Ancient Egypt's Strange Obsession With Afterlife | The Mysteries Of Ancient Egypt

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(instrumental music)

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] At the
dawn of the 20th century,

a unique discovery was made.

It redefined how
we understand life,

and death in ancient Egypt.

How wonderful to have been in
that team of archaeologists,

who came down that day
in February, 1906.

A procession of men,
eager to know what lay at the

end of this really atmospheric
series of tunnels and chambers.

What they'd found
was an intact tomb,

undisturbed for
over 3000 years.

And inside were not the
treasures of Pharaohs,

but a unique window on the
world of ordinary Egyptians.

The mummies, and possessions of
a working man, called Kha,

and his wife Merit.

I'm Egyptologist
Dr. Joann Fletcher,

and I'm exploring the
world of Kha and Merit,

to find out about their
lives, and their deaths.

Last time, we looked at how
they lived in their

tiny desert village.

We've seen where Kha worked.

What a treat to be able to see
this kind of working surface.

What they ate,
its direct link

back into their world.

The smell of this
wonderful stuff,

the way it was made
and how they relaxed.

And this is where the
gentlemen of the house

would sit of an evening,
drinking beer, having a chat.

In many ways,
their lives were

quite similar to ours.

But their relationship with
death, was completely different.

Because to ancient Egyptians,
life was really just

a dress rehearsal for
the perfect afterlife,

that they were trying to reach.

I want to travel back into this
strange and mysterious world.

This isn't a funerary building,
this is a building

to keep life going.

To reach the afterlife,
they spent fortunes on

funerary equipment,
buildings and rituals.

Kha's book of the dead would
have been incredibly costly.

And expected to face numerous
trials along the way.

This is the Great Devourer.

All evil souls,
their hearts were

fed to this creature,
consumed and that was

it, finished forever.

So with Kha and
Merit as our guides,

we would journey back into
the world of death, in ancient

Egypt.

The ancient Egyptians
held a fundamental belief.

Your death was in many ways,
the most important

moment in your life.

If you'd prepared for it,
you would enter the

perfect afterlife.

An idealised eternity
based on life in Egypt.

So for any ancient Egyptian,
be they farmer or Pharaoh,

the biggest investment
they made was for death

and the world beyond it.

And here in ancient Thebes,
death was the biggest

business in town.

Now in these parts of Egypt,
death was the major employer

from the men who built these
wonderful funerary temples,

and rock-cut tombs to the
people who embalmed the dead,

who provided all the funerary
equipment they would need,

the little funerary figures,
the artists who composed the

funerary texts, even the
florists who put together the

huge bouquets of flowers offered
to the dead in their tombs.

This was the major industry.

Our couple, Kha and Merit,
lived at the very heart

of this industry.

Desert village now
known as Deir el-Medina.

It's close to the spectacular
Valley of the Kings where Kha

designed, and built tombs
for the mighty Pharaohs.

And although he spent his
working hours creating

the tombs of kings,
he spent much of his

spare time preparing
for his own death.

But in order to be ready
for the journey into the

afterlife, Kha needed to
plan his route carefully.

This was where his investment
started with a guidebook.

This scroll is known as
the Book of the Dead.

Kha's was found in his tomb
and this is a facsimile.

The Book of the Dead is a
collection of funerary spells,

and texts, and incantations,
a kind of roadmap

of the afterlife,
and it was designed

to allow the deceased,
with the help of these spells,

to navigate his or her way
through into the next world.

It's words seem
mysterious and strange,

but they had a definite purpose.

[NARRATOR] Oh you
who open the ways,

who open the roads to
my soul that is with you,

so that it may enter with
trepidation, but emerge in

peace from the abode of Osiris.

Let it not be rejected.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] If
you were going to meet

some dangerous demons,
or monsters in the underworld,

you had to have powerful
spells to counteract them,

to diffuse their magic,
and to negotiate your way

past them to achieve eternity.

Most books of the dead were
simply off-the-shelf versions

mass-produced by local artists.

But Kha's copy was
specially commissioned.

It was the deluxe version,
featuring personal references,

and grandiose claims.

[NARRATOR] Words spoken
by the great chief Kha.

"i know the northern gate of
the Sky, the place where Ra

navigates by wind and oar.

I am in charge of the
rigging in the ship of the

sun god, a tireless oarsman,
in Ra's great ship."

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] While
plain rolls and papyrus were

relatively cheap at around a
fifth of a worker's monthly

salary, one inscribed with
funerary text like this,

could cost the equivalent
of six months wages at least.

So many hours of work
have gone into it, it's

almost 40 meters of texts,
the inks had to be prepared,

the colors ground up, mixed
and then applied so carefully,

and with such a lot of thought.

It's rare to find a Book
of the Dead so intact,

yet somehow Kha and
Merit's had remained

safe in their undiscovered
tomb for over 3000 years.

The only evidence that they
had existed at all was this.

I've come to see the small
chapel that Kha built on the

outskirts of their village.

And although another
major expense on Kha

and Merit's death bill,
it was the vital link between

the living and the dead.

It's like a little
jewel box of color.

You come in from the
glare and heat of the

desert and the cliffs,
and you enter this little

oasis of calm and quiet.

The chapel is situated
close to their house,

because when these ancient
Egyptians died, they simply

moved across the street.

And as the living and the
dead existed side by side,

this was the place that families
could pay their respects.

And looking around,
the colors used

are sumptuous.

You've got the gold background,
and then as the vaulted ceiling

rises up, the artist has done
something very clever.

They've changed the
palette to these blues,

and greens of the Egyptian
landscape with the nihilist is

suggested, the sky is suggested,
very cooling, refreshing and a

wonderful juxtaposition of the
gold, the blues, and the greens.

Blues and greens were among the
most costly colors to produce,

so Kha had clearly
spared no expense.

The walls depict all the things
he and Merit loved in life, and

hoped to enjoy in the afterlife.

It is like walking into
Kha and Merit's sitting

room, they're all here,
they all around us.

This isn't a funerary building,
this is a building to keep life

going, kind of like a giant
generator with everything

that life meant to Kha
and Merit encapsulated

in this tiny little room.

This chapel was the first
clue in a trail that would

ultimately lead archaeologists
to Kha and Merit's tomb, because

after three millennia the chapel
was discovered by an Italian

diplomat, Bernardino Drovetti.

Appointed French consul to
Egypt by Napoleon in 1803,

Drovetti's main interest
was amassing antiquities.

I think it's safe to say
that Drovetti's methods

were very, very unscrupulous.

He used a range of agents
to basically ransack their

way through ancient Egypt,
and in doing so, he managed

to acquire a stupendous
series of collections of

Egyptian antiquities,
many of which he then

sold on to sufficiently
wealthy individuals.

Drovetti sold his personal
collection to the King of

Sardinia, who put it here,
in what is now the superb

Egyptian Museum in Turin.

One of the most important items
in this collection was taken

from Kha and Merit's chapel.

This costly painted funerary
stela was a kind of memorial

stone made to ensure their names
would live on, and its presence

in Turin would eventually lead
to the discovery of that tomb.

It shows Kha twice,
both left and right,

worshipping the archetypal
gods of the dead, Osiris

and then the black
jackal-headed god Anubis.

And you can see he's
praying to them for a long

and successful afterlife.

And then in the register below,
it's kind of like a family

snapshot if you like, you
have Kha and Merit seated

in front of a huge table
full of food, drink, flowers.

And then on the right hand
side with the arm raised is

their eldest son, Amenemopet,
and he's kind of saying his

prayers to his parents.

So in effect, the next
generation is wishing a

long and happy afterlife
full of good things.

It's likely that this funerary
stela was actually made during

the lifetime of Kha.

He would have almost
certainly commissioned

it and would have selected
which deities he wanted,

the kind of whole layout,
the scenario, the colors.

And this was a typical thing
for the ancient Egyptians

to do, to commission their
funerary monuments in their

lifetime so they could
get things just right.

And then of course after
death, the images represented,

would magically continue to be
effective throughout eternity,

so it was kind of like
good insurance for what

was going to happen to
them in the next world.

The elaborate Book of
the Dead, their chapel,

and its funerary stela are just
the beginning of Kha and Merit's

preparations for eternal life.

(engine revving)

The main investment
would be their tomb.

So I'm traveling to
the Valley of the Kings

where Kha supervised the
building of royal tombs.

It's the best place to
find out how he might have

organised and paid for the
construction of his own.

I'm meeting geologist Steve
Cross, to see an unfinished

tomb, a work in progress.

[STEVE CROSS] The way they
cut the tombs was they started

with a slot at the ceiling,
and then worked out outwards,

and then excavated downwards.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Slowly
chiselling away at the bedrock,

a tomb of this size would
have taken around 40

men years to complete.

And although a tomb like this
was way beyond the means of

most ordinary Egyptians,
Kha had both the skills and

the inspiration to create
such a tomb for himself.

Now this of course is a royal
tomb, but in terms of Kha's

own personal tomb, how on earth
would he have persuaded anyone,

on their time off to have given
him a hand excavating his tomb?

[STEVE CROSS] Well what
they did was they all helped

each other, and its barter.

You do work in my tomb,
I'll do work in your tomb.

So Kha, being the architect
might have designed tombs for

other people, in trade off for
them coming to work on his tomb.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] So
he got the better part

of the deal really?

[STEVE CROSS] Probably he did.

(Dr. Joann Fletcher laughing)

.

[STEVE CROSS] Don't forget these
tomb makers are the experts.

That's why the tombs
in the Deir el-

Medina are amongst
the best in the world.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] With
the help of his colleagues,

Kha clearly invested a huge
amount of time, effort, and

resources into building his
tomb, so security was critical.

Tomb robbing, had already been a
big problem for 2000 years,

and this explains why he did
something highly unusual.

Ordinary Egyptians who could
afford a tomb built it directly

beneath their chapel complex,
which of course made it

easier to find and rob.

But Kha had learned
from the Pharaohs,

he decided to hide
his elsewhere.

It remained secret
for over 3000 years.

But in 1906,
another Italian

began explorations in
Kha and Merit's village.

Egyptologist Ernesto
Schiaparelli was director of

the Egyptian Museum in Turin.

He was very familiar with
the stela of Kha and Merit,

and also knew their tomb
had never been found.

He could read the hieroglyphs,
he knew there was an important

individual called Kha,
had a wife called Merit,

and he knew they had to
be buried somewhere in

the vicinity where the
stela was discovered.

Schiaparelli was
determined to find the

tomb, but where to look?

[ELENI VASSILIKA] Look
at that instrument there.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Eleni
Vassilika, the present-day

director of the Egyptian
Museum in Turin,

has accompanied
me to Egypt,

to follow in
his footsteps.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] They must
have looked around and said,

'the tomb is here somewhere.

Is it that trench there?

Or where could it be?'

But Kha was clever, wasn't he?

He was sly.

He knew what was going
to go into the tomb.

So he wanted to hide it.

I think Schiaparelli must have
stood here, scratched his head,

and said, knowing wheather the
stela was in the museum since

1824, he must have said,
'where the hell is the tomb?

It's got to be near here.'

And he looked at the landscape,
which most archaeologists do,

and said, 'I think we need to
take that detritus away.'

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] It was just
a theory, but Schiaparelli had a

huge work force at his disposal.

He moved his 250 workmen
to the foot of this rock

face, close to the chapel.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] They just
dug for 30 days, he says,

until they discovered
the perforation in the

bedrock there.

And then they came to a
brick wall, took that down,

and then they saw the door.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Wow.

That must have been
an amazing feeling.

A sealed door.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] A sealed door.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] In
an Egyptian tomb.

Wow.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] It was a
moment really incredible for

them because all of these tombs,
most of these tombs have

been sacked at some point,
and very few intact tombs.

And of course, so well
furnished as this one.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] In
essence, really,

what Schiaparelli
had found is the most

important non-royal tomb.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] Yes.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Probably
from the whole of this period,

if not the whole of
Egyptian history.

Because it tells us
so much about reality,

real lives in ancient Egypt,
not just gods and Pharaohs.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] What a moment.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Since
Schiaparelli, hardly anyone's

been into the tomb.

But Eleni and I have been
granted special access.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] I
think this is,

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] This is it?

[ELENI VASSILIKA] I think so.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] This is it?

[ELENI VASSILIKA] Yeah.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] He
was a clever guy.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] He
was a very clever guy.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] He
was really sly.

Well, that's why his tomb
stayed secret for so long

because it is so unexpected.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] Yes.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Situated at
the bottom of this rather shaft.

Getting down into the tube
is no easier today than it

would have been in Kha's time.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] Wow.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Look
at this.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] I
don't believe it.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] That
Schiaparelli was here?

[ELENI VASSILIKA] Yeah,
more or less.

It says, discovered
intact by the Italian

archaeological mission in 1906.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Oh,
and look, they've written

over the ancient red,
the red ochre marks.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] Yes.

Yes.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Of the
address men,

sort of planning out.

These are the red ochre pigment
that was applied by the workers

as they were constructing the
tomb to give them a sense of the

measurements, and so forth and
simply whereabouts to chip away.

They had to keep this
as close to plan as was

possible so they'd be using
their equipment to give this

lovely 90 degree angle here.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] It
was blocked up twice.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Well
that sense of excitement

that Schiaparelli and his
men must have felt because

here there were, not just one
intact doorway blocked but two.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] Yes.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Having
removed the blockage from

the second brick doorway,
Schiaparelli and his team

found themselves in a
large empty chamber.

It contained Kha's exquisitely
crafted bed, beautifully painted

pottery and floral bouquets.

But there was much,
much more to come.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] It's
really exciting approaching

in the burial chamber.

And this is where presumably.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] This
is the door.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] And this is
where Schiaparelli rapped on

the door, and then turned around
and said, 'how about the key?'

(both laughing)

So he must have known that he
was on to a good thing after

having seen a bed out here.

He knew there was more to
find and this was sealed.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] One of the
men who entered the tomb with

Schiaparelli was Englishman
Arthur Weigall, Chief Inspector

of Antiquities for Upper Egypt.

He immediately recorded
the astonishing sight.

[NARRATOR] I should think
it is the greatest find ever

made, or rather the most unique,
and brimming over with

points of interest.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] When
Schiaparelli's team

arrived, the chamber was,
crammed full of objects.

But today all that remains
is a colony of bats.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] The
photographer took

a photograph from
there, looking in.

Then he stepped in right here
where I'm standing right now.

He turned around,
and took a photograph

of everything behind.

[NARRATOR] There are
two huge coffins.

We have not yet seen inside,
but doubtless there will be

jewels, chairs, beds, boxes,
vases, several of immense value

[ELENI VASSILIKA] Along this
wall is the coffin of Merit.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] This
place is full of small bats.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] I
know, thank you.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Stand
behind me, I'll protect you.

And then that bat wall, that
was Kha's sarcophagus coffin.

[ELENI VASSILIKA] Which was
substantially larger than hers.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Yeah, yeah.

In ancient Egypt, children
didn't always inherit their

parents' belongings,
and almost everything

Kha and Merit owned was
sealed up inside their tomb

to be used in the afterlife.

So very few people have been
privileged to come in here,

and it makes so much more sense
now knowing all the material

that was originally in here,
the belongings of Kha and Merit,

play so lovingly and so
carefully in here and now

displayed so beautifully
in the museum in Turin.

It's fantastic to be able
to put all the pieces of

the jigsaw together,
to really get a feeling

how Schiaparelli must have
felt coming in here in 1906.

It's a rare treat, it really is.

The wealth of objects that have
been discovered in the tomb

testify to the great investment
that Kha and Merit had made.

Of their hundreds of belongings,
many have been designed and

made at great expense,
purely for use in the afterlife.

This intricate statuette of
Kha shows him with his palms

on his starched kilt, a sign
of humility before the gods.

Such statues were idealised,
a version of how the deceased

wanted to look in the afterlife.

It was also insurance,
providing an alternative

home for your soul,
in case anything happened

to your mummified body.

The kilt is also inscribed
with a funerary prayer, and a

small garland of real flowers
still hangs around Kha's chest.

One of the most precious
purpose-made items found

in the tomb is Merit's
fabulous death mask.

Made with great skill,
and with costly materials,

the eyes, brows, and
decorative collar are

made with colored glass,
which the Egyptians had

only begun to manufacture
in Kha's lifetime.

Cheaper yellow ochre was
often used to imitate gold,

but Kha had chosen the real
thing for Merit's mask,

which is covered in
precious gold leaf.

But the most costly of all,
worth well over a year's

wages, was the coffin in
which Merit was buried,

again covered in gold leaf.

Almost certainly
intended for Kha,

it is only inscribed
with his name.

But it was used for Merit
because it seems she died first.

But how did Merit die?

Was it the result
of a long illness,

or was it a sudden death,
perhaps in an accident?

We've been granted
special permission to

examine Kha and Merit's
mummies and their CT scans.

In order to preserve the
mummies, they cannot be

unwrapped of course but the
scans allow us to see what

lies beneath the wrappings.

I've asked pathologist Peter
Vanezis and radiologist Curtis

Offiah to take a look at Merit's
CT scans to see what they reveal

about her on the day she died.

[DR. CURTIS OFFIAH] She's
certainly not in the early

20s and I would have put her
more in the middle age group,

so 30s, possibly even 40s.

[PROF. PETER VANEZIS] Yes.

I would certainly
agree with that.

There's a clear indication
here of lifestyle.

The fact that her joints
are quite well preserved

indicates that she's led
rather charmed life so to speak.

She's had a pretty
lucky existence,

and I would say
she probably lived

in a lap of luxury.

There's certainly no indication
there of any chronic disease

which has affected her bones.

There's no indication that she
perhaps been lying immobile

for a long time because that
would reflect in the density

of the bone structure as well.

So my feeling is that
she's either had a very

short illness or she's died
suddenly, possibly unexpectedly.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] So
Merit's death left Kha

little time to prepare.

But the costly,
and time-consuming

process of mummification
had to begin immediately.

Mummification was a way
to preserve the body so

it could provide a home for
the soul in the afterlife.

The process took around 70 days,
and the first step was to

remove the internal organs
to prevent decomposition.

This included the brain,
which was usually

removed down the nose.

But Merit's scans revealed
something very surprising.

This is a cross-section
looking down into Merit's skull

through the top of her head.

As you can see quite clearly
this white feature is in

fact her brain which has
fallen down to the back of

her head and wasn't removed.

So what?

Why is this important?

Well, what it tells us
is that there were other

ways to preserve the brain.

The next step was to dry out the
body, which took about 40 days.

This usually involved piling
dry salt on top of the corpse,

to draw out all the body fluids.

But analysis of Merit's
mummy has revealed that she

was preserved differently.

Instead of using dry salt,
Merit had in fact been

submerged in a highly
concentrated salt solution,

essentially pickling her.

This allowed her organs
to remain inside the body

without causing decay.

If you look at the angle at
which the brain has fallen

to the back of the skull,
it appears to be on a

tilt because the body,
when it was draining out,

was laid at a different angle,
a slightly different angle at

a tilt to allow the fluids
which would have initiated

decomposition to completely
leave, to exit the body.

It may have been the most
up-to-date preservation

technique but it didn't
come cheap, and once Merit's

body had been dried out she
was wrapped in layers of costly

linen and an outer red shroud.

But the expense
didn't stop there.

By chemically analysing minute
samples of Merit's wrapping we

found something intriguing,
oil from the tilapia fish.

Yet this oil had no preservative
power, it was purely symbolic,

and it set Merit apart
for there was something

special about this fish.

What the tilapia does is
to take its young into its

mouth in times of danger,
and when the danger has

passed to then spit them
out back into the water,

and when the Egyptians
saw this, they saw it

as a miraculous thing.

As if it was a self-generating
fish that could simply spit

out its young in this way,
and so by association,

the tilapia became
connected directly

with the goddess Hathor,
and fertility, and rebirth.

This fish oil which was also
mixed with exotic imported

ingredients would have cost
Kha a small fortune, but it

was worth it if it put Merit on
a first track to the afterlife.

But Kha's efforts
didn't even stop there.

As in today's most
exclusive nightclubs,

the Egyptians knew that they
had to look their best to gain

admittance to the afterlife.

The scans reveal Merit was all
dressed up for death, and under

her wrappings she still wears
an amazing array of jewelry.

So what today would form a
treasured inheritance went

with her into the afterlife.

The most striking piece is this
huge broad collar necklace.

And to find out what it
looks like, I've come to

the Petrie Museum in London.

It houses one of the most
comprehensive collections of

Egyptian jewellery in the world.

Now what we've got in front
of us here is an absolutely,

superb, broad collar necklace.

It's the typical Egyptian
necklace that you see in the

tomb scenes and in the art.

And it's basically made up of
numerous little moulded amulets

that have been made in these
sumptuous jewel-like colors.

And this is exactly the same
thing that Merit still wears.

Her mummy is still adorned with
this beautiful broad collar,

which we can see on the
image of Merit here.

Now, the top five rows were made
up of these rather elongated

green beads, and they're
are actually cos lettuces.

Now the lettuce was sacred
to the fertility god Min,

and in wanting to be laid
out in a necklace such as

this, it basically associates
Merit with this god of

fertility, of new life.

You have then two more
rows of what look like

mini hand grenades,
and they're actually

bunches of grapes,
these blue shiny bunches of

the grapes, which not only,
again, look very beautiful,

but produce the wine which was
something sacred to to Hathor,

the goddess of sex, of love,
of new life, the goddess who

took the dead into her care.

And Merit was effectively
dressed in a collar like this,

not only to look beautiful,
but to associate her with

these two deities who were so
intimately involved in new life,

in rebirth, in eternal life.

As well as the broad collar,
Merit wears two pairs

of huge gold earrings,
and around her waist,

a belt of gold cowrie
shells similar to this one.

She was laid out to
appear very seductive,

and we know this from
tomb scenes where dancers,

musicians, those associated
with the goddess Hathor appear

almost naked at this time.

They're wearing broad collars,
they're wearing huge earrings,

their hair is very beautiful,
and they have these gold belts

with little cowrie shells and
colored elements to look very

alluring, very erotic,
capable of sex,

and of producing
the next generation.

So it can only be compared
perhaps to laying out a modern

woman in like a negligee,
a vital sexual being as capable

of living in the next world
as she had been in this one.

So Merit didn't want to spend
eternity as a wise old lady,

but as a youthful and
attractive woman.

In the afterlife you wanted to
be the very best you could be,

and Kha made sure Merit also
had her most personal belongings

with her all carefully prepared.

One of her most prized
possessions was her

magnificent wig,
it was housed in

his own tall box to
which funerary prayers

had then been added.

This one on the lid reads,
'a funerary offering of Osiris

the great god, lord of eternity,
that he may make an offering

of beef, birds and everything
to the soul of Merit.'

Some of her other possessions
were also adapted for Merit's

journey into the afterlife.

This is her bed which
she'd used in life.

It was now repainted
to freshen it up.

Another funerary inscription
was added along the side.

Kha clearly gave careful
thought and spared no

expense when preparing
his wife for eternity.

And although he'd overseen
her burial, Merit probably

remained very much alive to him.

It's even likely he
would have continued

to communicate with her.

We know the Egyptians actually
wrote to their dead relatives

about all sorts of things,
from the mundane to the

serious, in notes like this.

What we're looking at here
is one of the so-called

letters to the dead.

And it's a pottery bowl, it's
a piece of everyday tableware.

And the amazing thing
about this is it's actually

inscribed in black ink by a
woman wanting to communicate

with her dead husband.

And we know for a fact that
the living wrote to the dead.

They sent them letters on
papyrus, on small pieces

of limestone on an ostraca.

She says, "Oh husband,
you should be here helping me.

Settle the score with him who
does what's painful to me,

for surely I shall triumph
over anyone dead or alive acting

against me and our daughter."

It's that typical, you know,
'where are you now?'

'what are you doing?'

'what are you?'

"oh, you might have died,
but that's not really

an excuse, is it?

Come on,
help me."

And it expresses this
real belief that the

dead can help the living,
that they are just passed

through into a different
sphere of existence.

And this woman is maintaining
the dialogue that she

would have had on earth.

She's bending her husband's ear.

(engine revving)

(indistinct chattering)

But the ancient Egyptians didn't
only communicate with their

dead through writing, they
also did it through playing.

(both laughing)

Now we're playing the ancient
Egyptian game of Senet.

It's a board game that the
Egyptians absolutely loved.

It dates back to
at least 3000 BC,

and was played by
kings and commoners alike.

It was the ancient Egyptians
version of turning on a soap

opera on TV at night,
putting the feet up and

enjoying themselves.

Senet is essentially a
race, a game of chance,

that is used in the Book of
the Dead as a metaphor for the

journey into the next world.

We're having a bit of a stab of
it here, and it is quite fun,

but I'm sure we don't get the
complexities and the nuances

that were inherent in the
ancient Egyptian version,

because for them it symbolized
the ultimate game of chance,

to succeed at senet meant
you succeeded in life,

and succeeded in the
transition from this

world to the next,
hence the living played it

not only at home but also in
close proximity to the tombs,

because by playing this game
step by step they were

assisting the transition
of their deceased relatives

through all the perils,
and problems they might

encounter in the underworld,
and so it kind of was a

reflection of the great unknown.

To play senet the outcome was
never sure, would you win, or

would death ultimately triumph?

[PARTICIPANT] You win.

(both laughing)

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] The senate
board was one of the items

found in Kha and Merit's tomb,
and Kha might have played this

game close to their chapel
hoping to ease Merit's path

through the underworld.

Because there had probably been
an age gap between them in life,

it seems it wasn't long
before Kha died too.

Peter and Curtis
are examining the

scans of his body.

[DR. CURTIS OFFIAH] In
terms of an age, I would

have to put him of greater
years than than Merit, and I

think We're probably talking
50s onwards, I think at least,

so maybe even 60s to 70s.

The skeleton is
of a very healthy,

for his years, a specimen.

We're not seeing any evidence of
broken bones, or chronic healing

of fractures in the spine.

[PROF. PETER VANEZIS] Looking
at the skeleton overall,

and the fact that he has
got bones which look sturdy,

he hasn't got anything which
indicates that he's had

a chronic disease.

So again I think like his wife,
he's probably led a reasonably

healthy life up until
close to when he died.

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] So Kha died
quite suddenly, like his wife.

And like Merit, Kha would
have undergone the costly

mummification process.

Again his brain remains
inside his skull cavity,

just like hers.

He too wears large hoop earrings
and valuable jewellery around

his neck, but the scans
also show something else

placed on his forehead.

This is a snake's head,
the head of a cobra,

beautifully rendered
in carnelian,

an orange stone with the
two menacing eyes of the cobra,

and the ridges on the body.

This amulet was used to
provide refreshment to the

throat in the afterlife,
since it refers to the way

a snake's throat swells out,
so it should really have

been placed on Kha's throat
and not on his forehead.

The only people in ancient
Egypt allowed to have the

cobra at the forehead was
the king and the queen.

So I like to think that the
embalmers were paying their own

little tribute to Kha, they're
sort of elevating Kha in death.

He was their leader,
he was their chief,

he was their overseer,
and the people in the

village were maybe paying
their own special tribute,

and so he was sent off into
eternity like a mini king

in his own mini kingdom.

I love that.

Kha was an important
man in the village,

as such the next step
of his journey to the

afterlife would have
been a grand affair.

His funeral would have begun
with a magnificent procession

up to their chapel just as Merit
would have done before him.

The great procession would have
wended its way up this path,

up towards the cliffs up
there where their tomb

is actually situated.

Now, it's hard here today to
try and get a sense of the

noise, the color, the life.

(engine revving)

That's a good word actually,
at a funeral ceremony, the life,

the vivacity of all the
ingredients that the ancient

Egyptians brought to their
funeral ceremonies because

they were all there to try
and get the dead to live again.

Life in some ways was almost
a dress rehearsal for this

very moment when the funeral
ceremony marked the transition

between this world and the next.

The dead were going to be reborn
in the safety of their tombs.

So it's essential all
the equipment they'd

used in their lives,
and all the equipment

that was there to give
them a good sense off came

with them, accompanied them
into the darkness of the tomb,

where everything would work
in tandem to revive the soul

of the deceased, and send
them off into eternity.

And as Kha's body in its
nested coffins was carried

towards his tomb, all his
worldly possessions would,

of course, have accompanied him.

These wall scenes give a real
sense of what the procession

would have looked like.

This is the tomb of Ramose,
governor of Thebes, who lived at

the same time as Kha and Merit.

Now this is a really colorful,
lively portrayal of a

funeral procession.

You can see these sort
of rows of men, servants,

and bearers carrying all the
belongings of the deceased.

You can see the bed made
up with the bed linen,

the headrest which
acted as a pillow,

just like Kha and Merit's.

You've got these beautiful
painted wooden boxes carrying

all the personal items of the
deceased, a walking stick just

like Kha's, then you've got the
chair of the deceased just like

the one that Kha would have sat
on, that was found in his tomb.

You've got all sorts of
things, the jars of perfume,

the flowers, the food and drink.

(somber music)

A funeral on this scale didn't
come cheap, and these scenes

reveal yet another expense.

These are professional mourners,
they were hired to make the

maximum noise possible to
give the deceased a great

send-off because the higher
the decibel level, the more

important this individual was.

Their plaits are disheveled,
and if you look really

closely, they're crying.

They're such professionals,
they're crying so much,

forcing themselves to
produce tears that their

thick black eyeliner is running.

And any women that wear
mascara understand the problem.

You start to cry,
the makeup runs

down your face.

And the artist,
the ancient artist

portrayed this so
beautifully with these

dots of black coming
down the women's faces.

(upbeat instrumental music)

Once the procession
reached their chapel,

it was time for yet another
elaborate and opulent ritual.

The opening of the
mouth ceremony.

A 75 stage sensory assault
to reanimate the soul

of the deceased within
their mummified body.

In order for this to happen
every one of the five senses

needed to be reawakened.

Having dragged the huge
black sarcophagus of Kha

all the way up here on ropes,
the bearers would carefully

raise up Kha's black and gold
anthropoid coffin to place

it here looking out exactly
where I'm sitting today,

as if Kha was preparing
to be relaunched into the

next world, if you like.

It had been a very dramatic
profound moment for the family

as Kha once again stood upright
in front of his tomb chapel.

And at this point, the son,
the eldest son, Amenemopet,

would have stepped forward with
the special adze or chisel, he

would have touched his father's
mouth symbolically, like this,

to reanimate his power of
speech, of breathing,

so the eyes would have
been magically opened,

the ears touched,
so Kha could once again

hear in the next world,
and all his senses restored.

The ritual would also be
performed on Kha's statuette,

his insurance policy should,
his mummified body be destroyed.

And it was vital that the
sense of smell was restored, so

incense too will be presented.

The Egyptians love to present
flowers to the dead from the

characteristic water lily or the
lotus, the white and blue lotus,

which are often shown in tomb
scenes being literally pressed

against the noses of the
deceased so they could

inhale that fragrance.

To restore the sense of taste,
delicious food offerings

were presented.

And after the opening of the
mouth ceremony had finished,

the funeral party moved on
to the tomb for the final

burial, where an entire
banquet was laid out.

This was for Kha and Merit
to enjoy in the afterlife.

(upbeat instrumental music)

What we see in front of us
here in glorious technicolor

is basically the food that
was found in the tomb and

it's quite wonderful stuff.

You have the staple of the
ancient Egyptian life here,

the bread accompanied by the
all-important onions and garlic,

and this was the standard sort
of workman's packed lunch,

one of these on a daily
basis with the garlic here.

That's kind of ancient Egyptian
packed lunch, glass of beer,

an ancient Egyptian ploughman's,
and we do know that in the case

of the onions and the garlic,
when Scapparelli and

his team went into the
tomb and smelt them.

After three and a half
thousand years they were

still as pungent as the day
they'd been placed there.

No fewer than 50 loaves of
bread were found in the tomb,

along with jars of roast duck,
fish, bowls of vegetables,

fruit and spices.

There were grapes,
dates and these

amazing things.

He had several sack loads of
these, these are doum palm nuts,

although I've never
personally eaten one.

They apparently
taste like caramel.

All this kind of food in
the tomb of Kha and Merit

set out very carefully as
a kind of formal banquet

for the deceased, would have
allowed the very souls of Kha

and Merit to have enjoyed the
very essence of all this food.

But Kha's Book of the
Dead shows he wanted his

afterlife to be fuelled
by drink as well as food.

Now this is spell 148
in the book of the dead,

which is basically the
spell for provisioning the

soul of the deceased in the
next world with all the food

and drink that they need as
well as the desire for goose,

for beef, for wine and so forth.

The basis of Kha's wish list is
the standard bread and beer that

form the basis of the ancient
Egyptian diet for rich and poor

alike throughout the whole of
ancient Egyptian culture,

and in fact the word beer
does appear rather often.

Here with the twisted symbol,
the small black one here

and then this wonderful
determinative of the beer jar,

but it's this repetition of the
word beer, this desire of Kha to

have beer to drink for eternity,
if you like an eternal supply of

beer, which can be no bad thing.

They wanted to enjoy
an eternal banquet,

but there was also
work to be done.

In ancient Egypt,
just about everyone was

obliged to work the land.

Even death was no excuse, so
you needed figurines like these,

found in Kha and Merit's tomb.

Known as Shabti figures,
they were the little helpers

who would do all the work
for you in the afterlife.

They even have their own
miniature farming tools.

So with all the work taken
care of, Kha and Merit,

like all ancient Egyptians,
intended to have a

really good time.

And this is clear to see from
the scenes in their chapel.

It's okay trying to understand
ancient Egypt on a visual level.

Everybody does that.

Pyramids, King Tut, mummies.

But to really get into the heads
of the ancient Egyptians, you've

got to walk in their footsteps.

You've got to experience
the senses they experienced.

And one of these,
a crucial one, is sound.

What did it sound like
to be in ancient Egypt?

And this is Kha and Merit
giving us an idea of that.

(drums rolling)

Here we have Kha
and Merit's band.

These are the musicians
playing their music to

lull them into eternity and
it's quite a pacey number,

because the lute player's
legs are shown asymmetrically

to give a kind of sense of
movement, maybe dancing.

(upbeat instrumental music)

The ancient Egyptians
then, as now, loved music,

loved to dance, loved to express
themselves in a joyful manner.

(drums rolling)

These musicians are from
the University of Cairo.

Using images from war scenes and
surviving ancient instruments,

they've been able to recreate
ancient Egyptian music.

(drums rolling)

(upbeat instrumental music)

Kha was finally laid
to rest in his tomb.

His large black sarcophagus
was already waiting for him.

The belongings of Kha and Merit
were set out all around them

and covered in dust sheets.

Then, leaving the
lamp still lit,

the funeral party
left the burial chamber,

sweeping away their footprints
as they went, blocking the

wooden door behind them.

The workmen then bricked up and
plastered the two successive

walls and backfilled the
tunnel with rubble.

But

Kha's journey into
the afterlife was

not yet complete.

No matter how much you'd spent,
there was one final test that

all Egyptians must pass.

Although this scene dates from
about a thousand years after

Kha's time, it clearly depicts
the crucial moment in the soul's

journey to the afterlife.

Now this remarkable
scene is known as the

weighing of the heart.

It's the ultimate
judgment of the dead.

It shows that the deceased,
their soul has successfully

negotiated all the hazards into
the next world to arrive here,

the ultimate hall of judgment.

Now it's presided over
by the goddess Ma'at,

the goddess of truth,
who's shown here with

the feather of truth,
which she wears as a

kind of crown on her head.

At the far end is
the god Osiris,

the kind of ultimate
judge of all dead souls,

and he's here to watch over
these proceedings because we

have here, central to the scene,
a typical Egyptian style

balance, and here on this
pan is the heart of the

deceased individual,
and it's being weighed

very carefully against this.

This is a feather of Ma'at
which she wears on her head.

It represents truth,
goodness, purity.

If the deceased had lived
a good and blameless life,

their heart will be
light, free of sin.

However, if they'd been naughty,
bad, done anything to upset the

gods, then the heart would
be heavy with sin.

And as such, they couldn't then
pass through into a blessed

afterlife, into eternity.

And so the heart was literally,
taken up like a piece of

meat and thrown onto this
terrifying creature here.

This is the great devourer,
a kind of terrible composite

of lion's parts, and a sort
of crocodile, hippo featured

being with the tongue out,
dribbling at the thought of

a fresh heart to consume.

And it's at this point that the
deceased would ultimately die.

This would be dying a
second death, a final death.

Earthly death isn't
anything to be afraid of,

because you pass through into
it simply another state of

existence, if you've been good.

All evil souls,
their hearts were

fed to this creature,
consumed and that was

it, finished forever.

But once again there was
something you could buy to help

you through this final trial.

But Kha's scans show that
on a chain around his neck

there is also a large amulet
known as a heart scarab.

This example from the Petrie
Museum gives us a sense of

what it actually looks like.

For the Egyptians,
the heart was the

seat of all learning,
of all intelligence.

And when the deceased spirit
was in the presence of the

gods in the next world
and had to account for

their actions in life,
had they led a good life, they

were interrogated by the gods.

Sometimes there
was always danger.

The heart might suddenly
speak up against its owner.

'oh well, they didn't lead such
a blameless life after all.'

And so the heavy heart scarab
was a means of suppressing

the heart, keeping it quiet.

The spell invokes,
implores the heart,

keep quiet, do not give
false witness against me.

Basically, shut it.

So it seems that Kha
had purchased every

form of insurance he
possibly could to ensure

the perfect afterlife that he
and Merit had always dreamed of.

From their elaborate
golden coffins, to their

well-hidden subterranean
tomb, an suspensively

decorated memorial chapel.

And of course,
the intricate

Book of the Dead,
in which Kha describes how he

wants to spend his eternity.

In Kha's Book of the Dead,
by far the largest section,

200 separate rows are
devoted to the so-called

spells of transformation,
listing all the variations that

Kha wanted his soul to become,
although there are many forms

take in the afterlife.

Now a lot of these
relates to birds.

His soul wanted to rise
up to join the gods,

and fly through the heavens.

He wanted to be a phoenix,
he wanted to be a heron,

he wanted to be a great
golden sparrowhawk.

And I think for me what is most
poignant is that in addition

to all these various things
that he could become at will,

his heart's desire was simply to
sit with his beloved wife Merit,

in a garden in the summer house.

[NARRATOR] A coming forth into
the light and playing Senet

seated in the summer house,
coming forth as a living soul.

(drums rolling)

[DR. JOANN FLETCHER] Now for
us in the modern west it's

all too easy to see these
elaborate preparations for

death as completely pointless.

Death is death,
and that is that,

and yet and yet.

Having met Kha and Merit,
having entered their world,

I think they've really
achieved a kind of

immortality because three and
a half thousand years later,

we're still talking about them.

The ancient Egyptians truly
believed that to speak the

name of the dead was to
make them live again.

And surely, they do.

(upbeat instrumental music)