ANNOUNCER: Coming up,
a groundbreaking investigation
is changing everything
we thought we knew
about Tutankhamun.
WOMAN: 9 years old,
and he is sitting
on one of the greatest
thrones in the ancient world.
Tut was a warrior.
These are battles that
he was involved in.
ANNOUNCER: The most advanced
scientific tests uncover
how the young Pharaoh died.
He fell down
from the chariot.
MAN: The heart was
badly crushed.
They couldn't even use that
as part of his passage
to the afterlife.
ANNOUNCER: A new analysis
of his burial reveals
what happened to Tut
after he died.
WOMAN: So there are just
so many things wrong
in terms of royal
mummification.
WOMAN: The face was
cut off and replaced
with the face
of Tutankhamun.
MAN: This is definitely
an explanation
for the charring
on the mummy.
ANNOUNCER: And a surprising
theory explains
the survival of Tut's tomb.
WOMAN: Every royal tomb
had been robbed.
Tut's still remained
relatively untouched.
ANNOUNCER: "Ultimate Tut"
on "Secrets of the Dead."
WOMAN: This is
the enduring mystery of Tut.
"Secrets of the Dead"
was made possible
by contributions
to your PBS station
from viewers like you.
Thank you.
NARRATOR: In 1922,
workmen stumbled
upon the greatest
archaeological find
in history...
the tomb of Tutankhamun...
the most famous Pharaoh
of ancient Egypt.
His life and death
are shrouded in mystery.
Now Egyptologist Chris Naunton
is reexamining
the excavation's
original notes and photographs.
His mission--to reveal
the boy king's ultimate secrets.
NAUNTON, VOICE-OVER: I want to
be able to separate the myth
from the real story.
I really want to get
to the bottom of this.
NARRATOR: Helping his quest are
leading forensic scientists...
That is a lot
of smoke.
This is absolutely
incredible.
NARRATOR: cutting-edge
computer software,
and the latest
high-tech imaging equipment.
In the most comprehensive
investigation ever done,
the team will reassess
the data from every angle.
There is a whole new story
that has not been seen before.
[Horses neighing]
NARRATOR: The search
will reveal amazing answers
to the enduring questions
who was Tutankhamun...
why was his tomb found
virtually intact,
what makes his mummy unique,
and how did he die?
Egypt, land of Pharaohs.
It was here
more than 90 years ago
that Howard Carter made
his sensational discovery...
the tomb of Tutankhamun.
What Carter discovered
was worth a staggering sum,
nearly a billion dollars.
The world was enthralled
with Egypt's Golden Pharaoh,
yet nearly a century later,
the exact circumstances
of Tut's life and death
remain a mystery.
For Egyptologist
Chris Naunton,
this enduring puzzle has fueled
a lifelong fascination.
In his attempt to finally
answer the questions
surrounding the boy king,
he has gained access
to Carter's original
notes and photographs.
NAUNTON, VOICE-OVER:
The main reason why there are
still so many
unanswered questions
about Tutankhamun
and his burial
are that ultimately
the immensity of the discovery
defeated Carter.
In the years remaining
of his life,
he spent all of his time
documenting the objects,
but then he died
not having got to the point
of final publication.
His notes were simply
boxed up and put away
and almost forgotten,
and people simply haven't
looked at that material
and tried to answer
these questions.
NARRATOR:
Scouring Carter's material,
Chris is now discovering
a number of clues
that suggest something
out of the ordinary
in Tutankhamun"5 burial.
Certain aspects of the burial
are anomalous.
So for example,
objects in great quantities
deposited in the tomb in
a somewhat disorganized manner.
We can see that
from the drawing here.
NARRATOR: Despite all
of the items inside,
the tomb itself is tiny.
Other royal tombs Carter
studied at the time
contained
long entrance corridors
and large burial suites,
often with pillared halls.
There is nothing like this
in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The tomb of Tutankhamun
is substantially smaller,
and it's much,
much simpler, as well.
NARRATOR: There is also
something mysterious
about the mummy itself.
NAUNTON: The photographs
that we have of the mummy show
that it seems to have been
in a pretty unhappy condition
when it was discovered,
and Carter notes that
"Here and there were
a number of lightly
wrapped pads of linen,
the linen being reduced
to the consistency of soot."
There are lots of unusual
aspects to this burial,
lots of questions still
unanswered, in fact.
NARRATOR: With these first clues
and other details gleaned
from his study of the notes,
Chris begins his quest
to solve the mysteries
of Tutankhamun.
He starts at the spot
where Carter made his
momentous discovery--
Egypt, the Valley of the Kings.
Beneath the valley
lie tombs belonging
to ancient Egyptian Pharaohs.
Many are vast and complex,
consisting of a warren
of interconnecting chambers...
like the tomb of Ramses VI
carved into the hillside
just above Tut's tomb.
At the base of the valley is
KV62, the tomb of Tutankhamun,
a modest affair
with just 4 chambers.
One of the most popular
attractions in Egypt,
it receives thousands
of visitors a day.
To ChrisI trained eye,
nothing here makes sense.
These bizarre features
are vital clues
to the real Tutankhamun story.
The first thing that strikes
you about the tomb is
that it's really not
very big at all.
It's not the kind of size
of tomb you'd expect
a king to be buried in.
In fact, it's a bit more
like the tomb of a noble.
NARRATOR: But Carter and
his benefactor Lord Carnarvon
found a treasure trove crammed
into an impossibly small space.
In the antechamber,
they discovered goods
the king would need
in his afterlife--
chariots, weapons,
couches, and chests.
In the annex, they found
more of the same.
In the burial chamber,
they found a nested set
of 4 shrines.
Within the innermost shrine
was a stone sarcophagus.
It contained
3 nested golden coffins
and the mummy of the boy king.
Well, this ch*nk here
in the wall was the result
of the very large series
of shrines being moved
into the burial chamber
as these shrines are enormous.
There was only
30 centimeters' gap
between the outermost shrine
and the wall,
so the people responsible
for the burial would have had
a devil of a job to get
all this material in there,
and in fact, the only way
that they managed to do it
was by removing
this chunk of wall.
It shows that this tomb
was not designed
to house these shrines.
They were meant
for somewhere much larger,
they were meant
for somewhere else.
NARRATOR: Chris also notices
the lack of embellishment
on the walls themselves.
NAUNTON: The decoration
in the tomb is really
very sparse.
The burial chamber is
the only part of the tomb
that is decorated.
The figures are very large.
There's quite large areas
of undecorated wall space
in between them.
Normally in the tomb of a king,
you would expect
a large quantity of very
esoteric religious texts
relating to the passage
of the king from life to death.
NARRATOR: Nothing in the tomb
seems fit for a king.
And there is
something remarkable
about the coffin, too.
The feet have been hacked off
to fit it into the sarcophagus.
And Tutankhamun's tomb
is not the only part
of this mysterious burial
with a hidden story.
Inside the sarcophagus,
Carter found
the most iconic object,
Tut's death mask...
but even this treasure has
a dark secret,
which archaeologists are only
just beginning to reveal.
To find out more, Chris is
meeting with Yasmin El-Shazly
of the Cairo Museum.
So this is one
of the most iconic
objects in the world.
People come to see this
in the thousands
every year,
but there's more
actually than meets
the eye, I gather.
Exactly.
It's a very famous piece.
People look at it
for its glamour,
and they rarely
really study it,
and in fact,
it's only recently
been properly studied.
Really"?
If you actually look
very closely
at the object
from over here,
you'll see signs
of riveting and soldering.
Uh-huh.
NARRATOR: Inside the mask,
where few people look,
is a vital clue
for the investigation,
evidence of how the ancient
craftsmen joined
the front face,
the image of Tutankhamun,
to the headdress behind.
You can also see them
here where the face
attaches
to the nemes headdress.
Oh, you can see that
really clearly.
Yeah. Right along
the line there, right.
So these are--
these were actually
separate pieces.
This is not one
single thing. Right.
Yes, yes. Exactly.
NARRATOR: A closer look
at the mask shows
that the headdress was made
separately from the face
using different materials.
Other interesting things
about this object
are that the inlays
in the nemes headdress
are made out
of colored glass
while the blue inlays
in the eyebrows
and cosmetic lines are made
out of lapis lazuli.
Looks very similar,
actually different
materials.
Different material.
Right. OK.
Which is very unusual...
Yeah, right.
because usually when you
have one object
and you're inlaying it
with a certain color,
it's usually--
you usually use
the same material.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: This unusual use
of lapis and glass tells Yasmin
that the headdress and face
were made at different times.
Another thing is that
the ears are pierced.
We know that only
women and children
wore earrings
from the art,
the surviving art
from ancient Egypt.
Adult kings did not.
Really?
Yeah.
Right.
NARRATOR: Whoever buried Tut
tried to pass the headdress off
as a man's.
When this was found
in the tomb,
the earlobes were blocked
with gold leaf.
Putting all of these
things together,
what does
this tell us?
OK. The theory is
that the mask wasn't
originally made
for Tutankhamun...
Really?
and that the face
was at some point
cut off and replaced
with the face
of Tutankhamun.
Right. OK.
So everything
other than the face
may belong
to somebody else,
and it's just that
they put his image
on over the top,
and hey, presto,
we think of this
as being
Tutankhamun,
but it's not.
Exactly, and it was
a woman because we know
that only women
and children wore earrings.
Adult kings did not.
Really? Wow.
NARRATOR: The headdress
of Tut's famous death mask
with its pierced ears
was made sometime
before the face itself
and was originally designed
for a woman.
Some Egyptologists believe
that his middle coffin
was actually made
for his stepmother,
the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.
It's a theory that's
never been tested until now.
In Riverside, California,
Professor Amit Roy-Chowdhury
works at the cutting edge
of facial recognition software,
developing programs
for security firms
and the military.
Using the latest technology,
he aims to determine
whose face is represented
on the middle coffin.
ROY-CHOWDHURY, VOICE-OVER:
So the question that we
are going to answer is
do the features
of the middle coffin
match the Nefertiti mask better
or the Tutankhamun
death mask better?
NARRATOR: To compute
the similarity
between two faces,
the software identifies
and maps the facial features
of both individuals.
Professor Roy-Chowdhury
starts with Nefertiti.
ROY-CHOWDHURY: So this is
a face mesh in blue,
and on this mesh,
we have marked the features
that are of interest--
the corners of the eyes,
the mouth, and so on.
And when the mesh is completely
aligned with the face,
the computer now knows
where those feature points are
on top of the face.
NARRATOR: From the mesh,
the computer identifies
crucial areas of the face,
giving a signature pattern.
The process is repeated
with the Tutankhamun death mask.
Now Professor Roy-Chowdhury
has a unique pattern
for both faces.
The purpose of doing this
is to come up
with an objective measure
and a number.
This number cannot be obtained
just by staring at those faces.
We can have some idea
that they're similar,
but by doing this process
of coming up with the signature,
you are coming up with a number.
NARRATOR: The distances
between the signature points
are tiny, ranging
from 2-4 millimeters
because essentially
most faces are similar.
For the computer,
these differences
are statistically significant.
So how does the Tutankhamun mask
compare with the middle coffin?
ROY-CHOWDHURY: The middle coffin
shows a 65% or even lower
similarity with Tutankhamun,
which is what you
would probably get
if you just take
two completely unrelated people.
You might still get
a 60%-65% similarity.
NARRATOR: So what about
the Nefertiti bust?
How does that compare?
ROY-CHOWDHURY: We see actually
that the middle coffin shows
an almost 85% similarity
with Nefertiti.
This gives us a very high level
of confidence in saying
that the representation
in the middle coffin
does indeed resemble
the representation of Nefertiti
that we had started off with.
So these results are great,
and they provide solid numbers
to stand behind those theories.
NARRATOR: The work at Riverside
is the most convincing evidence
yet that Tutankhamun was buried
with secondhand grave goods.
And one treasure found
in the tomb reveals
that Tut's identity changed
even during his lifetime.
This throne found
in the antechamber
bears a different name.
The hieroglyphs spell out
the name Tutankhaten.
At some point during his life,
Tutankhamun changed his name.
And why would he be buried
in his stepmother's coffin
in a tomb unfit for a Pharaoh?
Had he fallen from grace
with the priesthood,
guardians
of the sacred afterlife?
To answer this question,
Chris needs to investigate
Tutankhamun's early years.
Chris is heading south to Luxor.
He wants to learn more
about Tut's childhood,
which coincided with
the greatest political storm
of ancient Egypt.
Melinda Hartwig is an expert on
this period in Egyptian history.
HARTWIG: It is a time
of shifting loyalties
and religious upheaval,
of civil sort of unrest,
of wars being fought.
This is the enduring mystery
of Tut that continues
to hold our fascination.
NARRATOR: Melinda is going to
show Chris around Luxor Temple,
the heart of ancient Thebes,
Egypt's religious capital
for more than 1,000 years.
It was a sacred site that
Tutankhamun's father destroyed.
Akhenaten's generally
accepted to be
the father
of Tutankhamun.
What's also fascinating
about Akhenaten
is that he proclaims
this new religion
focusing on one
sole god.
NARRATOR: Akhenaten was one of
the most controversial figures
in Egyptian history.
He banned the worship of
Egypt's most popular god Amun.
Then he ordered Egyptians
to worship a new god,
the sun disk Aten,
and he even named his son
after the deity.
HARTWIG: Chris,
I want to show you
something here.
This throne...
Mm-hmm.
Was found in the tomb
of Tutankhamun,
but what's interesting
about it is that it
is inscribed
with the name
Tutankhaten,
and this name was
given to his son
by Akhenaten.
NARRATOR: Thebes was
the spiritual home
of the god Amun,
previously head
of the Egyptian pantheon,
but after banning
the worship of Amun,
Akhenaten had
the Amun priests arrested.
Evidence of this moment
in history has been preserved
in the stones of Luxor Temple.
You can see here
it's very, very well
kind of shown
where he completely
hacks out the name
of Amun.
So, I mean, it's clear
that it's really--
it's a vendetta almost
against the god.
Yeah. Absolutely.
NARRATOR: To create
a clean slate
for his new religion,
Tut's father moved the capital
200 miles downstream
along the Nile
to a deserted stretch of desert
now called Amarna.
Here he constructed
a monumental new city
from scratch.
HARTWIG: Akhenaten
was charismatic,
but when you start looking
at the whole Aten revolution,
you realize how narcissistic
it actually was.
I mean, here you have a king
who is really the sole focus
of a religion
and that the religion
is not only about the Aten
but it's also
about the power of the king.
NARRATOR: In just
a few short years,
Amarna came to rival
the greatest cities
of the age.
Akhenaten imagined
these changes would last
for centuries.
He even named his son
Tutankhaten--
Living Image of the Aten.
For several years,
the boy prince must have
had a carefree childhood,
spending time with his sisters,
including Ankhesenamun,
4 years older than him,
who he would eventually marry.
Then his father Akhenaten died.
[People chanting
in foreign language]
Tut's story now turns
to the ruins of the city
at Amarna,
which showed the moment
when the boy prince took
up his birthright.
This signet ring
was engraved
with the throne name
of Tutankhaten,
and it was found
at Amarna,
which would indicate
that the king was crowned
while he was at Amarna
because he would not have
received his throne name
unless he was crowned.
OK. So this suggests
that he became king
while the capital
city was still
where Akhenaten
had wanted it to be.
Exactly, exactly.
Wow! Interesting.
NARRATOR: In his father's
city at Amarna,
the young prince
was crowned Pharaoh.
HARTWIG: So at the
moment of Tutankhamun's
corronation
he is all
of 9 years old,
and he is sitting on one
of the greatest thrones
in all
of the ancient world.
That's quite a tall
order for a young boy.
Absolutely.
NARRATOR: And things were not
going well in Akhenaten's
brave new world.
At Amarna, burials
have been found
of ordinary people
with severe malnutrition,
spinal injuries,
and stunted growth.
The average age of death was 22.
There is even a suggestion
the city was struck by a plague.
For the rank and file,
the experiment in Amarna
wasn't working.
Akhenaten's dream
had become a nightmare.
HARTWIG: You have to
think about this
poor little boy.
His father's utopia is
sort of crumbling
around him,
and he is watching
perhaps a plague
coming through Amarna
that's taking some
of his family members.
You know, this huge
burden now rested on his
9-year-old shoulders...
and of course,
he's feeling isolated,
and what else would he
do but turn towards
his trusted advisors?
NARRATOR: Tutankhamun's
chief advisor was his vizier Ay.
HARTWIG: Ay would have
been 61 at the time that
Tut was crowned king.
He served in the court
of Amenhotep III.
Then he served
under Tutankhamun's
father Akhenaten,
and then of course,
he is the very, very
close advisor to Tut
during Tut's life.
Egypt is in a state
of economic as well
as religious turmoil,
and so we are pretty
sure that Ay was
pulling the strings
and really pushing Tut
towards this ultimate
conclusion,
which was the Aten
religion did not work.
The only way to
continue Egypt was
to follow the continuity
of the old gods,
and this is
what Tut did.
NARRATOR: Shortly
after becoming Pharaoh,
young Tutankhaten made one
of the defining decisions
of Egyptian history.
He abandoned his father's
city at Amarna
and moved the center
of worship back to Thebes,
modern-day Luxor.
Today, all that remains
of Akhenaten's once proud city
is a bunch of mud bricks,
some temple foundations,
and a carved stela
marking the boundary.
Tut's move signaled
a return to the past.
His father's reforms
were abandoned.
For Tut, it must have been
extraordinarily difficult
for him to turn his back
on what his father had done.
I mean, as a 9-year-old boy,
you hold your father
in such high regard,
and to completely turn your back
on those policies,
to go back to the enemies
of your father and say,
"Well, let's go ahead
and make up,"
it must have been
extraordinarily difficult.
NARRATOR: But Tut went further
than just making peace
with the priests of Amun.
Radically, he changed
his name to show
the depth of his support.
Tutankhaten means
the Living Image
of the Aten,
and he changes his name
to Tutankhamun,
which means
the Living Image
of Amun.
That's a pretty close
name to the god Amun
if you're trying to
show an allegiance
to him.
NARRATOR: By adopting
the name we are familiar
with today, Tutankhamun,
the young king allied himself
with the god Amun,
but that wasn't all he did
to show his support
for the Amun religion...
as this corner
of a Karnak temple testifies.
Here we have
the statue of Amun
and yet with
the features
of Tutankhamun,
which pretty much
shows just how far
Tutankhamun has come,
completely embracing
the old god Amun Ra
to the point that he's
actually representing
his own face
on the statue
of the god Amun.
NARRATOR: Tutankhamun had
reinstated the priests,
restored stability
to the country,
and was represented
as the supreme god of Egypt.
He would have been a hero
to the nation,
so why instead of having
a magnificent tomb
like Ramses VI
was Tut hidden away
in a few rooms
at the bottom
of the Valley of the Kings
with a bunch
of secondhand grave goods?
Can his mummified remains
provide the answer?
[Indistinct chatter]
In 1968, Tutankhamun's
skeleton was x-rayed
by a team
from Liverpool University.
To their surprise,
they found loose bone fragments
inside the skull.
They also saw a thinning
of the bone they believed
was evidence
of a brain hemorrhage
at the base of the skull.
And this could have
been caused by a blow
on the back of the head,
and this in turn could have
been responsible for death.
NARRATOR: It appeared Tut was
the victim of a brutal m*rder...
but in 2005,
new tests were performed.
The 3,000-year-old mummy
was given a full CT scan.
The team, led by radiologist
Dr. Ashraf Selim,
were looking for further clues
to support the idea
of a blow to the head.
Now Chris is in Cairo
to meet Dr. Selim.
He wants to see if
the CT scan results verify
the 1968 conclusions.
SELIM: This was
the main objective,
looking for
the depressed fracture,
which actually we couldn't find
any depressed fractures
in the skull.
NARRATOR: The 2005 team found no
evidence of a blow to the head.
As for the bone fragments
inside the skull,
they discovered that
they had been broken away
from the neck vertebrae
during the excavation
when Carter
dismembered the mummy.
They somehow then got
into the skull
when the head was
reattached to the body
after the removal
of the golden mask.
m*rder didn't seem to explain
how Tut died,
but they did find
something else.
SELIM: We noticed
a peculiar fracture
that we saw in the lower part
of the thigh bone
on the left side.
The edges of the fracture
are coated
by a thin layer
of resin.
So we started to think,
"How could resin get
inside the bone
and coat it unless
he suffered from
an open wound fracture?"
And when it comes
the day of the mummification,
they rinse all
the body with resin.
Some the liquid resin
got inside the wound,
down to the bone,
and coated the edges
of the fractures.
NARRATOR: The wound was
still open and bone exposed
when Tut was mummified.
Tut clearly suffered
some sort of traumatic impact.
It has to be
a severe trauma,
like for example
riding a chariot,
and he fell down
from the chariot.
Yeah, this is an assumption,
but it seems logical
because at that time
a king would be fond
of riding chariots,
and he fell down
from it.
NARRATOR:
Now a dramatic discovery
among the carved blocks
at Luxor Temple provides
an exciting new clue
that may explain Tut's death.
These pieces of a carved relief
broken and reused
in the years after Tut
have been pieced back together.
They reveal a new image
of the boy king
and provide a missing piece
of the puzzle.
The key block is
the one that we see right here,
and that shows
Tutankhamun
with his hand drawn back
ready to sh**t a bow,
and we can see that, in fact,
this is part of a huge
battle narrative showing
that he was not alone.
Tut was, in fact, part
of a larger scene
that shows him
in full battle.
[Neighing]
[Men shouting]
In these reliefs,
you see some very
specific details
like the hands
of enemies that
have been skewered
through spears almost
like shish kebabs.
You can see people
falling off a citadel,
and in fact, on a boat,
you can see the image
of a caged Asiatic,
who is just being
literally suspended
on the prow of a boat.
But what is really
interesting about these
is vivid details
of the battle carnage,
as we see here,
indicate that
these are actually
historical events
as opposed to more
imaginary events.
[Men shouting]
It would make you think
that Tut was a warrior
and that these are
battles that he was
involved in himself.
Hmm. Mm=hmm
NARRATOR: For the first time,
we have evidence
Tut was a warrior
fighting in battles.
[Neighing]
Could the carvings
explain his death?
These blocks may
show us that Tut
did die in battle
and that the wounds
that were sustained
during that battle
led to his death.
NARRATOR: But is there
evidence in the mummy
to support this theory?
What sort of battle injury
could have caused his death
that wouldn't have been obvious?
Dr. Robert Connolly
of Liverpool University worked
with the team
that x-rayed Tut in 1968.
He has recently gone back
to the original plates
and discovered something
extraordinary about Tut's body
that seems to have been
overlooked at the time.
This x-ray is
of Tutankhamun's chest.
Several immediate features.
First of all, there is
no sternum or breastbone.
That is completely missing,
and many of the ribs
on the left-hand side
have been broken away.
Some of the ribs
on the right-hand side
have been broken.
Others have been cut.
One interesting thing is
there is no heart.
This is almost unique
as far as I know
in royal embalming.
The heart was always replaced,
it was always
carefully mummified,
and there was
usually a heart scarab
associated with it.
There isn't in Tutankhamun,
so I suspect that the heart
was exceedingly badly crushed,
and so they couldn't
even use that as part
of his passage
to the afterlife.
NARRATOR: To pull
these threads together
and try to solve this puzzle,
Chris has come to England.
He's at Cranfield University's
forensic department.
Here a team of scientists
is combining all the data
from the original scans
and x-rays
from the last 90 years.
They have created
a simulation of Tut's body
in a virtual autopsy using
this unique technology.
It is a medical
image display system.
NARRATOR: This will aid
the most comprehensive
assessment ever carried out
into Tut's death,
and the team hopes to solve
the mystery once and for all.
This allows us
to kind of explore
the body
as if it was
really here.
Can we see inside?
Can we get a sort of
better look at that?
Yes. We can do that.
We can demonstrate
some of the damages.
Rib cage removed
and pelvis removed.
Right. Can you explain
what's going on here
where these are missing?
I mean, what kind of
caused that,
how's that happened?
So it looks like
there's a lot of damage
on the left-hand side
in particular.
we've got really quite
extensive damage
to the rib cage
on the left-hand side,
which is where
the heart is...
Right.
but the skull
and interestingly
the left clavicle
is still intact.
Mm-hmm.
We also have damage here.
The whole
of the left ilium,
the iliac blade,
is missing.
Right.
So could I draw on
where it should be?
This part of the pelvis
is missing.
OK. So of course
it should match
this side...
It's symmetrical,
exactly.
but it's just gone
completely. Right.
And we have a fracture
to his left knee, as well,
just above the knee.
And you mentioned that
the heart would be--
it would be around here,
did you say?
Yes. Shall we
draw it on?
Yeah. Could we?
OK. So the heart would be
about here.
Right. And that's
right in an area
where we've got
a bit of damage
actually.
The damage is concentrated
over that point, yeah.
The heart actually
was missing
in the mummy
of Tutankhamun,
which is very,
very unusual,
so why would it--
why would it be?
I mean, that
corresponds
to the damage.
Perhaps the heart
itself was damaged.
It's very likely
that if there was
serious damage
before death focused
on the left-hand side
that his heart
would have been damaged.
For example, if he received
force coming
from the front
of his rib cage,
it's likely that ribs
would splinter
and could pierce
his lungs
and possibly pierce
his heart,
and therefore,
it could be quite
easily damaged,
and, yes, I would presume
likely to be removed
by embalmers.
OK. If that hypothesis
is right
and the heart was
badly damaged enough
to have been taken away,
it would have had to
have been a really
serious--
The damage
would sort of
be extensive.
So why is it that all
the damage is
on this sort of narrow
strip here?
I mean, what--
what could that have been?
I don't know if
it's far-fetched,
but could it be
a wheel running down
on that side
of the body?
NARRATOR: The only wheeled
vehicles in Tutankhamun's time
were chariots.
Could a flimsy wooden wheel
really cause the damage seen
in the virtual autopsy?
Chris is meeting Mike Brown
from Advanced Simtech.
They specialize
in computer modeling
of traffic accidents
for court cases
and auto safety investigations.
With detailed CGI models,
they can chart the forces
operating on a human body
in a number of catastrophic
accident scenarios.
[Tires squeal]
[Glass shatters]
The software is
the linchpin to this.
We use the software
to help us understand
this initial problem
and then to come up
with a scenario
that would match
all the evidence.
NARRATOR:
For the first time ever,
Mike plans to see
if the same software
can analyze the scenarios
involving a chariot crash.
Maybe these tests
will shed light
on what happened to Tutankhamun.
The first thing
Mike needs to do
is understand
how a chariot moves.
Are you trying to
stand over the axel...
Over the axel you're
gonna be, yeah.
or are you gonna
be forward?
How will you spread
your weight?
You're gonna have
most of your weight
over the axel.
NARRATOR: He's come to meet
a group of stunt riders
who have a replica Egyptian
chariot he can use
for his virtual reconstruction.
I'll let you know
just before the scanner
comes across onto you.
NARRATOR: With a laser scanner,
he builds a 360-degree image
of the chariot with a driver
and then inputs it
into the software.
BROWN: All right. It's
just about to come back
onto yourself, Jack.
NARRATOR: He also attaches
an accelerometer
to measure the chariot's speed.
[Indistinct]
NARRATOR: Mike films
the movement
and records the data
as the chariot is driven
on a number
of different surfaces.
BROWN: Initially, I'm quite
happy with what I can see.
I'm looking at some
of the acceleration pulses,
I'm looking at the change
of motion,
and, yeah, everything
seems quite interesting.
Hopefully what we'll do now,
we'll take this data
back to the office,
we'll interrogate it
and get it ready
so we can take it directly
into the software
and then see what we can
reproduce for Tutankhamun's
reconstruction.
NARRATOR: Using the information,
he wants to re-create
an accident that matches
the trauma pattern in the mummy.
With the same precision
he would use for a car crash,
he runs a number of simulations.
Modeling
the chariot scenario.
If I can just show you
some of the work that
we've been doing.
The first example is
the rider standing
on the chariot.
The chariot strikes
an object on the ground.
Whether it's a broken bit
of something else or a rock,
it's just sufficient
to tip the chariot over.
The rider's unbalanced.
He's then thrown
straight out of the chariot
and effectively
then just travels
across the ground
until he loses
his forward momentum.
There's quite a major
level of injury we'd expect
from a scenario
such as that.
The predominant injury
is a head injury.
We're also getting
general trauma right
across the body,
but the head injury's
the critical thing.
OK. And that doesn't
match of course with
what we're seeing here.
In the mummy of Tutankhamun,
there's no damage to the head.
NARRATOR: Simply falling
from a chariot
couldn't have caused
the injuries seen in the mummy.
The next model shows Tut
lying on the ground
and being run over,
but whichever way
the chariot struck the body,
it didn't produce the specific
straight line injury pattern
to the pelvis and torso
displayed in the mummy.
For Mike, there was
one last scenario to try.
BROWN: The scenarios
we can see here
has the rider
on the ground,
not lying as he was earlier.
He's now on his knees.
Whether he's attempting
to get up or look around
we're not too sure,
but what it allows us
to do is to get
a direct impact
of blunt trauma
across the main torso.
We have the wheel coming
into impact
on the left-hand side
of the pelvis
and the left-hand side
of the chest.
We've carried out several
different variations on this.
What we're seeing here
is the scenario
that we believe
matches the closest.
So are you both
happy that this
kind of blow
gives you the trauma that
we see in the right places
but also misses
the parts of the body
that are
apparently untouched?
It's a very good
combination
of injury.
It fits the facts
and the symptoms
we see here,
and it also is
severe enough
to cause death.
Yes.
Wouldn't you
say, Mike?
That's a good question.
I mean, is it enough?
Is this a serious
enough accident?
Everything's
in the right place,
but is it enough
to k*ll somebody?
You've got critical
organs behind the rib cage,
the level of trauma,
the force that's
being applied
directly onto the chest,
we're compressing the ribs,
possibly breaking the ribs,
and hence behind there,
we have the lungs,
the heart,
organs that are
critical to survival,
and hence this person
in the modern world
would be hospitalized
and would then
need treatment.
NARRATOR: Mike has produced
a simulation that replicates
the injuries seen
in the mummy...
[Men shouting]
and it fits perfectly
with the b*ttlefield scenario
of Tut kneeling to get up
if his own chariot was damaged
and then being mowed down.
Now Peter Zioupos wants to do
a real-world bone test
to see just what sort
of damage would be caused
by the forces seen
in Mike's model.
What do we have
here then?
This is a drop tower.
OK.
So what we've got here
is a machine
that can move
at high speeds,
and what we have
done here
is we have programmed it
based on the parameters
that Mike has created
in his simulation model.
Ah, OK.
NARRATOR: The machine drives
a bar downward
with the same force
a chariot wheel would have
traveling at 26 miles per hour.
To simulate Tutankhamun's ribs,
Peter is using a rack
of pig ribS,
similar in size and strength
to human ribs.
Let's...
Wow. That's--
Clean cut through.
Pretty comprehensively
broken, isn't it?
Yes.
What would this do
to the tissue that's
behind the ribs?
Oh, it would perforate
through the lungs.
It would go
straight through.
There's no doubt
about it.
And so that would be
enough to get
behind the lungs,
say, to the heart.
Absolutely.
NW .
NARRATOR: The results
are analyzed
by impact trauma expert
Ian Horsfall.
You can see here
the load is about
800 Newtons.
That's about
80 kilos load,
and they've
displaced about
12 millimeters,
about 1.2
centimeters,
then fractured
quite cleanly
and been pushed back
into the support
behind.
So what would
the result of
an injury like this be?
I mean, how serious
is this?
Well, potentially
quite serious
because those are
going to push
through
into the lungs,
so there's
a fairly
good chance that
that would cause
the lungs to
collapse later on,
added to which
any other organs
that were struck,
such as the heart,
could be damaged.
There's also
a danger of tearing
major blood vessels
such as the aorta
inside the chest,
which would cause
very quick death.
So there's not much chance
that somebody suffering
an accident like this
would come out
of it alive?
Is that fair?
I think there's
a fair chance
they would die
from this, yes.
[Men shouting]
NARRATOR: The evidence
from Cranfield suggests
that Tutankhamun could easily
have died on the b*ttlefield.
Like all Egyptian kings,
he was then prepared
for mummification,
and the missing heart
in the mummy adds weight
to the suggestion the torso
was severely damaged.
According to Egyptian
mummification expert
Salima Ikram,
the embalmers would only
have removed the heart
if it were badly damaged.
It must have been crushed
beyond recognition.
IKRAM: For the Egyptians,
the heart was the most
important thing
because they believed
that was the seat
of intellect, of emotion,
of character, of your soul,
and so the heart was left
in the body
because it was needed
in the afterlife
when you would face the gods
and they would judge you.
Tutankhamun is probably unique
in being the only royal mummy
not to have a heart intact,
so it is very peculiar
that the heart is not there,
and it is very significant
because this is something,
a key piece of your body
that you need
for survival in the afterlife.
The Egyptians
mummified their dead
because of course they believed
that you live forever,
and the afterlife
is an eternal life,
and so you needed to have
your body preserved
as well as possible
because your soul
had to reenter it
so you could reanimate it.
So you lived
on a very physical level
in the afterlife,
as well as on a spiritual level,
and so the Egyptians
came up with mummification,
which preserved the body,
which served as a repository
for the soul.
NARRATOR: Mummification was
a ritual process that involved
drying the body with salt,
anointing it
with oils and resins,
and then wrapping it
in linen bandages.
The mummies of the 18th Dynasty,
Tut's immediate predecessors,
are considered by many
to be the finest examples
of embalming ever produced...
but according to Howard Carter,
the mummification of Tutankhamun
did not match
the standards of the day.
Not only was the heart missing,
but Carter described him
as a "charred wreck."
He offered no explanation
for this conclusion,
and no further
analysis was done.
So was Tut's mummy burnt,
and if so, how?
The mystery has remained
unsolved until now.
Buried amongst the books
in Robert Connolly's office
is something extraordinary,
a piece of Tutankhamun's flesh.
It's the only piece
outside Egypt
and has laid untouched
for decades.
CONNOLLY: We do have some
very, very small fragments
of Tutankhamun's tissue
given to us in 1968
for blood grouping purposes,
very, very, very blackened
like you see there.
NARRATOR: Robert wants to do
a chemical test
to see if he can find
what has caused the blackening.
As a control, he is also taking
a sample from this mummy
so he can compare it
with his findings
from the Tut tissue.
CONNOLLY: This mummy is
a very good comparison
for work with Tutankhamun.
It is almost certainly
18th Dynasty
and so therefore roughly
the same age as Tutankhamun.
And I can just ease
a little piece out.
NARRATOR: Robert puts
the tissue samples
under a scanning
electron microscope
to determine their
chemical composition.
Helle.
I have a sample
for you.
The microscope works
by firing electrons
at the sample
and measuring
how they scatter.
The pattern of scattering
indicates what chemical
elements are present,
as well as the proportions
of the different elements.
This is, as far as I know,
the first time
that an ancient
Egyptian mummy
has been analyzed
by this spectroscopy method.
NARRATOR: The first sample
to be tested
is the Liverpool mummy.
Helping Robert
with the analysis
is forensic archaeologist
Matthew Ponting.
We have a major
peak of carbon
and a slightly
lower peak of oxygen
and just some
other traces
of calcium,
chlorine, sulfur,
et cetera.
NARRATOR: These are
the elements one would expect
in a piece of mummified tissue.
Carbon and oxygen
dominate the spectrum
while other elements appear
in smaller amounts.
The next sample to be tested
is from Tutankhamun.
This is a fragment
of skin taken
from the shoulder,
and it's very black.
So we'll look
at the outer surface,
see what's that like,
see if it in any way
reflects the spectrum
which we saw
from the Liverpool mummy.
We'll find out
very soon.
How's it doing?
Nearly there.
Well, there's
the carbon and oxygen again
as one would expect,
but the major difference
here is in the levels
of the carbon
and oxygen.
There's a much stronger
carbon peak.
Yeah. This is
a spectacular peak
of carbon,
isn't it really?
There's considerably
more free carbon present
in this sample.
This would indeed be
consistent with charring
of the body
during mummification
or immediately after
the mummification process.
NARRATOR:
Robert has found evidence
that the blackening
of Tutankhamun's flesh
is indeed due to burning.
It is possible Carter's team
caused the charring,
but Robert and Matthew
don't believe this is the case.
It is true that
Howard Carter roasted
the mummy of Tutankhamun
on a row of primer stones
to get it off the base plate.
Not hot enough.
A couple hundred
degrees Celsius
I would have thought,
I mean, but to produce
the sort of charring
you're seeing
on the surface
of the mummy,
I would have thought
you're looking
at considerably
higher temperatures.
I mean, cooking
temperatures,
if you like.
How hot does it have
to be to char
the surface of...
Of meat, yes?
I mean, 450 F
in an oven.
NARRATOR: Tutankhamun's mummy
is the only royal mummy known
to have been charred.
Somehow the mummified body
got very hot
but wasn't entirely destroyed.
What mysterious process
could be responsible
for the burnt tissue?
For Chris Naunton,
the puzzle of Tut's death
may finally be solved,
but an even
greater mystery remains--
what happened to his body
and who is responsible?
NARRATOR: It's a mystery
3,000 years in the making.
Tutankhamun has captivated
the world since he first
made headline news...
yet few know his real story.
Now Egyptologist Chris Naunton
is reexamining
the excavation's
original notes and photographs.
His mission--to reveal
Tut's ultimate secrets.
NAUNTON, VOICE-OVER: I want to
be able to separate the myth
from the real story.
I really want to get
to the bottom of this.
NARRATOR: So far, Chris has
discovered that Tutankhamun
betrayed his father's revolution
and died in a battle
far from home.
There is a whole new story
that has not been see before.
NARRATOR: He was buried
in a tiny tomb
with used burial offerings,
and strangest of all,
a chemical analysis of his mummy
has proved it is burnt.
What mysterious process
could char the skin of a mummy?
That is a lot
of smoke.
This is absolutely
incredible.
NARRATOR: And just why was
Tutankhamun's the only tomb
in the Valley of the Kings
to survive virtually intact?
The next step in Chris Naunton's
quest to reveal
the ultimate secrets
of Tutankhamun
is to find out what might have
caused the mummy to burn.
Howard Carter notes the charring
on several occasions,
describing the bandages
next to the skin as "like soot"
and "charred powder,"
but no one has
investigated this until now.
Armed with the results
from the mummy's
chemical analysis,
Chris is heading to BRE,
the Building Research
Establishment
in Watford, England.
Hi, David.
Hi, Chris.
Pleasure
to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Welcome to the lab.
Thank you.
Give you one
of these first.
OK.
NARRATOR: David Crowder,
the lab's chief analyst,
is going to help
with the investigation.
So this is where
the magic happens?
Yes. Got a variety
of rigs here.
There's a representation
of a house on the right.
So, David, this
seems like
a pretty
extraordinary
situation to me.
Have you got
any idea how
an Egyptian mummy
could come to be
charred?
Well, we know that
there's various oils used
in the mummification process,
and in the fire
investigation community,
we know that linseed oil
can produce self-heating.
NARRATOR: Linseed oil, probably
used during Tut's embalming,
is just one of a group
of a vegetable oils
capable of generating heat
when mixed with oxygen.
A heating reaction
is accelerated
when the oil is spread
over a large surface area
such as rags or the bandages
used in mummification.
Could this char a mummy?
So what we've
prepared here is
some quantities of rag
and linseed oil.
What we want is to
maximize the surface area
of the linseed oil
that's actually
adhering to the rags
so that that reaction
can occur
with as much access
to air as possible.
NARRATOR: The more the wet oil
and oxygen react,
the more opportunity
for spontaneous combustion.
And it's important
obviously that
the oil hasn't dried,
that it is still wet
for this to occur.
Yes. If the oil
had already finished
its reaction,
then there would be
no more heat thrown out.
But if the oils
on the body were
still wet
at the time
the bandages went on,
then it's possible?
Yes.
NARRATOR:
Like the wrappings on a mummy
where the oil is still wet,
rags are soaked
and bundled up tightly
so the oil doesn't
dry out too fast.
Then they're covered
in more cloth
just like layers
of mummy bandages.
So this is our test area
where we're going to
set down our samples.
What I've got here
is thermocouples.
We'll just enter these
into the bundles,
and what that means is
that we can monitor
the temperature
within the bundle
as it occurs.
If we go outside
and have a look at
the logging equipment,
we can see what sort
of temperatures
we're achieving.
NARRATOR: A thermocouple
is a wired thermometer
that sends a reading
back to a computer
in the lab's control room.
For half an hour,
Chris and David
watch the readings
as the temperature
rises slowly.
Nothing much seems to be
happening with the samples.
Then as the temperature
continues rising,
smoke begins to appear.
The reaction is approaching
runaway speed.
We've actually got
temperatures,
as you can see,
of 324 and nearly
360 degrees
in those two.
You're kidding me.
In that short time...
Yes. This has been
going for...
we've gone up to
over 300 degrees centigrade.
That's absolutely
incredible.
Just the simple
process of
linseed oil
plus wrappings
and air,
and you sort of
sit back and watch,
and off it goes.
Yeah.
Absolutely amazing.
NARRATOR: In recent years,
this type of reaction
has a caused a number
of high-profile fires,
including this one
in Philadelphia.
It started when a cleaning crew
left behind a bunch
of oil-soaked rags.
And in Watford,
it's time for Chris
to actually see the results
of David's experiment.
OK. Well, it's
produced a fair
bit of smoke.
I think we should
leave it a minute
just to settle down.
We'll leave
the door open...
OK.
and let some
fresh air get
into it
and let some
of the smoke escape.
That is a lot
of smoke.
Yes.
And that's all just
coming from those
4 samples.
That's just
from those samples, yeah.
It does produce
a lot of smoke.
My goodness me. Wow.
I can't believe
that those samples
are now so hot
that they're
producing this
much smoke.
NARRATOR: These wrappings in
the open air have burnt quickly
because there's lots of oxygen,
but for Tut encased
in his coffin,
the reaction would have
been much slower,
charring the skin over days
or even weeks
with little smoke
and no flame.
All of that's
just coming from
the 4 samples?
For Chris,
this is a revelation.
This is absolutely
incredible.
I mean, we can see
from this
that just
the process
of oil plus
mummy wrapping
plus air
brings about
spontaneous combustion.
This is definitely
an explanation
for the charring
that Carter observed
on the mummy.
NARRATOR: Armed with this
expl*sive new evidence,
Chris is back in Cairo
to discuss these findings
with mummification expert
Salima Ikram.
For spontaneous combustion
to take place,
something must have gone
terribly wrong
with Tut's mummification.
IKRAM: Normally you have
40 days of desiccation
and the 30 days
of the application
of these oils
and unguents and resins
and wrapping.
So it is possible
that this sort of
combustion occurred
because they hadn't
sort of paced
their oils
and drying time
properly,
and it was just
sort of a rushed
kind of thing...
but look at what
it did.
I mean, the poor thing's
completely destroyed.
Poor guy.
So is there anything
else like this
that is a bit
out of the ordinary.
Well, the embalming
incision is also
a bit odd.
We've got these
photographs.
Nim=hmm.
You can see over here--
Oh, that's actually
it there?
Yeah. That's
the embalming.
That's where
they go in.
Mm-hmm. That's
where they go in.
So instead of having
a nice, neat thing
going like this...
Right.
or like this, this one
sort of goes eep
in towards the navel
and is really
quite large
and kind of brutal
and very unusual.
Nim=hmm.
Also the arm positions
because instead of being
crossed high up
on the chest...
they're quite low
down here.
Yeah. That doesn't
seem--that's not
the Osiride pose
you'd expect at all,
is it?
No.
They're much,
much lower.
Much, much lower,
much more relaxed.
So in the hierarchy
of mummification,
if we can speak of that,
where does this body
fit in?
It's peculiar
for a king to be
mummified like this
because generally
in the hierarchy
of mummification
you have something
that is superb,
which is the king,
and then the elites
going down one step,
and then sort
of common people,
who sometimes
don't even get
mummified.
So there's just
so many things here
that are all basically
wrong in terms
of royal mummification.
NARRATOR: Things were not going
well in preparations
for the young king's afterlife.
The grave goods were secondhand
and stuffed in a tomb
not designed for royalty.
The mummification was rushed,
and there is one more clue
to suggest someone wanted him
in the ground fast.
Camouflaged
among the crude paintings
on the wall of the tomb
are mysterious brown spots
that appear nowhere else
in the Valley of the Kings.
The spots are the subject
of an investigation
being carried out
by the Getty Institute
in Los Angeles, California.
It's part
of a conservation program
focusing on the preservation
of mankind's most iconic
cultural heritage.
Our project is the conservation
of Tutankhamun's tomb.
There's concern
about the impact of visitors,
the amount
of sweat and humidity
on the wall paintings,
on the tomb itself.
There had been rumors
that the spots were growing,
that the tomb was
in dire straits.
NARRATOR:
Fearing an infestation,
the Getty team
analyzed the samples
in a mass spectrometer
to learn their chemical makeup.
Harvard microbiologist
Ralph Mitchell
is analyzing their results.
You see this big peak.
That peak says a lot
of malic acid.
Malic acid is a common
metabolic product of microbes,
so what it said to us was--
ha--those spots
are microbial in origin.
NARRATOR: The investigators
now need to know
if these microbes are growing.
Are they really
engulfing the tomb?
MITCHELL: So we took
a tiny piece of the all,
and we put it under
a scanning electron microscope,
and what you're seeing here
is a piece of the stone
from the tomb magnified
thousands of times
and showing that there are,
to our amazement,
no living microbes
on that stone.
Normally we would have expected
to see mold growing
all over that piece of wall,
and what you're seeing here is
a scanning electron micrograph
from a normal surface
growing mold.
Here you see the threads
of the mold growing.
It's what was missing
from that King Tutankhamun wall.
NARRATOR: Chris is faced
with another mystery.
The chemical trace
of malic acid shows evidence
of microbial action,
yet no living microbes
were found.
Further, a study of Carter's
original photographs
showed the spots were the same
as they are today.
Living microbes
didn't cause them,
nor modern tourists,
so how did they get there,
and why are they unique
to Tutankhamun's tomb?
Ralph Mitchell has now
identified some modern microbes
that match the chemistry
of the ancient ones
which produced the spots.
MITCHELL, VOICE-OVER:
We've identified a small
number of fungi
that may be the cause
of the brown spots in the tomb.
So what we'd now like to know
is what sort of environment
would make those fungi grow
and produce the brown spots,
so we ran
a simulation experiment.
NARRATOR: Ralph knows moisture
is the key to fungal growth.
He thinks Tutankhamun's tomb,
unlike others in ancient Egypt,
had damp walls,
which allowed fungi to grow.
To test this, he swabbed
a sample of the fungi
on wet and dry pieces
of stone and fabric
and left them for a week
to see what would happen.
As expected, the dry specimens
show very little growth,
but what about the damp ones?
MITCHELL: And you can see
after one week
both the stone and the canvas
have extensive fungal growth.
NARRATOR: With these results,
Ralph believed the environment
inside Tutankhamun's tomb
was damp when it was sealed,
evidence of the circumstances
of his burial.
This tomb was prepared
in a hurry.
It was painted in hurry.
The Pharaoh was
buried in the tomb,
the tomb was sealed.
You had the moisture
because the paint hadn't dried.
The tomb now became
an incubator.
NARRATOR: Ralph's research
has shown that the tomb,
like the mummy,
was finished in a rush,
but who would be able to hurry
the sacred process of burial
and why?
Egyptologist Melinda Hartwig
believes the answer
can be found in the tomb itself.
HARTWIG: We know that
Tutankhamun was buried
in a hurry,
which means that he was buried
by somebody close,
somebody high up and official,
and we have a clue
to who that person might be.
Ay the vizier is represented
here performing
the opening
of the mouth ceremony.
NARRATOR: The ceremony was
performed with a ritual adz.
[Speaking
foreign language]
It was meant to restore
the physical senses to the mummy
so the soul could keep using
the body in the afterlife.
HARTWIG: Now this was usually
performed by a son
on his deceased father,
but here we have
the only instance
of an official performing this
ritual on the deceased king.
Likely it was because Ay
wanted to legitimize
his claim to the throne.
NARRATOR: Ay was Tut's vizier
from the time
of the boy's coronation.
He also served as an advisor
to Tut's father and grandfather.
When Tut died, Ay might have
felt it was his turn to rule,
but Tut designated someone else
to succeed him on the throne.
Tut wanted Horemheb,
his general, to be
his successor,
but Horemheb was off
fighting w*r in Syria,
leaving a power vacuum.
Now that the other thing is
that the two children
of Tut and Ankhesenamun
were deceased,
so there was
no legitimate successor,
leaving a power vacuum
in which Ay could step in.
NARRATOR: Being vizier meant
Ay could seize the throne
for himself while Horemheb
was still at w*r.
You also have to bear in mind
that a Pharaoh when he died
would become a god,
so on both counts,
both living and dead,
it was a win-win situation
for Ay to take over
as Pharaoh of Egypt.
NARRATOR: To further
consolidate his position,
Ay forced Tutankhamun's
widow Ankhesenamun to marry him.
HARTWIG: We have the evidence
of a signet ring
that has Ay's cartouche
and Ankhesenamun's cartouche.
It's like a wedding contract,
so it really shows that
the two of them were married.
Ankhesenamun is sort of
the tragic figure in this drama.
Not only has she
just lost her husband,
but she also gave birth
to two stillborn children,
so there is no heir,
leaving Ay to be able
to fill that place,
but I'm sure she didn't want
to marry a 70-year-old man,
and that's exactly
what happened.
NARRATOR: But Ay did not
enjoy the throne for long.
He survived just 4 more years,
and his tomb provides a twist
to the Tutankhamun story.
This is the tomb of Ay.
It's much larger,
contains more decoration
than we have
in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
However, it seems that this was
intended for Tut.
This would have been a tomb
that a 9-year-old
who was hoping
to live a long life
would have started.
NARRATOR: But Tut never
ended up here.
Ay did.
HARTWIG: And there's
an interesting theory
that, in fact,
the tombs are switched
so that what happened is
that this tomb, Ay's tomb,
was intended for Tutankhamun
and that Tutankhamun's tomb
was ultimately
supposed to be for Ay.
NARRATOR: Ay was buried
with all the trappings
of a great Pharaoh
in Tutankhamun's stolen tomb,
and now the peculiar features
of Tut's burial
are finally explained.
At this death, the boy king
was buried in a rush
in Ay's cramped chambers.
The necropolis guards then
sealed the tomb door,
apparently condemning Tut to
an eternity of insignificance,
yet as fate would have it,
Tut's tomb is the only one
in the Valley of the Kings
to have survived
the centuries intact.
Archaeologists are still
trying to figure out why.
In November 1922 when its
treasures were revealed,
it was a global sensation...
but its discovery
almost never happened.
In 1915, Howard Carter
with his patron Lord Carnarvon
took over the excavation
in the Valley of the Kings
despite the previous
archaeologists declaring
nothing was left.
For 6 years, the two dug
throughout the valley.
Carter had suspicions
Tutankhamun was there,
but they found no trace.
NAUNTON: By spring 1921,
Carnarvon had had enough.
They hadn't really been
finding very much,
and he called a meeting
with Carter and told him
that he was going to finish
the project.
He couldn't afford
to fund it anymore.
And Carter was
half expecting this,
and he agreed that
he would fund a season
out of his own pocket
and that Carnarvon would
still be entitled to take
his share of the objects.
NARRATOR: Impressed
by Carter's commitment,
Carnarvon relented
and agreed to fund
a final season of excavation.
On the first of November 1922,
work began on a new sector
of the valley.
NAUNTON: Well, very early on
in the season,
they began clearing what
became clear was a staircase.
[Man continues
shouting Arabic]
NAUNTON: At the end
of the staircase,
they found a blocked
and plastered doorway
with the traces
of the oval seals
that you'd expect...
and so Carter at this point
sent a cable to Carnarvon
explaining that
"At last, we've made
a wonderful discovery.
There's a sealed doorway
with seals intact."
3 weeks after that point,
Carnarvon arrived
at the excavation,
and by this point,
the workmen had cleared
the passageway down
to the second blocked entrance.
With Carnarvon present,
they cleared a small hole
in the rubble so that
they cold peer inside,
and Carnarvon says to Carter,
"Well, what an you see?"
And this is the point
in which Carter gives us
those immortal words
IIWonderful things,
strange images, animals,
and gold, everywhere
the glint of gold.II
NARRATOR: After years
of frustration,
the pair had literally
struck gold.
NAUNTON: I mean, this is--
it's indescribable really.
I mean, this is everything
an archaeologist would hope for.
It's an intact tomb
exactly as it was left
3,000 years ago.
It's as good as it gets
for an archaeologist.
NARRATOR: The extraordinary find
made headlines around the world.
Visitors and dignitaries
flocked to see the tomb.
NAUNTON: It was the most
spectacular archaeological
discovery
that had ever been made
to that point.
It had all the ingredients
you would want...
exotic creatures,
gods and goddesses,
the most spectacular objects,
the most beautiful objects,
"glinting gold everywhereII
as Carter tells us.
NARRATOR: Carter recruited
a team to conserve and pack
the treasures
so they could be moved
safely to Cairo.
There were gilded couches
and a glorious throne,
treasure chests and models.
At the heart of the tomb
was a series of coffins,
including an inner one
of solid gold,
weighing 240 pounds,
that contained the mummy
of the young Pharaoh,
but Carter soon realized
the tomb was not as pristine
as he'd hoped.
NAUNTON: Carter realized that
some of the material
in the tomb had been disturbed,
and this was very significant,
so he brought onto his team
a guy called Alfred Lucas,
who had some experience
of crime scene investigation,
and, in fact, he had got
himself a reputation
as Egypt's Sherlock Holmes.
Lucas identified rather
a lot of evidence
that the tomb had been raided
before Carter got to it,
and again these photographs
of Harry Burton's show
very clearly
the kind of evidence
that Lucas was looking at.
Some of the objects that
were placed inside these chests
were clearly intended
to have been placed elsewhere
and probably were.
Lucas also noticed that
in one case in particular
there appeared to be some
footprints on one of the chests.
Perhaps it's evidence
of the people going in there
and disturbing this material.
NARRATOR: And Lucas
noticed something else.
These are rings made
of precious materials
inside these linen wrappings,
and these were found just
deposited in the passageway.
So they had got as far
as removing these objects
from the tomb proper
and then simply dropped them
on the floor on their way out,
which suggests
that they were caught.
NARRATOR: There was no mercy
for the grave robbers.
HARTWIG: We know that
tomb robbers met
a rather grisly end
because from the papyri,
it says,
IIPunishment: impalement,"
and we have the hieroglyph
of impalement,
which looked pretty grim.
NARRATOR: With threat of death,
any robbery would have been
carefully planned.
NAUNTON: The robbers
had to be strategic.
They wanted the things
that they could remove quickly
and that they knew would be
of use to them in terms
of being able to sell them on.
Removing large objects
of course would have been
very difficult,
would have run a greater risk
of getting caught.
The other thing is of course
you can't simply go
down to the market
with the death mask of a Pharaoh
who's just been buried.
There aren't many people
that would be prepared to
take that off their hands,
and so they were just
looking for the things
that they could resell.
NARRATOR: Carter estimated
60% of Tutankhamun's
jewelry was stolen,
almost certainly
by the very workmen
who were trusted to build
and decorate the tomb,
but the big ticket items,
the gold coffin and the mask,
were untouched, a rarity
in the Valley of the Kings.
For some reason,
every other tomb in the valley
was stripped bare
in a crime wave
that swept Egypt 200 years
after Tut's death.
This is the tomb of Ramses VI,
cleaned out by robbers,
who even managed to smash
his solid granite sarcophagus.
So what changed from Tut's time,
and how did Tut's tomb
survive unscathed?
HARTWIG:
During the 20th Dynasty,
things really start
to fall apart in Egypt.
The king isn't
nearly as powerful,
and then here you have
the workers,
who are operating
in the Valley of the Kings,
and they're not being paid,
and so they have one
of the first strikes
that we know in history.
As a result, they have to reach
to other forms of revenue,
which included going
into the royal tombs
in the KingsI Valley,
and from this,
we have a number of papyri
which detail the robberies
of royal tombs.
NARRATOR: One of these
remarkable documents tells
of a murderous crime spree
during those tumultuous times.
Known as "The Mayer B Papyrus,"
it was written
almost 3,000 years go
and details
a tomb robber's trial
in the 20th Dynasty.
So what does this
text tell us?
This refers to the tomb
of Ramses VI
in the Valley
of the Kings.
We know from
the documents
that quite often
people are involved
that work for the tomb
builders' community,
and "Mayer B" actually
refers to two guys
from the workmen's
community,
and they were
actually m*rder*d
but the other members
of the g*ng.
Amazing.
So these thieves would
go to great lengths
actually
to cover their tracks.
And do we know anything
about what happened
to the people
who were doing this?
They were
obviously caught,
and then what
happens to them?
Some of the papyri
allude to
the punishments
that will happen
and have happened,
so "Mayer A" refers
to people that were
convicted of crimes.
It talks about put
on the stake,
so they were actually
k*lled in quite
a brutal way.
NARRATOR: Another part
of the document shows
the quantities of precious metal
the robbers stole.
Yeah. So there's
an inventory really
of the types of objects
they took from the tomb
made from metals
such as copper,
gold, and silver,
the kind of materials
really that these
g*ng members
would need to get
rid of quickly.
NARRATOR:
As law and order collapsed,
tomb robbers were now happy
to take religious objects
and larger goods,
not just the rings and bangles
you could easily sell
in Tut's time.
The thieves developed
a network of contacts
among priests
and high officials,
people who could help them
fence the loot.
If you had recognizable goods,
essentially gold and jewelry
that had come from a royal tomb,
it was pretty obvious
where it came from.
So they had to have accomplices.
They had to have officials
who were higher up in the ranks
in order to sort of
launder the goods
that they had robbed
from the tombs.
[Speaking foreign language]
NARRATOR:
During this crime wave,
the Valley of the Kings
was stripped bare
except for one solitary tomb.
HARTWIG: What's remarkable is
that in this climate
where literally every
royal tomb had been robbed
that Tut's still remained
relatively untouched.
Solving this mystery
has been the life's work
of geologist Steve Cross.
CROSS, VOICE-OVER: I've been
interested in ancient Egypt
and specifically
the Valley of the Kings
since I was 8 years old.
This study originally started
by trying to ask
a very simple question--
why was Tutankhamun's tomb
discovered intact?
When all the tombs were
cleared out in antiquity,
how come his was left
fully intact?
NARRATOR: Steve began his quest
by looking at old photographs
of Carter's excavation.
This is a photo
of the tomb of Tutankhamun
taken shortly
after the discovery,
and we can see here
the entrance to the tomb
cut into the solid bedrock,
and we have Howard Carter,
Lord Carnarvon,
and his daughter
Lady Evelyn Herbert,
but notice here
this layer stands out.
It's composed
of different sized boulders
suspended
in a limestone matrix.
NARRATOR: Today
the Valley of the Kings
has been landscaped to make it
more accessible for tourists,
but there is one place
where you can still see
this mysterious layer
of sediment.
This is the entrance to Tomb 55.
What we're looking at here
is the same layer
that covered Tutankhamun's tomb,
and what we can see is
it's identical,
all these different sized
boulders suspended
in this limestone dust matrix.
NARRATOR: Slowly Steve
develops a theory,
but he needs more evidence.
NARRATOR: He thought he might
find a clue off the beaten track
just above Tut's tomb.
What we're looking at here
is the foundations
of an ancient wall.
We call them walls,
but they're actually dams.
It would have been
at least 3 times higher,
and what it was for was
to stop ancient floods
coming rushing
down this side wadi.
The flood would have come
from a waterfall
over the cliff there,
vertically down,
rushing down this way,
and round
and flooded the valley.
NARRATOR: Steve is
beginning to wonder
if the most devastating force
of desert weather
might be the key--a flash flood.
Flash floods here--
because the land is so arid--
are absolutely catastrophic.
They move masses and masses
of detritus,
which tear their way
through the valley.
It's an absolute catastrophe.
NARRATOR: Steve found
further evidence
in one of the previously
robbed tombs in the valley...
KV5, the burial place
of the sons of Ramses II.
Its inner chambers bear
testament to the power
of floodings through the ages.
CROSS: You can see quite clearly
how successive flood layers
have filled this chamber
almost to the ceiling.
One in particular,
this one from here to here,
we can see that the layer
goes from large stones
to progressively smaller stones
as we come to the top
of the flood layer.
This is caused by the flood
as it entered this chamber
dropping the heaviest
stones first
and the lightest stones last
as the speed
of the flood dissipated.
NARRATOR: Flash floods in
the Valley of the Kings require
a specific weather pattern,
most common in the autumn.
A low pressure system hanging
south of the Mediterranean
generates an easterly wind
over southern Egypt.
This wind will pick up
moisture from the broad
waters of the Nile.
As the air mass rises over
the Theban Hills to the west,
the moister is dropped
as torrential rain.
[Thunder]
And that weather pattern
is still active today.
Here we have the tomb
of Ramses I and Seti I,
and you can see that we've
built modern walls
surrounding the entrance
to the tombs.
That's to protect them
from present-day floods,
which will happen again,
and we can see over here
Tutankhamun's tomb
is right in the center.
It's at the deepest part
possible in the whole
of the Valley of the Kings.
NARRATOR: The location
of Tut's tomb is crucial
to Steve's theory.
Originally the tomb was cut
into the bedrock
below the level
of today's valley floor.
This is a cross section
of the central area
of the valley
based on the 3 different
excavation reports,
and here's Tutankhamun's tomb
descending down
into the bedrock.
Above the tomb is one meter
of flood layer,
and on the east side, there's
two meters of flood layer.
NARRATOR: It's this flood layer,
first noticed in Carter's
original photograph,
that Steve believes is
responsible for concealing
Tutankhamun's tomb.
Yeah. Right, right,
right, right.
So it would have been
accurate when it filled.
Yeah, yeah.
NARRATOR: Chris has returned
to the Valley of the Kings
to hear firsthand the theory
of the flash flood.
So, Steve, can you
just explain to me
in a nutshell
what your theory is?
Yeah, certainly.
A flash flood
at the end
of the 18th Dynasty.
It caused 3 streams
to all converge.
One stream,
flood stream came
tearing down here,
another one down there,
and a third one past
Seti's tomb down here.
All 3 steams collided
right here in the center
of the valley.
When the streams
collide,
they lose
their speed,
so they lose
the ability to
carry the sediment,
so they dumped
all their load
here right in the center
of the valley,
and they covered
and concealed
Tutankhamun's tomb.
So the flood layer
is just this
triangle here
right in the center
of the valley.
So there's a hug quantity
of debris being brought
down these
3 channels all
at once, high speed,
and then all
of a sudden,
they just stop
in the middle there,
sediment just drops
dead in the middle.
That's correct.
Wow!
It's incredible to me
to think that somewhere
like this,
which is visited
by thousands of people
every day,
can still give us
new information like this,
and it's just a case
of looking at it
in a slightly
different way.
It's a different
science, looking
at the valley
in geological terms
rather than
archaeological terms.
NARRATOR: It's a great theory,
but could a simple flash flood
really have sealed Tut's tomb
for thousands of years?
At Hull University in England,
hydrologist Tom Coulthard
has developed a unique method
for modeling
the movement of sediment.
With a newly developed
computer program,
he reveals what happened
3,000 years ago
with startling accuracy.
COULTHARD: So here we have
the Valley of the Kings located
right next
to the River Nile here,
and you can see all the fields
next to the Nile,
and if we zoom in
on the Valley of the Kings,
you can see we've
got this almost sort of
pear-shaped catchment here,
and Tutankhamun's tomb
is located here,
and that means that
all the water that
might land on here
from a thunderstorm,
from a flash flood
will flow
down these hill slopes
and congregate
in the bottom of the valley
round about where
Tutankhamun's tomb is.
Now what we can do
within the model
is we can simulate
this rainfall.
So if I click
on this button here,
we can start to see
as rainfall lands
we see water build up,
the streams get bigger,
and the flow congregates
around where Tutankhamun's tomb
is here with the yellow dot.
So after we've modeled
the water,
we can then simulate
where the sediment goes
that would be moved
by the water,
and that's what we're
going to show here,
and then as the flood gets
bigger and bigger,
we can start to see we get
a big patch of deposition,
a big area of green
right by Tutankhamun's tomb,
and so by the end of the flood,
after the flood has passed,
we're left
with quite a big area,
probably about 20 meters
by 20 meters of sediment here
that's probably up
to a meter deep in places,
and so there's
a really good chance
that anything beneath that
or on the edges of it,
such as Tutankhamun's tomb,
could be buried by this,
and maybe the beauty of this
is that you'd have
effectively a valley floor left
with what would look like
a natural riverbed.
So it's almost the perfect
camouflage for the tomb.
NARRATOR: The computer model
supports Steve's observations
on the ground.
Using evidence
from Tut's tomb,
it is even possible to work out
how soon after his death
the flood might have
taken place.
On his body was found
a floral collar, this one here,
and the flowers that were used
were cornflowers and mandrakes.
They only bloom from mid March
till mid April,
so he was buried in the spring.
As flash floods usually
happen in October or November,
my theory is that the tomb
was only open to view
for 7 months of the same year
that he was buried.
Steve theorizes that
during the summer of 1327 B.C.,
the year of Tutankhamun's death,
the robbers would have
entered his tomb
and stolen the easily
transported valuables.
Soon afterwards, the tomb
would have been resealed.
[Thunder]
In the autumn of that year,
Steve believes a Mediterranean
depression moved south.
[Thunder]
An easterly wind whipped
across the Nile,
and thunder clouds formed
above the western highlands.
Rain poured down
on the mountains
above the valley.
Within minutes,
torrential streams formed.
In the bottom of the basin,
tons of sediment were deposited.
Tutankhamun's tomb was sealed,
its treasured hidden
for millennia.
Once the stream has finished
and the floodwaters
have escaped,
the Egyptian sun would come out
and bake the flood layer
as hard as concrete,
so anyone coming along later
would think,
IIThat's the natural floor
of the wadi.
There are no tombs
underneath it."
NARRATOR: But the flash flood
isn't the only reason
for Tutankhamun to have
remained unknown.
There is another
political reason.
There is one last mystery
Chris Naunton wants to solve.
A clue is here in the ancient
religious center of Abydos.
This is the temple of Seti I
with its famous king list,
a record of Egyptian rulers
from the First
to the 19th Dynasties.
NAUNTON: This is Seti I,
the builder
of this great temple,
and standing in front of him
is Prince Ramses, his son,
who would go on to become
Pharaoh Ramses II,
and in front of them
is a long inscription
giving us the names
of all of the kings
of ancient Egypt
beginning with Menes
in the top left,
the very first rule
of the very first dynasty,
and then we continue
through the names of kings,
through the dynasties,
and eventually,
we come out at the end
of the second register
in the 18th Dynasty,
and this is where you
would expect then to see
names like Akhenaten,
Tutankhamun, Ay,
but instead, it jumps straight
from Amenhotep III to Horemheb.
There was a very
deliberate attempt by Seti I
and Ramses II to take them
out of history,
to pretend that this period
never happened,
Tutankhamun never existed,
an what's happening here
is that Seti I and Ramses II
are trying to tell you
that this is the list
of legitimate rulers
of ancient Egypt,
and they follow this list
of legitimate rulers
as the Pharaohs themselves,
and anybody whose name
is not in this list
is not considered by them
to be a legitimate ruler,
and so that includes
Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, Ay.
So what they're trying to do
is to create an idea
that this is
a comprehensive list of kings,
but these names aren't here
because Ramses II and Seti I
don't consider them
to be legitimate,
and instead they have
erased them from history.
NARRATOR: This is yet another
reason why tomb robbers
might not have searched
for Tutankhamun's grave.
By the 20th Dynasty,
there was no official
record of his rule.
NAUNTON: Well, there is
an irony in that for
the ancient Egyptians
what they all wanted
to achieve was immortality.
They wanted to achieve
an eternal life,
and Tutankhamun's successors
did their level best
to ensure that this
doesn't happen in his case,
and yet thanks
to circumstances,
he is the one whose name lives
on more than any other ruler.
NARRATOR: For Chris,
it's the end of his journey
and chance to reflect
on what he's learned.
NARRATOR: I feel as
though I know a lot more
about him than I did,
and it's incredibly rewarding
to have been able to take
such a close look
at the evidence.
I feel closer to him.
I feel as though we're
a little bit closer
to knowing the real person.
He is the boy king
of the Amarna Period.
He died young,
he died suddenly.
He was interred in a tomb
which was never made for him.
His burial equipment was,
in fact, gathered
from equipment that was already
in use for other people.
The tomb is then sealed...
and thanks
to a natural act of God,
it's then covered completely,
and then very shortly
after that,
his successors
did their level best
to erase his name from history.
So the evidence
then stays in the ground
for centuries
and centuries and centuries
until the point at which
Howard Carter uncovers the tomb,
and all of a sudden of course,
it's a sensation,
and he is the best known figure
we have from ancient Egypt.
NARRATOR: But for Steve Cross,
that's not quite
the end of the story.
Although he's convinced
he's answered why the tomb
lay undisturbed for centuries,
there's another mystery
he wants to solve.
At the end
of the excavations in 2009,
I directed two GPR scans--
that's ground penetrating radar.
What that does is
sends radar pulse down
through the sediments
and down through the bedrock
so we can see what's there
without excavating,
and what the
two scans showed was
on this side of the excavation
cut into the bedrock
was a flat leveled area
identical to the leveled area
in front of Tutankhamun's tomb,
and then in front
of the rest house
at a depth of about 8 meters
was a corridor descending,
filled with chippings identical
to Tutankhamun's tomb.
NARRATOR: So could there be
another burial just feet
from where Tutankhamun
was discovered?
CROSS: So what this
indicates to me is
the flood line at the end
of the 18th Dynasty
covered and concealed
Tutankhamun's tomb.
What these GPR scans show is
the possibility of another tomb.
NARRATOR: If he's right
and it is unlooted,
it could be a find to rival
the discovery of Tutankhamun.
HARTWIG, VOICE-OVER:
One of the great questions
that we have as Egyptologists
is is there another Tut's tomb,
is there another tomb
in the valley that has
been left untouched?
I think part of being
an Egyptologist is
holding that hope out
that there is something
else to be found.
MAN: And what
is your feeling?
You think
there is one?
There are a few tombs
to be found.
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12x05 - Ultimate Tut
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Mysteries involving notable historical events, people and locations are scientifically examined.
Mysteries involving notable historical events, people and locations are scientifically examined.