Think of ancient Egypt and the
first things that probably come to your mind are buried treasures, curses, and
'The Mummy' (whether that is the Brendan Fraser or the Tom Cruise version
probably depends on how old you are). Nevertheless, unless you are someone who
is extremely interested in the subject and well-versed, whatever comes to your
mind is potentially offensive.
This comes from a principle known as
orientalism.
The word was coined by the late Palestinian-American philosopher,
Edward Said, to describe how Westerners would often exoticize the Middle East
and Asia -- for instance, think of 'Aladdin' (both the original and the remake
are guilty of being orientalist) or even, 'The Mummy'.
It is not often you see a
documentary on Egyptology that does not involve an offensive outtake, but with
Netflix's latest documentary, 'Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb', you can expect
something completely different.
For one thing, almost everyone featured in the
documentary is Egyptian -- as one archaeologist says, because they are looking
at the stories of their own ancestors, they have a different perspective than
those coming from outside.
That difference is something you can see and feel
throughout the documentary. As the excavations and the artifacts are shown, not
once do these people forget that they are handling the remains of people who
were once living and the experts featured treat everything with the utmost
respect.
'Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb'
is also very emotional -- and it is quite unexpected for a documentary that
features many shots of just people digging through sand. We meet many people
who work on the Saqqara excavations, including archaeologists Hamada Mansour
and Mohammed Mohammed Yousef, and digger Ghereeb.
In the nearly 120-minute long
documentary, we learn just as much about the story of these people as we learn
about Wahtye, the ancient Egyptian priest who is the focus of the dig at the
ancient burial ground.
At one point, as Hamada is
excavating in a shaft as others carefully look on, he accidentally disturbs the
wooden coffin, and as the pieces of wood fall, so does your heart.
The
unraveling of Wahtye's story is just as intense as the anticipation with which
the dig proceeds -- they need to find something substantial before the budget
runs out for the season so they can extend it to another season.
The
documentary is filled with incredible finds -- like the first mummified lion
ever found (a lion cub), and a statue for which its three broken parts were
found separately in separate seasons.
Another fascinating aspect of
the documentary is the presence of women among the men who are digging through
the tombs of ancient Egypt.
Three of the experts featured in the documentary
are women -- the hieroglyphics expert Nermeen, the anthropologist and
rheumatology expert, Amira Shaheen, and funerary archaeologist and
archaeozoologist, Salima Ikram.
All three women do an incredible job of piecing
together a story from thousands of years ago, just from the bones and objects
they find.
There is, of course, one thing
that stays with the viewer long after you've watched 'Secrets of Saqqara Tomb'.
Hamada says that the Bubasteion Necropolis at Saqqara is strange because it
does not give the archaeologists what they are expecting -- and "that's a
wonderful thing." He says this twice, the second time comes when just as
the men are cleaning up everything as the budget runs out, they discover
something extraordinary.
You would not expect a documentary on archaeology and
history to bring tears to your eyes in the end, but that is exactly what
'Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb' does.
'Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb'
is now streaming on Netflix.
