The Lost Tomb of Nefertiti - Ancient Egypt's Powerful Queen | Free Documentary History

ancient egypt has been a lost forgotten world for around two millennia hidden in the sand the remnants of this civilization built at the time of the river nile are still resurfacing archaeologists are progressively documenting the true pharyonic egypt each day unveiling a little more about its incredible history thanks to modern scientific technologies physics genetics and even computer generated imagery some enigmas of the past are finally at her fingertips among the great mysteries of egyptian history is the fate of the dazzling queen nefertiti her name meaning the beautiful one has come she was the wife of fario akinaton and gave birth to the child who would become one of the most famous ferals tutankhamon her mummy has never been found that's why research has become a real quest of the grail for all egyptologists and more and more contradictory theories continue to emerge the moment we found out that this mummy is actually nefertiti it was a big moment in our research [Music] a team of experts are retracing nefertiti's tracks to try to understand how she died and what became of this legendary egyptian queen antonio fisketti a doctor of physics and scientists will carry out research in europe while including lieutenant an egyptologist passionate about egyptian queens and jill achoo chunk author of scientific works and passionate about new technologies will travel to egypt in search of nefertiti [Music] [Music] in trying to discover what became of nefertiti's mummy they must first construct the chronology of a rich history which spanned over more than 3 500 years the history of ancient egypt claudine angel meets with egyptologist vasil dubrev to place nefertitia at the heart of the incredible saga dogs [Music] was alive around 1300 bc cloudiness will delve into more history from more than 3 000 years ago into the period of the new egyptian empire to try to shed light on the fate of queen nefertiti [Music] we know that nefertiti was born in luxer thieves in antiquity which was the capital of egypt it was in this mythical city that cloudiness decided to start their research into the mystery of the beautiful nefertiti where is she buried why is there no certainty surrounding where her tomb is has it been moved these are questions that our experts will try to answer situated in the heart of egypt this town is globally known for its monumental temples for which the entrance was once adorned with two obelisks one of which can be found today in place in paris luxor was one of the most important pharyonic capitals it was here that they found the first traces of this young egyptian woman who would become queen nefertiti the myth of nefertiti was really born on december 6 1912. on that day in the middle of an egyptian desert in omarna queen nefertiti would be seen in the best light german archaeologist ludwig borchardt searched this buried city for 33 years among remnants that he found from a sculpture's workshop he discovered an unexpected treasure a magnificent bust which revealed the features of queen nefertiti in an exceptional condition this bust is now one of the most popular works in the world exhibited in news museum in berlin however rumors circulated quickly regarding its authenticity in fact it was suspected that the germans had put pressure on borchardt to make a significant discovery in order to justify his very expensive expedition so is this best an impostor a sculpture created upon varchar's [Music] whether these facial features are perfectly faithful to those of nefertiti or not one million visitors visit the museum in berlin each year to admire this photorealistic bust today this bust is a globally symbolic representation of the queen [Music] so the experts now know what nefertiti looked like however to aid their research regarding where her mummy could be found they need to know more about her history it's important to map out her life and the places she had been in order to solve the mystery of her final resting place nefertiti was born in luxer she was from a noble family who had reigned over egypt for centuries the pharaohs weren't just political sovereigns they were also the heads of a religion believing in several gods with multiple representations in luxor these are the famous karnak temples which witnessed worship where the egyptians devoted themselves to these divinities the team of experts also includes dmitry labery an egyptologist who specializes in the period that nefertiti was alive the new empire is [Music] [Music] it was in luxor that nefertiti met the future pharaoh akinaton and became his wife the spouses practiced their religion in the karnik temples but no mummies were ever found there there's no evidence suggesting that nefertiti's tomb can be found there the experts decided to go to the site of the palace where nefertiti lived in luxor to try and find evidence that could lead them down a new line of inquiry the egyptian sovereign sought calm and serenity outside of the hustle and bustle of the karnak temples archaeologists have searched the desert for areas that could have been nefertiti's residents and they found it in the west of luxor in malkita nice to meet you peter lakavara is leading a search on this site was it a huge palace it was huge it's bigger than buckingham palace it's bigger than the white house it covers an area all the enclosures it's about 150 by 100 meters so so a huge huge area very often we have the kings kind of founding these palaces outside near the royal sit near the capital say themes but but nearby like versailles [Music] we know a lot about the decoration of the palace because it seems it collapsed perhaps during a rainstorm and so much of the painting on the ceiling preserved not so much on the walls but we know it was very decorative [Music] one of the reasons that we're trying so hard to protect and preserve malcada is it's the last of these royal cities that sort of in its original landscape if you go to other royal cities like amarna or daryl bulas or they're they're being encroached by the modern town so fortunately malcada is a little bit off in the desert so you can get an idea of how it would have originally appeared peter lachavara's expeditions allowed the expert to get a better idea of what nefertiti's palace looked like and what its environment was like on his side antonio went to the north of france to find out more about the interior of this palace particularly the richness of the decoration thanks to an engineer who was so passionate about egypt that he created so [Music] [Music] [Music] since we've established that nefertiti lived in luxor could she have also died there could we find her mummy there where should we look [Music] in year 04 of akhenaten's reign nefertiti's husband an event shook egypt in fact the sovereign pharaoh decided to revolutionize religion and impose worship of only one god ayton the god of son [Music] [Music] a new religion was born atanism [Music] in a collapsed karnik temple archaeologists discovered fragments of walls from the temple dedicated to aton these sculpted stones revealed the immense adoration for the god of sun these walls also witnessed the prosperity of egypt in nefertiti's time a wealth derived from the flooding of the nile [Music] in sifting through the outer remnant temple archaeologists found foundations of a collapsed temple which didn't even feature on the official maps as a phantom temple cloudiness learned that evidence linked to akinaton and nefertiti had been found fragments of monumental statues however they weren't there anymore they decided to look into the history of these temples in order to find out more about nafertiti this queen at the heart of cultural and religious disruption in egypt [Music] in bordeaux this is where the archaeovision laboratory is located here archaeologists and graphic designers combine their skills to create these ancient temples in 3d this will allow them to better understand the environments that nefertiti lived in at that time and the new customs dictated by the new religion [Music] is [Music] from [Music] the new religion implemented by akhenaton and nefertiti led to new egyptian art which for the first time put forward realistic representations of the pharaohs that were to be part of the god of sons family representations situation [Music] this cult of personality is undeniably at the origin of the legend of nefertiti the egypt solidified and incarnated the words of her husband at the head of states [Music] [Music] although she occupied an important place in this new society our experts never managed to find traces of anywhere that could have been her tomb within the carnac site which event in nefertiti's life could lead them down a new path her husband akinaton decided to build a new capital for egypt which was entirely dedicated to the god of sun religion he erected a palace which would be his main residence [Music] [Music] in following the nile up to the center of the country akhenaton chose a vast plane in the desert the pharaoh was in the fifth year of his reign he wanted to make his mark here to build a new [Music] it was here in amarna that the remnants of this new capital were found buried in the deserts [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign these new technologies thanks to their precision are very important because they allow the experts to indulge in even more details from the past concerning elements that could send the experts down new lines of inquiry regarding nefertiti's tomb and mummy [Music] in amarna akinaton and nefertiti settled in a huge residence it was here that their son was born the future king tutankhamun the scenes of life linked to the remnants suggest the popularity of their sovereigns however the reality is much more complicated clay plagues dating back to this period show a complex international situation and an egyptian kingdom in difficulty nefertiti and akhenaton couldn't reign amarna as peacefully as they had hoped to better understand what led this city to progressively fall antonio is meeting with francois unique a journalist who specializes in egyptology in paris uh foreign is [Music] believed in the future of amarna to prove it they built tombs which would mark a turning point in egyptian funeral architectures foreign [Music] in conclusion to find nefertiti's tomb the experts know that they now need to look for a tomb encased in rock then deep in an incised valley to the east of amarna archaeologists found several openings in the cliffs which led to tombs at the end of the 19th century one of these was identified as having been temporary shelter for the remains of akhenaton on the amarna site adeptologists mark gebold has been working for several years on a rural necropolis map some tombs could hold other members of akinatom's family could the experts finally have found it could nefertiti's mummy be here josue comes is that akinaton and nefertiti had been buried in the cliffs of amarna however when the city fell their son the new king tutankhamen had moved their mummies to bury them in the valley of the kings could nefertiti have been moved to the valley of the kings at the same [Music] is it was between the nile valley and the desert that a chain of small mountains hit a maze of rocky tunnels in this valley more than 60 tombs were discovered which had once been opened for the bodies of pharaohs and some of their wives very on the short in the west of luxor there's nothing better than a hot air balloon to see the sights from a height and to be able to contemplate the majestic valley of kings [Music] clusters of evidence emerged for our experts could the answer to the mystery of nefertiti be found in this area could her tomb be hidden in one of these underground tunnels to follow that path they needed to know more about these discovered tombs [Music] in 1907 adeptologist edward russell erton excavated a tomb kv-55 he discovered human remains and objects originating from amarna undoubtedly ransacked several times this tomb opened a sarcophagus on which the king's name was inscribed akinaton this discovery was extraordinary the theory that the experts ran with was correct the great ferial akinaton was transported to the valley of kings however there were still no traces of his wife nefertiti another tomb also grabbed the expert's attention this tomb was well known as it was that of nefertiti's son young fario tutankhamon who died very young at just 19. this tomb was discovered in 1922 thanks to persistence of one man howard carter this british archaeologist had a feeling that nefertiti's son young tutankhamon had his own tomb in the valley of kings [Music] after years of searching and at the point of giving up carter made an exceptional discovery under a pile of stones a door suddenly opened into a long [Music] all their secrets recently some analysis of the walls had been carried out they were brought to an egyptologist to find out whether the tomb was originally much larger was nefertiti resting in one of these hidden tombs beside her son investigation foreign our experts continued their research into nefertiti's tomb and mummy if she isn't in the same tomb as her husband at kanatan and she's not in a hidden tomb near her son tutankhamon could she be buried in the valley of kings in a tomb that was dedicated only to her at the end of the 19th century a french egyptologist discovered a tomb kv which would relaunch the mystery surrounding nefertiti [Music] success um a spectacular new twist in terms of nefertiti british egyptologist joanne fletcher announced that she had identified the mummy of a younger lady who she thought could be nefertiti a series of examinations were carried out on a 3 000 year old body could they finally have found the queen la mommy de la jean ladies and gentlemen this mummy of a younger lady which continues to fuel the fantasies of egyptologists is now preserved at the cairo museum [Music] after searching egypt and finding new information from europe thanks to antonio clejin and jill decided to continue their research at the cabrillo museum where they would meet egyptologist vasil dobrev nefertiti would have certainly been mummified following a ritual reserved for royal members they want to know more about this custom [Music] [Music] to find out the history of this mummy they need to do more research one of the most reliable tools is genetic analysis [Music] bolzano in italy at the foot of the alps in the heart of a laboratory which has shaken the world of adjectology geneticist albert zink director of the bolzano mummy research institution came to egypt to analyze some mummies one of which is the famous younger lady so is this the mummy of nefertiti will dna tell her story here at the institute for mummy research we investigated mummies from different parts of the world egypt south america but also the alps in order to understand how the living conditions were the disease they had and how the general how they survived in the ancient times [Music] it was very complicated to get access to the mummies uh to especially to the royal mummies but finally we got the access and the permission and then we were able to take the samples from the royal mummies and transfer them to a lab we created it especially in egypt in cairo close to the museum because we are not allowed to take samples out of the country so we had to do all this analytical work in egypt in this specialized lab so for the mummy of the younger lady we were able to obtain samples we could use a very small biopsy needle to obtain samples from the long bones especially here from this area from the upper arm but also the same for the leg bones we were able to attain different small bone samples because we also intended not to damage the mummy too much but we could get good quality bone samples from inside of the bones and later in the analysis in the lab it turned out that there's still dna preserved in the samples [Music] the moment we found out that this mummy is actually the mother of king tutankhamun was a big moment in our research because it took us many months to set up everything to do this analysis to overcome the inhibition problem and then finally we got these very important results the identity of the younger lady was not in doubt for albert zinc this mummy was the mother of tutankhamon it was nefer tadi if professor zing zenel is liable the investigation will be closed antonio wants another scientific opinion he goes to a paleogenetic laboratory in the museum of man in paris [Music] m um this analysis of the younger lady mummy was carried out under good conditions the results were irrefutable the mummy of the younger lady was displaced from the original tomb and the mummy was manipulated sensitivity from many different people one had the embalmers who prepared the mummy on the other hand grave robbers who get in contact with the mummy and finally also the scientists and the archaeologists who have studied the mummy since it was found so there was a lot of contact of people that left their dna traces on the mummy and we had to make sure that we don't analyze the contamination the surface part of the mummy but we went inside the mummy we took biopsy needles small needles to get a sample from inside of the bones to avoid to having to analyzing the surface of the mummy and in addition we took several some samples of the mummy from different parts of the mummy body in order to compare the results and to make sure that in the end we have really the authentic ancient dna of the younger lady and not any modern contamination [Music] what we could show is based on the genetic fingerprinting that younger lady is the mother of king tottenham and we could also identify with the same method that echneton is the father of tottenham for mark gabold the case was closed according to the specialists in 18 dynasty family cross checks established by dna from the younger lady were sound sweet you after weeks of investigation and thousands of kilometers traveled in egypt and europe prudinger and antonio have been able to study all avenues and evidence found up until that day in the vast research file for nefertiti it would seem that there's not much room for dao the younger lady mummy could well be queen nefertiti the mageptologists often come up with possible scenarios and continue their search for nefertiti three thousand years after her death the beautiful egyptian continues to generate true fascination among specialists and among the general public nefertiti made her mark in her time and continues to be one of the most symbolic figures of a powerful egypt one of innovative construction pharaoh worship a new religion and mind-boggling art [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary - History

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Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full Documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), History, History Documentaries, Free Documentary History, Lost Tomb of Nefertiti, Nefertiti Documentary, Nefertiti, Bust of Nefertiti, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Egypt Documentary, History of Egpyt, Ancient History, Mummy Documentary, Nefertiti Tomb, Nefertiti Mummy, Ancient History Documentary

Id: Z6UA6dZH7-k

Length: 50min 21sec (3021 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 29 2022