- [Announcer] This channel is part of the History Hit network. (soft flute music) (dramatic suspenseful music) - Somebody here wants this lady to suffer for the rest of eternity. - We may have a crime here,
but we've got no body. - Certainly a puzzle, and possibly suggests
something a little sinister. - There's so many suspicious
elements to this story. It's really giving me cause for concern. - It would just be a world of pain. (dramatic suspenseful music) (suspenseful piano music) - [Narrator] Mummification, the preservation of dead bodies became more than a
science in ancient Egypt. It developed into a sacred ritual. No other people in history
devoted so much time and expense to ensuring a safe passage into the eternal afterlife
with their body intact. The skill of Egypt's master
embalmers was phenomenal. Thousands of years ago, they worked to halt the ravages of time on lifeless corpses. Today, forensic technology can unlock that person's secrets to
reveal the intimate story of their life and death. Over 2,000 miles from Egypt in a museum in the north of England lies
the beautifully preserved coffin of an Egyptian mummy. But the body inside remains a mystery. The workmanship and
sophistication of this coffin suggests that it would've taken weeks, if not months, to create. (soft suspenseful music) To be worthy of this
top of the range casket, its owner must surely have been a VIP. Dr. Joann Fletcher is
a renowned Egyptologist who's done excavation work
and mummy investigations around the world. She's been called in to
try and unlock the secrets of this hidden mummy. - It came into this country
a couple hundred years ago, and rather than going
to the British Museum or another major institution,
it came up here to Newcastle. - Well, it's obviously an
Egyptian mummy covering. It's obviously female,
from the exterior at least. So I'd be quite interested
to sort of try and find out more about this individual inside, so I'm really looking forward
to sort of seeing the mummy. - I'm afraid we can't do that. We really can't open this
up 'cause we're worried about damaging this beautiful object. - So is she completely sealed? - [Geoff] Yes, she is. - There's no small openings that we could take any samples or anything, no? - No, it's completely sealed. - [Joann] Completely sealed?
- Yeah, yeah. - Um, yes, this is gonna be
quite a challenge, I think. First and foremost what
I'd really like to do is take a series of
photographs from every angle pretty much so I can
then go back to talk with the team in York and try and
plan some sort of strategy, see what techniques we
can bring to bear to study this very enigmatic and fascinating mummy. (intriguing mystical music) - [Narrator] This sealed coffin may be an exquisite work of art, but it's also an ancient mystery thousands of years in the making. (camera clicking) Joann's already nicknamed
the hidden mummy The Lady. And piece by piece, she and
the team will have to fill in all the details of who
she was, where she's from, and how she met her end. This case will be a massive challenge for the mummy investigation team, given the coffin is sealed
and they will never be able to see or touch the mummy within. The team are among the
best in their field, but even for them, the task
would probably be impossible, except for one thing. Two years ago, for conservation purposes, the museum had the mummy CT scanned. Computed axial tomography
is an advanced form of the conventional x-ray. Instead of revealing the
outline of bones and organs, the CT scan forms a full
three-dimensional computer model of the human body. This medical blueprint of
The Lady will allow the team to analyze specific areas
of the body in great detail. The forensic data will be a
priceless tool for the team as they try to uncover
how this woman lived and how she died. Dr. Stephen Buckley has an
international reputation for his chemical analysis
of mummified bodies. His unique experience
may unlock a vital clue on this mysterious coffin. - Well, from the chemistry, it's certainly possible that
some sort of concealment was going on. - [Narrator] Egyptologist Jill
Scott's specialist knowledge in ancient human remains
will be crucial in unraveling the real story of how this mummy died. - Injuries like that I would
expect to be lowered down. It is very high up. - [Narrator] And Duncan Lees, who offers forensic support
to criminal investigations all over the UK, is going to bring modern
detective techniques to the case of this Egyptian mummy. - Just 'cause they're 3,000
years old doesn't mean that we can't apply modern
forensics and come up with good answers. - [Narrator] The Lady, like every case, begins with a team briefing
here in the incident room at the University of York. Joann begins with the bad news. - We aren't allowed to
take this covering off. We aren't allowed to do any
physical sampling with this. There is no way into this mummy. - [Narrator] The team gets
straight into analyzing the CT scan data. - What interests me here is
this, this sort of package, which I'm guessing is part
of the embalming process, the mummification, internal
organs wrapped in there. - But there is a lot that we can do. I mean, using technology
that Stephen will be applying as well, that
looks through the coffin, looks into the interior and builds up still three-dimensional
information that will be a good starting point for us to create a virtual reality person. - The whole premise with this
one is it's a completely, you know, hands off zone
we're not allowed to touch. But using this technology
to penetrate through the wrappings, through the coffin, we can hopefully then, you know, really bring this woman back to life. (soft suspenseful music) - [Narrator] The team
have state-of-the-art forensic technology like a
CT scan at their disposal. But if they're going to unlock the secrets of this sealed coffin, they'll have to do so
with absolutely no access to the body within. To get things started,
they're going back to basics. Jill Scott is hard at work. She's already unearthed the
museum's acquisition records and has discovered that back in the 1820s when the coffin of this mummy
first came into the country, it was opened at the base by the feet. (intriguing suspenseful music) The damage that was done
during this operation is one reason why the
museum insists the coffin must now remain sealed. (intriguing suspenseful music) Further analysis of the
records reveals details that will help them build
a profile of the mummy. - What we appear to have
is a mummy dating from the 21st, 22nd dynasty. So we're looking around 1070 to 900 BC as a sort of rough date there. - [Narrator] The records
state that the name of this mummy is Bakt-hor-Nekht, which means servant of Horus the Strong, which makes sense as a name
for an Egyptian female. - And what we also have is a location. We have it mentioned
here that she was found in a tomb at Gourneh in Thebes, which is a really interesting place. - [Narrator] Set along both
sides of the River Nile, near the modern city of Luxor, lies the ancient city of Thebes. It was for a while prominent
as a royal residence, the capital city and the
religious heart of Egypt. It contained the necropolis
in the Valley of the Kings, and numerous funerary temples
such as the Ramesseum, built by Ramesses II. But for all its architectural splendor, Thebes was at the center
of a bitter rivalry that had split ancient Egypt in two. - The south, around Thebes, is entirely controlled by the priests. So you've got these elite priest kings, these powerful, powerful
dynasts that control the whole area. So whoever our lady was, she was very much under
the thumb of these priests, both on a religious, and
I'd say a political level. - And I think the thing that
interests me most of all is this Mona Lisa-type smile
to her, really enigmatic. And it kind of makes you
wonder what's actually going on underneath this coffin lay. You know, what is she hiding? - [Narrator] In order to
find out more about The Lady, the team need to establish
what she looked like in life. But with her body sealed in
a coffin, this won't be easy. They've brought in an expert in cranial facial identification. Steph Davy-Jow uses her expertise on criminal investigations
and archeological cases. Taking the data from the CT scan, her computerized reconstruction model will reveal this woman's
face for the first time in thousands of years. - This is a virtual 3D model of her skull. Rather than showing you how
she would've looked now, I can show you what she
would've looked like at the end of her life. - [Narrator] Steph has
identified a number of changes to the woman's facial structure caused by the process of mummification. - Her jaw had been rotated
into an open position. - [Duncan] Okay. - And her nasal bones have been broken, likely when they removed her brain. - [Duncan] Okay. - So I rotated the mandible
back into its natural position, and I've taken the nasal bones a bit like pieces of a puzzle. I was able to rotate them back into where they would've been. - [Narrator] Using standard
tissue depth markers, Steph is able to accurately
recreate the thickness of the skin all over the mummy's face. - The next stage of the
process is to add eyes. These are obviously quite important to the final appearance of the face. - [Narrator] All the pieces
are beginning to click into place as the face of
the mummy is slowly building. - So I've begun to add skin. Essentially I've built a
grid using the tissue depths and the muscles to build the
outer features of the face. - Is this a generic sort of
mesh that you've attached to the head, or does this
built up as a sort of a bespoked data set for this individual? - I make it bespoked each time, especially in regions such
as the eyes and the lips. It's very personal to the skull beneath. - [Narrator] With the
face almost complete, Steph starts to add the finishing touches. - Here's an image rendered
of what she looks like without hair. - Okay. - [Stephanie] Quite statuesque, I think. - Incredible. Very, well, beautiful and
very striking, as well. Very strong features. - [Narrator] To build an accurate
picture of her hairstyle, Steph has modeled it on the
painting of the lady's hair on the outside of the coffin. - And there she is. - That is extraordinary. - This is how she would've
appeared on the day that she died. The face of a 3,000 year old mummy. - [Narrator] The ability
to accurately rebuild the face of this Egyptian
woman as it was the day she died almost 3,000 years ago is an astonishing achievement for the mummy investigation team, especially as they've managed to do it without even opening the coffin. - Now that you've finished
the reconstruction and spent so long working on it, what clues are are hidden away in her face that you've managed to draw her out? - Well, you can see she was
quite striking-looking woman. And you can see here she's got
quite an extensive overbite. And based on her overbite, we can say with some
confidence that she was likely of high status. This has been shown in
various research outputs. - [Narrator] And overbite
is the vertical overlapping of the upper teeth over the lower teeth. It's a classic facial
feature of Egyptian royalty, a physical characteristic
dating back to the lineage of pharaohs like Tutankhamun
in the 18th dynasty. This important discovery
backs up the theory that the mummy was a high
status Egyptian female. (eerie whooshing) (soft dramatic music) (eerie whooshing) The mummy investigation team
are among the first people to lay eyes on The Lady's facial features in almost three millennia. Using museum records, the team has also confirmed her position at the top of Egyptian society, probably originating
from the city of Thebes during the 21st to 22nd dynasty. But they are still no
closer to working out exactly who she was or how she died. Joann is hoping that the
hieroglyphs on the coffin could provide a vital lead. (soft suspenseful music) This ancient writing system
contains a combination of symbols and alphabetic elements. Hieroglyphs were an essential
component of mummification, as all Egyptian coffins
had to correctly display the name of the person inside
to ensure a safe passage into the afterlife. (soft suspenseful music) They were first deciphered in 1822 by French scholar
Jean-Francois Champollion, who realized that the
Rosetta Stone was inscribed with the same text in both
Greek and hieroglyphs, an event that gave birth to
the science of Egyptology. Alan Fildes specializes in deciphering this ancient Egyptian writing, and his knowledge could unlock the secrets of this sealed coffin. In his analysis of the hieroglyphs, Alan has noticed a series of anomalies. Ever since she was brought to Britain, She's been known as Bakt-hor-Nekht, which means servant of Horus the Strong. But that's not what is
actually written on the coffin. - [Alan] We've got ba-kt.
- [Joann] Yeah. - Then we've got a very
hurried water sign. - It is hurried, isn't it?
- [Alan] Very hurried. - They've not done a zigzag like normal. - No, which I'm sure would've
been as easiest enough to write the water sign
as it is to do that line. So we have bakht and hor. - [Narrator] Which translates
as simply servant of Horus. - Then I see nakht, bakt and hor, nakht. - [Narrator] The word
nakht, meaning strong, is separated by bakht
and hor by the equivalent of a full stop. This means the name actually reads as Bakht-en-Hor, full stop. Adding a nakht seems to be a mistake by whoever transcribed it for the museum. For over 200 years, this mummy has been given the wrong name, servant of Horus the Strong,
instead of her true name, servant of Horus. Remembering the names
of the dead was sacred to ancient Egyptians, they probably valued
the afterlife more than any other culture in history. They believed that death was simply a temporary interruption, and that eternal life could be ensured by preservation of the physical
form through mummification. The pharaohs, in particular, were so obsessed with the afterlife that they ordered the construction of vast and complex tunes to protect their bodies for this journey into the next world. The 19th century mistranslation
of the name is one thing, but the original scribe also
seems to have made a mistake. - Everything else is actually spot on. - [Joann] That's just it. Everything else does work. - And then we come to the
major part of the inscription, and suddenly we send the wrong person. So we can't say with any
certainty the name of this lady. - Exactly. - Which means she- - [Joann] She can't live again. - She can't. - [Narrator] The description
of The Lady's status, a vital insignia for the afterlife, contains what must be a deliberate error. - This woman is called Lord of the House. - Absolutely. - And she's a lady of the house. She's not a man, she's a woman. So at the top they've got the sex wrong, which is pretty fundamental. - It's maximum to her, isn't it? It's a maximum kind of thing you can do to this lady to effect her. - [Joann] It was totally misrepresenting what she was in life. - A gut instinct would be that somebody didn't want this person to live in the next world. An error so obvious as that, somebody wanted to do mischief. I think so crucial as a name, a thing that was gonna take you and allow you into the next world, a thing that you couldn't live without. No, it's a major, major error. Or has it been done for a reason? - [Narrator] The deliberate
misrepresentation of the mummy's title has
thrown the case wide open, leading Joann and Alan to
consider who would've wanted to sabotage The Lady's
passage into the afterlife. - Well, there are a number
of suspects, aren't they? So if we list the subjects, we can actually have a look at them. There's the family.
- [Joann] Yeah. - There's the scribes. And there's the priesthood. Could've been any of the three. Let's face it. What percent of Egyptians
could read and write in this period? - Exactly, I mean, 1%? - Maybe two or five, 1%? - 1% at max. - So a scribe could get away without- - Yes. - Without 98% of people
even looking at it. - Well, who'd know? Who would know what
the scribe had written? That begs the question, what's going on inside this cartonnage? - Absolutely. (soft suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Symbolic damage
was done to the inscription on The Lady's coffin. The team now needs to establish
whether any physical harm was done to her body. Since they will never
see inside the coffin, Duncan has decided to use
the images from the CT scan to create a precise model
of the mummy's head. Facial reconstruction
established what this woman looked like while alive. Now he wants to know
what she looks like today sealed inside her coffin. 3D design specialist
David Moore will take data from the CT scan to form a replica model of the mummy's head. Commonly known as rapid prototyping, this state of the art
technique will allow the team to turn the digital data
into a 3D physical reality. - And we have a fundamental
problem with this body, David, in that we can't actually see her. We've got this CAT scan data, but we really need a visualization. We really need to sort
of look her in the eye if we're gonna solve the case. - Well, see, the problem we've got here is a 3,000-year-old mummy
has a lot of those tissues that have sort of absorbed into each other and become attached to the
skull and things like that. So what we're really
gonna have to do is push the boundaries of the software slightly and try and really pick out
just the material that we want. - [Narrator] Three-dimensional
printers build up the specific design by printing thousands of successive layers. (printer whirring) The model is then created
by alternating layers of glue and chalk powder. The 3D result is a
dimensionally accurate head based on the source data from the CT scan. - If you're observing a real mummy, you have to be so delicate, you know, contamination, everything
that goes with that. What you've got here is
an exact representation of what's lying within the casket, yet you don't have to be delicate with it. You can slice it in
half, see what's inside. In a way, you haven't
actually got a body here. You're looking at data. (soft suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Continuing to
build the profile of The Lady, Joann Fletcher is trying to gain clues from one of the oldest forms
of forensic ID that exists: Teeth. Dr. Iain MacLeod is a
leading dental radiologist who specializes in the
analysis of Egyptian mummies. - One of the things we
can see straight away, she's got a full set of teeth, including importantly, her wisdom teeth, the third molars. And in most people the third
molar erupts in your mouth at around the age of about 18. And it takes another sort of three years for the roots to completely form. So if we look careful, we can see these roots are fully formed. So automatically we can say
this lady's over the age of 21. But if you look at this lady's teeth, we can see that this is the first molar. This erupts around the age of six. The second molar erupts
around the age of 12. And as we've said, the
third molar about 18. Once the teeth are in the mouth, they start to wear, and
in ancient Egypt, in fact, they probably wore their
teeth quite rapidly. And if we look at the
top of the teeth there, we can see that's worn quite a lot. This is a little less
worn and this one's worn, but not to a huge degree. So putting these sort of facts together, in fact, it gives us an
age of around 30 at death. - [Narrator] Life was hard for most people living in ancient Egypt, and the average life expectancy was low. A woman in her mid-forties
would be considered elderly. So the fact that the lady
was around 30 years old when she died makes it unlikely
that she died of old age. Meanwhile, the 3D
visualization of the mummy is almost ready. Without even laying a
finger on the coffin, Duncan is about to see exactly what the lady's head looks like. (printer whirring) - The model's fantastic, isn't it? This is one-to-one scale data, so you're not reduced or changed
in any way the dimensions. - No. - So she has a very delicate
small head, doesn't she? - [David] She's very petite, yeah. - It's incredible to be
looking into her face. - [David] Yeah. - And I wonder who the last
person she was looking at was. (eerie whooshing) (soft dramatic music) (eerie whooshing) - [Narrator] Thousands
of years after her death, the mummy investigation team
are trying to piece together how and why this Egyptian woman died. So far, they know her
name, her date of origin, and where she lived. And even though she
remains sealed in a coffin, the team now has an extraordinary image of what The Lady once looked like. They're now reconvening to try
to work out their next step. - What we have isn't just
a confusion with the name. There's certainly confusion
with this woman's job title, the job description. We've got clear evidence of misspelling because these signs should read nbt-pr, which means lady of the house. - [Duncan] Right. - And quite categorically,
that's not what it says. When you look carefully, they've purposefully missed
out the feminine T sign, so- - So they're basically calling her a him. - Exactly. Exactly. And this is categorically wrong. And and that's completely contradicting the ancient Egyptian belief systems. - So I've had, we've had a
good step forward, as well, with the data from the cloud mapping, from the point cloud
data that we've derived from the CT scan. And this is gonna be the only chance I think we get to look
at her in real life. And here she is. - [Narrator] Stephen is a world authority on mummification techniques. He immediately notices
a glaring discrepancy. - What concerns me and I notice is, the difference between the
fine decorated cartonnage and the state of the face. You see the sort of undulation here. - [Duncan] It's almost like it's blistered or something, isn't it? - [Narrator] Egyptian embalmers
were highly sophisticated chemists who developed their
art over thousands of years. A good embalmer would've
preserved facial features to an incredibly high standard. But the 3D model has
revealed the opposite. - It's certainly not what you'd expect of a decent embalmer at this time. There is definitely an inconsistency here. - Right. - And I think that's something
that needs looking at. Where I would go now with this is to look at the body and to see
whether you see it there. - Sure. (suspenseful bass music) - [Narrator] The evidence
for foul play is building up. The team now need to find a
cause of death for The Lady. Using a printout of the CT scan, Duncan is consulting Surgeon
Commander Mike Edwards, who serves with the British forces. He's seen practically every kind of injury to the human body. Armed with the CT scan data, he may be able to tell what has
happened to The Lady's body. After careful analysis, Mike is able to answer the
question that has remained unknown for 3,000 years:
how this woman died. - If we look on the CT scan here, we can see that there is a
massive incision or stab wound, whatever you want to call it. - [Duncan] It is major, isn't it? - It is major and it's not regular at all. It's ragged and irregular
and extends very deeply. (tense suspenseful music) - We're not talking
about the mummification, the embalmer's incision here. - No, we're not, because
this is more likely to be the embalming incision, because it's in the left loin
and left hypochondrial region. - Yeah, which is more normal, isn't it? - And it's very neat.
- Yeah. - [Narrator] The large wound identified is completely separate from the
standard embalming incision, which is also visible on the CT scan. This presents the team with
a dramatic development. - I suspect the wound is here. - Okay. - And this extends. If a knife were placed
through the abdomen, it would've gone through
this small bowel here, large bowel here, maybe
even into the liver here, and the large vessels at
the back of the abdomen. - Why do we think this is
a wound from a stabbing rather than say damage
from impaling yourself or falling on something, you
know, that sort of thing. - Well, I think, I'll
go further than that. I think this is an assassination. I think the sight of the wound tells us, and the size of the wound. (eerie suspenseful music) If we're imagining that I'm
attacking you from the front. - Yeah. - And if I'm coming in and
I'm trying to stab you here. - Yeah, there'd be blocks. - Your hands are gonna
be all over the place. I'm gonna be trying stabbing
you here, here and here. - And certainly not up and under. - Certainly not up and under, and there's liable to be cuts on the arms. - Yeah, yeah, which we don't see. - Which we don't see.
- Right. - We see a large irregular wound in the right hypochondrial region. (eerie suspenseful music) Our assassin would approach from behind. - Right. - I step from the rear,
hand over the mouth, hand goes up, I twist my
body in, knife rams up, then spinning it around
and moving it around as much as possible to
do the maximum amount of damage before pulling the blade out and making a run for it. (knife stabbing) - [Narrator] The violence
of the stab wound would've caused extreme
trauma to the liver, leaving The Lady in unbearable pain. - The reason it'd be
so nasty with the liver is it's an incredibly vascular organ. - Right. - It's got so many blood
vessels going through it to do the job that it does in the body. Now here's our weapon. Now you can imagine that if
this is penetrating through, the abdominal wall goes up into the liver and lacerates here, and he grottles it around
and he does as much damage as he possibly can. And you can see just how
vascular this liver is, and all these little bile
ducts here and blood vessels. This would've been pumping
out blood, you know, at the rate of knots. - Incredibly messy then. I mean, a lot of obvious signs. - A lot of blood and guts. The guts would've been
prolapsing out of the wound. There would've been an
enormous amount of blood. - So we have this graphic
evidence for this vicious and violent and terminal assault
on this 30-year-old woman. How long, you know, how
long would it have been before she died? What would've been that
sequence, do you think? - I would think it would just
have been a matter of minutes. - Mmm. - If the knife had penetrated even deeper and maybe taken out the major vessels. - Right. - The back death would've been,
you know, in under a minute. - Through her mind must have been passing all of that family and
relations and what's happened and why has it happened,
and just amazing fear. - I would think it would
just be a world of pain. - [Narrator] With the shocking revelation that this mummy was violently murdered, the team now need to work out why someone would've wanted to kill The Lady. (doors creak) In a search for more clues, Joann and Jill are trolling
through the Egyptian archives at the Literary and
Philosophical Society Library in Newcastle. It has an extensive historical
collection of books, periodicals and newspaper
reports charting the birth of Egyptology as a science
in the early 19th century. The society hosted a public
exhibition of the mummy when it first arrived in the country almost 200 years ago in 1821. - [Jill] All right.
- Oh, what you got there? - Oh, lots of treats for us to look at. - Excellent. - I've come across this one which actually look quite interesting. It's the reports, papers, and catalogs of the Literary and Philosophical Society from Newcastle Pontine, 1820 to 1821, so that's coinciding with our date. But if we have a look through, it's quite a strange book in its nature. It's more like a scrapbook, actually. And I think if we just
have a sort through. - [Joann] Oh, yeah.
- [Jill] It's all- Handwriting, it looks like. - Yeah. Very beautiful handwriting, but then you've got small articles. - Yeah, like newspaper clippings. - Like newspaper clippings. - [Narrator] But the book contains more than just newspaper articles. It's about to reveal a very big clue. - Okay, well, that's interesting. - [Joann] A specimen of
the cloth and card taken from the mummy at the Literary
and Philosophical Society, Newcastle in town. I'll let you do the honors. (dark suspenseful music) - Oh, oh, oh.
- Oh, this is perfect. - Here we go. Very, very careful. What a result. - [Joann] That's incredible. - Look at that. They have kept it in a book. - That's fabulous. That's fabulous. - For over 200 years. - (coughs) It's still very dusty. - It is, yeah. Let's close it up. - That is, oh. I've just breathed in bacteria. (coughs) What a discovery! You don't usually think
archeological discoveries in the library, do you? - [Narrator] From the
start of the investigation, the team had no access to the mummy or interior of the coffin, so the finding of these linen samples is a huge breakthrough. Tiny fragments of the linen wrappings are cut off to be taken
away for chemical analysis in Stephen's lab. (eerie whooshing) (flames crackling) The entire embalming process
would take around 70 days, and was performed by priests and embalmers who had a detailed knowledge
of the human anatomy. Some organs would be
removed to avoid decay. The body cavity was then
packed with linen and spices before the body was finally wrapped in many layers of linen cloth. It's these linen wrappings
that Stephen is analyzing for their chemical fingerprint. Through GCMS, gas
chromatography-mass spectrometry, he will be able to identify
the chemical compounds present on the linen sample. The technique works on the principle that every chemical turns to a gas at the specific temperature. By gradually heating
the microscopic samples taken from the linen, it should reveal the many
hundreds of compounds it contains by examining
the point at which they turn to gas. This will provide a chemical fingerprint of each of the components
used to embalm the mummy. - Well, I've never sampled
from a book before, but it's looking quite interesting. And what we actually
have is a ruminant fact mixed with castor oil, balsam, a trace of a coniferous, and a trace of beeswax. - [Joann] Is that all?
- Yes, that's all. - [Joann] So nothing particularly exotic. - No, not really, no. - Well, surely I expected a
few more exotic commodities given the status of this woman. That sounds rather like a collection of somewhat mundane ingredients. - There does seem to
be a contradiction here between the materials used and the quality of the cartonnage we see. So I suppose the question we
should think about is why. But you see here the combustion markers, which we see if something has
been very strongly heated, so it perhaps suggests that someone was in a rush
rather than doing a good job. - [Narrator] The GCMS test
has not only identified that relatively cheap materials
were used in this embalming, but also that the materials used had been severely overheated. This correlates with the results from the three-dimensional
print of the mummy's head, displaying large amounts of decomposition, also indicating an incompetent
and rushed embalming. This is highly suspicious, as the mummification of members
of Egyptian high society was a precise and delicate part. - No, it just doesn't add up
the way she was mummified. The ingredients aren't
what one would expect. - No. - In her apparent status. So what's going on? - I'm not quite sure. And possibly suggests
something a little sinister. - [Narrator] The results
of the chemical analysis indicate that the violent
stabbing of Bakht-en-Hor was just the first of a
series of heinous crimes to be committed against
this Egyptian woman. Professor Don Brothwell
has been conducting further analysis. He's the leading physical anthropologist who specializes in paleopathology and in analyzing anomalies
in the human anatomy. (suspenseful synth music) Using the three-dimensional
data from the CT scan, he's identified a
shocking new development. - Well, I've been
looking through this area of the head and neck. So if we get these CT
scans and move through from the face back into
the throat area there, first of all, you can see
the tongue in the jaw. - [Joann] Oh, yeah. - And as you move back
towards the neck region, nothing then in the throat area. There's no windpipe running there at all. We've slit under the tongue, removed the windpipe and so on, cleaned it up and then
inserted a large wad of, I would think, linen or
something of that sort. I mean, my feeling is
that that was a decision which they took for some
carefully thought out reason. And it might have, in fact, you know, infringed the usual policies
in terms of embalming. - So you are saying this
was a premeditated move. - A part of their technique. - Yeah, which is something I've never seen in any other mummy.
- Yeah, yeah. - The complete removal of
the is part of the body. It wasn't a standard part
of the proceeding, was it? - Well, this is here. - [Narrator] Of all the human
organs required after death, the throat was one of the most important for ancient Egyptians. According to their belief system, the deceased had to be able to speak his or her own name to the god Osiris, Lord of the afterlife, to then be judged upon entry into the eternal paradise for the soul. In the eyes of ancient Egyptians, removal of the throat during mummification would prevent this sacred
ritual from taking place. - Why take out the throat, the voice box, the very organs that are required we know to breathe
again in the next world, to speak your name in the next world? - [Don] Yeah. - When she's there before the god, she physically cannot
speak her name before them. She can't identify herself. The cartonnage can't identify her. So it does give me some
cause for concern, I think. (eerie suspenseful music) - [Narrator] From the very beginning, this case of the sealed coffin
looked almost impossible, as the mummy investigation
team were denied any kind of access to the body. Against all odds and through a combination of forensic excellence and
old-fashioned detective work, they've built an incredible
picture of who this woman was and how she died. - Based on her overbite, we can say with some
confidence that she was likely of high status. - Well, from the chemistry
it's certainly possible that some sort of
concealment was going on. - I'll go further than that. I think this is an assassination. - There's the family. There's the scribes. And there's the priesthood. But it could've been any of the three. - [Narrator] Without even
laying a finger on the body, the mummy investigation
team has discovered that this woman was murdered by a savage knife attack to the abdomen. She was robbed of her life, and even worse in Egyptian eyes, robbed of her passage into the next world. This was sabotaged by a hurried embalming, the removal of her throat
and the incorrect inscription of her title on the coffin. She was murdered in real
life and in the afterlife. - It's been very gratifying for me that we've actually been
able to make this person live again in a physical sense when we've had absolutely
no access to the body. (eerie suspenseful music) - I think what was interesting
for me was the chemistry, 'cause it really pointed to a rush job. (eerie suspenseful music) - For several centuries she's
been called Bakt-hor-Nekht, when actually what she really
was called is Bakt-en-Hor. Merely saying that is to revive her soul. (eerie suspenseful music) - [Narrator] One thing is clear. Someone with huge power and
influence hated her so much. - She really did live
in this world of pain for the awful few seconds
before she passed away. (soft dramatic music) - [Narrator] They killed her twice. (soft eerie music) (suspenseful bass music)
