All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.Of.Egypt.S01E04.WEBRip.x264-ION10.ENG

Egypt, the richest source
of archaeological treasures on the planet.

Oh, that's a fabulous one!

Beneath this desert landscape

lie the secrets of
an ancient civilization.

Wow, you can see
why the pharaohs chose this place.

Now, for a full season of excavations,

our cameras have been given
unprecedented access

to follow teams on the front line
of archaeology...

I'm driving
so fast because I'm so excited!

It's an entrance.
We can see an entrance.

Revealing buried secrets...

So I have just been told
that they have found something.

A sphinx!

And making discoveries
that could rewrite ancient history.

This time, archaeologists reveal
what tomb raiders left behind.

John investigates
an ancient tomb-robbing scandal.

Royal tombs are
not robbed by random robbers.

US Homeland Security helps
to bring a stolen mummy back to Egypt.

How fabulous!

And Don makes a discovery
in a long-forgotten tomb.

Oh, my gosh.

It has a possibility
of being truly exciting.

♪ ♪

The Valley of the Kings:

Sixty-five tombs hidden
in this remote gorge,

built to contain the mummies
of Egypt's great pharaohs

and their treasures.

Throughout history
these tombs have been raided

from within just a few weeks
of being sealed,

right up to the 20th century.

Hey, hey!

But to archaeologists,
what the thieves left behind

is still priceless evidence,

helping them to unlock
the secrets of ancient Egypt.

- How are you?
- Dr. Ryan.

Renowned American Egyptologist Don Ryan

is kicking off his season in the Valley.

I first came to Egypt as a student.

It was my priority to come
and see this place.

And I had a map
of the Valley of the Kings,

and I noticed amongst all these
tombs of these famous rulers

there were all these little dots
with numbers on them,

and those really intrigued me.

The dots on Don's maps represented

the smaller and lesser-known
tombs in the Valley.

Don made these his area of expertise.

Working in various tombs around here

has so many aspects that make it special,

apart from it being the most famous
archaeological site in the world.

Dig season runs from October to April

and relies on the expertise
of hundreds of skilled local workers.

I know this guy from before.

He's a good guy.

This book is kind of special,

because it goes back
to my very first field season in Egypt.

This is 1989.

Every tomb in the Valley of the Kings
is a piece of a great puzzle.

Don's missions have focused on a cluster

of small tombs at the edge of the Valley.

Nearby is the impressive burial chamber

of Pharaoh Amenhotep II,

but most of the surrounding
tombs remain unidentified.

All of them were looted centuries ago,

any treasures stolen by robbers.

But in some, they left behind
mummified animals

and ancient pottery.

This year, Don is excavating
one of the most mysterious tombs

of them all... tomb number 49.

Who it was built for remains a mystery.

Thought to be empty, no one
has excavated it for over a century.

We are the first
archaeologists to go in there

and clear the material out since 1906.

I know from previous experience,

having excavated a number
of tombs from that period,

that these early archaeologists
usually took the bigger things

or the prettier things
and left everything else inside.

♪ ♪

Solving the mysteries
of this tomb will be tough.

The chamber is totally unmarked.

At this point,
we don't have any indication

for whom this tomb might have been built.

We have to look for all the little clues.

Don has become
an expert in uncovering

the secrets of these smaller,
undecorated tombs.

The tombs I work with
don't have any inscriptions,

one can't just go in and read the walls.

In the Valley of the Kings
just having a burial chamber

is a magnificent honor.

It could have been
a royal family member

or it could have been
a very high official.

Tomb 49 has been robbed
by ancient tomb raiders,

but that doesn't mean it's empty.

We'll clear this stuff out
and we'll go through it,

and it'd be really nice if we found
something with a name on it.

We might find some objects
from the original burial.

It has the possibility
of being truly exciting.

♪ ♪

The team have just three weeks

to move several tons of earth.

♪ ♪

Each bucketful must undergo
a fingertip search,

even the tiniest fragments pulled out
for further investigation.

One never knows,
it could be the last basketful of debris

that might give up the answer
that we're looking for.

At the entrance to the Valley sits

a complex of tombs and temples
called Deir el-Bahari.

In the cliffs of this site was
where important officials were buried.

♪ ♪

Shukran.

How many people do we have today?

Total, 3-0.

So we need 10 more.

Professor Antonio Morales is

an Egyptologist from
the University of Alcalá in Spain.

He's in charge of 30 international experts

working here on one of the biggest
archaeological projects in Egypt.

We came here
to excavate two or three tombs

that belonged to very prestigious,

very powerful high officials.

They provide much information
about things like religion,

beliefs, ritual practices,

and about ancient
Egyptian culture in general.

But this year, his government
permit has come through late.

This season is going
to be very intensive,

because we were expecting
to work for five or six weeks.

We're actually going to do it
for three weeks,

which means that this is
going to be double intensive.

Like the tombs
in the Valley of the Kings,

this site was also robbed,
often by other ancient Egyptians.

Most of the ancient
Egyptian tombs were plundered

weeks or months after the funeral,

so for us, it's very interesting
to try to come up

with a reconstruction
of what happened here.

So those are the contents.

Last year, Antonio's team unearthed

hundreds of body parts:

mummies ripped apart by thieves
looking for gold and jewels.

The robbers cut the bandages

looking for as many objects as possible,

and once they were finished with that,

perhaps they burned the mummy,
they throw it away,

they didn't want to have any ghost,

any visit from the afterlife.

Tomb robbers believed
the dead would come back

to haunt them unless
they destroyed the mummy.

But for the dead, this was
the worst possible fate.

They needed their
mummified body to remain intact

to live on in the afterlife.

So stopping thieves was about more
than protecting your treasure,

it was also about ensuring
your eternal life.

Raoul, that go into the sarcophagus.

Antonio is investigating
how the owner of this 4,000-year-old tomb

tried to prevent his mummy
being destroyed by looters.

Now we are in
the deepest section of the tomb

where his coffin and corpse was deposited.

The team know this tomb
must've belonged to an important official.

There's no mummy,
but the sarcophagus is covered

with intricate hieroglyphs.

Amongst them, the team find
the name of the owner.

So this area
we can read, this Ipi,

so the deceased is named Ipi.

What you can see here is
actually all the things

the deceased needs for his afterlife.

♪ ♪

Ipi was a vizier,
a role second only to the pharaoh.

A powerful statesman,

he was buried in an ornately
inscribed sarcophagus,

covered in spells
to protect him in the afterlife.

To ensure his mummy stayed intact,

Ipi's tomb was designed to stop robbers.

The entrance was sealed by huge boulders.

And inside the burial chamber,

the sarcophagus was set into the floor,

then covered with stone slabs

so that the room appeared empty.

When robbers came,
they will see an empty chamber,

a wonderful floor, and they will think
that the chamber was empty

because it was already stolen.

But even this clever design
wasn't enough to stop thieves.

Ipi's mummy and all his treasures

were stolen centuries ago.

♪ ♪

Outside Ipi's tomb,
there's an exciting discovery.

I have been told
that just in one of the sections

we started working this morning,

it seems they have found
some kind of a structure.

Antonio's team have spotted
an opening in the rubble.

It could be an entrance
to a hidden chamber,

undisturbed for thousands of years.

In the Valley of the Kings,

Egyptologist Don Ryan is investigating
the mysterious tomb 49.

- It stops right there.
- Right there.

His decision
to carefully sift tons of earth

from a seemingly empty tomb is paying off.

The team have found several artifacts

that might help solve
who the tomb was built for,

including pottery, wood, and linen.

These are cloth fragments,
and they tend to be well preserved.

These could be 3,000 years old,

because it's... it's dry down in the tomb

and conducive to the preservation.

It does tell you something, it tells you
that if these are mummy wrappings,

there was a mummy in there at one time,

and that's, of course, important to know.

These pieces of ancient wood and pottery

are over 3,000 years old.

This is probably
a big chunk of coffin right here.

And this is probably part of a dowel
or some piece of wood

that was used to hold bits
and pieces of the coffins together.

You guys got some good stuff.

Well, maybe, we'll see.

Based on what he's found,
Don can begin to piece together

what was actually inside tomb 49.

A hidden staircase, hand-chiseled
out of solid limestone,

leads to a six-by-three-meter chamber.

The excavated pieces of wood

most likely from
an elaborate painted coffin,

into which a tightly wrapped mummy
would've been locked away.

Stored around the coffin
were everyday items,

everything the tomb owner
would need for the afterlife.

♪ ♪

It seems like tomb 49 is
a conventional burial site,

but who it belongs to is still a mystery.

Suddenly, Don is called to the chamber.

- Abduhadi? Come!
- Yeah?

Among the rubble is
a remarkable treasure.

Oh!

Exactly what Don was hoping for...

Oh, my gosh.

An artifact with a name on it.

This is a ring made out of glass,

and, possibly, we have on the surface

the name of Ramses III,

one of the great
warrior pharaohs of Egypt.

My team would be the first
to hold this in over 3,000 years.

The ring is
an extraordinary but unexpected find.

If it does belong to the pharaoh
Ramses III, it shouldn't be here.

Ramses was buried
in tomb number 11, not tomb 49.

How this object got
into this tomb is the question.

At Deir el-Bahari, Egyptologist
Antonio Morales and his team

are working near the ransacked tomb
of a pharaoh's right-hand man,

the vizier, Ipi.

They've just discovered an opening.

What you can see here now is rubble.

After a couple of hours
we'll be able to see more.

The entrance is so well hidden,

it's possible this chamber
was never found by robbers.

He's going to clean
all this area around,

and then once we know what is around,

we can take up everything
to see what is behind.

But make sure you keep
many people here working,

we need to do all this quickly, okay?

With such a short permit,

the team must work against the clock.

It seems that
the structure we have found

could be larger than we expected,

so we need to clean first this area
so that they can continue excavating

to see whether we can go
in to this new structure underneath.

Antonio hopes for good results
from this new chamber,

because last season,
close to Ipi's tomb,

the team discovered something incredible:

what Antonio suspects is
the largest deposit

of intact mummification equipment
ever found in Egypt.

We found these 56 jars

related to the mummification
process of the vizier, Ipi.

For ancient robbers,
these jars had little value.

What we were not prepared
for was when we really realized

that some of the jars
still kept their contents.

It really makes it a treasure for us.

Despite being
nearly 4,000 years old,

the contents are in incredible condition.

- Raoul?
- Yes?

Coming in!

- So this is the contents...
- Perfect.

Of one of the jars.

With 56 jars to process,

Antonio has called in Salima Ikram,

professor of Egyptology
at the American University in Cairo.

She's forensically examining
all the items in the jars,

including mummified body parts.

Sometimes it's a bit stinky,

and then there are moments
where you realize you're in touch

with people's bodily fluids,
which is a bit awkward.

But it's fantastic because
one is in touch, literally,

physically, as well as
sort of emotionally,

with people who lived
thousands of years ago.

Salima is
investigating 300 natron bags.

The natron is a mixture
of salt and baking soda,

and it naturally desiccates and defats,

- because that's what we do as we...
- dehydrate the body.

Ancient Egyptians
practiced mummification

to preserve their body for eternity.

First, priests removed
the internal organs.

To dry out these organs, and the body,

the priests used sponges
called natron bags

to soak up fluids inside the corpse.

The soul was believed
to reside in the heart,

so this organ was kept inside the body.

The other organs were placed alongside.

All materials used during
the process were considered sacred,

so everything was packed
into jars and entombed close by.

So this is the one
that I'm going to start with,

and it was early on in the mummification
process, because it's really hard

and it's absorbed a lot of
the liquids, the bodily juices,

and it's been smushed down,

and you can see its different
points of contact

with Ipi's body.

Ooh! Plumpy!

God, that's fat!

And this one smells
a bit different from the other one.

This smells more of body
and the other one smelt more of oil.

You know, if you look
at anything long enough,

you will kind of figure out what happens.

If forensic scientists can do it
for murders now,

we can do it for deaths a long time ago,

because that's just what
archaeology really is.

These materials
are some of the oldest

mummification deposits ever found.

The earlier we can go in time,

the better it is for us to try and track

how mummification changed over time.

So really, these are testaments,
very physical testaments,

to what happened and how.

Three hundred miles north in Giza...

♪ ♪

here, in the shadow of the pyramids,

a team of investigators are in pursuit

of modern-day tomb robbers.

Shaaban Abdel-Gawad is
a government minister.

He works with crime agencies
around the world

to locate stolen
ancient Egyptian treasures.

This is an
Egyptian red list of the missing pieces

we are already missing from museums,
sites and everywhere in Egypt,

and we give it to Interpol
to stop any pieces

if they're moving from
a country to a country.

Shaaban has already intercepted

over 1,000 stolen artifacts
from the global black market.

For me, I don't care if it's
a king or a queen or a normal person.

We want to preserve them.
We don't want to miss any piece of them.

After a year-long operation,

ancient mummy parts have been seized
in the United States.

I had a call from
Homeland Security, they told me that

they caught a man
with three parts of the mummy.

He wants to sell them
at the market in Manhattan.

We discovered that these pieces

were stolen from
the Valley of the Kings in 1927.

In the 1900s, thieves stole
thousands of newly unearthed artifacts

from the Valley of the Kings,
including human remains.

It's touched my heart

because I considered
this man left his country,

his tomb for 91 years.

It's like my grandfather

or like my father that left his country

not by his sake, it was stolen.

Could these stolen artifacts

be the mummified parts
of one of Egypt's great pharaohs?

Shaaban is on his way
to the Egyptian Museum,

where the illegal artifacts are arriving
from the United States.

It's not everyday we can receive

pieces that we repatriate
from outside Egypt.

♪ ♪

Who the parts belong to is a mystery.

Mummification was usually reserved
for nobility and pharaohs.

We're going to the lab.

Shaaban and his team will finally see

these extraordinary relics up close.

This is the most important
moment in this journey.

These parts of the mummy came
from the Valley of the Kings,

so maybe it belongs to a king or a queen.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Finally home,
can forensic analysis reveal

exactly who the hands
and this head belong to?

♪ ♪

In the Valley of the Kings,

Don and the local workers are starting
their day with a team ritual.

One of our workers, his wife,
she started making cakes for us,

so he got the nickname Abu Cake.

Yeah, take the whole thing.

Don't be shy. You know it's good.

A lot of times we start with tea and cake,
and then we get right to work.

Today, Don is visiting

one of the largest and most
spectacular sites in the Valley...

tomb number 11.

After his discovery of a ring
that could belong to a pharaoh,

he's hoping to verify his inscription.

We're in the tomb of Ramses III,

perhaps the last great pharaoh
of Egypt's age of empire,

and, of course, he's entitled
to a special and beautiful tomb

in the Valley of the Kings.

So he was obviously very
powerful, he was a great warrior.

This magnificent, well-preserved temple

shows him just causing havoc
on foreign invaders

and anyone else who gets in his way.

Each pharaoh had
their own name and insignia

called a cartouche.

It was a key part of tomb decoration,

found on walls, the coffin,
and precious artifacts, like rings.

In front of me, we have
a depiction of his names.

We have a seated figure
of the goddess Ma'at.

On the right, we have the sign
for Usar, or powerful,

and then a sun disc, up here, for Ra.

This is a blown-up image of the ring
we encountered in tomb 49.

By looking at the hieroglyphs on the ring,

you know, it's essentially identical.

Ramses III was a warrior,

famed for battling Libya
and other neighbors

trying to invade Egypt.

But his wars drained
the state of its wealth,

and in an argument over
which son would inherit the throne,

Ramses was murdered.

Some believe his wife plotted
to have him killed.

His burial and tomb were lavish.

Golden amulets and jewelry
would have been placed

in every layer of his mummy wrappings.

But Ramses fell foul of tomb raiders,

and like many other pharaohs,
the mummies were stolen, unwrapped,

and stripped of their treasures.

This tomb is just across
the way from tomb 49.

I find it interesting that we... we find
a ring of Ramses III inside tomb 49.

Maybe that ring dropped off a mummy,

it could've been dropped by tomb robbers.

So we can start with an interesting idea

and then see where the evidence takes us.

Don's challenge now is to find out

why a ring with Ramses III's name on it

was found in the rubble
of the mysterious tomb 49.

At Deir el-Bahari,

Antonio and his team
have been working to uncover

a secret entrance found close to the tomb

of a pharaoh's right-hand man,
a vizier called Ipi.

It could be a chamber built
to hide treasures,

or even a body, from thieves.

♪ ♪

After two days of digging,

for the first time
in possibly 4,000 years,

the entrance is finally clear.

I will have a look now.

♪ ♪

Oh, yeah.

♪ ♪

Well, it's perfectly empty.

There's nothing in there.

Just a magnificent,
rectangular, empty space.

So how was that?

Well, it probably
had been dug for a burial,

and it can fit for a small coffin,

also funeral materials.

Anyway.

Of course this means that robbers,
tomb robbers actually was ahead,

and they took whatever was there.

The team remove all the rubble

to verify the chamber has been
completely stripped.

So we would like to find things
in the way they were constructed,

but all these robberies and plundering

somehow tell us a lot
about the rest of the process.

All they can do now
is number the tomb

and map its location.

Disappointment should
not be a scientific thing.

It's a, you know, it's human feelings,

and of course sometimes you feel it,

but you have to live with them.

On the other side of the site,

Ipi's mummification jars
are proving more rewarding.

- Hello, Salima.
- Hey, Antonio.

One jar in particular contains
something extremely unusual.

So I brought you this organ.

Oh!

We can see this is quite
a well-preserved heart.

You can see the different chambers,

and here you can just see
this very nice, reddish resin.

And this sort of red/gold color
is important,

because people used to use resin
not just because it deodorizes,

disinfects, inhibits bacteria,
and smells nice...

When you're a corpse
it's good to smell nice...

But also because it gives you this color,

and when you're being mummified,
you're being transformed

from a human being into
a divine being whose flesh is of gold.

Found in the embalming jars,

the heart almost certainly belongs to Ipi.

It's sort of amazing
to actually be holding Ipi's heart.

But I mean, also you think,
Oh, my God, what is it doing here?

Because it should be with Ipi,
wherever he might be.

The ancient Egyptians
believed the heart contained the soul

and was vital in the afterlife.

So it's amazing.

To find one separated
from its mummy is extremely rare.

This is the only mummified heart
that I have ever seen.

Perhaps the embalmers made a mistake

and thought that it was
one of the natron bags...

- Yeah. I think they messed up.
- To be put into the jars.

We just hope that poor Ipi

is not having a problem in the hereafter,

because he's lacking this very key organ.

We have been
studying the vizier Ipi

from the historical point of view,

and suddenly now you see yourself

having the heart of, of this vizier.

It's kind of impossible
to imagine being so close

to someone that you have been
studying for so many years.

For me this is the best job ever.

The adventure of having to deal
with so many new questions every day,

so many new decisions,
new findings, exciting ideas

makes this job incredibly interesting,

much more than
any other thing in the world.

♪ ♪

At tomb 49,

Don's discovery of what
might be a great pharaoh's ring

has caught the attention
of the authorities.

The director of the wider area here...

It's a very,
very important position to have...

He wants to take a look at that ring

with the name of Ramses III.

The chief inspector of the Valley

assesses the progress
of the excavations on-site.

Bust out the jewelry box.

Here it is.

He has the power
to take over the dig at any time.

♪ ♪

Any relics found
in the Valley of the Kings

belong to the government
and must be verified and cataloged

according to strict rules.

DR. - Shukran.

Congratulations.

The inspector gives his seal of approval.

- Okay. Thank you.
- You're very welcome.

- Thanks for coming out.
- Bye-bye.

The Egyptian authorities seem to
be quite excited by, by the whole thing.

I think he was impressed.

So that's always good.

For the ring,
really it is, it's amazing,

because, you know,
the most important for us

is continuing the name of Ramses III.

♪ ♪

The ring is a major discovery,

likely to end up in a museum.

But for Don the question still remains,

how did Pharaoh Ramses III's
ring end up in tomb 49?

One theory is that it was
accidentally dropped there by robbers,

and the ring isn't
the only thing they left behind.

One of the things
that makes this particular tomb

very special is that above its doorway,

we have two examples of ancient graffiti.

It's written in red,

in a cursive form of, of hieroglyphs.

And the graffiti talks about
there being very fine linen

and linen shawls being stored
in this particular tomb.

The graffiti is actually a list of items

commonly used to wrap mummies,
and it's signed.

There's a prominent name mentioned,

a fellow named Butehamun.

Could there be a link
between Butehamun's list of materials...

and Ramses III's ring?

Helping to discover
how they might be linked

are Professor John
and Dr. Colleen Darnell.

They've studied Butehamun's letters
and inscriptions for decades.

Rock inscriptions
are probably about as close

as you can get to the mind of
an ancient Egyptian thinking,

"What do I want people to think about me?

How do I want to present myself?"

Today, they're on their way
to Butehamun's house,

a temple complex called Medinet Habu.

To visit temples that
I read about when I was a five-year-old

and to go back and be able
to know what everything says

and the historical interrelationships

is just truly a dream come true.

♪ ♪

It's one of the most intricately
inscribed sites of ancient Egypt.

It should reveal more about Butehamun,
a high-ranking scribe

who oversaw the Valley of the Kings.

Where is the title that we needed?

Oh, wait, there's a "Ma-ah."

It's great to see, Bu-tehey-amun.

So I think this is
"overseer of the treasury."

But there is no treasury as such,

there's no treasury building.

Of course, he is overseeing the greatest
treasures of New Kingdom Egypt,

he's in charge of
the Valley of the Kings.

Letters have also
survived which give more detail

about Butehamun's role in the Valley.

One of the really most
important bits of direct information

is this letter saying,
"Get together a team."

- Mm-hmm.
- Of whom Butehamun is one,

and they're basically told
they have to carry out this commission.

And the really important part here,

it says, "Open one of the tombs,"

and that's interesting,
because this is something

then apparently it's,
it's like a special mission.

The letters and inscriptions reveal

that 80 years after
the death of Ramses III,

Butehamun was given the official role

of protecting the Valley from robbers.

In reality, he was secretly
ordered to loot the tombs

of long-dead pharaohs like Ramses.

One by one, he opened them up,

taking any treasure to restore
the wealth of Egypt.

He even unwrapped the pharaohs'
mummified bodies,

taking the gold and jewels
hidden in the bandages.

But Butehamun still respected
the pharaohs,

so he re-wrapped them in new linen

so they would remain intact
for the afterlife.

Royal tombs are not robbed
by random robbers,

they're opened systematically
by people like Butehamun.

They're basically doing
something for the state

before actual robbers do it.

For decades, the real source
of wealth of the state

is probably to a great extent

what Butehamun and his associates

are bringing out of
the earlier royal tomb.

Did Butehamun drop Ramses III's ring

while carrying out state-sanctioned
robbery in tomb 49?

In Cairo, the Egyptian authorities

are battling modern-day tomb robbers.

Stolen mummy parts intercepted,
on the international black market,

have been returned
to the Egyptian Museum.

Thought to be from
the Valley of the Kings,

could these be the mummified
remains of a great pharaoh?

Good morning.

Good morning.

As Egypt's foremost mummification expert,

Professor Salima Ikram has come
to analyze the remains.

It is always exciting to meet
another ancient Egyptian,

even in bits and pieces.

How fabulous!

Oh!

Well, this is just a child's hand.

But look at those little rings.

The people who were robbing mummies,
what they did was

they would cut off pieces,
because it was easier to sell to tourists,

and hands were really very, very popular

because often they had rings on them.

Give it to me here on the end,
the last hand here.

Oh, wow!

Okay, this, this is
clearly the hand of an adult,

but what's extraordinary is
that it's missing some of its digits.

But even so, there's a ring.

A blue ring is clearly visible

through the mummy wrappings.

Oh, wow!

But could this be a pharaoh's head?

The methods used for mummification
changed over time.

Salima is hoping to find clues

that will help her date these remains.

Oh, look!
I think you can see its hair!

Look. Right there's the hair.

So there's hair here, and hair here.

That means it's a man?

- Yes, it's a man.
- How old?

How old? Good question.

There, there's gold, and here.

Salima has spotted small flecks of gold

all over the head,
in particular around the eyes.

This is a Roman-period
mummy because it's gilded.

During Roman times,
the bodies of important individuals

were often coated with gold leaf,

but at this time the Valley of the Kings

was no longer used as a burial site.

So this means, it's unlikely
that it's from the Valley of the Kings.

Dealers would want to make up a good story
that would hike up the price,

and so the Valley of the Kings,
of course, is a pedigree

that most people would jump on.

He may not be a pharaoh,

but such liberal application of gold

would've been reserved
for someone extremely wealthy.

These three pieces,
I don't think any of them are related

in terms of belonging to the same body.

But still they're mummies,

so they can teach us
about mummification,

the history of robbery,

and the, you know, their own life history.

So they're really very important pieces.

For Shaaban,
from the Ministry of Antiquities,

it's a rare victory over the tomb robbers.

It's very important for us

that we recover
all the information for the history.

This is very important that
we will add some information

to the history of Egypt and
the history of the whole world.

This is an unbelievable feeling.

♪ ♪

In the Valley of the Kings,

Don Ryan is assessing
all the discoveries

excavated from tomb 49.

He has an incredible new story
for this tomb.

We're almost done.

I would describe our season as unexpected.

You have this chamber
that we sifted through every bit of it,

and we, we found some interesting things.

This tomb, it was robbed
like all the other ones

and at a later point
put to some other use.

Don's finds
of the mummy wrappings

and Ramses III's ring,

combined with the graffiti
outside the door,

suggest that this tomb could have
played a central role

in a state-sanctioned criminal plot.

In here, Butehamun
unwrapped royal mummies

and stole the jewels hidden
inside their bandages.

Some treasures, like Ramses III's ring,

accidentally left behind.

All these little tombs,
they're full of fascinating things,

and when you put it all together,

this place truly is amazing.

Archaeology in the Valley of the Kings is
by no means over.

Just when you think it might be, it isn't.

Captioned by Point.360