BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//InvisionCommunity Events 5.0.18//EN METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN REFRESH-INTERVAL:PT15M X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT15M X-WR-CALNAME:RMCommunityCalendar NAME:RMCommunityCalendar BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London TZURL:https://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Tombs of Amun 05/11/2025 DTSTAMP:20250511T224841Z SEQUENCE:0 UID:271-7-c3fe8195a3dde498d013e477e2142422@aalbc.com ORGANIZER;CN="richardmurray":noreply@aalbc.com DESCRIPTION:\n Tombs of Amun\n\n URL\n\n https://www.pbs.org/video/egypt s-tombs-of-amun-uggfz5/\n\n\n\n VIDEO \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n TRANSC RIPT\n\n\n\n ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: In Egypt\, a team of archaeologists has made an extraordinary discovery.\n\nZAHI HAWASS: I never thought that anything like this would be discovered.\n\nNARRATOR: A cemetery hidden fo r millennia.\n\nAFIFI ROHIM: We can see the burial chamber.\n\nNARRATOR: N o one knew of its existence.\n\nWe are in front of a sealed tomb.\n\nNARRA TOR: How many tombs will they find?\n\nThis is really exciting.\n\nNARRATO R: What lies within?\n\nROHIM: We are sure that this tomb intact tomb.\n\n NARRATOR: Now\, from the Egyptian desert\, incredible artifacts emerge.\n\ nHAWASS: Beautiful-- this is the first time I see something like this.\n\n NARRATOR: Who was buried here?\n\nThese individuals were wealthy.\n\nNARRA TOR: Now these lost tombs are revealing a unique period in Egyptian histor y\, when kings from the south conquered and ruled Egypt and Egyptian women had more power and prestige than ever before.\n\nJULIA BUDKA: The god's w ife of Amun was really the female substitute of the king.\n\nMARIAM AYAD: The god's wife of Amun was as important as a medieval pope.\n\nNARRATOR: W ho were these outsiders who ruled Egypt?\n\nAnd how did they help women ri se to such heights?\n\n♪ ♪ \"Egypt's Tombs of Amun\,\" right now\, on \"NOVA.\"\n\n♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Ancient Egypt\, a civilization that lasted for more than 3\,000 years.\n\nFrom towering pyramids to palatial rock-cut tombs\, from sprawling temples to soaring obelisks\, its long his tory is meticulously recorded on the walls of Egyptian temples\, colossal statues\, and the artifacts the Egyptians buried in their tombs.\n\nLeadin g the Egyptian people was a succession of about 300 rulers\, divided into 31 dynasties lasting from around 3200 to 300 BCE.\n\nThese were the pharao hs\, who were both heads of state\, as well as divine intermediaries betwe en the people and their gods.\n\nMost of the history of Ancient Egypt unfo lds over three major periods of unity and prosperity.\n\nThe Old Kingdom\, the era of the pyramids.\n\nThe Middle Kingdom\, a classical age\, when l iterature and the arts flourished.\n\nAnd the New Kingdom\, when Egypt ext ended its control beyond its borders and became an empire.\n\nAs well as t hree periods of instability in between\, called the First\, Second\, and T hird Intermediate Periods.\n\nThe New Kingdom is probably the best-known p eriod in Ancient Egypt because we have all those temples\, we have huge am ounts of royal stelar texts and inscriptions.\n\nEgypt was completely conn ected with the Mediterranean\, with the Near East\, with the south.\n\nIt' s really the first evidence for globalization in our history.\n\n♪ ♪ P eople were living together\, people were copying things\, they're creating something new.\n\nNARRATOR: The New Kingdom is considered Egypt's golden age\, a time of wealth\, prosperity\, and power.\n\n♪ ♪ Pharaohs like Ramesses II and Hatshepsut build magnificent temples\, and incredible trea sures\, like the ones found in the tomb of Tutankhamun\, are produced.\n\n But after nearly 500 years of splendor\, things start to change.\n\nThere were internal political problems\, economic problems\, periods of hunger\, civil wars.\n\nNARRATOR: During this time of declining prosperity\, the s tate collapses\, allowing self-proclaimed regional rulers to grab power an d divide the country.\n\nAfter the fall of the New Kingdom\, Egypt fell in to a dark\, dark\, dark age of political fragmentation.\n\nIt's known as t he Third Intermediate Period.\n\nNARRATOR: Starting in 1069 BCE\, the Thir d Intermediate Period lasts for more than 300 years.\n\nThe archaeological record from this period of Egyptian history is fragmented.\n\nThe story o f the people who lived during these times is largely unknown.\n\nBut now n ew information is being uncovered 400 miles south of Cairo\, in an excavat ion happening in Egypt's richest archaeological area: Luxor.\n\nBUDKA: The modern city of Luxor was the ancient Thebes\, and for centuries\, it was the religious capital of Egypt.\n\nNARRATOR: Some of the most famous ancie nt sites are here: temples to the most important gods on the East Bank of the Nile\; the funerary temples of the pharaohs and the vast Necropolis\, or city of the dead\, to the west.\n\nThe popular belief is\, we know alre ady everything.\n\nWe have deciphered the hieroglyphs.\n\nWe have so many temples and tombs.\n\nWe know what happened.\n\nThis is actually not the c ase.\n\nAnd every single archaeological dig can teach you a lot.\n\nNARRAT OR: In September 2020\, a team of Egyptian archaeologists led by Zahi Hawa ss started excavating a new site there\, on the West Bank of the Nile\, an d discovered a long-lost city.\n\nWe discovered one house\, and this house led us to this major important discovery.\n\nThe lost golden city.\n\nNAR RATOR: Built by Tutankhamun's grandfather Amenhotep III in the 14th centur y BCE\, the lost city is a sprawling maze of serpentine walls\, houses\, w orkshops\, and administration buildings.\n\nFor centuries\, no one knew of its existence.\n\nThe lost city is built on prime ancient real estate in the area known as Medinet Habu on the West Bank of the ancient city of The bes.\n\nIt took the archaeologists nearly two years to fully excavate it.\ n\nHAWASS: When we found the lost golden city\, I really wanted to extend the area in the north.\n\nThis is known in the map as the Triangle.\n\nThi s area is empty-- no one really ever excavated it.\n\nNARRATOR: For decade s\, it's been just a patch of desert next to the main tourist route.\n\nEv ery morning\, dozens of buses whiz past on their way to the famous sites.\ n\nHundreds of tourists take to the sky on hot air balloons.\n\nIt would s eem an unlikely place for a big discovery.\n\n♪ ♪ In September 2022\, two years after the lost city was discovered\, the team starts excavating the Triangle.\n\nAs soon as the archaeologists remove the first layer of s and\, they uncover mud bricks-- evidence that there might be more to be fo und.\n\nZahi decides to concentrate the team's efforts in this area.\n\nWi thin days\, they uncover a row of large pottery vessels.\n\nRemarkably\, t hey are still sealed.\n\nAs they open one\, they are about to find somethi ng very telling: a clear indication of what this site once was.\n\nHuh.\n\ nWhat's this?\n\nIt's kind of plants.\n\nNARRATOR: The plants appear to ha ve been burned.\n\nWhat's this?\n\nROHIM: Linen.\n\nLinen?\n\nAnd we will take all the filling outside to be sure what's behind this.\n\nHAWASS: Oh! \n\nBroken pottery!\n\nThis is a ritual.\n\nNARRATOR: The contents of the pots all relate to a funerary ritual.\n\nBUDKA: During mummification\, the embalming workshops produced leftovers that was regarded as something imp ortant.\n\nThey were not just put somewhere as trash\, but they were arran ged in deposits.\n\nSometimes they deposited linen\, organic remains\, bot anical remains.\n\nVery often\, we find broken pots inside the vessels.\n\ nAnd this is what in general we call embalming cache.\n\nNARRATOR: An emba lming cache is the collection of the precious leftovers of materials used during the mummification process.\n\nBUDKA: Finding a cache of embalming m aterial tells you immediately that you have found something associated wit h a cemetery.\n\nAnd you should probably look for a tomb nearby.\n\nNARRAT OR: This is a momentous find.\n\n♪ ♪ Is the team on the verge of a new important discovery?\n\n(people talking in background) Excited\, they spl it into groups\, each tackling a different corner of the Triangle.\n\nSoon \, they uncover evidence of several tombs.\n\nThe archaeologists are stand ing on a previously unknown burial ground.\n\nIt's not every day that you find a brand-new cemetery.\n\nSo this is really exciting.\n\nNARRATOR: Whe n was this cemetery built?\n\nAnd who was buried here?\n\nHAWASS: Work in this big\, large cemetery\, it's a challenge.\n\nIt needs to be excavated completely to understand the date.\n\nThe excavation will give us more inf ormation about the people who are buried in this large cemetery.\n\nBUDKA: The burials are located on the West Bank\, because in the Egyptian concep t of the netherworld\, the entrance to the netherworld is on the west.\n\n The sun rises in the east and sets in the west\, and this is what a human life should repeat.\n\n♪ ♪ NARRATOR: The Ancient Egyptians invested va st amounts of wealth and energy preparing for life after death.\n\nThe bel ief of the afterlife built Egypt.\n\nThat belief made the Egyptian to buil d pyramids\, tombs\, and temples.\n\nNARRATOR: They believed that life con tinued after death\, and the tomb was considered the house for eternity.\n \nFor those who could afford it\, the mummified body would have laid to re st inside beautifully decorated tombs.\n\nBUDKA: There's the popular belie f that the Ancient Egyptians were obsessed by death\, and that they were o nly caring about life in the netherworld.\n\nThis is\, of course\, definit ely not the case.\n\nThe Egyptians were people like us\, so they wanted to live.\n\nMortuary rituals is actually something that helps the living to overcome\, um\, their sorrow\, their grief.\n\n♪ ♪ What you find in to mbs tells you so much about society and about the living.\n\n♪ ♪ NARRA TOR: Tombs are time capsules that can preserve information about ancient p eople for millennia.\n\nHAWASS: You can gain a lot of knowledge and inform ation about burials\, and that's why this cemetery needs more excavation.\ n\nNARRATOR: The tombs in the Triangle are all different.\n\nSome have a s haft dug straight into the ground.\n\nAnd at the bottom\, they open up to the burial chamber.\n\nSome have grand entrances\, complete with a stairca se\, and more than one room carved into the rock.\n\nArchaeology is danger ous for archaeologists.\n\n♪ ♪ It's hard work.\n\n(man grunts\, people talking in background) It's to live dangerously.\n\nBut to live dangerous ly\, it's fun\, also.\n\nIt's amazing when you make a new\, important disc overy.\n\n♪ ♪ You completely forget dangers.\n\nArchaeology is like a box of chocolate.\n\nWhat is this?\n\nYou never know what you get.\n\nLook s like part of a necklet.\n\nNARRATOR: Four months into the excavation\, a nd the archaeologists haven't found any mummies yet.\n\nBut intriguing art ifacts emerge from the tombs.\n\nROHIM: Here I found a metal eye used in w ooden coffins.\n\nWow!\n\nNARRATOR: A gold ring with a carved carnelian.\n \nAmulets believed to protect the deceased with their magical powers.\n\nA nd shabtis\, images of the tomb owner\, who the ancient Egyptians believed did all the manual labor in the netherworld.\n\nWith only one month left before desert temperatures rise and work must stop\, site director Afifi R ohim starts working in tomb number six\, one that he finds most promising. \n\nThe cut in the mountain is very good.\n\nWe have a staircase and we ha ve this corridor.\n\nTill now\, most of the debris is still original debri s.\n\nMm.\n\n(speaking Arabic) (Ahmed El Nasseh speaking Arabic) ROHIM: (B aghdadi speaking Arabic) ROHIM: Mm.\n\n(others speaking Arabic) ROHIM: BAG HDADI: ROHIM: BAGHDADI: ROHIM: Mm.\n\nNARRATOR: Most tombs discovered in E gypt have been looted in antiquity.\n\nIf there are no objects mixed in th e sand\, it could mean two things: either the tomb is unfinished or no one has entered it since it was sealed thousands of years ago.\n\nHAWASS: The re is no tomb that could be looted if\, in a shaft\, you have clean sand.\ n\nNARRATOR: This is tantalizing evidence that tomb number six might be in tact.\n\nThe workers remove bucket after bucket of sand.\n\n♪ ♪ Then\, suddenly\, the density of the sediment changes.\n\nROHIM: He start to fin d very compact layer.\n\nLooks like mother rock.\n\nAnd this means that al l this layer was the original layer\, which\, in the ancient time\, they m ake it the filling for the shaft.\n\nIf it is\, it will be really untouch. \n\nNARRATOR: What drives archaeologists to endure the hot desert environm ent is the promise of revealing long-forgotten histories and\, sometimes\, the chance to come face to face with an Ancient Egyptian.\n\nIn tomb numb er six\, skilled worker Baghdadi is getting closer to the bottom of the sh aft.\n\nFor archaeologist Ahmed El Nasseh\, this tomb is puzzling.\n\nEL N ASSEH: We are still confused because we have natural layers\, the compact layer\, similar to the bedrock\, and below\, we have sandy layer\, which i s loose.\n\nWe will follow the bedrock to find the limit of the burial sha ft.\n\n(Baghdadi and El Nasseh speaking Arabic) EL NASSEH: He found mudbri ck\, so\, I think we are in front of the blocked doorway.\n\n♪ ♪ NARRA TOR: It's exciting news.\n\nThere's a good chance the burial chamber has n ot been opened since it was originally sealed with mudbrick thousands of y ears ago.\n\nGood news at the end of the day.\n\n♪ ♪ NARRATOR: The fol lowing day at the excavation site\, it all looks like a normal morning.\n\ nBut just below the surface in tomb number six\, the expectations are high .\n\nAfifi is checking the mudbricks that block the entrance to the burial chamber.\n\nROHIM: The seal of the doorway is just directly under the mot her rock.\n\nIt means that it\, it never open before.\n\nThis tomb was con fusing for us.\n\nIn the beginning\, we thought there's nothing here.\n\nW as thinking that\, stop the work and leave the shaft.\n\nNARRATOR: And Afi fi is also concerned about the safety of the crew working in the tomb.\n\n The mother rock is not straight\, so I try to check if it is still in orig inal situ or just fall down.\n\nNARRATOR: On closer inspection\, Afifi not ices that a couple of the mudbricks have collapsed under the weight of the rock above\, leaving a small opening.\n\nOver time\, the sand has seeped through.\n\nWith great anticipation\, Baghdadi starts removing the mudbric ks.\n\nOnce the passage is cleared\, work inside the chamber begins.\n\nAt first\, it's just clean sand.\n\nBut soon\, artifacts emerge.\n\nHAWASS: Is this amethyst?\n\nHuh?\n\nROHIM: Yeah\, could be.\n\nOh\, oh!\n\nBeauti ful vase-- God!\n\n(chuckles) Hm.\n\nThis is not Egyptian.\n\nThis is so s trange.\n\nDoesn't looks Egyptian-- even the colors.\n\nNARRATOR: The styl e of this tiny pot is nothing like any artifact the team has found before. \n\nWas it imported from a distant land?\n\nHAWASS: This is a very importa nt discovery.\n\nThe artifacts are now really unique.\n\nVery happy.\n\nNA RRATOR: Then Zahi comes face to face with a special object.\n\nHAWASS (spe aking Arabic): This is the first time I see something like this.\n\nThe la dy is seated\, having a gazelle on her hand and holding her son on the bac k.\n\nCan you hold this?\n\nThis is another one.\n\nShe is standing\, and on her back\, she is holding a child.\n\nThis could be someone from outsid e Egypt.\n\nNARRATOR: The statuettes confirm Zahi's hunch.\n\nThe style of the artifacts is not traditionally Egyptian.\n\nThe depiction of the face hints at people originating from beyond Egypt's borders.\n\nAnd then ther e's the speckled texture.\n\nThe distinctive spotted look\, combined with the shapely woman's frame\, was only produced during a crucial moment in t he history of Egypt\, when the country is ruled by foreigners: the 11th ce ntury BCE\, the start of the unstable Third Intermediate Period.\n\nEgypt had economic problems\, only very short-lived kings\, quarrels about the i nheritance of the throne.\n\nEgypt was vulnerable.\n\nNARRATOR: But this c hanges when Egypt's southern neighbors\, the Kushites-- also known as the Nubians-- take advantage of Egypt's weakness\, and\, in 712 BCE\, they mov e in and conquer the Land of the Pharaohs.\n\nWe refer to the Kushites as the kings of the XXV dynasty.\n\nAnd this dynasty was originally coming fr om modern Sudan.\n\nNARRATOR: Known for rich deposits of gold\, Nubia is h ome to some of Africa's earliest kingdoms.\n\nThe Egyptians first called N ubia Ta-Seti\, the Land of the Bow\, highlighting the skill of Nubian warr iors.\n\nBUDKA: When the Kushites invaded Egypt\, they erected a very\, ve ry powerful and very successful empire for roughly 70\, 80 years.\n\nAYAD: The Nubians were restorers.\n\nAfter things were destroyed and the temple s were neglected\, the Nubians were now going to take care of everything\, put everything back in order.\n\nNARRATOR: Egypt is prosperous again.\n\n ♪ ♪ BUDKA: They made themselves kings of both Egypt and Kush.\n\nThe E gyptian culture was part of their own heritage\, because\, in the New King dom\, Nubia was an Egyptian colony.\n\nNARRATOR: Few written records or ar tifacts of the people that lived under Kushite rule in Egypt survive today .\n\nWhich makes what the team is unearthing in the Triangle especially ra re.\n\n(speaking Arabic): I really could not believe that statues like thi s could exist.\n\nIt's unique.\n\nThe color.\n\nThey are very realistic.\n \nNARRATOR: Not only do the two statuettes both show a woman\, but some of the small pots that have been found are for makeup.\n\nThis tomb for sure belonged this woman.\n\nNARRATOR: Women in Ancient Egypt have the right t o buy and inherit property.\n\nThey can represent themselves in court\, ow n a business\, and get divorced.\n\nBut it isn't exactly an egalitarian so ciety.\n\nBUDKA: There was a small percentage of women who were highly pri vileged\, but nevertheless\, there was a gender bias in Ancient Egypt.\n\n This is why I think it's not fair to say it's a paradise for women in the ancient world.\n\nNARRATOR: But when the Kushites take over Egypt\, they b ring with them a Nubian culture in which women have power.\n\nIn the Kushi te time\, women had a different status than before and after.\n\nThere is a matrilineal system for the Kushite kingdom.\n\nIt was more important who was your mother than who was your father.\n\nAnd this might be the main d ifference between Egypt and Kush.\n\n♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Mariam Ayad has spe nt her entire career studying Ancient Egyptian women\, and especially the women of the XXV dynasty.\n\nZahi has invited Mariam to see the objects fo und in tomb number six.\n\nHAWASS: This tomb was really unique.\n\nWe foun d some very impressive artifacts.\n\nIf you look at the face... AYAD: Yeah ?\n\n...it looks Nubian to me.\n\nIt does look Nubian\, for sure.\n\nThis body type of the standing woman... Yeah.\n\nThat body type we find a lot d uring the XXV dynasty.\n\nYes.\n\nThe heavier lower body\, the heavier hip s.\n\nI have never seen statues like this.\n\nI don't think there's ever s tatues of that type ever produced before or possibly even after.\n\n♪ ♪ NARRATOR: When the Kushites conquer Egypt around 700 BCE\, they decide to embrace the Egyptians' religious customs and beliefs.\n\nBUDKA: In Anc ient Egypt\, we cannot separate kingship from religion.\n\nPharaohs invest ed so much in the religious landscape of Thebes.\n\nNARRATOR: And this str ategy is best seen at Karnak\, a vast temple complex where pharaohs dedica ted great building projects to Amun\, the king of the gods.\n\n♪ ♪ Whe n the Kushite kings arrive\, they\, too\, make their marks here.\n\nOne of the monuments\, built by Kushite king Taharqa\, reveals a new and distinc tive level of power for women in Egypt.\n\nAYAD: We're here by the edifice of Taharqa at the sacred lake.\n\nWe can't call it the temple\, because i t doesn't have some of the main features we associate with temples.\n\nThe only part of the building that survives is the subterranean chambers.\n\n NARRATOR: What's special about this monument is a relief on a wall hidden from view.\n\nAYAD: And because there's no proper entrance\, we'll have to climb up.\n\nIt's a part of the building with ritual scenes that are uniq ue and not found elsewhere.\n\nNARRATOR: The scene Mariam is looking for i s one-of-a-kind.\n\nIt depicts two figures protecting a sacred tomb.\n\nAY AD: On either side\, the figures are facing outward as a way of protecting it.\n\nIn Egyptian art\, it's very rare for figures to be facing outward and not toward the center.\n\nThe king is throwing four balls\, and he's a iming at four targets-- east\, west\, north\, and south.\n\nNARRATOR: Oppo site the king\, a female figure.\n\nAYAD: She is complementing his actions \, asserting the royal dominion over the four extremities of the Earth.\n\ nShe is drawing an arrow through a double-arched bow\, and this is very ra re\, to find a woman actively arching.\n\nVery rare.\n\nEven the goddess N eith\, who's known as the goddess of war\, and who's often called the mist ress of bow and arrows\, she's mostly holding them in her hand.\n\nAs far as Egyptian iconography is concerned\, this is a unique representation of female power.\n\nNARRATOR: Who is this woman?\n\nHer title is god's wife o f Amun.\n\nTo understand how a woman might attain such power in Egypt\, we need to go back 800 years\, when the title of god's wife of Amun first ap pears.\n\nCarved on a stone slab\, or stela\, is the title's earliest evid ence.\n\nThis is the Ahmose Nefertari's donation stela.\n\nAhmose Nefertar i was the wife of King Ahmose\, the founder of the XVIII dynasty.\n\nAs pa rt of his larger state policy to put trusted family members in key positio ns around the realm\, she was appointed as the god's wife of Amun.\n\nAs f ar as we know\, she's the first woman to hold that title.\n\nNARRATOR: Wit h this stela\, King Ahmose establishes the estate of the god's wife as a s ource of revenue for his queen.\n\nThe stela records large amounts of gold \, silver\, and copper\, as well as servants and land.\n\nAYAD: On the don ation stela of Ahmose Nefertari\, there is a very telling line.\n\nIt says \, \"No future king shall ever revoke the estate of the god's wife of Amun .\"\n\nNARRATOR: With this line\, Ahmose makes sure that this newly establ ished estate will last in perpetuity.\n\nAYAD: The women who held that tit le remained financially independent\, and it seems plausible to suggest th at it's because of that initial endowment.\n\nNARRATOR: Although the title of god's wife of Amun first appears during the New Kingdom\, over time\, the position becomes less relevant.\n\nBut then\, during the Kushites' rei gn\, this role takes on a completely new and powerful meaning.\n\nAYAD: Wh en the Nubians invaded Egypt\, they were quick to recognize the political value of having that institution.\n\nThe office was resurrected after cent uries of oblivion.\n\nSo Amenirdis I becomes the first Nubian woman to bec ome a god's wife of Amun.\n\nNARRATOR: The Kushite princess Amenirdis is t he sister of Pianky\, the first king of the XXV dynasty.\n\nOn becoming th e god's wife of Amun\, Amenirdis effectively takes control of Thebes.\n\nA YAD: Her installation served to achieve a smooth transition of power from the preceding dynasty to the Nubian rule in Egypt.\n\n♪ ♪ Amenirdis pa rticipated in rituals that no other woman was allowed to participate in be fore.\n\nBUDKA: In the XXV dynasty\, the god's wife of Amun was much more important than in previous times.\n\nThe god's wife of Amun was the female substitute of the king.\n\nAYAD: The god's wife of Amun was as important as a medieval pope in terms of the temporal and religious power that she h eld.\n\nNARRATOR: In a side corridor at the Cairo Museum\, a statue found in Karnak Temple reveals how much power the god's wife of Amun\, Amenirdis \, really had.\n\nIt's carved from alabaster\, a soft\, translucent form o f gypsum rock.\n\n(sighs) The one and only Amenirdis I\, royal princess.\n \nIt's not very common to find statues of that size in alabaster.\n\nShe l ooks exactly like an Egyptian queen.\n\nThe headdress\, the modius crown o n her head\, but she has that pendant of Amun\, and that might be a Nubian feature.\n\nOn the back pillar\, she asserts her moral character.\n\nShe gave bread to the hungry\, water to the thirsty\, and clothes to the naked .\n\nNow\, this is significant\, because if you are giving food to the hun gry\, water to the thirsty\, you have agency.\n\nIt's not just about gener osity\, it's also about having the means to do so and having the autonomy to do so\, and to have a woman have that kind of inscription is very rare. \n\nNARRATOR: Back at the site\, the statuettes from tomb number six signa l a burial of the XXV dynasty\, the period when Amenirdis was the god's wi fe of Amun.\n\n♪ ♪ Now archaeologists are on the hunt for more clues t hat might reveal the identity of the woman buried in tomb number six.\n\nB ut the excavation season is coming to an end.\n\nWith summer approaching\, the soaring temperatures would make work in the tombs impossible.\n\n ♪ ♪ With only a couple of weeks left\, Afifi has found a vessel.\n\nRO HIM: We found one of the canopic jars.\n\nIt's from fine limestone.\n\nAnd even the sculpture of the face is\, is so good.\n\nNARRATOR: During the m ummification process\, the organs of the deceased would be removed and pla ced in these containers.\n\nThey are known as canopic jars.\n\nROHIM: Each burial have four canopic jars-- four organs of the deceased.\n\nNARRATOR: Each jar is topped with a different symbolic sculpture.\n\nThe heads repr esent the four sons of the god Horus.\n\nEach was responsible for protecti ng a particular organ: the jackal for the stomach\, the human head for the liver\, the baboon for the lungs\, and the falcon for the intestines.\n\n ROHIM: It's empty.\n\nNARRATOR: Afifi is looking for any inscription which could give us the name of the owner of this tomb.\n\nJust behind the firs t jar\, a second one appears.\n\nI want to take the body first.\n\nOh!\n\n It's nice inscriptions.\n\nYes\, yes.\n\nI am not specialist in Ancient Eg yptian language\, but I can read\, \"Osir... ...djer\,\" or\, \"djerek saa .\"\n\nMean something related to Osir.\n\nNARRATOR: The inscription is a p rayer to the god Osiris\, ruler of the underworld.\n\nI see the base of th e lid.\n\nIt's complete.\n\nNo cracks-- nothing.\n\nIt's baboon.\n\n(blows out) Now we have to consolidate the writing.\n\nNARRATOR: The jars have b een hiding in the tomb for nearly 3\,000 years.\n\nBefore they can be take n out\, conservator Seham Abdelazeim needs to carefully protect this ancie nt writing with a water-soluble cellulose binder.\n\nThe jars don't reveal the name of the deceased\, but Afifi believes there are more artifacts wa iting to be found.\n\nBut before he continues to excavate\, he needs to se cure the tomb.\n\nThis layers of sediments is\, is not strong and it is no t safe for working\, especially when you open it and the fresh air gets in side.\n\nSo it's decayed\, and start to dry and fall down.\n\nSo we need t o make all this support and\, to continue our work.\n\n♪ ♪ NARRATOR: T he excavation season has come to an end.\n\nThe workers prepare supports i n an effort to secure tomb number six.\n\nOnce ready\, Afifi locks it with a metal gate.\n\nThe team needs to wait until September\, when the excava tion will resume.\n\n♪ ♪ When you discover something interesting\, you can feel happy.\n\nOf course\, I have to be more patient\, and...\n\nWhen we stop excavation in the site\, doesn't mean that the work stop.\n\nBeca use we continue working\, in writing the general report\, make analysis fo r the object\, and still thinking about the future season.\n\n♪ ♪ NARR ATOR: Five months later\, the heat has come and gone.\n\nThe archaeologist s return to the excavation site\, eager to pick up the work from where the y left it.\n\n♪ ♪ As Afifi and Ahmed reenter tomb number six\, somethi ng does not look right.\n\nROHIM (speaking Arabic): EL NASSEH (speaking Ar abic): ROHIM: ROHIM: All the tomb collapsed.\n\nAll the roof collapsed.\n\ nAnd there are cracks everywhere inside the tomb.\n\nNARRATOR: The ground above has caved in\, filling the deep shaft that the team spent days excav ating.\n\nAnd now\, it's too dangerous to clear the debris.\n\nI think we lost this tomb.\n\nWe can't remove the debris.\n\nWe can't even just get i nside to check it\, because the cracks in the roof and the walls everywher e.\n\nIt's not safe for the workers and for my team\, and this is our job in archaeology.\n\nNothing to do.\n\nMoving to the next stop.\n\n(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: With sadness\, the team has to give up on ever finding the woman who was buried here.\n\nShe will likely remain in her tomb for eternity\, just as she originally planned.\n\nThe Ancient Egyptians record ed everything\, especially on their burial goods.\n\nThousands of years la ter\, the archaeologists are on the hunt for clues that might reveal detai ls of long-lost lives.\n\n♪ ♪ At the southern edge of the Triangle\, i n tomb number nine\, the archaeologists haven't found any mummies.\n\nBut sunk into the floor of the burial chamber\, the lids of four canopic jars appear.\n\nROHIM: We found this set of four canopic jars here\, underneath the floor.\n\nI have to take it out.\n\nNARRATOR: Afifi examines the vess el in the hope it will reveal the name of the person who was buried here.\ n\nThere is no text\, just black decoration.\n\nSomething strange for me-- the body is made from alabaster\, but the head from limestone.\n\nNARRATO R: He carefully removes the second jar.\n\nOh\, it's different.\n\nIt's ma de of alabaster\, but it has a stand made of limestone.\n\nIt's rare to fi nd canopic jar with a stone stand like this.\n\nAnd I think it has some in scriptions.\n\nNARRATOR: The inscription is lightly carved\, but since ala baster is translucent\, Afifi tries to read it using a small light.\n\nI c an read the text now.\n\n\"Djet medu Duamutef.\"\n\nIt means \"offering to Duamutef\,\" one of four son of Horus.\n\n\"Satirdis.\"\n\nHer name is Sa tirdis.\n\nSo it's for a woman\, and she was a female singer in Amun house .\n\nNARRATOR: Finally\, the team has a name for the owner of the tomb: As etirdis\, the singer\, or chantress\, in the Temple of Amun.\n\nAYAD: The god's wife had chantresses in her entourage.\n\nChantresses were very prom inent in Theban society.\n\nIn temple ritual\, we would see women chantres ses making music to the gods.\n\nIt makes a lot of sense that chantresses in the House of Amun would be buried just outside the temple at Medinet Ha bu\, because that was thought to be the place of the primeval mound.\n\nNA RRATOR: In Egyptian mythology\, the primeval mound was the first piece of land to emerge from the watery chaos-- where life was first created.\n\nAY AD: The god Amun would come across the river aged\, tired.\n\nHe comes bac k to this primeval place\, where he would commune with eight primeval gods .\n\nHe would go back rejuvenated and youthful again.\n\nNARRATOR: The tom bs in the Triangle are located on this sacred land.\n\nThe people buried h ere could have a close connection to the god Amun.\n\nThe people who are b uried here could be working in this great institution\, the office of the god's wife of Amun.\n\n♪ ♪ NARRATOR: And in the heart of this holy pla ce\, the god's wife\, Amenirdis\, has her own funerary chapel.\n\nAYAD: We are at the great temple of Medinet Habu\, and everyone knows it for the f unerary temple of Ramesses III\, and they walk just straight past this won derful chapel of Amenirdis.\n\nEven though the façade itself has wonderfu l inscriptions\, no one ever stops to look at them.\n\nHere we have Amenir dis offering Maat\, which is the concept of truth and harmony and global o rder\, to Amun and his divine consort\, Mut.\n\nThis representation is uni que for a woman.\n\nIt's unique because it's the prerogative of the king o nly\, who is seen as the ultimate preserver of Maat.\n\nAnd we don't see t hat any time before that period.\n\nNARRATOR: In the XXV dynasty\, the god 's wife of Amun has a much more active and visible role than ever before.\ n\nOnly the king can build on sacred land\, so the fact that Amenirdis has a large stone monument here is meaningful.\n\nAYAD: Construction of funer ary chapels\, any kind of temple\, is the royal prerogative\, and only the king could do that\, but repeatedly\, we see the god's wife erect chapels on their own.\n\nTo anyone\, even those who could not read\, the iconogra phy itself told any bystander that these women were as important as the ki ng.\n\nNARRATOR: And historians believe that this level of prestige for wo men was only attained when the Kushites from Nubia ruled Egypt.\n\nBUDKA: I believe we have a certain difference in the importance of women during t he XXV dynasty\, because they were just importing their role from Kush to Egypt.\n\nThe role of women was different in the Kushite culture.\n\nThe r oyal women had much power\, and part of this was imported to Egypt.\n\nI d on't think it's a coincidence that this office of the god's wife really fl ourished under foreign rule.\n\nNARRATOR: Since excavation began in the Tr iangle\, the team has uncovered several tombs.\n\nOne has an impressive wi de staircase.\n\nWith a large quantity of debris removed\, the archaeologi sts can now access the burial chamber.\n\nWe remove all the debris from th e room itself until we found a group of coffins.\n\nNARRATOR: The human re mains are in a very bad state of preservation\, the mummy wrappings and wo oden coffins completely decayed.\n\nOnly the bones of these individuals su rvive.\n\nEL NASSEH: Maybe it's a family tomb\, and now we are working to find some object dating this tomb\, like canopic jars with the titles and the name of the owner.\n\nNARRATOR: Skilled excavator Badawi carefully wor ks around one of the coffins.\n\nSoon\, the top of a canopic jar appears.\ n\nHAWASS: The canopic jars have some inscriptions.\n\nIt needs to be clea r more.\n\nWe still have to look for the other three.\n\n(speaking Arabic) : ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: A second jar.\n\n♪ ♪ And soon a third.\n\nHAWASS: Beautiful!\n\nThis person has to be elite\, an important person.\n\nIt's r eally well done\, modeled.\n\nThe workshop that made this canopic jars are really perfect.\n\nNARRATOR: And finally\, on the fourth and last jar\, t he name of the owner can be read.\n\nThis is the name of him.\n\nROHIM: Hi s name is Mere.\n\nThe name Mere Ren-Amun\, the singer of the god Amun.\n\ nThis is really wonderful.\n\nThis person was part of this important offic e.\n\nThose people\, one day\, were working\, singing\, dancing behind the great god's wife of Amun.\n\nNARRATOR: But the style of the canopic jars is different from the others found in the Triangle.\n\nHAWASS: As an archa eologist\, you can look at canopic jars and know the period exactly.\n\nTh e modeling of the faces show 500 BC\, the XXVI dynasty.\n\nThrough the arc haeological evidence\, you can say that the big large cemetery\, it starte d in the north\, in dynasty XXV\, continued to the edge of the city\, know n as the golden lost city.\n\nThe tombs here dated to dynasty XXVI.\n\nNAR RATOR: When Mere was alive\, the Kushites of Nubia were no longer ruling E gypt\, yet he is buried next to the people of the XXV dynasty.\n\nAYAD: Fo r the Theban elites\, this was a good burial ground.\n\nIt mattered very l ittle who the ruling king was and from which dynasty.\n\nBetween the XXV d ynasty and the XXVI dynasty in Thebes\, there is no material break.\n\nIt' s a continuous move from the one dynasty to the other.\n\nAYAD: The Theban people are Theban people\, so there are generations of the same families living under different kings.\n\nNARRATOR: The reign of the XXV dynasty en ds around 653 BCE.\n\nThe new royal family that establishes the XXVI dynas ty comes from the north of Egypt\, from a city called Sais.\n\nBut a new k ing doesn't mean that everything changes.\n\nAYAD: The transition from the XXV to the XXVI dynasty is very interesting.\n\nWe have someone like Mont uemhat\, who was really a man for all seasons.\n\nHe was already the mayor of Thebes under the Nubian rulers\, he continued to be the mayor of Thebe s under the new rulers\, and all the while\, he took part in the transitio n in the office of the god's wife\, helping establish the new god's wife i n place.\n\nNARRATOR: A new pharaoh.\n\nA new god's wife of Amun.\n\nAnd t he people associated with this office keep Medinet Habu as their chosen bu rial ground.\n\nBUDKA: The title god's wife of Amun lasts until the end of the XXVI dynasty.\n\nAYAD: At the end of that time\, Egypt is invaded by the Persians.\n\nAnd everything changes.\n\nNARRATOR: After the Persian in vasion\, evidence of the god's wife of Amun disappears.\n\nLasting for mor e than a millennium\, the title of god's wife of Amun was created in the X VIII dynasty.\n\nBut it's 800 years later\, in the XXV dynasty\, with the help of the Kushite pharaohs from Nubia\, that the institution reaches its zenith\, Amenirdis's legacy forever imprinted on the artifacts and monume nts she left behind.\n\nThe archaeologists have unearthed buried treasures of a very special period of Egyptian history\, when the Kushite pharaohs of the XXV dynasty rose to power and wrote a new chapter into this rich ci vilization.\n\nThey embraced Egyptian culture and beliefs\, but also broug ht elements of their own culture\, where women were financially independen t and the power of the god's wife of Amun rivaled that of the king.\n\nAYA D: The god's wife of Amun is very inspiring and empowering to modern women today.\n\nThe fact that they're not as well known to the public as Cleopa tra or Nefertiti is just the sad reality of modern pop culture.\n\n♪ ♪ HAWASS: A unique cemetery to bring more information about this period.\n\ nOh!\n\nWe are making history.\n\nNARRATOR: Like the shifting sands of the desert\, history is never static.\n\nIt is a quest for understanding who we are\, where we've been\, and where we're going.\n\nAYAD: People looking at us from even 200 years from now\, or 2\,000 years from now\, how they perceive women today is dependent on how much evidence do we leave behind. \n\n♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪\n\n\n\n  \n\ n\n\n  \n\n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250511 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR