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00:03This is a civilisation whose glory days began 5,000 years ago.
00:08And for the next two millennia, ancient Egypt was a superpower.
00:14Her pharaohs were more than just kings, they were living gods.
00:20The Egyptians built pyramids, temples and statues that soar to the heavens.
00:28To achieve all this, the ancient Egyptians had to be brilliant craftsmen.
00:33They were also great thinkers.
00:35They had the ability to organise labour on an industrial scale.
00:40And they introduced mass production 3,500 years before our own industrial revolution.
00:49At my base in Britain, I'll be trying out some of the achievements of ancient Egypt
00:55with master craftsman Marty Jopson.
00:57Before we can float this boat, we have to sink it.
01:01And I've sent reporter Amani Zain to Egypt.
01:04When you're walking here, they seem to stretch.
01:07She's investigating how an ancient people
01:09was able to leave behind such an impressive legacy.
01:13And I'll see you next time.
01:43It's impossible to think of Egypt without thinking of the Nile,
01:47the longest river in the world.
01:49In a country mostly covered by desert,
01:52the river has always been its lifeblood.
01:54Without it, there would have been no pharaohs, no pyramids
01:58and no ancient civilisation.
02:02Their understanding of the river and its seasonal changes
02:05would be the key to Egypt's prosperity.
02:10Each year, the river would flood its banks
02:12and the Egyptians called the floodplain Kimit, or black land,
02:16after the rich, dark silt on which the farmers grew their crops.
02:21They would sow their crops when the flood water subsided
02:24and the result was often an excellent harvest.
02:28Egypt became the wealthiest country in the ancient world,
02:31partly because she was able to trade her crop surplus.
02:42The Nile had another crucial role as the country's main highway.
02:48The most efficient way to transport cattle, grain and other goods for trading
02:52was by river.
02:58So, the ancient Egyptians became skilled at building boats.
03:04The earliest were made from papyrus,
03:06the reeds that grew on the banks of the Nile,
03:09but they soon moved on to building them out of wood.
03:18One very special boat was discovered alongside Egypt's most spectacular monument,
03:23the Great Pyramid at Giza.
03:32Just over 50 years ago, an archaeologist discovered a thin line of mortar,
03:37which outlined the edge of a long, narrow pit.
03:41Three years later, archaeologists began excavation of the pit,
03:46and as they dug deeper, they detected a strong smell of cedarwood.
03:51Eventually, they unearthed a huge boat,
03:53which turned out to be around four and a half thousand years old.
03:56But it was all in pieces.
03:58One thousand, two hundred and twenty-four, to be precise.
04:03How the pieces fitted together was at first a mystery.
04:08Then they discovered telltale marks on the main parts of the boat,
04:12put there by the designer,
04:13which then helped them put together the jigsaw.
04:16But it still took a team of archaeologists 14 years to reassemble.
04:20And here it is. Isn't it wonderful?
04:26This boat, over 40 metres long, is one of the earliest surviving anywhere.
04:34It belonged to Khufu, the pharaoh, or king,
04:38who was entombed in the Great Pyramid nearby.
04:43Egyptologists first thought that they'd found a barge that wasn't meant to be used.
04:47It was purely symbolic to carry the king from the land of the living to the land of the dead.
04:56But many now believe that a barge like this was actually built
05:00and used to carry Khufu's body along the Nile to the Great Pyramid.
05:10What makes this so remarkable is that it's one of the world's earliest plank-built boats.
05:15Even more intriguing is the way it's held together.
05:18The boat has been sewn together with rope.
05:26So, how easy is it to make a boat like this?
05:29We thought we'd try to find out.
05:31If you just tip that one up, on its edge, like that.
05:35Right.
05:35And if you take that one now and lift it onto there,
05:39you can see the shape beginning to form.
05:43I'll slot that one in there, and there you go.
05:46Oh, that's quite cunning.
05:48So, you've sort of cut them at an angle?
05:50Yeah, each plank has been chamfered at just the right angle,
05:53so that they all fit together neatly and make a semi-circular hull.
05:58That's really clever.
05:59So, now you need some nails to hold it together?
06:01Er, no.
06:02They used string.
06:04You thread it through like this,
06:07and you stitch it through all these little holes.
06:13And then, presumably, you're going to have to put some pitch or moss or something in the gaps.
06:18No, that's the other beauty of this boat is you don't need anything like that.
06:21All you use is another bit of wood which has also been cut.
06:25Right, at an angle.
06:26Just the right angle.
06:26So, it just fits in the gaps?
06:27Just fits in.
06:28And then you tighten the string up, just tighten that one up like that.
06:31Right.
06:32Hang on a sec, water's still going to leak in, isn't it?
06:34Ah, well, this is where the cutting part,
06:35before we can float this boat, we have to sink it.
06:37Then all the wood soaks up the water, and as it soaks it up, it swells,
06:41and that pulls against this string, clamps all these joints here really tight,
06:45shut, and makes them watertight.
06:49Our boat needs to be submerged for long enough to allow the wood to swell.
06:54Yeah.
06:55Push it out a little ways.
06:58There you go.
07:06Now, the boat's been underwater for 36 hours, and Marty's just pulled it out.
07:11It's looking absolutely fantastic, I'm really confident.
07:14All these strings that we put in are really, really taut now,
07:19because all the wood's swollen and stretched everything tight.
07:26So this is it, this is it.
07:27Is water going in?
07:29No, not yet, just a little trickle.
07:31Do you have the courage to get in it?
07:32I think so.
07:36It's taking your weight.
07:41Let go of the shore.
07:44It's floating.
07:46Here I go.
07:47It's not that unstable, is it?
07:51It's floating.
07:52For thousands of years, the ancient Egyptians used this technique to make their boats.
07:59The ancient Egyptians have done well, haven't they?
08:01This is exactly the technology they used, and, well, it's working.
08:11And they were remarkably watertight.
08:13In fact, it was using sewn plank sailing boats that the Egyptians reached as far as Syria,
08:20hundreds of miles to the north.
08:22And even today, sewn plank boats are still to be found in parts of the Arabian Peninsula.
08:28In fact, the ancient Egyptians used to call it a pit-a-suit, the ancient Egyptians used to call it
08:46a pit-a-suit,
08:46a new capital called Thebes emerged in ancient Egypt, and Karnak was its most impressive temple.
08:54The ancient Egyptians used to call it a pit-a-suit,
08:58the most perfect of places, and you can see why.
09:02It took 1,500 years to build, and it's probably the largest temple complex anywhere in the world.
09:11It's been called an archaeological department store, with something for everyone.
09:21If Thebes was the powerful capital of Egypt, then Karnak was at its heart.
09:26It was where the pharaohs lived, and it was the administrative and economic centre.
09:37It was also where tens of thousands of workers were employed, many of them in temple building.
09:49Possibly the most impressive thing about Karnak is the temple known as the Great Hyperstyle Hall.
09:58It's fast. It's so big you could fit St Paul's Cathedral in London and St Peter's in Rome comfortably inside.
10:09Originally, there was a roof over the top, so the whole hall was enclosed, illuminated only by shafts of sunlight.
10:17Imagine what it must have looked like when all these pillars were brightly painted and the statues of the pharaohs
10:22stood between them.
10:24You would almost have felt you were in the hall of the gods themselves.
10:33The temple was dedicated to Amun, the most important Theban god.
10:39Priests would bring food and drink to his statue to try to satisfy his every earthly desire.
10:47Even the engravings on the pillars reflect the importance of Amun, god of the empire.
10:54These pillars are what's most impressive about this hall.
10:57There are 134 of them, and when you're walking here, they seem to stretch into infinity.
11:03Up to 23 metres high, the pillars were covered with engravings.
11:07It's been estimated that each pillar would have taken a team of 10 men 200 days to complete.
11:14The deeper carvings were made with stone tools, but these delicate bar reliefs were made with this, a bronze chisel.
11:27There is a long tradition of working with metal in Egypt, and this blacksmith is carrying on simple skills developed
11:33two and a half thousand years ago.
11:37But to supply the engravers at Karnak, the Egyptians must have had ways of mass producing tools, like the bronze
11:44chisel.
11:49First, we need copper. Now I've got all these copper bits here which I'm putting in, and then we need
11:53a little bit of tin, just a little bit.
11:56Here we are, a little bit, about five percent, something like that, to go in to the crucible, and then
12:00we've got to melt it.
12:02To melt copper and tin, you need a very high temperature, around a thousand Celsius.
12:08That's possible only if you blow air into the furnace.
12:14Come on, come on, come on, blow.
12:16And the ancient Egyptians started off using this, a blowpipe.
12:22OK, Marty, OK, OK, OK, steady, steady, you're not getting anywhere, because you've only got a litre every lungful, and
12:27it's very hard work.
12:28Yeah. And you really want a continuous blow.
12:31Yes.
12:32It's not really good enough if you want to make lots of chisels.
12:37But this tomb painting reveals their ingenious solution.
12:42These foot bellows were a much more effective way of pumping air into the furnace.
12:48None has survived, but inspired by the painting, we've made our own.
13:03Standing on each diaphragm, in turn, forces air into the pipe.
13:09It looks quite hard work.
13:10It is, and it takes a bit of coordination.
13:13It will take a bit of practice.
13:20Oh, yeah, we're definitely getting a good blast in here.
13:28So, has Marty managed to blow enough air in to melt the copper and tin?
13:33If he has, we can make our chisel.
13:46Oh, it's lovely.
13:48Lovely.
13:49That's a really nice pour.
13:58That's sort of a chisel shape, isn't it?
13:59You need to sharpen it up on the point, don't you?
14:01It means polishing and finishing, but...
14:02Yeah.
14:03So, those bellows really do the job.
14:10Wall paintings inside tombs are one of the main reasons we know so much about the ancient Egyptians.
14:20They give a real insight into the technologies they developed, including their mastery of one of the oldest crafts of
14:27them all, pottery.
14:42I'm at El Foyoum, an oasis just outside of Cairo.
14:46It used to be a favourite vacation spot of the pharaohs.
14:49Now it's home to many potters who work in this open-air workshop here at El Nesla.
14:58Little here has changed over the centuries.
15:01These kilns, where they fire the pottery, look just like the ones you see in ancient Egyptian wall paintings.
15:12Even the walls of the kilns are made of pots.
15:18Then, just as now, Egyptians made use of whatever materials were at hand.
15:24Clay and water, both from the Nile.
15:29Even today, most Egyptian pots are made from Nile clay.
15:33It's versatile, abundant and costs nothing.
15:42They add straw to the clay, which burns out when it's fired and makes the pot more porous.
15:47Very useful for keeping water cool.
15:53These potters are using what's called a paddle and an anvil.
15:57The anvil is the round stone used inside the pot.
16:00The paddle is the curved piece of wood used on the outside.
16:08They've been making pots like this for thousands of years.
16:14Even the kick wheel dates back to 500 BC.
16:30Potts have always had a practical use.
16:33But, as with so much in ancient Egypt, pottery also had a symbolic use.
16:39They found pots with writing on them.
16:41These are literally letters to the dead.
16:43The ancient Egyptians were superstitious.
16:46And if misfortunes befell them after a death, they put it down to the dead person's spirit haunting them.
16:53The letters were an attempt to end the bad luck.
16:57Even more dramatic was the breaking of the jars ceremony.
17:01Red pots, the colour of blood, were smashed at funerals to ward off evil.
17:06Magical texts were also written on pots, which were then decimated and buried as part of their ritual destruction.
17:18This is another pot associated with the dead, and it holds a 6,000-year-old mystery.
17:26Many such pots, found in graves in Upper Egypt, had these red bodies and blackened tops.
17:34Archaeologists have long puzzled over how the distinctive blackening was achieved.
17:41Now, Jane Smythe here is an experimental potter, and she's been working on it.
17:45Do you have the answer?
17:46We might have the answer.
17:47You might have the answer.
17:47Yes, yes.
17:48OK, so I'm going to make a pot.
17:49You're going to help me make a pot using the coil technique.
17:54We have some clay mixture.
17:57It'll act like a glue.
17:59And then we make the coil, which is like a sausage.
18:07Push down on the clay, turn it round very, very slowly.
18:21Very carefully smooth it down.
18:29So that's going to be the bottom of the pot.
18:33You leave it to dry.
18:35If you put a pot straight into the kiln, it will explode.
18:40We preheat the pots in a small bonfire for up to an hour and move them to an unusual-looking
18:46kiln.
18:47And what's it made of?
18:49It's a hole dug in the ground, lined with cow manure.
18:54Cow dug?
18:55Why not camel?
18:56They didn't have camels in Egypt at that point.
18:59And you do need a special kind of dung.
19:02You need a dung that's been through the animal's stomach about four times.
19:07Could dung be the surprising answer to this archaeological puzzle?
19:14It's black round the top.
19:16Yes, the black top.
19:17That is fantastic.
19:18It's oxidised here and it's been reduced here.
19:21It's all in the chemistry.
19:24Iron oxide in the clay gives the pot its red colour, like rust.
19:28The burning dung removes some of the oxygen, making black metallic iron.
19:36You may be the first person who's ever reproduced 6,000-year-old pottery.
19:48To the ancient Egyptians, the Nile was Itero, the seasonal one, and they depended on the river for their survival.
19:56It provided the raw material for their pots.
19:59Its fish fed much of the population.
20:04And, of course, they relied on the fertile Nile mud to grow barley and wheat, the mainstay of the Egyptian
20:10diet.
20:15But there were years when the river didn't rise at all, causing widespread drought and famine.
20:23If they could build pyramids, why couldn't the ancient Egyptians build a structure to control and contain water?
20:36However, recent archaeological research has shown that at least they tried.
20:42Around 4,800 years ago, they built a dam just south of Cairo to control flash floods and provide drinking
20:50water for workers in the quarries nearby.
20:55It was called the Dam of the Pagans, Sad al-Khafara, and it was the most extraordinary structure.
21:02That dam was actually two walls right across the river.
21:06They were each about 120 yards long and 25 yards wide at the base.
21:12And each one was about 45 feet high, higher than the walls of the castle.
21:18Really extraordinary.
21:19Now, in between those two walls, they put 40,000 tons of rubble, all taken with wheelbarrows.
21:26Absolutely amazing project.
21:29But, it didn't quite work.
21:31And I've asked Marty to build us a mini-dam so that we can investigate.
21:45The ancient Egyptians used rocks for the outer wall and rubble for the core.
21:51For our smaller scale dam, we're using bricks and gravel.
21:55They got the curved shape right and faced the upstream side with limestone blocks.
22:01But the other side wasn't faced, suggesting the dam hadn't quite been finished.
22:07Crucially, they didn't use mortar between the blocks, nor were there any overflow channels.
22:13Now, we have a team of hydraulic engineers and Marty, and you've built a dam.
22:17I have, indeed.
22:19Do you seriously think that this is going to take a flash flood?
22:22Yeah, I think this has got the strength to take that lot up there.
22:26Right, get your hooves out of there.
22:28OK, chaps, are you ready?
22:30Yes!
22:31OK, flash!
22:37Without overflow channels, the water surges over the top.
22:42What's more, the water can seep through the bricks and gravel, which weakens the structure even further.
22:49It's not actually holding the water back.
22:51It's trickling through.
22:53It's trickling through like crazy.
22:54Well, that doesn't surprise me, if there's no mortar.
22:56There's no mortar.
22:58And we think that that's what happened to the Dam of the Pagans.
23:02An unusually violent flash flood destroyed it completely.
23:07It would be 3,000 years before another dam was built in Egypt.
23:20Whatever their understanding of the physical world,
23:23the ancient Egyptians believed that virtually everything in their lives had a spiritual dimension.
23:31And much of their innovation was directed towards preparation for the afterlife.
23:41As their Book of the Dead states,
23:44He shall come forth by day,
23:46he shall rise up to walk upon the earth among the living,
23:49and he shall never fail and come to an end.
23:52Never, never, never.
24:02This is Valley of the Kings, also known as City of the Dead.
24:07And it may just look like a sun-scorched valley,
24:09but it's also one of the richest archaeological sites on earth.
24:17To the men and women who worked here 3,500 years ago,
24:21it was the great place, the burial ground of the pharaohs.
24:25The pharaohs were more prepared for the afterlife than anyone else.
24:30Secrecy was paramount.
24:33After all, this was where the mummified bodies were supposed to be buried for all eternity.
24:42The whole valley is honeycombed with their tombs,
24:46and each one designed to resemble the underworld,
24:49with a long corridor descending into a burial chamber.
25:02This is the tomb of Ramses III.
25:05Can you believe that it was painted 3,000 years ago?
25:08These scenes show what the king has to do
25:10to ensure his progression to the afterlife,
25:13and the gods and goddesses he has to appease en route.
25:18The pharaoh was the embodiment of the hawk-headed god Horus,
25:23and the Egyptians believed divine himself.
25:27Anubis, the jackal-headed god, protects the domain of the dead.
25:31He is also the god of mummification.
25:37This is just one of thousands of mummified corpses
25:41found in the Valley of the Kings.
25:48You can see how amazingly well-preserved he is.
25:50But how has he managed to survive so well for over 3,000 years?
25:56The Egyptians knew that the hot, dry desert sand
25:59was good for preserving the dead.
26:03Mummification also involved a drying process
26:05and a thorough knowledge of anatomy.
26:09Once they got the corpse back from the family,
26:11it was washed, and then it was laid out on an enormous table,
26:14and the chap with the instruments would get to work.
26:17First of all, they cut a hole in the left-hand side,
26:20and then they had to collect the various organs,
26:22because some of them were very important in the afterlife.
26:24They couldn't leave them in the body, because they rot,
26:27so they kept them in special jars called canopic jars.
26:31Now, this one, he's got a face like a baboon,
26:33and he's called Happy, and he's for the lungs.
26:36So, haul them out, stuff them in the jar,
26:40and they'll all be nice and safe,
26:42and we'll keep them there in the tomb with him
26:44so he can have them in the afterlife.
26:46They should have been bigger, these canopic jars,
26:48but, you know, we couldn't run to that.
26:50The liver, the stomach, and the lower intestines
26:53went into the three remaining jars.
26:56They also took the brain out,
26:58and the way they did that was quite simple.
27:00The back of your nose, you've got a thing called the ethnoid bone.
27:03Ethmoid meaning it's like a sieve,
27:05and it's perforated, you can go through it very easily.
27:08And then they would take a hook and shove that into the brain
27:11and stir it round a good deal.
27:13That would turn the whole brain to liquid,
27:15and then it would be much easier to get it out.
27:17And imagine that this is Marty's brain.
27:20You stir it round, and the whole lot liquefies,
27:24and then you can simply pour it out through the nose, like that.
27:27It's easy.
27:28And then, finally, there was the heart.
27:30Now, they didn't take the heart out,
27:32because the heart carries a record of all your past deeds.
27:35And so you need that when you start the afterlife,
27:38because you're going to be interrogated by the gods.
27:41And if you speak the truth,
27:43then you are said to be of sound voice,
27:45and you're allowed through into the kingdom of Osiris.
27:49Now, we have to dehydrate him.
27:51This is natron.
27:52It's actually a mixture of sodium carbonate and bicarbonate,
27:55and it's found sort of lying around in the desert.
27:57And basically, we cover him with a great heap of this,
27:59all the way over, several feet deep,
28:01and we leave him for 40 days.
28:04We brush off all the natron, get rid of that,
28:06and then we have to anoint him with oil.
28:09And here we have some oil,
28:11and just take a little bit of that.
28:12Ooh, rather a lot.
28:13Give us an arm, Marty.
28:15And that'll keep out all the bacteria,
28:16which would otherwise come in
28:17and make him go rotten from the outside.
28:20Finally, when he's thoroughly oiled, the bandages.
28:22And I think I'll start with the foot,
28:25and then they've got to bandage the whole body.
28:32And there he is, perfectly preserved.
28:35He'll be incorruptible.
28:37He'll be unchanging and unmoving for 1,000 years.
28:49I'm heading towards Khanna Khalili,
28:52which is one of the busiest marketplaces in Cairo.
29:00It's a market where you can buy almost anything,
29:05including jewellery.
29:11Nearly everyone in ancient Egypt wore jewellery,
29:14from kings and queens to ordinary men, women, and children.
29:19And even today, Egyptian women love gold.
29:26Traditionally, a man would give his wife a present
29:28on their wedding day, usually of jewellery,
29:30and with any luck, it would be expensive.
29:33It's a reflection of his wealth,
29:35and more importantly, what he thinks of you.
29:37And if you divorce, you can always sell it.
29:44Even in ancient Egypt, jewellery was a sign of status.
29:51In what's called the New Kingdom,
29:53around 1500 BC, a new middle class emerged.
29:58The jewellery you wore reflected your position in society,
30:02and necklaces with several strings of precious stone beads
30:05were commonplace.
30:07Wearing expensive jewellery
30:08was an effective way of showing off your wealth.
30:17This amazing necklace is the sort of thing
30:20that might have been worn by kings and queens.
30:23Silver and gold,
30:25carnelian, the red beads,
30:27lapis lesilii, the dark blue.
30:30They could have found the beads out in the desert.
30:32Well, they found the big chunks of stone,
30:34the amethyst and the carnelian here.
30:37But they had to turn them into beads.
30:39And that means cutting off little chunks of stone
30:42and then drilling holes in each one of them.
30:44And that's the difficult bit.
30:46So in order to drill holes in them,
30:48they would use a bronze drill like this.
30:51So this is bronze point,
30:53and at the other end, there's a wooden handle.
30:55And in order to spin that,
30:58they would wrap a string from the bow
31:01around the handle of the drill
31:03and put it in a little dent they'd made with a flint.
31:07And then they'd take a capstone.
31:08Here's a capstone with a little dent made in that.
31:11And that goes on top of the handle.
31:14And the bow goes backwards and forwards.
31:17And the drill goes round and round.
31:18And gradually, you drill your way through.
31:20And to improve the process,
31:22you'd add a little bit of this abrasive grit,
31:24sand and water.
31:27It's a very nice, restful process.
31:30And I reckon to get through this bead
31:31is going to take me four or five hours.
31:35Which means that to make that necklace
31:38is going to take about a year.
31:41So they obviously realised this problem,
31:43and they had a solution.
31:44They drilled with several drills at the same time.
31:49This illustration shows men who are using
31:52not just one, but three and four drills simultaneously,
31:56a much more efficient way of making holes in beads.
32:01The first evidence of mass production,
32:04three and a half thousand years
32:05before our own industrial revolution.
32:09And I need a much bigger bow for this.
32:11So I've got this bow, which is more than a metre long.
32:15And I'm going to wrap my bowstring around the three drills.
32:22I think I do need a few months' practice.
32:27But, look, you can see they're all going round.
32:29I'm actually drilling three beads at once.
32:33Which means that I can make that necklace
32:36in only four months!
32:42If the New Kingdom was the most dynamic period
32:45in ancient Egyptian history,
32:48Ramses the Great was one of its most powerful pharaohs.
32:54He reigned for 67 years, and lived to the ripe old age of 92.
33:01He was nicknamed the Builder King,
33:03and this is one of his finest achievements.
33:06It's Luxor Temple, just a mile downriver from Karnak.
33:11Once again, the temple is covered with inscriptions,
33:14both on the walls, known as pylons, and the obelisk.
33:20They tell us a lot about him, but not always the truth.
33:24The inscriptions are little more than propaganda,
33:27the pharaonic equivalent of a party political broadcast.
33:30But if you wanted to show how powerful you were,
33:32this was how you'd do it.
33:37This, for example, shows Ramses slaying Hittite foes
33:40at the Battle of Kadesh.
33:44That's stretching it.
33:45It was a draw at best.
33:47But according to these pylons,
33:49it was a resounding victory.
33:55According to Ramses,
33:56he won the battle almost single-handedly.
33:59I killed among them as I willed, he said.
34:05But we know from other sources
34:07that Ramses signed a peace treaty with the Hittites
34:10for ever-placing Kadesh out of Egyptian hands.
34:21It just proves that you can't believe everything you read,
34:24even if it is carved in stone.
34:27It wasn't until the early 19th century
34:30we began to decode the mysteries of ancient Egypt.
34:35Any understanding of their strange, picture-like signs
34:39had died out long before.
34:44The key to unlocking these mysteries
34:47came in the midst of another war 3,000 years later.
34:53Napoleon's armies were swarming across Egypt
34:55when one of his officers came across a slab of stone
34:58in a town called Rosetta.
35:02On it were three distinct scripts.
35:05The first, hieroglyphs.
35:08The second, demotic, a shorthand form of hieroglyphs.
35:13And the final one, Greek.
35:15As it was possible to read Greek,
35:18could this be the key to understanding hieroglyphs?
35:26Copies were made of the inscriptions
35:28and sent to eminent scholars throughout Europe.
35:31It became a race between Jean Champollion in France
35:34and Thomas Young in England.
35:36Who would be the first to decipher the Rosetta Stone?
35:45Young used his knowledge of Greek
35:47to identify many of the demotic words
35:50and match them to their hieroglyphic equivalent.
35:55Champollion, however, greatly expanded on Young's work.
36:01He was the one who laid the foundations
36:03on which our present knowledge
36:05of the ancient Egyptian language is based.
36:11Richard Parkinson is an Egyptologist at the British Museum
36:14and you know all about these things, is that right?
36:16These are the hieroglyphs, yes?
36:17Yes, written by priests.
36:19Written by priests.
36:20And this is demotic, is that right?
36:22Which was written by the common people.
36:24Ordinary people could read and write this.
36:25Yes.
36:25And this is the Greek?
36:27Yes.
36:27Now, how do you begin to understand the hieroglyphs?
36:32Well, the first thing is the...
36:33all the texts say exactly the same message
36:36in different languages.
36:38Which is what, in Stendhal?
36:40It's all about...
36:40It's dreadfully dull.
36:41It's all about attacks, arrangements
36:43between the priests and the king.
36:45At the top you have circles
36:48which go round the king's name
36:50and the king's name is Ptolemy,
36:52which people knew from the Greek.
36:54And by matching the two up,
36:56people knew that those signs wrote the sounds of the name Ptolemy.
37:02Once they'd deciphered hieroglyphs,
37:04they were able to read papyri.
37:06These were the scrolls,
37:08made from the papyrus reeds,
37:10which grew along the banks of the Nile.
37:15Which way do I read?
37:16The birds and the animals always face the beginning of the line,
37:19so here you start from right to left
37:20and then go down in these columns.
37:22So you read each column down and then move one to the left?
37:25Yes.
37:25What sort of stuff was there in these papyri?
37:27People who deciphered it were expecting the secrets of the universe.
37:31What they actually got was a fantastic mixture
37:34of all sorts of material,
37:35love songs, laundry lists,
37:38poetry really as fine as Shakespeare.
37:41One of the finest is the tale of King Khufu's court,
37:45which confirms that they weren't so very different from us.
37:48And the best story in there is about his dad, Sneferu,
37:52who got bored.
37:53Tell me about it.
37:54Exactly.
37:54He was bored and so he summoned his magician
37:57and the magician tells him to get some women
38:00and go on a rowing trip.
38:01And Sneferu gets quite carried away and says,
38:05bring to me 20 women,
38:07beautiful limbs with deep breasts
38:09and with braided hair
38:11and whose bodies have not yet been stretched in childbirth.
38:14Right.
38:15And also bring me 20 fishing nets.
38:1820 fishing nets.
38:19And give the nets to these women
38:21after their clothes have been taken away from them.
38:24You mean he invented fishnet ties?
38:26That's what it seems to say.
38:27And then you get the red ink marking the start of a new stanza
38:31and he goes off on his rowing expedition
38:33and starts feeling better and a little less bored.
38:38The papyri do more than just chronicle the sexual tastes of the pharaohs.
38:43They tell of history and mathematics.
38:46One of the most important, the Edwin Smith papyrus,
38:50dates back to 1500 BC.
38:53And it's interesting because it's medical.
38:55And unlike some of the other medical papyri,
38:57it doesn't just list a whole lot of remedies,
38:59it also has the diagnosis.
39:01And you can almost imagine yourself sitting beside the doctor
39:04and trying to work out what's wrong with the patient.
39:07It says here,
39:08if you examine a man having a split in his cheek
39:12and you find there is swelling raised and red
39:14and on the outside of the split,
39:16yes,
39:16you should bandage it with fresh meat on the first day.
39:19Well, I've got some meat for you here.
39:22The ancient Egyptians were on the right lines.
39:25Red meat encourages white blood cells to come to the surface
39:29and fight the infection.
39:31They used honey as an antiseptic
39:34and grease to keep it in place.
39:36You've got honey, grease and a pad every day.
39:39Every day.
39:39Until you're better.
39:47The deserts of ancient Egypt
39:49provided the essential ingredient
39:51for a material that today we take for granted.
39:57For 3,500 years,
39:59they've been using sand
40:01to make and work wonders with glass.
40:08In a workshop in Cairo,
40:10they're carrying on the tradition.
40:16It's hot and dirty work,
40:18as you can see.
40:19And it's also very noisy.
40:28No one knows for sure
40:30the origins of glassmaking.
40:33But according to the Roman author,
40:35Pliny the Elder,
40:37it was discovered
40:37when a group of merchants
40:39set up camp
40:39in what is now Israel
40:41and made a fire.
40:44When they couldn't find enough stones
40:46to put their cooking pots on,
40:47they used lumps of this salt nitron
40:49they were carrying as cargo.
40:53The next morning,
40:54they noticed these stones melted
40:56and their reaction with the sand
40:58produced a shiny material
40:59and so glass was discovered.
41:06The world's earliest known glass factory
41:09was recently uncovered
41:11at Tel Al-Amana.
41:18These are the furnaces
41:19where they used to manufacture the glass.
41:21Even the ash and the charcoal
41:23they're clearing away
41:24date back to 1500 BC.
41:33The ancient Egyptians
41:35used a particular technique
41:36to make their glassware.
41:38It's called core forming
41:40and Mark Taylor,
41:42an expert in ancient glass manufacture,
41:44has been learning how to do it.
41:46Ah, well, core forming
41:47is essentially wrapping core material
41:50around a metal rod
41:51and just mould it to shape, really.
41:55We put it into the furnace,
41:57burn out the organic matter
41:58and fire the clay.
42:00It'll keep its shape
42:01and it'll stay fairly hard
42:03and I'll be able to trail
42:06molten glass directly on top of it.
42:09Getting right back to the, you know,
42:11the first flowering of glass making, really,
42:13when you're looking at things like this.
42:18Working glass like this
42:20is a highly skilled craft
42:21and it's time consuming.
42:23This perfume flask, for example,
42:26will take over an hour to make.
42:36That's what I'm...
42:39That's about it, really.
42:44It's still got the rod
42:45and the core in there.
42:46Well, the rod just simply slides out.
42:49That's easy.
42:50So that's no problem.
42:52But then is the core
42:53going to come out too?
42:54Yeah, well, that can be dug out
42:56but, I mean, it's very friable.
42:59I can just break pieces off.
43:20I'm in the Valley of the Kings
43:22and it's here they made probably
43:23the most important discovery
43:25of the last century.
43:31Tutankhamun's tomb.
43:37It was in 1922
43:38when Howard Carter stumbled
43:40into the burial site
43:41of the little-known pharaoh.
43:47When his partner asked
43:48could he see anything
43:49he replied,
43:50yes, wonderful things.
43:58So much was stashed
44:00into just four small chambers
44:02that it took Carter 10 years
44:04to remove and catalogue everything.
44:09Tutankhamun swept all over the world.
44:12So overwhelming
44:14was the impact of the discovery
44:15that the Pope at the time said
44:17it's not an exhumation,
44:19it's a resurrection.
44:27Today, the treasures
44:28from Tutankhamun's tomb
44:30are in the Egyptian Museum
44:31in Cairo.
44:48It's not surprising
44:49that these rooms
44:50are the most visited
44:51in the whole museum.
44:52They eclipse everything else.
44:56And Tutankhamun
44:57was only the most minor
44:59of the royals.
44:59Imagine the treasures
45:01that must have been
45:02in the tombs
45:02of the great kings.
45:11These are two life-size statues
45:13of Tut.
45:14They would have stood as guardians
45:15to the antechamber
45:16where his body lay.
45:20But there's more here
45:21than just sheer extravagance.
45:26Look closer
45:27and there are clues
45:28to some ancient Egyptian
45:29craft skills.
45:33For example,
45:34furniture making.
45:36While some of it
45:37is obviously ceremonial,
45:40much of it
45:41was intended
45:41for everyday use.
45:49The oldest surviving furniture
45:52we have
45:52comes from ancient Egypt
45:54and tomb paintings
45:55show the techniques
45:56they used
45:57are similar
45:58to those
45:58we use today.
46:02Even the tools
46:04we use,
46:04such as the chisel,
46:06the axe
46:08and the saw
46:10come directly
46:11from ancient
46:12Egyptian carpentry.
46:16Before they could
46:16start making furniture
46:17they had to prepare
46:18the wood
46:19and obviously
46:20this is not
46:21a very efficient way
46:22of doing it
46:23because I'm going
46:24to get terrible
46:25backache
46:26and also
46:27sooner or later
46:28the saw is going
46:29to jump out
46:30and lacerate
46:31either my thumb
46:31or my knee.
46:33What any decent
46:34carpenter needs
46:35is one of these
46:35an ancient
46:36Egyptian vice.
46:38Piece of wood
46:39to cut.
46:41Two bits of rope.
46:43This one
46:43goes over the top
46:45and is used
46:46to just hold
46:46the bottom
46:47of the piece
46:47of wood
46:48in place.
46:50And this one
46:51goes on the top
46:52here
46:53and that
46:54patently
46:55isn't going to do
46:55anything.
46:56Far too wobbly.
46:58A lever.
46:59The lever goes in here
47:00and you twist it
47:01over.
47:03Still not strong
47:04enough.
47:05A heavy weight.
47:07That goes on
47:08the end of the lever
47:11and then
47:12the weight
47:13pulling down
47:14on here
47:16holds
47:16the whole thing
47:18absolutely
47:18rock steady.
47:21And the last thing
47:21you need
47:21obviously
47:22is a saw.
47:23And with this
47:26and the beauty
47:26of it is
47:27it's so
47:28simple.
47:31Holds it really
47:32firm
47:33nobody
47:33needs to
47:34hold it
47:34so you
47:35double the
47:36manpower.
47:37Do you know
47:38the Egyptians
47:39had folding
47:39furniture
47:404,000 years ago?
47:42This stool
47:43is a copy
47:44of one found
47:44in the tomb
47:45of Tutankhamun.
47:46And it's very
47:47simple.
47:47Look
47:48there's a frame
47:48here
47:49on the outside
47:50and then
47:51another frame
47:52on the inside
47:52here
47:53and these
47:54two frames
47:54are hinged
47:55together
47:55on this bar
47:57so that they
47:58just go like
47:58that.
47:59And they're
47:59held together
48:00at the top
48:00by this piece
48:01of fabric.
48:02Now they
48:02probably wouldn't
48:03have used
48:03cotton.
48:04They would
48:04have used
48:04leather
48:05from sheep,
48:06goats,
48:07cows,
48:07or leopard
48:08skin
48:08was very
48:09very popular.
48:10And the
48:10wood would
48:11probably
48:11have come
48:11from Syria
48:12or the
48:12eastern
48:13Mediterranean
48:13because they
48:14didn't have
48:14much of
48:14their own.
48:15The question
48:16is will it
48:16take my
48:17weight?
48:17Because I'm
48:18a bit heavier
48:18than the
48:18average
48:19ancient
48:19Egyptian
48:21and I'm
48:21doing this
48:22a bit
48:22cautiously.
48:23Yeah,
48:23yeah,
48:23it works.
48:24In the
48:25houses of
48:26the nobility
48:26the folding
48:27stool was the
48:28most popular
48:29unit of
48:30furniture.
48:30But they
48:31also had
48:31folding chairs,
48:32folding beds,
48:33all sorts of
48:33folding stuff
48:34because the
48:35kingdom was
48:35huge and
48:36when they
48:36travelled
48:36they had
48:37to take
48:37their
48:37furniture
48:38with
48:38them.
48:40The
48:40stool must
48:41also have
48:41been really
48:42useful for
48:43a pastime
48:43that the
48:44Egyptians
48:44invented.
48:45Fishing.
48:48Apparently
48:49noblemen
48:50who lived
48:51by the
48:51Nile
48:51would construct
48:52channels
48:53from the
48:53river
48:53into their
48:54gardens.
48:54People
48:55had obviously
48:55been fishing
48:56since the
48:56dormant of
48:57time
48:57but they
48:57were the
48:57first
48:58people
48:58to do
48:58it
48:58as
48:59a
48:59hobby.
49:07You
49:07may
49:07remember
49:08we
49:08started
49:08with
49:09Khufu's
49:09boat
49:10and it
49:10seems
49:11fitting
49:11to
49:11end
49:11with
49:12him.
49:13Khufu
49:13reigned
49:14about
49:142600 BC
49:15and we
49:15know
49:15almost
49:16nothing
49:16about
49:16him
49:17which
49:17is
49:17ironic
49:18really
49:18because
49:19for
49:19him
49:19they
49:20built
49:20the
49:20biggest
49:20of
49:21all
49:21the
49:21pyramids
49:22the
49:22great
49:22pyramid
49:23at
49:23Giza
49:23just
49:24on
49:24the
49:24edge
49:24of
49:24Cairo
49:25It's
49:26as
49:26awe-inspiring
49:27today
49:27as
49:27it
49:27must
49:28always
49:28have
49:28been
49:50It's
49:51difficult
49:51to
49:51describe
49:52the
49:52impression
49:52the
49:53pyramids
49:53make
49:53as
49:54they
49:54rise
49:54up
49:55out
49:55of
49:55the
49:55dusty
49:55smog
49:56of
49:56Cairo
49:56they're
49:57probably
49:57the
49:58most
49:58iconic
49:58and
49:59recognizable
49:59monuments
50:00in the
50:00world
50:01there's
50:01an
50:02ancient
50:02Arabic
50:02saying
50:03man
50:03fears
50:04time
50:04but
50:05time
50:05fears
50:05the
50:06pyramids
50:17this
50:18was
50:18one
50:18of
50:18the
50:18wonders
50:19of
50:19the
50:19ancient
50:19world
50:20it
50:21was
50:21built
50:214400
50:23years
50:23ago
50:24but
50:25up
50:25until
50:25as
50:25recently
50:26as
50:26the
50:2619th
50:27century
50:27it
50:27was
50:28still
50:28the
50:28tallest
50:28building
50:29in
50:29the
50:29world
50:29it's
50:30higher
50:30than
50:31the
50:31arc
50:31de
50:31triumph
50:31higher
50:32than
50:32the
50:32statue
50:33of
50:33liberty
50:33and
50:34higher
50:34than
50:34st.
50:35Paul's
50:35cathedral
50:38this is the
50:39great pyramid
50:40of Khufu
50:41the oldest
50:41and largest
50:42and a symbol
50:43of his
50:44absolute rule
50:47of his
50:47according to
50:48the
50:48Greek
50:48writer
50:48to build
50:50it
50:50he drove
50:51the
50:51Egyptians
50:52into
50:52an
50:52extremity
50:53of
50:53misery
50:56the
50:57pyramid
50:57and its
50:58construction
50:58was his
50:59abiding
50:59concern
51:03the pyramid
51:04is perfectly
51:05aligned with
51:06the north
51:06south
51:07east
51:07and west
51:08but how are they able to do that
51:10at a time when there were no telescopes
51:12and only the most primitive of surveying instruments
51:19the ancient Egyptians used their knowledge of the stars to align the pyramids
51:24so perfectly
51:25they recognised individual stars and were able to follow the trajectory across the night sky
51:33they took an area where they were going to put the north east corner of the pyramid
51:37and they levelled the limestone pavement like that made it absolutely level
51:41and then they built a semicircular wall just a few feet high like this
51:46and in the centre of what would have been the whole circle they put an observation post
51:50this was where a chap was going to stand and watch the stars
51:53and then as the stars went round
51:56he the observer would look for a particular star
51:59and I choose this red star here
52:02and as that came up over the horizon or over the top of this wall
52:06he would get his mate to go and put a mark on the top of the wall
52:10and he'd say no, right a bit, right a bit, right a bit
52:12no, back a bit, back a bit, back a bit
52:13and it's just about there
52:15that's where that star is rising
52:18and then he'd go away and have a few hours rest
52:20while the star went on its procession across the sky
52:23and he'd come back in time to watch it set
52:26and then he'd get his mate to go and make another mark
52:30there we are as it comes down
52:32there is the star
52:33there is the star set position
52:36and then he'd go away and have a rest and come back during the day
52:39and mark out lines from the observation spot
52:42to where it rose
52:44and to where it set
52:46and then all he had to do
52:47was to bisect that angle
52:50and that is true north
52:54and of course he could do it with several stars
52:56and get an even more precise measure
52:58and that's how they were so skilful
53:00in setting out those pyramids
53:02north, south, east and west
53:06it took 20 years to build the pyramid
53:08and a workforce of 20,000 men
53:11people used to think that they used slaves
53:13but Egyptologists now believe
53:16that a corps of skilled workmen
53:17was responsible for its construction
53:23the workers lived in a village adjoining the pyramids
53:26which is currently being excavated
53:30they found evidence of food production
53:33on an industrial scale
53:40they worked out that each worker
53:42needed up to 6,000 calories a day
53:44just to keep going
53:45mainly in the form of meat
53:47fish, bread
53:48and lots of beer
53:54but even for a well-fed workforce
53:57it's still an extraordinary
53:58and arduous construction project
54:03most of the blocks are roughly metre cubes
54:06and weigh just under 3 tonnes
54:09there are more than 2 million blocks altogether
54:25there must have been an army of men
54:28cutting soft limestone blocks
54:31from the nearby quarry
54:35some of the large blocks weighed up to 16 tonnes
54:39we don't know exactly how they transported them
54:41but they had wooden sledges and ropes
54:43and the workforce was well trained
54:49we want to find out how difficult it would have been
54:52to pull those limestone blocks on a sledge
54:57Marty, what have we got?
54:58Right, we have a sledge
54:59Oh, that was a good idea, wasn't it?
55:01Yes
55:01and this sledge...
55:02It is wooden too
55:03It's completely wooden
55:04and attached to the front of it is our rope
55:06trusty bit of rope
55:07Jolly good
55:07and what's it running on?
55:08It's running on...
55:11limestone blocks
55:12But hang on a sec
55:14they had a very large, well-trained workforce
55:16We have a very large, well-trained workforce
55:17the Roberts Bridge Rugby Club
55:19Arrgh!
55:21We're using a tonne of sand
55:23instead of a limestone block
55:25First, how many men will it take
55:27to move it on the flat?
55:28OK, could we have one man, please?
55:32Ready?
55:33Pull!
55:36No, not moving
55:37Another man, please
55:38Number two
55:39Pull!
55:42No, three
55:43Ready?
55:44Pull!
55:45No, four
55:46Pull!
55:48No, five
55:49Pull!
55:52No, six
55:55Pull!
55:58Yeah!
55:59Stop!
55:59Stop!
55:59Right!
56:00We now know
56:00that it takes six guys
56:02to pull a tonne of sand
56:04on limestone runners
56:06But, to get up to the pyramid
56:08they had to use ramps
56:10and ramps have been found at Giza
56:12at seven degrees
56:15So, how many men will it take
56:17to pull our tonne of sand
56:19up our seven-degree ramp?
56:23First, six on, please
56:27Ready?
56:28Pull!
56:31No, seven, please
56:32Pull!
56:37Yeah!
56:39Fantastic!
56:40But I think we can make it easier for them
56:42by using lubrication
56:45The surface of the ancient Egyptian ramps
56:47was clay
56:48and we think they lubricated it
56:50by sprinkling the surface with water
56:53So, how many men will it take to move the sled now?
56:58OK, let's have one man on the rope, please
57:00ready to go
57:03Pull!
57:06Right, second man, please
57:10Come on, come on, come on, go
57:12Could we have a third man on the rope?
57:14Pull!
57:16A fourth man on the rope
57:18Pull!
57:20And a fifth
57:22Pull!
57:23Yeah!
57:26Stop!
57:27That's fantastic
57:28Thank you very much, guys
57:31So, we've proved
57:32that a lubricated surface
57:34reduces the number of men
57:36needed to pull the sled
57:37which would have allowed the pyramid
57:39to be built more quickly
57:40and efficiently
57:42And, perhaps, the Clair Giza
57:44was slipperier than ours
57:51The pyramids are the most visible legacy
57:54of the ancient Egyptians
57:57That so much has survived
57:59is testament to their skill
58:01and inventiveness
58:04And once we were able to decode
58:06the mysteries of hieroglyphs
58:07they gave us
58:08a remarkable insight
58:09into lives
58:10not so very different
58:12from our own
58:12many thousands of years ago
58:21To receive a free
58:23to receive a free Open University leaflet
58:24which accompanies this series
58:25and details of Open University programs
58:28telephone
58:290870 900 0352
58:32or go to
58:33bbc.co.uk
58:37Next time
58:38I'm going to explore
58:39the ideas and inventions
58:40from the golden age
58:41of ancient Greece
58:43From ray guns
58:43to water organs
58:44mechanical bows
58:46to the very first computer
58:47the Greek world
58:49has left a lasting legacy
58:50that is still very much
58:52at the heart
58:52of the way we live today
58:53you
58:55you
58:58you