury his fallen heroes. 384 00:30:22,519 --> 00:30:27,519 Today, the warriors' resting place is a little-known sealed tomb. 385 00:30:30,519 --> 00:30:34,519 But 4,000 years ago, Montehotepe honored his dead soldiers 386 00:30:34,519 --> 00:30:38,519 with a burial amongst the graves of his highest officials, 387 00:30:38,519 --> 00:30:41,519 making them part of his monument to victory. 388 00:30:42,519 --> 00:30:45,519 The new king had created what could well be 389 00:30:45,519 --> 00:30:47,519 the world's first known war cemetery. 390 00:30:50,519 --> 00:30:53,519 Now, I'm lucky enough to have been given special permission 391 00:30:53,519 --> 00:30:56,519 to see Montehotepe's soldiers for the first time. 392 00:30:56,519 --> 00:30:59,519 These guys are going to be taking down the tomb wall for me, 393 00:30:59,519 --> 00:31:02,519 allowing me to actually meet the very people 394 00:31:02,519 --> 00:31:05,519 who fought in Egypt's civil war around 2,000 BC. 395 00:31:05,519 --> 00:31:07,519 So I am very, very excited. 396 00:31:16,519 --> 00:31:21,519 And it was the same curiosity which drove a team of American archaeologists 397 00:31:21,519 --> 00:31:24,519 to excavate their original mass grave in the first place. 398 00:31:26,519 --> 00:31:28,519 MUSIC 399 00:31:42,519 --> 00:31:44,519 Now reburied in a neighbouring tomb, 400 00:31:44,519 --> 00:31:49,519 the bodies of Montehotepe's soldiers have rarely seen the light of day 401 00:31:49,519 --> 00:31:52,519 since their discovery over 90 years ago. 402 00:31:56,519 --> 00:31:58,519 Thank you, thank you. 403 00:31:58,519 --> 00:32:00,519 Thank you, thank you. 404 00:32:00,519 --> 00:32:01,519 Me and me. 405 00:32:02,519 --> 00:32:05,519 Now, this is really, really super frustrating, 406 00:32:05,519 --> 00:32:07,519 but in the interest of health and safety, 407 00:32:07,519 --> 00:32:10,519 I can't go in there immediately, much as I really want to, 408 00:32:10,519 --> 00:32:14,519 because all the stale air's built up as the walls being sealed, 409 00:32:14,519 --> 00:32:18,519 and we've really got to let this out with all the fungal spores 410 00:32:18,519 --> 00:32:21,519 and the bacteria and everything else that's so detrimental to health. 411 00:32:22,519 --> 00:32:25,519 Early Egyptologists tended to rush straight in 412 00:32:25,519 --> 00:32:28,519 and risk the so-called pharaoh's curse, 413 00:32:28,519 --> 00:32:30,519 so a little waiting is essential. 414 00:32:40,519 --> 00:32:43,519 I can't believe we're actually going to enter this tomb now. 415 00:32:43,519 --> 00:32:45,519 It's one of those rare moments. 416 00:32:45,519 --> 00:32:49,519 You get in an Egyptological career into a tomb 417 00:32:49,519 --> 00:32:51,519 that's hardly ever visited. 418 00:32:51,519 --> 00:32:54,519 The wall had to come down, and who knows what we're going to find inside, 419 00:32:54,519 --> 00:32:57,519 because I certainly have never seen this before, 420 00:32:57,519 --> 00:32:59,519 so it's a very, very special moment. 421 00:33:11,519 --> 00:33:13,519 This literally wasn't at all what I expected. 422 00:33:13,519 --> 00:33:15,519 Nobody knew what to expect. 423 00:33:15,519 --> 00:33:16,519 It's staggering. 424 00:33:16,519 --> 00:33:19,519 I've never, ever been into a tomb quite like this before. 425 00:33:24,519 --> 00:33:26,519 The mask is a very good idea, 426 00:33:26,519 --> 00:33:30,519 because there's all sorts of things floating around in the atmosphere in here, 427 00:33:30,519 --> 00:33:34,519 not just the dust of ages, but the dust of human beings, 428 00:33:34,519 --> 00:33:37,519 and as such, we have to be very, very respectful. 429 00:33:39,519 --> 00:33:43,519 It's a large rock-cut tomb, and although its walls are unfinished, 430 00:33:43,519 --> 00:33:48,519 it's typical of those created for courtiers and officials throughout these cliffs. 431 00:33:50,519 --> 00:33:52,519 Wow, it's a mummified body. 432 00:33:53,519 --> 00:33:55,519 It's absolutely incredible. 433 00:33:55,519 --> 00:33:57,519 Oh, that's quite something. 434 00:34:00,519 --> 00:34:06,519 And if you look along the length of this very long tomb, 435 00:34:06,519 --> 00:34:08,519 look at the floor. 436 00:34:08,519 --> 00:34:10,519 This isn't stone. 437 00:34:10,519 --> 00:34:13,519 These are human remains of mummy wrappings, 438 00:34:13,519 --> 00:34:17,519 and there are chambers and corridors leading off, 439 00:34:17,519 --> 00:34:21,519 again full of wrappings, the linen of ages. 440 00:34:27,519 --> 00:34:32,519 Some of it is claimed to be the very linen that bound the bodies of Montahotepe's... 441 00:34:32,519 --> 00:34:34,519 to help preserve them for eternity. 442 00:34:36,519 --> 00:34:39,519 But at first glance, it's hard to get a clear picture. 443 00:34:40,519 --> 00:34:45,519 For this particular tomb seems to have been reused many times during Egypt's long... 444 00:34:47,519 --> 00:34:49,519 Part of a shoulder. 445 00:34:49,519 --> 00:34:53,519 You see the way the skin's folded and dried out. 446 00:34:55,519 --> 00:34:59,519 Partial human body still with much of its soft tissue intact. 447 00:35:00,519 --> 00:35:05,519 It hits you immediately in the face, and you're confronted with what a tomb is all... 448 00:35:05,519 --> 00:35:09,519 Make no mistake, this is the home of the dead, and we're in amongst them. 449 00:35:10,519 --> 00:35:14,519 It's a very, very emotive and powerful place to be. 450 00:35:17,519 --> 00:35:21,519 But what's striking is how little is left of their bodies. 451 00:35:21,519 --> 00:35:24,519 Like many other tombs up and down the Nile, 452 00:35:24,519 --> 00:35:28,519 they've been subjected to centuries of looting and damage. 453 00:35:29,519 --> 00:35:35,519 And amongst all these linen wrappings and debris and human remains themselves 454 00:35:35,519 --> 00:35:39,519 are the tangible remains of these men who died so bravely 455 00:35:39,519 --> 00:35:44,519 in their efforts to reunify Egypt from Montahotepe, their leader. 456 00:35:44,519 --> 00:35:47,519 I haven't just come out of that tomb. 457 00:35:47,519 --> 00:35:49,519 Very, very mixed emotions. 458 00:35:50,519 --> 00:35:53,519 I don't really know what I was expecting to see. 459 00:35:53,519 --> 00:35:56,519 Certainly some of Montahotepe's soldiers. 460 00:35:56,519 --> 00:35:59,519 Perhaps some of them were, it's highly likely, 461 00:35:59,519 --> 00:36:02,519 but I don't know what they were. 462 00:36:02,519 --> 00:36:05,519 I don't know what they were. 463 00:36:05,519 --> 00:36:08,519 I don't know what they were. 464 00:36:08,519 --> 00:36:11,519 I don't know what they were. 465 00:36:11,519 --> 00:36:14,519 Perhaps some of them were, it's highly likely. 466 00:36:14,519 --> 00:36:19,519 Essentially, what we're looking at are the ancient Egyptians themselves. 467 00:36:19,519 --> 00:36:22,519 These are the ancient Egyptians. 468 00:36:22,519 --> 00:36:26,519 Temples, tombs, pyramids, this wonderful culture. 469 00:36:26,519 --> 00:36:31,519 It's all well and good, studying these esoteric aspects 470 00:36:31,519 --> 00:36:34,519 that are distinct and marvellous and grand. 471 00:36:34,519 --> 00:36:36,519 But when it comes down to it, 472 00:36:36,519 --> 00:36:39,519 the things we should really be interested in, 473 00:36:39,519 --> 00:36:42,519 are these people. 474 00:36:51,519 --> 00:36:55,519 Montahotepe's reunification of Egypt marked a new beginning, 475 00:36:55,519 --> 00:36:59,519 the dawn of what would become known as the Middle Kingdom. 476 00:37:02,519 --> 00:37:05,519 And the rise of Thebes. 477 00:37:10,519 --> 00:37:14,519 Montahotepe made it the new spiritual heart of Egypt. 478 00:37:16,519 --> 00:37:20,519 And it would stay that way for the next 2,000 years. 479 00:37:24,519 --> 00:37:27,519 But whereas the war god Montu had dominated 480 00:37:27,519 --> 00:37:30,519 the previous century of Egypt's story, 481 00:37:30,519 --> 00:37:34,519 the deity that now took centre stage was Hathor, 482 00:37:34,519 --> 00:37:38,519 the goddess of love, joy, beauty and motherhood. 483 00:37:38,519 --> 00:37:43,519 The goddess whose origins can be traced right back to the earliest of times. 484 00:37:44,519 --> 00:37:48,519 And believing that Hathor dwelt in the cliffs of Deir el-Bakri, 485 00:37:48,519 --> 00:37:52,519 Montahotepe chose this site not only for his war cemetery, 486 00:37:52,519 --> 00:37:55,519 but for his own tomb complex. 487 00:37:56,519 --> 00:37:59,519 It was Montahotepe that first built here, 488 00:37:59,519 --> 00:38:02,519 in this dramatic place where the cliffs meet the desert. 489 00:38:02,519 --> 00:38:06,519 Believed to be the home of the goddess Hathor herself, 490 00:38:06,519 --> 00:38:09,519 it was a fast track to the afterlife. 491 00:38:09,519 --> 00:38:13,519 And for Montahotepe and his men, who had lived and died by the war god Montu, 492 00:38:13,519 --> 00:38:18,519 they all now rest in the eternal embrace of Hathor. 493 00:38:18,519 --> 00:38:22,519 The first to build at Deir el-Bakri was Montahotepe, 494 00:38:22,519 --> 00:38:25,519 the founder of a reunified Egypt. 495 00:38:27,519 --> 00:38:31,519 He was so influential that almost 600 years later, 496 00:38:31,519 --> 00:38:35,519 female pharaoh Hatshepsut built her own female tomb. 497 00:38:35,519 --> 00:38:38,519 The tomb was built in the middle of the desert, 498 00:38:38,519 --> 00:38:42,519 and the tomb was built in the middle of the desert. 499 00:38:42,519 --> 00:38:45,519 The tomb was built in the middle of the desert, 500 00:38:45,519 --> 00:38:50,519 female pharaoh Hatshepsut built her own funerary temple right next door, 501 00:38:50,519 --> 00:38:57,519 to tap into the religious and political power of her illustrious predecessor. 502 00:39:04,519 --> 00:39:09,519 In the Middle Kingdom, life for ordinary people was on the up. 503 00:39:10,519 --> 00:39:13,519 Food was plentiful. 504 00:39:15,519 --> 00:39:18,519 Wealth and trade flourished. 505 00:39:20,519 --> 00:39:24,519 And farming was revitalised with new irrigation systems. 506 00:39:29,519 --> 00:39:34,519 Yet the Dark Age had nonetheless left its mark on the Egyptian mindset, 507 00:39:34,519 --> 00:39:38,519 as revealed in the way they prepared for the afterlife. 508 00:39:40,519 --> 00:39:44,519 In the Old Kingdom, tomb walls were often covered in elaborate scenes and texts, 509 00:39:44,519 --> 00:39:48,519 replicating an idealised version of the Egyptian world. 510 00:39:49,519 --> 00:39:54,519 But in the Dark Ages, people had seen their sacred sites ripped apart. 511 00:39:55,519 --> 00:40:01,519 So instead of such tomb art, many in the Middle Kingdom opted for its cheaper... 512 00:40:03,519 --> 00:40:08,519 With something much smaller and much more intimate. 513 00:40:15,519 --> 00:40:18,519 While these may look like children's toys, 514 00:40:18,519 --> 00:40:24,519 they were in fact made nearly 4,000 years ago, to be placed inside Egyptian burials. 515 00:40:26,519 --> 00:40:31,519 Now these wooden models were designed to provide the deceased with an eternal supply 516 00:40:31,519 --> 00:40:34,519 of food and drink in the next world. 517 00:40:34,519 --> 00:40:41,519 And so we have all the basics here, the Egyptian staples, of bread, beer and beef. 518 00:40:42,519 --> 00:40:47,519 So we have the bakers at this end, and they're grinding the grain to make flour, 519 00:40:47,519 --> 00:40:51,519 which will then be made into the bread loaves that are cooked in this fire. 520 00:40:51,519 --> 00:40:54,519 And the baker is in front there. 521 00:40:54,519 --> 00:40:59,519 The arms are quite damaged, but presumably shielding his face from the heat, 522 00:40:59,519 --> 00:41:01,519 as we know from other examples. 523 00:41:01,519 --> 00:41:04,519 Move to the middle, and we have the butcher here, 524 00:41:04,519 --> 00:41:08,519 and he's cutting the throat of the bread loaves. 525 00:41:08,519 --> 00:41:13,519 And the legs are bound here to keep the animal in situ while the deed is done. 526 00:41:13,519 --> 00:41:17,519 And then we move on to the end, and we have the brewer. 527 00:41:17,519 --> 00:41:20,519 This is a fabulous, fabulous example, 528 00:41:20,519 --> 00:41:24,519 because he's pushing the mash through a sieve, 529 00:41:24,519 --> 00:41:28,519 and the sieve's even being drawn on there, on the top. 530 00:41:28,519 --> 00:41:30,519 Actually in proportion with the rest of it, 531 00:41:30,519 --> 00:41:34,519 this individual's ordered rather more beer than either bread or beef. 532 00:41:34,519 --> 00:41:38,519 Because this section of the model is almost half its length. 533 00:41:38,519 --> 00:41:42,519 But you can see the vats of beer carefully laid on their side. 534 00:41:42,519 --> 00:41:45,519 It's a wonderfully evocative piece. 535 00:41:45,519 --> 00:41:49,519 These people have been working for 4,000 years, and they're still at it. 536 00:41:49,519 --> 00:41:51,519 Look at them. 537 00:41:51,519 --> 00:41:54,519 The key elements of Egyptian culture were back, 538 00:41:54,519 --> 00:41:58,519 and they look little different from times of plenty in the previous millennium. 539 00:41:58,519 --> 00:42:01,519 Look at this busy crew grappling with the sail, 540 00:42:01,519 --> 00:42:05,519 poles ready to launch the boat off the Niles banks. 541 00:42:07,519 --> 00:42:10,519 And this granary silo. 542 00:42:10,519 --> 00:42:14,519 Inside workers haul sacks of barley, 543 00:42:14,519 --> 00:42:17,519 while a scribe counts the crop. 544 00:42:17,519 --> 00:42:21,519 And of course, there are also female figures. 545 00:42:21,519 --> 00:42:25,519 In Egypt, women enjoyed much the same status as men, 546 00:42:25,519 --> 00:42:29,519 unlike their sisters in many other parts of the ancient world. 547 00:42:30,519 --> 00:42:34,519 They're also producing one of the Egyptian staples, but linen. 548 00:42:34,519 --> 00:42:45,679 The cloth, which was used to make the 549 00:42:45,679 --> 00:42:48,679 When you see this standing woman here, 550 00:42:48,679 --> 00:42:51,679 she's spinning the thread with this spindle. 551 00:42:51,679 --> 00:42:54,679 And the thread that she's busy making, 552 00:42:54,679 --> 00:42:58,679 she'll then hand on to her two companions here, the weavers. 553 00:42:58,679 --> 00:43:02,679 And they're using this horizontal loom that's pegged to the ground 554 00:43:02,679 --> 00:43:06,679 to produce the bolts of cloth which will be fashioned into the wraparound dresses, 555 00:43:06,679 --> 00:43:09,679 the kilts, the loincloths, 556 00:43:09,679 --> 00:43:12,679 as worn by pretty much every Egyptian woman in the world. 557 00:43:12,679 --> 00:43:15,679 The lives depicted in these busy little scenes 558 00:43:15,679 --> 00:43:17,679 are the comfortable and the familiar, 559 00:43:17,679 --> 00:43:21,679 representing the Egyptian idea of security. 560 00:43:23,679 --> 00:43:25,679 This isn't Tutankhamen's death mask, 561 00:43:25,679 --> 00:43:28,679 this isn't the finest piece of art you'll ever see, 562 00:43:28,679 --> 00:43:30,679 but that isn't the point. 563 00:43:30,679 --> 00:43:33,679 These are real people doing real jobs. 564 00:43:33,679 --> 00:43:36,679 This is ancient Egypt up close and personal. 565 00:43:36,679 --> 00:43:40,679 And it's a place where you can see the beauty of the world. 566 00:43:40,679 --> 00:43:43,679 This is ancient Egypt up close and personal. 567 00:43:45,679 --> 00:43:48,679 Order had been restored within Egypt, 568 00:43:48,679 --> 00:43:53,679 but the fears that once tore Egypt apart hadn't disappeared entirely. 569 00:43:55,679 --> 00:43:58,679 For now they were projected outwards, 570 00:43:58,679 --> 00:44:01,679 to the world beyond its borders. 571 00:44:02,679 --> 00:44:07,679 So Middle Kingdom monarchs, like Stern Ulcis Ostrus III, 572 00:44:07,679 --> 00:44:10,679 focused on national security and wealth creation. 573 00:44:12,679 --> 00:44:16,679 Ostrus is infamous for his devastating military campaign 574 00:44:16,679 --> 00:44:19,679 south into gold-rich Nubia. 575 00:44:20,679 --> 00:44:23,679 But he also opted for a more permanent kind of control, 576 00:44:23,679 --> 00:44:25,679 by building castles. 577 00:44:26,679 --> 00:44:30,679 Now this is a map of southern Egypt and Nubia, 578 00:44:30,679 --> 00:44:32,679 which is modern-day Sudan, 579 00:44:32,679 --> 00:44:35,679 and where Aswan is, that was the border between the two. 580 00:44:35,679 --> 00:44:40,679 And Egypt maintained its control over Nubia through a series of forts. 581 00:44:40,679 --> 00:44:44,679 With around eight of these built by Sir Sostris himself, 582 00:44:44,679 --> 00:44:48,679 these Middle Kingdom forts were within signaling distance of one another, 583 00:44:48,679 --> 00:44:52,679 along the southern Nile, down into Nubia. 584 00:44:53,679 --> 00:44:57,679 They were all part of a massive state building programme, 585 00:44:57,679 --> 00:45:00,679 designed to subjugate the local population, 586 00:45:00,679 --> 00:45:05,679 and maintain the flow of goods and people up into Egypt, 587 00:45:05,679 --> 00:45:08,679 particularly Nubian gold. 588 00:45:10,679 --> 00:45:13,679 Very few of these forts still survive. 589 00:45:17,679 --> 00:45:22,679 These are some of the last images ever recorded of the largest at Buhen. 590 00:45:25,679 --> 00:45:29,679 It was filmed in 1962 during its excavation. 591 00:45:31,679 --> 00:45:33,679 And after the creation of the Aswan Dam, 592 00:45:33,679 --> 00:45:37,679 these massive mudbrick walls disappeared forever 593 00:45:37,679 --> 00:45:40,679 beneath the waters of the new Lake Nasser. 594 00:45:46,679 --> 00:45:49,679 But Buhen isn't completely lost to us, 595 00:45:49,679 --> 00:45:53,679 because the excavation records are kept here at the Egypt Exploration Society, 596 00:45:53,679 --> 00:45:57,679 and they reveal an unexpected aspect of Middle Kingdom Egypt. 597 00:45:57,679 --> 00:46:01,679 As well as photographs, they hold architectural plans of the fort 598 00:46:01,679 --> 00:46:04,679 drawn up during the excavations, 599 00:46:04,679 --> 00:46:09,679 giving a real insight into the immense scale of the Egyptian crackdown in Nubia. 600 00:46:10,679 --> 00:46:12,679 Hiya Chris. Hi Jo, how are you? 601 00:46:12,679 --> 00:46:15,679 I'm well thank you. This looks like an amazing photograph. 602 00:46:15,679 --> 00:46:17,679 What does it actually show? 603 00:46:17,679 --> 00:46:19,679 Well this is an aerial photograph Jo, 604 00:46:19,679 --> 00:46:23,679 so what we can see here along the bottom, this strip, is actually the river Nile. 605 00:46:23,679 --> 00:46:25,679 And then right on the banks of the Nile, 606 00:46:25,679 --> 00:46:29,679 emerging from the sand here, we see this square outline 607 00:46:29,679 --> 00:46:33,679 of the massive fortification of the site of Buhen. 608 00:46:33,679 --> 00:46:39,679 But once the excavators began to uncover at the full extent of what we could see, 609 00:46:39,679 --> 00:46:42,679 this is what they came across. 610 00:46:42,679 --> 00:46:45,679 That just looks like a medieval castle doesn't it? 611 00:46:45,679 --> 00:46:49,679 Very rarely do you think, ancient Egypt, oh yeah, castles. 612 00:46:49,679 --> 00:46:51,679 And yet here is the evidence in front of us. 613 00:46:51,679 --> 00:46:52,679 Absolutely. 614 00:46:55,679 --> 00:46:59,679 Designed to keep the enemy out, Buhen shares features 615 00:46:59,679 --> 00:47:01,679 with the castles of Europe, 616 00:47:01,679 --> 00:47:04,679 but all constructed 3,000 years earlier. 617 00:47:08,679 --> 00:47:12,679 Most astonishing of all is its sheer size. 618 00:47:13,679 --> 00:47:17,679 There's a little scale on this map, gives you an idea, this is roughly 100 metres. 619 00:47:17,679 --> 00:47:24,679 So just the Nile facing wall here is well over 400 metres long. 620 00:47:24,679 --> 00:47:29,679 If you think about the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, that's 200 metres along the base. 621 00:47:29,679 --> 00:47:32,679 So we're talking about the length of two great pyramids along here. 622 00:47:32,679 --> 00:47:36,679 The total circumference of this wall is well over a mile. 623 00:47:36,679 --> 00:47:40,679 And the walls, these outer walls, are 11 metres high. 624 00:47:41,679 --> 00:47:45,679 Inside which you could fit around 20 football pitches. 625 00:47:46,679 --> 00:47:50,679 Because as well as controlling the Nubian gold supply, 626 00:47:50,679 --> 00:47:53,679 Egypt intended to rule by intimidation. 627 00:47:55,679 --> 00:48:00,679 This is the Middle Kingdom's great monumental architectural statement. 628 00:48:00,679 --> 00:48:04,679 Pyramids, monumental tombs, were not really the kinds of buildings they needed. 629 00:48:04,679 --> 00:48:08,679 What they very much needed were these heavily fortified fortress towns 630 00:48:08,679 --> 00:48:11,679 to guard the frontier of their territory. 631 00:48:12,679 --> 00:48:18,679 When this fortress arrives in the barren, empty desert landscape in the Middle Kingdom, 632 00:48:18,679 --> 00:48:21,679 this would have been a massive statement. 633 00:48:21,679 --> 00:48:26,679 Something very, very big, powerful, strong, scary has suddenly arrived in the desert. 634 00:48:26,679 --> 00:48:31,679 So anybody travelling from Nubia north into Egypt has to sail past this. 635 00:48:31,679 --> 00:48:33,679 And this would have taken quite a while to sail past, wouldn't it? 636 00:48:33,679 --> 00:48:34,679 Absolutely, yes. 637 00:48:34,679 --> 00:48:38,679 Imagine looking up, you're in a little boat on the Nile, and you're looking up and up ... 638 00:48:38,679 --> 00:48:41,679 And you can see all these arrow slits. 639 00:48:41,679 --> 00:48:44,679 People training the arrows perhaps, aren't you? 640 00:48:44,679 --> 00:48:47,679 You know you're being watched. It's that big brother mentality, isn't it? 641 00:48:47,679 --> 00:48:48,679 Exactly. 642 00:48:52,679 --> 00:48:57,679 Rising up by the Nile, Buhen was a gleaming citadel of power. 643 00:48:58,679 --> 00:49:02,679 But most of all, it was an early warning system. 644 00:49:02,679 --> 00:49:07,679 The eyes and ears of a nation defined by suspicion and fear. 645 00:49:09,679 --> 00:49:13,679 But Egypt's southern border wasn't the only one to be fortified. 646 00:49:13,679 --> 00:49:18,679 The northeastern border with Palestine was also secured with such defences 647 00:49:18,679 --> 00:49:25,679 to monitor the large number of foreign traders regularly travelling to sell their... 648 00:49:25,679 --> 00:49:30,679 And the visit of one such group is portrayed here on a tomb wall. 649 00:49:30,679 --> 00:49:34,679 A caravan of wealthy merchants and their families. 650 00:49:34,679 --> 00:49:40,679 Clearly not Egyptian with their distinctive hairstyles and brightly coloured clothes. 651 00:49:41,679 --> 00:49:48,679 Known as the Amu people, they traded in such goods as the black ledor, vital for Egypt'... 652 00:49:51,679 --> 00:49:55,679 And their distinctive pottery has been found across the Nile Delta, 653 00:49:55,679 --> 00:49:59,679 where many of them settled to live and work among the Egyptians. 654 00:49:59,679 --> 00:50:04,679 But within a century, some of these Amu had infiltrated high office 655 00:50:04,679 --> 00:50:07,679 and eventually took over Egypt's territory. 656 00:50:10,679 --> 00:50:11,679 Egypt itself. 657 00:50:11,679 --> 00:50:17,679 Now these nomadic Amu people who came in and out of Egypt on a regular basis to trade 658 00:50:17,679 --> 00:50:20,679 are portrayed here in this wonderful tomb scene. 659 00:50:20,679 --> 00:50:27,679 And yet the most important part of the entire scenario are three small hieroglyphs right... 660 00:50:28,679 --> 00:50:32,679 They reveal one of the other terms the Egyptians used to name the Amu. 661 00:50:33,679 --> 00:50:39,679 It's basically a crook, a scepter, and that's written with two symbols. 662 00:50:39,679 --> 00:50:42,679 And that's pronounced Heka, it means ruler. 663 00:50:42,679 --> 00:50:50,679 And then the third of the three symbols is kind of undulating uplands, which means... 664 00:50:50,679 --> 00:50:53,679 Basically the Egyptians used this symbol to denote a foreign land. 665 00:50:53,679 --> 00:50:57,679 So you put these signs together, ruler of foreign lands. 666 00:50:57,679 --> 00:51:04,679 And this really is the clue to what happened next, because these Amu of Palestinian origin 667 00:51:04,679 --> 00:51:08,679 eventually became the Hyksos, the Heka-Hasut are the Hyksos. 668 00:51:08,679 --> 00:51:14,679 And they ruled Egypt from the north between 1650 and 1550 BC. 669 00:51:16,679 --> 00:51:21,679 But as tension between the foreign rulers and their Egyptian subjects gradually escalated, 670 00:51:21,679 --> 00:51:24,679 Egypt entered a second dark age. 671 00:51:24,679 --> 00:51:27,679 The Hyksos made an alliance with the Nubians to the south. 672 00:51:29,679 --> 00:51:33,679 And the Egyptians found themselves trapped between two enemies. 673 00:51:35,679 --> 00:51:41,679 Although we know little of this difficult time, some fascinating texts do survive. 674 00:51:41,679 --> 00:51:48,679 Perhaps the most compelling are the words of a royal letter sent by the Hyksos king sou... 675 00:51:48,679 --> 00:51:55,679 Its message would prove so explosive that it galvanised the Thebans to once more regain... 676 00:51:55,679 --> 00:52:02,679 Now this letter was either a colossal diplomatic faux pas or simply downright... 677 00:52:02,679 --> 00:52:09,679 And it involved the Egyptian goddess Tawaret, the pugnacious, blade-wielding hippo. 678 00:52:09,679 --> 00:52:14,679 Tawaret may have been a protective deity, but she was also a fiend. 679 00:52:14,679 --> 00:52:20,679 With features borrowed from the hippo and the crocodile, animals the Egyptians feared. 680 00:52:20,679 --> 00:52:26,679 So it seems the Hyksos king, Apophis, set out deliberately to insult the Thebans. 681 00:52:31,679 --> 00:52:38,679 Now the letter takes the form of a complaint in which Apophis is basically complaining... 682 00:52:38,679 --> 00:52:43,679 the bellowing of the sacred hippos in Thebes is keeping him awake at night. 683 00:52:43,679 --> 00:52:46,679 Expel the hippopotami from the lake. 684 00:52:46,679 --> 00:52:53,679 They do not allow me to sleep day or night because their noise is in my ear. 685 00:52:53,679 --> 00:53:01,679 Now many have taken this to be a rather eccentric comment, but I think it actually... 686 00:53:01,679 --> 00:53:05,679 It seems that the hippo is a very powerful deity. 687 00:53:05,679 --> 00:53:08,679 And it is the powerful women of Thebes. 688 00:53:08,679 --> 00:53:16,679 It seems that Apophis is actually comparing the wife of the Theban leader with the fei... 689 00:53:16,679 --> 00:53:21,679 And soon it would be the Thebans who would decide that the Hyksos had had their day. 690 00:53:21,679 --> 00:53:23,679 They had to go. 691 00:53:27,679 --> 00:53:32,679 And soon this war of words had escalated into armed conflict between the two powers. 692 00:53:36,679 --> 00:53:45,679 But the Egyptians of Thebes had also gained the means to launch their attack with... 693 00:53:45,679 --> 00:53:48,679 State of the art weaponry. 694 00:53:50,679 --> 00:53:53,679 In particular, a new kind of bow. 695 00:53:53,679 --> 00:53:56,679 Known today as the composite bow. 696 00:53:59,679 --> 00:54:02,679 It would revolutionise Egyptian warfare. 697 00:54:03,679 --> 00:54:05,679 Wasn't it a lovely shape? 698 00:54:05,679 --> 00:54:07,679 It's a beautiful thing. 699 00:54:07,679 --> 00:54:13,679 This may look like a bow made of solid wood similar to those the Egyptians had always... 700 00:54:13,679 --> 00:54:19,679 But the secret of the composite bow is all down to the elements within. 701 00:54:19,679 --> 00:54:24,679 It's composite because it's made out of different materials all joined together. 702 00:54:24,679 --> 00:54:28,679 So there's a wooden core from the centre of the bow. 703 00:54:28,679 --> 00:54:36,679 But inside the curve on the belly of the bow is horn glued onto the wood which forms a... 704 00:54:36,679 --> 00:54:38,679 So the horn, the cow horn will go there? 705 00:54:38,679 --> 00:54:44,679 Yeah, that's right on the inside of the curve and then on the outside of the curve an ev... 706 00:54:44,679 --> 00:54:45,679 Sinu. 707 00:54:45,679 --> 00:54:46,679 That's horrid. 708 00:54:46,679 --> 00:54:48,679 Which looks like something the cat would enjoy. 709 00:54:48,679 --> 00:54:53,679 And that's all covered over with birch bark to protect the glue from the elements. 710 00:54:53,679 --> 00:55:00,679 Before the Hyksos occupation the Egyptians had shot arrows from bows carved from soli... 711 00:55:00,679 --> 00:55:06,679 They were quite large, unwieldy and only effective at fairly close range. 712 00:55:06,679 --> 00:55:13,679 But in the composite bow animal horn added flexibility and the sinu strength. 713 00:55:13,679 --> 00:55:16,679 It's a clever combination of ingredients isn't it? 714 00:55:16,679 --> 00:55:20,679 Making it the ultimate in ancient archery. 715 00:55:21,679 --> 00:55:24,679 It just asks you to do that doesn't it? 716 00:55:24,679 --> 00:55:25,679 It does. 717 00:55:25,679 --> 00:55:26,679 It's fabulous. 718 00:55:26,679 --> 00:55:29,679 There's a real sense of power behind this isn't there? 719 00:55:29,679 --> 00:55:30,679 It's a beautiful thing. 720 00:55:30,679 --> 00:55:31,679 Let me show you. 721 00:55:31,679 --> 00:55:36,679 So this is why it's such a game changer really because it's a bow that you can use. 722 00:55:36,679 --> 00:55:41,679 It's quite short, you can use it in a chariot and yet... 723 00:55:41,679 --> 00:55:43,679 Woah, that was brilliant! 724 00:55:43,679 --> 00:55:45,679 Well done! 725 00:55:45,679 --> 00:55:51,679 The composite bow was easier to handle and shot faster arrows with much greater... 726 00:55:53,679 --> 00:55:58,679 The Egyptians had little choice but to adapt or remain an occupied nation. 727 00:56:00,679 --> 00:56:07,679 So by copying the new military technology they were eventually able to push the Hyks... 728 00:56:07,679 --> 00:56:10,679 All the way back to Palestine. 729 00:56:10,679 --> 00:56:14,679 Securing Egypt's northern frontier once again. 730 00:56:15,679 --> 00:56:22,679 And when the new bow was used in conjunction with the other Hyksos introductions, the... 731 00:56:22,679 --> 00:56:30,679 The three combined to express the power and supremacy of Egypt's new Egyptian rulers. 732 00:56:36,679 --> 00:56:39,679 This marked the start of the new kingdom. 733 00:56:40,679 --> 00:56:43,679 This marked the start of the new kingdom. 734 00:56:43,679 --> 00:56:47,679 Which began when the powerful Theban leaders took the throne. 735 00:56:47,679 --> 00:56:54,679 This dramatic rebirth in royal power was mirrored by the rise of Thebes' local god... 736 00:56:54,679 --> 00:56:59,679 Based at his cult centre, the Temple of Karnak. 737 00:56:59,679 --> 00:57:03,679 And it would be Amun who now protected Egypt and its kings. 738 00:57:03,679 --> 00:57:07,679 Yet thanks to the Hyksos legacy, these were a new kind of king. 739 00:57:07,679 --> 00:57:12,679 And it's on this temple's walls we can clearly see the effect of the Hyksos... 740 00:57:12,679 --> 00:57:17,679 For as Pharaoh smites his enemies, this is Egypt reborn. 741 00:57:17,679 --> 00:57:20,679 A fully armed, fully charged superpower. 742 00:57:20,679 --> 00:57:25,679 Whose kings, shown on a monumental scale, are superheroes. 743 00:57:33,679 --> 00:57:50,679 Over some 800 years since the pyramid age, Egypt's story had been one of upheaval,... 744 00:57:50,679 --> 00:57:56,679 The Egyptians had reclaimed their culture and entered a truly golden age. 745 00:57:56,679 --> 00:58:01,679 The next part of ancient Egypt's story is a time of monumental architecture. 746 00:58:04,679 --> 00:58:07,679 Oh, oh flipping out. 747 00:58:07,679 --> 00:58:10,679 And fast wealth. 748 00:58:10,679 --> 00:58:17,679 Bringing not only glory, but greed and corruption. 749 00:58:17,679 --> 00:58:20,679 The priest kings of Karnak had got what they'd always wanted. 750 00:58:20,679 --> 00:58:21,679 Absolute power.