1 00:00:05,340 --> 00:00:11,020 I'm in Dorset, seeking a little bit of Egypt in the English countryside. 2 00:00:11,020 --> 00:00:12,660 SHEEP BLEAT 3 00:00:14,500 --> 00:00:17,220 It seems unlikely, but this is where I had my 4 00:00:17,220 --> 00:00:20,860 first taste of the magical and exotic world of Ancient Egypt. 5 00:00:20,860 --> 00:00:23,460 I remember first coming here to Kingston Lacy with my family 6 00:00:23,460 --> 00:00:26,180 when I was a child, and I was fascinated 7 00:00:26,180 --> 00:00:28,220 - like millions of others - by what I found. 8 00:00:40,780 --> 00:00:44,540 This pink granite obelisk is well over 2,000 years old, 9 00:00:44,540 --> 00:00:46,660 and today it's spotted with lichen and moss 10 00:00:46,660 --> 00:00:49,380 as a result of the damp English climate. 11 00:00:49,380 --> 00:00:52,700 But it once stood in front of the sun-baked Temple of Isis 12 00:00:52,700 --> 00:00:55,340 on the island of Philae in southern Egypt, 13 00:00:55,340 --> 00:00:57,460 where in 1815 it caught the eye of 14 00:00:57,460 --> 00:01:00,340 the owner of Kingston Lacy, William Bankes. 15 00:01:00,340 --> 00:01:03,660 He was a traveller, he was an amateur archaeologist, 16 00:01:03,660 --> 00:01:07,460 an aesthete and a connoisseur, and he spent years endeavouring to 17 00:01:07,460 --> 00:01:10,140 bring this obelisk from Egypt to his Dorset lawn. 18 00:01:15,380 --> 00:01:18,900 As well as the obelisk, Bankes amassed the 19 00:01:18,900 --> 00:01:21,620 largest private collection of Egyptian art in Britain. 20 00:01:27,740 --> 00:01:30,260 Most of the Egyptian antiquities that Bankes collected 21 00:01:30,260 --> 00:01:35,180 are on display here in the billiards room, but I suspect that most people 22 00:01:35,180 --> 00:01:39,300 would consider these objects more as curious artefacts than works of art. 23 00:01:39,300 --> 00:01:41,540 And it's true that the ancient Egyptians didn't have 24 00:01:41,540 --> 00:01:44,700 a word for "art", but they didn't have a word for religion either, 25 00:01:44,700 --> 00:01:48,100 and they are among the most religious peoples in history. 26 00:01:54,540 --> 00:01:57,140 This enormous tome is the first volume of 27 00:01:57,140 --> 00:02:01,260 The Description of Egypt, which began to appear in 1809. 28 00:02:01,260 --> 00:02:03,180 And it is beautiful! 29 00:02:03,180 --> 00:02:06,820 It's filled with hand-coloured illustrations and maps, 30 00:02:06,820 --> 00:02:10,220 and these crisp, really immaculate engravings that record 31 00:02:10,220 --> 00:02:11,700 the monuments of Ancient Egypt. 32 00:02:12,980 --> 00:02:17,020 You can readily understand why William Bankes became so besotted 33 00:02:17,020 --> 00:02:20,620 as he sat in this very library and leafed through these pages. 34 00:02:26,580 --> 00:02:30,540 I want to follow in the footsteps of Bankes and his contemporaries 35 00:02:30,540 --> 00:02:33,420 and explore Ancient Egypt for myself. 36 00:02:36,620 --> 00:02:39,940 In this series, over three programmes 37 00:02:39,940 --> 00:02:42,100 I'll travel the length of the country... 38 00:02:43,580 --> 00:02:46,060 ..in search of 30 treasures that 39 00:02:46,060 --> 00:02:49,700 tell the bewitching story of Egyptian art. 40 00:02:54,100 --> 00:02:56,900 But above all, I want to look at the treasures of Egypt, 41 00:02:56,900 --> 00:02:59,020 not through the eyes of an archaeologist, 42 00:02:59,020 --> 00:03:01,020 but through the eyes of an art lover. 43 00:03:34,460 --> 00:03:37,700 My adventure begins deep in the Sahara, where I'm 44 00:03:37,700 --> 00:03:40,260 searching for the very earliest Egyptian art. 45 00:03:43,380 --> 00:03:45,780 The origins of the indomitable style 46 00:03:45,780 --> 00:03:48,860 that would define this greatest of ancient civilisations. 47 00:03:58,980 --> 00:04:01,980 So I've driven right out into the Western Desert, 48 00:04:01,980 --> 00:04:04,540 which is this exhilarating landscape 49 00:04:04,540 --> 00:04:07,980 and it's part of the Sahara which basically stretches on 50 00:04:07,980 --> 00:04:11,780 unbroken to the Atlantic, thousands of miles away, 51 00:04:11,780 --> 00:04:13,940 and this must be easily the most remote place 52 00:04:13,940 --> 00:04:16,020 I have ever come to see a work of art. 53 00:04:19,020 --> 00:04:21,300 In fact, right here. 54 00:04:21,300 --> 00:04:24,340 We've made it. Excellent. 55 00:04:25,620 --> 00:04:28,860 'My guide is artist and archaeologist John O'Carroll.' 56 00:04:32,260 --> 00:04:34,140 Well, this is our first site, John, 57 00:04:34,140 --> 00:04:37,620 and you were saying in the car that this is known as the Gallery. 58 00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:42,020 The Gallery, it's a superb piece of Neolithic rock art. 59 00:04:47,700 --> 00:04:53,020 It's a procession of four women - three of them pregnant - 60 00:04:53,020 --> 00:04:58,420 leading about six giraffes. A wonderful piece of art. 61 00:05:00,900 --> 00:05:05,380 And when does it date from? It dates from, I would say 6-7000BC, 62 00:05:05,380 --> 00:05:07,780 it was a culture called the Bashendi Culture. 63 00:05:09,020 --> 00:05:13,380 So what can this tell us about the society that produced it? 64 00:05:13,380 --> 00:05:15,940 It's their stamp, and we're looking at a window 65 00:05:15,940 --> 00:05:17,940 to the mind of these Bashendi people, 66 00:05:17,940 --> 00:05:22,980 which is quite marvellous. And in this piece you get a wonderful sense 67 00:05:22,980 --> 00:05:27,380 of movement, a processional way, with the women, with the giraffes. 68 00:05:28,780 --> 00:05:32,460 The giraffe was a highly effective totem as a rain god. 69 00:05:32,460 --> 00:05:36,060 It was tall, it was touching the sky, 70 00:05:36,060 --> 00:05:41,820 so to harness that type of animal was to harness nature in a sense. 71 00:05:41,820 --> 00:05:44,820 I might try and scramble up to have a look at this giraffe, 72 00:05:44,820 --> 00:05:46,740 if you think I'm not going to kill myself. 73 00:05:52,860 --> 00:05:55,060 I guess the first thing that strikes me coming up here 74 00:05:55,060 --> 00:05:59,620 is the simplicity but effectiveness of just using 75 00:05:59,620 --> 00:06:03,420 incision in the rock to catch the sunlight. That creates the outline. 76 00:06:04,660 --> 00:06:09,980 The way it's been conveyed is in quite, almost geometric, abstract, rectilinear fashion 77 00:06:09,980 --> 00:06:11,900 - these are straight lines, right angles. 78 00:06:11,900 --> 00:06:17,340 This is quite a Mondrian... Yes! ..a Mondrian prehistoric piece. 79 00:06:17,340 --> 00:06:21,140 And elsewhere this dotted, stippled effect, 80 00:06:21,140 --> 00:06:24,660 as though trying to imitate the skin or the hide of the giraffe. 81 00:06:24,660 --> 00:06:28,020 It's a very good device for that, simple but effective. 82 00:06:31,700 --> 00:06:34,540 'What's revealing is how the art and beliefs of the 83 00:06:34,540 --> 00:06:38,140 'early Egyptians were so entwined with animals and the natural world.' 84 00:06:44,340 --> 00:06:47,460 Now, John is taking me up a pyramid-shaped hill to show me 85 00:06:47,460 --> 00:06:49,060 his favourite petroglyphs. 86 00:06:51,980 --> 00:06:53,860 Phew! 87 00:06:53,860 --> 00:06:54,940 Aha! 88 00:06:56,900 --> 00:06:58,580 There we are. 89 00:06:58,580 --> 00:07:00,700 And here we are at what we call the Altar. 90 00:07:02,900 --> 00:07:05,460 What an extraordinary setting. 91 00:07:05,460 --> 00:07:07,060 So this is the altar stone. 92 00:07:07,060 --> 00:07:13,140 It's at an angle, and has four lovely Bashendi ladies on it, 93 00:07:13,140 --> 00:07:16,100 dancing for us. ALASTAIR LAUGHS 94 00:07:16,100 --> 00:07:18,700 With highly-decorated costume. 95 00:07:18,700 --> 00:07:24,260 So we've got several different women, so here's clearly one, 96 00:07:24,260 --> 00:07:27,980 and here are another two, facing each other, or next to each other. 97 00:07:27,980 --> 00:07:33,540 Facing each other with a head, breasts and torso. 98 00:07:33,540 --> 00:07:36,300 What about thinking of classic later Egyptian reliefs, 99 00:07:36,300 --> 00:07:39,820 tomb paintings, where you see people, they look very different, 100 00:07:39,820 --> 00:07:41,420 but in a sense the structure, 101 00:07:41,420 --> 00:07:44,540 the way of representing them, is similar. 102 00:07:44,540 --> 00:07:48,460 You have this - frontal, the torso, 103 00:07:48,460 --> 00:07:50,700 but then the lower half in profile, 104 00:07:50,700 --> 00:07:52,700 as though perhaps walking in one direction. 105 00:07:52,700 --> 00:07:55,580 I believe there is some connection, there is a connection. 106 00:07:55,580 --> 00:08:02,020 These early people brought their artistic...developments with them, 107 00:08:02,020 --> 00:08:06,860 and artistic sense, and sense of stylisation. 108 00:08:06,860 --> 00:08:10,220 So here, in a sense, we really have the origins of 109 00:08:10,220 --> 00:08:14,340 Ancient Egyptian art, in this quite windy, but sacred spot. 110 00:08:14,340 --> 00:08:17,340 Windy, sacred, but I do believe, I think you're correct. 111 00:08:25,460 --> 00:08:28,940 Before we embark on the story of Egyptian art, 112 00:08:28,940 --> 00:08:31,940 I'm going to map out the journey ahead of us in the sand. 113 00:08:33,980 --> 00:08:36,580 I'll begin... 114 00:08:36,580 --> 00:08:40,060 with prehistory - 7000BC. 115 00:08:40,060 --> 00:08:42,100 The era of the petroglyphs. 116 00:08:42,100 --> 00:08:44,220 Now I'm going to walk the history out 117 00:08:44,220 --> 00:08:46,140 so that every step will be 100 years. 118 00:08:48,180 --> 00:08:49,460 5000BC. 119 00:08:53,180 --> 00:08:59,500 Then finally, 4000BC. This is known as the Naqada Period... 120 00:08:59,500 --> 00:09:03,140 'When painted pottery sowed the seeds for an artistic style.' 121 00:09:04,460 --> 00:09:08,860 Around about 1,000 years later, we have the beginnings of 122 00:09:08,860 --> 00:09:12,980 Ancient Egypt proper, as we know it. The First Dynasty comes to power. 123 00:09:12,980 --> 00:09:17,340 And 500 years after that, 2500 BC around about, 124 00:09:17,340 --> 00:09:19,180 we arrive at... 125 00:09:19,180 --> 00:09:21,460 the Old Kingdom. 126 00:09:21,460 --> 00:09:24,020 'The age of the great pharaohs who built the pyramids at Giza.' 127 00:09:26,780 --> 00:09:30,900 500 years that kingdom lasts, give or take, 128 00:09:30,900 --> 00:09:33,460 and then the emergence of the Middle Kingdom. 129 00:09:34,700 --> 00:09:38,700 'A period of tough-as-nails leaders and no-nonsense art.' 130 00:09:39,860 --> 00:09:41,860 Lasts for another 500 years or so. 131 00:09:43,580 --> 00:09:47,660 And then the New Kingdom emerges, around about 1500 BC. 132 00:09:47,660 --> 00:09:49,940 'The great golden age of Egyptian culture.' 133 00:09:53,700 --> 00:09:55,660 That lasts for another few hundred years... 134 00:09:57,580 --> 00:10:02,140 ..until the final millennium, the so-called Late Period. 135 00:10:03,460 --> 00:10:06,420 'Egypt declines, but its art flourishes' 136 00:10:09,060 --> 00:10:13,740 And then in 332 BC, Alexander the Great invades. 137 00:10:15,500 --> 00:10:21,860 Known as the Ptolemaic Dynasties, they continue for about 300 years... 138 00:10:21,860 --> 00:10:27,620 until 30 BC, when Egypt is invaded by Rome. 139 00:10:30,220 --> 00:10:33,020 And that's the end of the Ancient Egyptian world. 140 00:10:35,060 --> 00:10:37,300 So when you look back down you get a sense 141 00:10:37,300 --> 00:10:39,820 - first of all of the great scope of what we are talking about - 142 00:10:39,820 --> 00:10:44,180 but secondly, that Ancient Egypt dominates for thousands of years. 143 00:10:51,300 --> 00:10:54,060 Ssh. Ssh. 144 00:10:54,060 --> 00:10:57,860 The first great turning point in this sprawling history came when 145 00:10:57,860 --> 00:11:01,420 the early Egyptians were confronted with a natural disaster. 146 00:11:03,500 --> 00:11:06,420 Around about 6000BC, back in the Neolithic Period, 147 00:11:06,420 --> 00:11:09,420 the Western Desert was a completely different place. 148 00:11:09,420 --> 00:11:11,780 It was much more lush and verdant. HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE 149 00:11:11,780 --> 00:11:14,140 It was more like an African savanna, 150 00:11:14,140 --> 00:11:17,940 sprinkled with a few donkeys, lots of rhinoceroses, 151 00:11:17,940 --> 00:11:20,020 buffaloes, gazelles, giraffes. 152 00:11:20,020 --> 00:11:22,980 And there were reliable summer rains that fed lakes 153 00:11:22,980 --> 00:11:25,340 that were more than seven metres deep. 154 00:11:25,340 --> 00:11:28,060 Over time, though, all of the rains disappeared and the climate 155 00:11:28,060 --> 00:11:31,420 changed catastrophically. The wet grasslands dried up. 156 00:11:31,420 --> 00:11:33,340 Eventually, the people who lived here 157 00:11:33,340 --> 00:11:36,380 - the semi-nomadic cattle herders - were forced by these 158 00:11:36,380 --> 00:11:39,940 tough and arid conditions to leave altogether and head off 159 00:11:39,940 --> 00:11:42,420 in search of much more fertile plains 160 00:11:42,420 --> 00:11:43,900 and a sustainable source of water. 161 00:11:47,420 --> 00:11:50,020 They found it hundreds of miles to the east. 162 00:11:56,700 --> 00:11:58,060 The River Nile. 163 00:12:12,820 --> 00:12:14,860 "Egypt is the gift of the Nile." 164 00:12:14,860 --> 00:12:18,220 That's what the Greek writer Herodotus said, and it was 165 00:12:18,220 --> 00:12:21,700 a really elegant way of expressing a simple but essential truth, 166 00:12:21,700 --> 00:12:25,300 which is that the civilisation of Ancient Egypt simply would never 167 00:12:25,300 --> 00:12:28,340 have flourished - or even existed - if it wasn't for this 168 00:12:28,340 --> 00:12:30,860 vast, broad body of water, 169 00:12:30,860 --> 00:12:33,340 which the Egyptians called Iteru, or "The River". 170 00:12:34,980 --> 00:12:37,300 But the Nile also had a special, quite magical, 171 00:12:37,300 --> 00:12:39,580 almost miraculous quality. 172 00:12:39,580 --> 00:12:42,020 Every year, in late summer, 173 00:12:42,020 --> 00:12:46,780 flood waters roared down from the First Cataract, here, 174 00:12:46,780 --> 00:12:49,860 and inundated the valley on either side, covering the land 175 00:12:49,860 --> 00:12:55,620 with this thick black silt, very fertile, which aided agriculture. 176 00:12:55,620 --> 00:12:59,540 So for the Ancient Egyptians, the Nile meant fertility, 177 00:12:59,540 --> 00:13:02,660 it meant prosperity, but also symbolically, 178 00:13:02,660 --> 00:13:04,780 it meant rebirth and it meant life. 179 00:13:05,980 --> 00:13:09,860 And the Nile came to dominate and really shape the way that they 180 00:13:09,860 --> 00:13:12,300 thought about and also saw the world around them. 181 00:13:14,580 --> 00:13:18,180 So fittingly, my second treasure is a celebration of the Nile. 182 00:13:28,900 --> 00:13:32,460 The Naqada Pots were discovered in graves near the river bank... 183 00:13:33,660 --> 00:13:38,180 ..filled with food and drink to sustain the dead in the afterlife. 184 00:13:38,180 --> 00:13:42,340 They were decorated with images that would come to dominate Egyptian art. 185 00:13:45,580 --> 00:13:48,060 I've come to see a collection excavated by 186 00:13:48,060 --> 00:13:52,460 "The Father of Pots" - Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie. 187 00:13:55,780 --> 00:13:58,980 It's quite startling to think that these pots, some of them, 188 00:13:58,980 --> 00:14:02,260 are 6,000 years old. 189 00:14:02,260 --> 00:14:05,420 The majority of it is red, representing the barren soil 190 00:14:05,420 --> 00:14:08,420 of the desert, but the black stands in for the Nile, 191 00:14:08,420 --> 00:14:13,380 for the irrigated fertile earth after the flood waters have receded. 192 00:14:13,380 --> 00:14:17,220 And then as time goes by, you see - from an aesthetic point of view - 193 00:14:17,220 --> 00:14:20,460 artistic development, as people come in, 194 00:14:20,460 --> 00:14:21,940 change the forms of the pots, 195 00:14:22,180 --> 00:14:25,380 add these handles and include these designs. 196 00:14:25,380 --> 00:14:28,580 Some of them, like these spirals, geometric designs, 197 00:14:28,580 --> 00:14:32,780 but occasionally you found pots like these, decorated with animals. 198 00:14:32,780 --> 00:14:35,220 You can see flamingos, you can see gazelles, 199 00:14:35,220 --> 00:14:37,580 and these triangular shapes a bit like pyramids, 200 00:14:37,580 --> 00:14:40,300 like those natural forms that I found in the desert. 201 00:14:40,300 --> 00:14:42,980 But above all, the biggest motif you found 202 00:14:42,980 --> 00:14:45,500 on these Naqada Pots was the boat. 203 00:14:46,780 --> 00:14:51,220 The boat had symbolic importance because it helped take 204 00:14:51,220 --> 00:14:54,300 the deceased from this life into the realm of the afterlife. 205 00:14:55,380 --> 00:14:58,500 So what you find in these late Naqada Pots are the beginnings, 206 00:14:58,500 --> 00:15:00,540 if you like, of Egyptian art proper. 207 00:15:00,540 --> 00:15:04,900 You find a delight in the natural world, a recognition of the 208 00:15:04,900 --> 00:15:08,740 primal, central importance of the river for this culture, 209 00:15:08,740 --> 00:15:13,060 and also a complex system of religious belief 210 00:15:13,060 --> 00:15:15,140 in which the afterlife would predominate. 211 00:15:27,180 --> 00:15:29,380 The pots were handcrafted with clay 212 00:15:29,380 --> 00:15:31,220 harvested from the banks of the Nile. 213 00:15:34,500 --> 00:15:38,260 And the pigments used to paint them were collected from the landscape. 214 00:15:39,660 --> 00:15:43,340 John O'Carroll knows where to find these pigments. 215 00:15:43,340 --> 00:15:47,060 Some almost greys as well, which are quite lovely. 216 00:15:47,060 --> 00:15:50,700 It's really vivid when you break it up... It's quite vivid, yeah, it's quite beautiful. 217 00:15:50,700 --> 00:15:55,700 Ochres were the earliest pigment that mankind used, 218 00:15:55,700 --> 00:15:58,820 so it's in a way a sacred material. 219 00:16:00,020 --> 00:16:03,100 So is it just yellow we're looking for? 220 00:16:03,100 --> 00:16:05,540 Well, there are wonderful, sort of, red oxides. 221 00:16:05,540 --> 00:16:08,700 We're spoilt for choice. It's glorious, yeah. 222 00:16:08,700 --> 00:16:11,740 This is a lovely red. 223 00:16:13,540 --> 00:16:16,380 Oh, there we go. Look at that! 224 00:16:16,380 --> 00:16:19,100 Also known in Northern European culture as 225 00:16:19,100 --> 00:16:21,260 "The Sacred Blood of the Goddess". 226 00:16:27,020 --> 00:16:28,540 John prepares the pigment. 227 00:16:30,500 --> 00:16:33,100 Then you add gum arabic and you have 228 00:16:33,100 --> 00:16:36,660 a wonderful red, almost oxblood pigment, 229 00:16:36,660 --> 00:16:39,580 which you will use to paint the pot. 230 00:16:50,580 --> 00:16:54,260 We've got a typical Naqada scene here, it's a boat, a sickle boat. 231 00:16:57,980 --> 00:17:00,180 It's all beautifully decorative. 232 00:17:03,900 --> 00:17:05,900 And in all of the Naqada ware, 233 00:17:05,900 --> 00:17:11,620 this lovely, joyous fluidity of line and repetition 234 00:17:11,620 --> 00:17:15,020 occurs again and again, giving the pots life. 235 00:17:20,660 --> 00:17:23,420 We know that scale is important in Egyptian art 236 00:17:23,420 --> 00:17:26,300 - the bigger the person, the bigger deal they are, 237 00:17:26,300 --> 00:17:29,700 so clearly the woman has more status. Perhaps a goddess then. 238 00:17:31,860 --> 00:17:34,140 Often there's a man depicted next to her. 239 00:17:36,140 --> 00:17:38,660 The man is always shown in a smaller size. 240 00:17:38,660 --> 00:17:41,300 Sometimes he does have an erect penis, which I will put in here. 241 00:17:43,740 --> 00:17:46,140 There we are, just do a little one there. 242 00:17:47,300 --> 00:17:49,940 Do you think I might have a go? I think you should. 243 00:17:57,060 --> 00:18:00,140 What about these creatures above? Flamingos. Ah. 244 00:18:01,900 --> 00:18:04,180 That's not bad. Very flamingo-like, yes. 245 00:18:05,780 --> 00:18:09,860 Where do you feel that the pots stand in that history? 246 00:18:09,860 --> 00:18:11,260 How important are they? 247 00:18:11,260 --> 00:18:15,540 I think they're very good, they're joyous, bringing together nature 248 00:18:15,540 --> 00:18:20,060 and man in a fluid, harmonious way before it becomes formalised. 249 00:18:21,140 --> 00:18:25,140 And very important and pivotal to the art of Ancient Egypt, 250 00:18:25,140 --> 00:18:26,700 and indeed the world. 251 00:18:40,540 --> 00:18:44,220 'My first foray into the world of Egyptian art has taught me how, 252 00:18:44,220 --> 00:18:46,860 'from the earliest times, artists developed 253 00:18:46,860 --> 00:18:49,060 'a simple but powerful visual style.' 254 00:18:52,900 --> 00:18:56,860 It's so clear to me now that the Ancient Egyptians before the 255 00:18:56,860 --> 00:19:01,260 Dynastic Era were in tune with the natural world, 256 00:19:01,260 --> 00:19:04,700 and their imagination was dominated by these opposites, 257 00:19:04,700 --> 00:19:07,020 if you like, between life and death, 258 00:19:07,020 --> 00:19:10,500 our world and the next, the world of mortals, the world of gods. 259 00:19:11,740 --> 00:19:15,260 In fact, when you look at this stuff, you see all these motifs 260 00:19:15,260 --> 00:19:20,540 and themes which I'm sure form the matrix for later Egyptian art. 261 00:19:21,660 --> 00:19:25,180 And in a sense, it set the scene for my next treasure, 262 00:19:25,180 --> 00:19:29,220 because we're on the way to the first nation state 263 00:19:29,220 --> 00:19:35,140 in the world - a unified Egypt, the famous Dynastic Era of the pharaohs. 264 00:19:43,580 --> 00:19:46,580 Thanks to the abundant gifts of the Nile, 265 00:19:46,580 --> 00:19:50,900 by 3000 BC clusters of villages had grown into thriving kingdoms. 266 00:19:54,020 --> 00:19:57,620 The annual flood brought trade and prosperity, 267 00:19:57,620 --> 00:20:00,300 and half-a-million people lived alongside the river. 268 00:20:02,700 --> 00:20:06,500 My third treasure was discovered in the Nile Valley, 269 00:20:06,500 --> 00:20:10,660 close to an ancient fort in Nekhen - "The City of the Falcon". 270 00:20:23,540 --> 00:20:26,340 Now, I think you'll find this quite surprising, but this 271 00:20:26,340 --> 00:20:30,660 rather uninspiring plot of scrubland yielded one of the most important 272 00:20:30,660 --> 00:20:35,260 artistic and historical discoveries ever in 1897, 273 00:20:35,260 --> 00:20:39,180 when a couple of British archaeologists - Messrs Quibbel and Green - 274 00:20:39,180 --> 00:20:40,980 were scrabbling around in the dirt here 275 00:20:40,980 --> 00:20:43,220 excavating the ruins of the local temple. 276 00:20:43,220 --> 00:20:46,060 Now, to the untrained eye it doesn't look like anything much, 277 00:20:46,060 --> 00:20:50,740 I mean, today there's an old bottle, there's a flip-flop... 278 00:20:50,740 --> 00:20:53,220 And back at the end of the 19th century, Quibbel and Green 279 00:20:53,220 --> 00:20:57,060 weren't having much luck either. They found a mud brick wall, 280 00:20:57,060 --> 00:20:59,900 an earth mound faced with stone... 281 00:20:59,900 --> 00:21:02,500 nothing, UNTIL they started digging over here... 282 00:21:04,020 --> 00:21:08,180 ..and dug deep into a thick layer of clay. 283 00:21:08,180 --> 00:21:11,060 And as they dug, they started to discover 284 00:21:11,060 --> 00:21:13,700 what appeared to be treasures, 285 00:21:13,700 --> 00:21:16,140 things that looked like ritual objects, 286 00:21:16,140 --> 00:21:18,980 and one in particular caught their eye, 287 00:21:18,980 --> 00:21:22,300 and that piece - discovered in this very spot - 288 00:21:22,300 --> 00:21:25,460 proved to be nothing less than the foundation stone 289 00:21:25,460 --> 00:21:27,460 of Ancient Egyptian civilisation. 290 00:21:34,540 --> 00:21:36,060 CAR HORNS HONK 291 00:21:36,060 --> 00:21:39,260 To see it, I head north to the capital, Cairo. 292 00:21:41,100 --> 00:21:43,540 My treasure now resides in the Egyptian Museum. 293 00:21:46,340 --> 00:21:50,940 It's a potent memorial to the father of Egypt, King Narmer. 294 00:22:03,500 --> 00:22:06,300 People often talk about artists ripping up the rule book. 295 00:22:06,300 --> 00:22:09,180 Well, this is the rule book of Ancient Egyptian art. 296 00:22:09,180 --> 00:22:13,580 It's called the Narmer Palette, and it dates from around 3000BC. 297 00:22:13,580 --> 00:22:15,380 A palette was used for grinding paint, 298 00:22:15,380 --> 00:22:19,060 but this is a ceremonial, ritual version, and it commemorates 299 00:22:19,060 --> 00:22:23,540 probably a series of victories after which the state of Egypt 300 00:22:23,540 --> 00:22:27,020 - Upper and Lower Egypt - was unified into one. 301 00:22:27,020 --> 00:22:29,940 And it shows a king smiting his foe. 302 00:22:31,380 --> 00:22:33,820 But the reason I find this so interesting, the reason that 303 00:22:33,820 --> 00:22:37,980 Egyptologists get very excited about this, is because it contains 304 00:22:37,980 --> 00:22:42,260 in one piece a number of different elements and styles and approaches 305 00:22:42,260 --> 00:22:45,460 to representing the world that were essential to Egyptian art, 306 00:22:45,460 --> 00:22:47,340 and would be used time and time again 307 00:22:47,340 --> 00:22:50,380 for 3,000 years until the days of the Romans. 308 00:22:50,380 --> 00:22:54,460 The space has been organised into these different bands, or registers. 309 00:22:54,460 --> 00:22:58,260 There's the presentation of the human figure, which is typically, 310 00:22:58,260 --> 00:23:00,300 as we think of it, Ancient Egyptian. 311 00:23:00,300 --> 00:23:04,020 It's a composite view - you see a torso front-on, 312 00:23:04,020 --> 00:23:07,460 you see the legs to one side, the profile of the face 313 00:23:07,460 --> 00:23:11,100 and yet a single eye facing you frontal as well. 314 00:23:11,100 --> 00:23:13,540 There's the use of scale to indicate importance, 315 00:23:13,540 --> 00:23:16,500 so the king is far and away the biggest person on the palette, 316 00:23:16,500 --> 00:23:19,180 which means that he's the boss. 317 00:23:19,180 --> 00:23:21,660 And there's an interest in the natural world that you would 318 00:23:21,660 --> 00:23:23,980 see again and again in Egyptian art. 319 00:23:23,980 --> 00:23:27,540 There's the god, a falcon, Horus. 320 00:23:27,540 --> 00:23:31,420 Up above you've got a protective cow goddess called Bat, 321 00:23:31,420 --> 00:23:34,420 and on the other side you see the king again 322 00:23:34,420 --> 00:23:36,740 in the form of a bull attacking a fortified town. 323 00:23:38,220 --> 00:23:42,420 All of these things became essential components of Egyptian art. 324 00:23:42,420 --> 00:23:46,700 The system that was created here would last for thousands of years. 325 00:23:46,700 --> 00:23:50,700 It's like a tablet incised with the commandments of Egyptian art. 326 00:23:57,820 --> 00:24:00,540 In the centuries after King Narmer laid down the rules 327 00:24:00,540 --> 00:24:04,020 of Egyptian art, the country he unified 328 00:24:04,020 --> 00:24:06,900 went from strength to strength, 329 00:24:06,900 --> 00:24:10,180 and the Ancient Egypt we know today began to take shape. 330 00:24:14,260 --> 00:24:18,540 Perhaps no visual form says Ancient Egypt quite as memorably 331 00:24:18,540 --> 00:24:22,060 and immediately as the pyramid, and here at Saqqara 332 00:24:22,060 --> 00:24:25,860 there's a whole cluster of pyramids that still dominate the skyline 333 00:24:25,860 --> 00:24:28,980 and communicate the thrilling power of the kings that built them. 334 00:24:28,980 --> 00:24:32,180 But the earliest pyramid of all was this one here, 335 00:24:32,180 --> 00:24:35,740 the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, which was built to mark the tomb 336 00:24:35,740 --> 00:24:39,820 and funerary enclosure of Djoser, the first king of the Third Dynasty. 337 00:24:39,820 --> 00:24:42,500 And in doing so he ushered in the Pyramid Age, 338 00:24:42,500 --> 00:24:44,180 when three royal brothers 339 00:24:44,180 --> 00:24:47,380 produced my next three very distinctive treasures. 340 00:24:56,540 --> 00:25:00,980 These three treasures herald the coming of age of Egyptian art. 341 00:25:00,980 --> 00:25:03,620 The first was discovered to the south of Saqqara, 342 00:25:03,620 --> 00:25:05,380 at the ancient site of Meidum. 343 00:25:09,740 --> 00:25:13,220 The father of the three brothers is thought to be Sneferu, 344 00:25:13,220 --> 00:25:15,220 the first pharaoh of the Old Kingdom. 345 00:25:19,780 --> 00:25:24,140 Sneferu completed this imposing pyramid, but my next treasure 346 00:25:24,140 --> 00:25:28,700 was found in his son's more modest mud mastaba tomb nearby. 347 00:25:30,820 --> 00:25:34,700 In 1871, the great French archaeologist Auguste Mariette 348 00:25:34,700 --> 00:25:38,660 was excavating here, and when his team of Egyptian workers 349 00:25:38,660 --> 00:25:40,740 opened up this tomb beneath me 350 00:25:40,740 --> 00:25:43,140 and shone their lanterns into the darkness, 351 00:25:43,140 --> 00:25:46,020 they suddenly saw four eyes staring back at them, 352 00:25:46,020 --> 00:25:47,740 and they fled in terror because 353 00:25:47,740 --> 00:25:50,860 they had just come face-to-face with their Ancient Egyptian ancestors, 354 00:25:50,860 --> 00:25:53,340 who appeared to be alive more than 4,000 years 355 00:25:53,340 --> 00:25:54,740 after they were buried here. 356 00:26:00,260 --> 00:26:03,580 The extraordinary work of art they finally dared to dig out 357 00:26:03,580 --> 00:26:05,980 is now in the Egyptian Museum. 358 00:26:24,700 --> 00:26:26,900 Well, here he is, the king's son, Prince Rahotep, 359 00:26:26,900 --> 00:26:31,180 with his Freddie Mercury tache, alongside his beloved wife Nofret, 360 00:26:31,180 --> 00:26:33,380 whose name means "The Beautiful One". 361 00:26:33,380 --> 00:26:36,940 And I think both sculptures embody a number of attributes 362 00:26:36,940 --> 00:26:40,420 of Old Kingdom art. This is art that feels simple, 363 00:26:40,420 --> 00:26:44,580 it's self-possessed, and it's stable, it's fit for eternity. 364 00:26:44,580 --> 00:26:46,300 And I've seen both of these sculptures 365 00:26:46,300 --> 00:26:47,900 many times in reproduction, 366 00:26:47,900 --> 00:26:50,740 but I've never quite understood their power until seeing them 367 00:26:50,740 --> 00:26:56,180 for real, because the reproductions don't show you properly the eyes. 368 00:26:58,700 --> 00:27:03,460 Because the eyes are spectacular, they're made of rock crystal. 369 00:27:05,620 --> 00:27:08,580 And when you see them from the side, there's a translucence to them, 370 00:27:08,580 --> 00:27:11,940 they have a jelly-like quality, and a shimmering, sparkling feel. 371 00:27:15,100 --> 00:27:17,740 'The skill in recreating the lenses of the eye 372 00:27:17,740 --> 00:27:19,900 'so authentically is breathtaking. 373 00:27:21,020 --> 00:27:24,460 'It's said the eyes are windows to the soul, 374 00:27:24,460 --> 00:27:26,980 'and these ones certainly animate these statues.' 375 00:27:31,740 --> 00:27:36,060 And I quite like the way you have little flickers of individuation. 376 00:27:36,060 --> 00:27:38,260 So if you have a look at the brow of Rahotep, 377 00:27:38,260 --> 00:27:41,460 you can just make out the furrows. 378 00:27:41,460 --> 00:27:44,100 It looks like he's ever so slightly anxious, 379 00:27:44,100 --> 00:27:47,500 and I know this is just projecting onto them, but I like to think that 380 00:27:47,500 --> 00:27:50,420 he's not really the most important person in this relationship, 381 00:27:50,420 --> 00:27:54,180 he's a little bit anxious because his wife, she seems like the boss. 382 00:27:54,180 --> 00:27:56,460 She's the one who wears the trousers. 383 00:27:56,460 --> 00:27:58,900 I reckon Nofret was quite high-maintenance. 384 00:28:06,620 --> 00:28:10,420 'It's almost as if the souls of Rahotep and Nofret will live 385 00:28:10,420 --> 00:28:14,380 'for ever in their statues, just as the Egyptians intended.' 386 00:28:22,980 --> 00:28:25,900 Art from the Old Kingdom inspired one of Egypt's 387 00:28:25,900 --> 00:28:27,340 most celebrated artists, 388 00:28:27,340 --> 00:28:29,660 Adam Haneen, to become a sculptor. 389 00:28:32,300 --> 00:28:34,660 What do you think makes the art that was 390 00:28:34,660 --> 00:28:37,020 produced in the Old Kingdom so special? 391 00:28:38,100 --> 00:28:42,180 The Old Kingdom is very, very important 392 00:28:42,180 --> 00:28:47,860 and I feel it's the most important period, because it's the period 393 00:28:47,860 --> 00:28:51,740 when they discovered the Egyptian style. 394 00:28:52,980 --> 00:28:59,220 People prefer usually artists' first work, first years, 395 00:28:59,220 --> 00:29:01,700 because this is the years of discovery. 396 00:29:01,700 --> 00:29:05,700 After this, he gets the technique, he gets the style, and there is 397 00:29:05,700 --> 00:29:09,780 a kind of repetition, exactly as what happened in the Egyptian art. 398 00:29:11,020 --> 00:29:13,460 How much of an influence has Ancient Egyptian art 399 00:29:13,460 --> 00:29:15,060 been on your own work? 400 00:29:15,060 --> 00:29:18,500 Discovering. Discovering is something very important 401 00:29:18,500 --> 00:29:19,580 and very strong. 402 00:29:21,180 --> 00:29:27,900 The changing of form from natural form to stylised, 403 00:29:27,900 --> 00:29:30,740 and when you see this, is something very great, 404 00:29:30,740 --> 00:29:33,900 something alive, something active, 405 00:29:33,900 --> 00:29:37,620 so it is very impressive, more than other periods for me. 406 00:29:46,380 --> 00:29:48,020 BIRDSONG 407 00:29:50,740 --> 00:29:54,500 My fifth treasure is a painting, and it too was born of the 408 00:29:54,500 --> 00:29:57,740 Ancient Egyptians' quest for immortality via art. 409 00:30:01,900 --> 00:30:04,740 The artists set out to create a vision of an 410 00:30:04,740 --> 00:30:08,700 agricultural paradise, offering peace and plenty in the afterlife. 411 00:30:12,180 --> 00:30:14,380 My treasure was discovered at Meidum, 412 00:30:14,380 --> 00:30:17,460 in the tomb of the wife of Rahotep's brother, Nefermaat. 413 00:30:32,420 --> 00:30:34,420 It's startling to think that this was painted 414 00:30:34,420 --> 00:30:37,980 4,500 years ago, because it's such a delightful scene 415 00:30:37,980 --> 00:30:40,580 that really appeals to a modern sensibility. 416 00:30:40,580 --> 00:30:43,300 In some ways it doesn't feel that Ancient Egyptian, 417 00:30:43,300 --> 00:30:45,100 because you sense that the artist who 418 00:30:45,100 --> 00:30:50,140 did it had a degree of freedom, they were licensed to really use their 419 00:30:50,140 --> 00:30:54,660 eyes and observe the natural world, and they have relished doing that. 420 00:30:54,660 --> 00:30:58,020 You have a sense of harmony and balance. 421 00:30:58,020 --> 00:31:02,140 Three are facing that way, then another three are facing the opposite way. 422 00:31:02,140 --> 00:31:04,900 But repetition's never absolute. For instance, here, 423 00:31:04,900 --> 00:31:07,460 the tail feathers are on different levels 424 00:31:07,460 --> 00:31:10,060 to ensure that there isn't monotony. 425 00:31:10,060 --> 00:31:14,300 The plumage has been picked out with such care and detail. 426 00:31:14,300 --> 00:31:16,780 There are all sorts of different types of marks 427 00:31:16,780 --> 00:31:20,900 - sometimes speckles, sometimes diagonal lines, 428 00:31:20,900 --> 00:31:23,140 curving lines for different types of feather. 429 00:31:23,140 --> 00:31:26,620 And the whole way through you sense that the artist is 430 00:31:26,620 --> 00:31:28,100 looking, looking, looking, 431 00:31:28,100 --> 00:31:30,500 and that's the secret of its success as a painting. 432 00:31:31,780 --> 00:31:35,660 And it's tempting to just think of this almost as a modern work, 433 00:31:35,660 --> 00:31:39,060 a genre piece, a scene from nature, but of course, 434 00:31:39,060 --> 00:31:41,140 for the ancient Egyptians, 435 00:31:41,140 --> 00:31:44,620 this was part of something much bigger, which actually 436 00:31:44,620 --> 00:31:46,460 - when you realise the context - 437 00:31:46,460 --> 00:31:48,820 transforms the meaning of what you are looking at. 438 00:31:54,660 --> 00:31:58,140 The geese were one part of a much larger painting 439 00:31:58,140 --> 00:32:00,620 which survives only in fragments. 440 00:32:00,620 --> 00:32:03,780 Artist Leo Stevenson is piecing them together 441 00:32:03,780 --> 00:32:06,500 to recreate this missing masterpiece. 442 00:32:06,500 --> 00:32:09,380 So what I've done is, I've got a lot of photographs of the bits 443 00:32:09,380 --> 00:32:13,020 that survive, and these are outlined in black on my drawing here. 444 00:32:13,020 --> 00:32:15,460 And they're scattered in museums around the world? 445 00:32:15,460 --> 00:32:17,300 Yeah, scattered to the four winds. 446 00:32:17,300 --> 00:32:19,100 There's bits of them all over the place. 447 00:32:19,100 --> 00:32:21,980 So here's a reproduction of the geese. 448 00:32:21,980 --> 00:32:25,220 They go right along the bottom of the picture, 449 00:32:25,220 --> 00:32:28,780 everything else above has been lost essentially. 450 00:32:28,780 --> 00:32:32,140 The bits in between done in red are my interpolation 451 00:32:32,140 --> 00:32:35,780 of what I think is missing. I mean, this piece is this. 452 00:32:35,780 --> 00:32:38,500 Oh, yes, so there's the arm, and you can see the flesh colour, 453 00:32:38,500 --> 00:32:39,900 the dark, sort of, tanned skin. 454 00:32:39,900 --> 00:32:41,500 Tantalising little fragments, 455 00:32:41,500 --> 00:32:44,420 and here we see one of the captured geese. 456 00:32:44,420 --> 00:32:46,780 So this is a great fragment, this. 457 00:32:46,780 --> 00:32:48,940 It's got a lot of clues as to what is going on. 458 00:32:48,940 --> 00:32:51,220 But of course, you can actually use this fragment as 459 00:32:51,220 --> 00:32:54,300 quite a clever way of reconstructing what this would've looked like, 460 00:32:54,300 --> 00:32:57,900 because Egyptian art often employs symmetry in that fashion, doesn't it? 461 00:32:57,900 --> 00:33:01,100 That's right, that's what I'm going to try and do in this painting. 462 00:33:01,100 --> 00:33:02,900 Great, OK. 463 00:33:02,900 --> 00:33:06,660 I can see that you've made a start at sort of doing the outlines. 464 00:33:06,660 --> 00:33:09,540 Yes, what they would have done here is outlined the 465 00:33:09,540 --> 00:33:13,140 basic design in a very thin red paint. So you're ready to 466 00:33:13,140 --> 00:33:16,620 carry on with the outlining, are you, with that? Yeah. 467 00:33:16,620 --> 00:33:18,020 I'll just continue this. 468 00:33:21,420 --> 00:33:23,780 What's it like to work with this? 469 00:33:23,780 --> 00:33:27,740 It's actually really nice. It's so simple, so direct. 470 00:33:36,100 --> 00:33:40,620 'Leo's recreation makes us reconsider old prejudices about the 471 00:33:40,620 --> 00:33:43,380 'supposedly primitive, two-dimensional style 472 00:33:43,380 --> 00:33:44,540 'of the Egyptians.' 473 00:33:47,900 --> 00:33:52,140 Do you feel that Egyptian art is as good as art from later periods? 474 00:33:53,580 --> 00:33:56,220 Uh, yeah. Do you really believe that? 475 00:33:56,220 --> 00:33:58,340 The quality is not to do with technique, 476 00:33:58,340 --> 00:34:00,420 quality is to do with intention. 477 00:34:00,420 --> 00:34:03,660 The best... I don't believe you think that. I do! 478 00:34:03,660 --> 00:34:06,180 The best Egyptian art is very powerful, 479 00:34:06,180 --> 00:34:09,100 and it has a certainty to it - this is the way things had to be, 480 00:34:09,100 --> 00:34:11,900 this is the way things will always be. 481 00:34:11,900 --> 00:34:15,100 Do you think that we slightly write it off? Yes, we do. 482 00:34:15,100 --> 00:34:18,140 It becomes invisible because it's alien-looking, 483 00:34:18,140 --> 00:34:23,500 it's so repetitive, it's so stylised people have stopped looking at it. 484 00:34:23,500 --> 00:34:26,340 So it's easy, I think, for modern people to be slightly dismissive 485 00:34:26,340 --> 00:34:30,140 of this because it might seem repetitive, slightly stifling, 486 00:34:30,140 --> 00:34:33,220 not particularly free, but, in fact, 487 00:34:33,220 --> 00:34:35,660 it's something else, it's hugely strong. 488 00:34:35,660 --> 00:34:38,780 It's very powerful. It makes for some magical images. 489 00:34:50,900 --> 00:34:54,700 Now we return to the tale of our three Old Kingdom brothers, 490 00:34:54,700 --> 00:34:56,820 the sons of Sneferu. 491 00:34:56,820 --> 00:35:00,180 The third was determined not to be outdone by his siblings, 492 00:35:00,180 --> 00:35:03,340 and left an artistic legacy like none other. 493 00:35:07,500 --> 00:35:09,940 I'll give you a clue - his name was Khufu, 494 00:35:09,940 --> 00:35:12,020 and very close to here he created one of the 495 00:35:12,020 --> 00:35:14,420 most awe-inspiring works of art in history. 496 00:35:14,420 --> 00:35:17,300 It's something that's fascinated the world ever since, 497 00:35:17,300 --> 00:35:20,180 and it still throws up as many questions as it does answers. 498 00:35:28,140 --> 00:35:31,060 I'd hoped to approach this treasure riding across the desert 499 00:35:31,060 --> 00:35:32,900 like Lawrence of Arabia. 500 00:35:35,180 --> 00:35:38,020 If we're lucky, I think we're going to get quite a good glimpse 501 00:35:38,020 --> 00:35:39,820 of it down the end of this road, 502 00:35:39,820 --> 00:35:42,020 and no series about the treasures of Ancient Egypt 503 00:35:42,020 --> 00:35:43,940 would be complete without it, not least 504 00:35:43,940 --> 00:35:47,100 because it is the only surviving wonder of the Ancient World. 505 00:36:08,620 --> 00:36:10,020 CAMEL BRAYS 506 00:36:11,860 --> 00:36:14,340 'I knew a camel would come into it somewhere.' 507 00:36:15,460 --> 00:36:21,780 Whoa! Ugh! That is, erm, slightly scary. 508 00:36:24,180 --> 00:36:25,260 I'm glad I'm up. 509 00:36:27,060 --> 00:36:30,300 I am, of course, talking about the Great Pyramid, 510 00:36:30,300 --> 00:36:33,420 and I don't really want to bombard you with statistics, 511 00:36:33,420 --> 00:36:36,300 but in the case of the Pyramid, they are quite impressive. 512 00:36:36,300 --> 00:36:39,420 It was 481-feet high, it was built with 513 00:36:39,420 --> 00:36:42,220 up to 2.3 million blocks of stone, 514 00:36:42,220 --> 00:36:46,020 each one weighs an average of one tonne, and there are estimates 515 00:36:46,020 --> 00:36:49,740 that if it was built over two decades, a block of stone was 516 00:36:49,740 --> 00:36:52,540 placed down every two minutes throughout 517 00:36:52,540 --> 00:36:54,860 a ten-hour working day, every single day. 518 00:36:56,580 --> 00:37:01,260 And it was the tallest building in the world for 44 centuries, 519 00:37:01,260 --> 00:37:04,740 until the construction of the Eiffel Tower in 1889. 520 00:37:06,180 --> 00:37:07,740 BRAYING CONTINUES 521 00:37:15,300 --> 00:37:19,060 The Great Pyramid was built around the same time as Stonehenge 522 00:37:19,060 --> 00:37:22,660 - considered a prehistoric miracle back in Britain. 523 00:37:24,580 --> 00:37:28,140 But as soon as I explore the inner workings of the Pyramid, 524 00:37:28,140 --> 00:37:30,500 it becomes clear there's no contest. 525 00:37:35,060 --> 00:37:38,020 It's an eerie and also quite transformative experience 526 00:37:38,020 --> 00:37:41,620 coming into the Pyramid, because to begin with you go 527 00:37:41,620 --> 00:37:43,540 through this squeezed passage... 528 00:37:45,340 --> 00:37:48,820 ..a bit like walking upwards through a giant birth canal 529 00:37:48,820 --> 00:37:53,500 or something, before being reborn in another realm altogether. 530 00:38:00,420 --> 00:38:03,980 You hit this space, which feels like a modernist cathedral. 531 00:38:03,980 --> 00:38:06,660 I could be on an escalator in some sci-fi city. 532 00:38:08,340 --> 00:38:12,100 Certainly I'm heading up towards the hereafter, 533 00:38:12,100 --> 00:38:13,860 up towards the King's Chamber. 534 00:38:43,700 --> 00:38:46,940 I find it impossible to think that minutes ago I was standing 535 00:38:46,940 --> 00:38:51,300 outside in the desert sun, and now, all of a sudden, I'm in this 536 00:38:51,300 --> 00:38:56,380 echoing space which is at the centre of the Great Pyramid, 537 00:38:56,380 --> 00:39:00,300 which is frankly quite exciting, but more than that 538 00:39:00,300 --> 00:39:02,540 this is the epicentre of the Old Kingdom. 539 00:39:04,140 --> 00:39:06,580 And we don't know all that much about Khufu, 540 00:39:06,580 --> 00:39:09,060 the man for whom this was built. 541 00:39:09,060 --> 00:39:12,260 But I think of this not just as a monument to one man. 542 00:39:12,260 --> 00:39:15,260 This is an expression of a civilisation that was 543 00:39:15,260 --> 00:39:18,740 so sophisticated, confident. 544 00:39:18,740 --> 00:39:21,340 What an emanation of power... 545 00:39:23,180 --> 00:39:25,460 ..from thousands of years ago, 546 00:39:25,460 --> 00:39:27,060 and this space feels so contemporary. 547 00:39:42,580 --> 00:39:46,180 The pyramids feel as old as mountains. 548 00:39:46,180 --> 00:39:48,260 It's hard to fathom how they were ever built. 549 00:39:51,940 --> 00:39:55,980 The hackneyed answer is that Khufu was an evil tyrant who 550 00:39:55,980 --> 00:40:00,060 exploited thousands of slaves to construct his vainglorious tomb. 551 00:40:06,540 --> 00:40:09,420 But the recent discovery of the graves of the workers who 552 00:40:09,420 --> 00:40:11,580 built the pyramids debunks this myth. 553 00:40:15,580 --> 00:40:19,340 This discovery could be the most important discovery 554 00:40:19,340 --> 00:40:22,460 of the 20th century, because it's telling us 555 00:40:22,460 --> 00:40:25,420 for the first time about the builders of the pyramids. 556 00:40:25,420 --> 00:40:29,180 You know things about kings and queens, tombs of the officials, 557 00:40:29,180 --> 00:40:34,220 but you never discover anything about the workmen who built the pyramids. 558 00:40:34,220 --> 00:40:37,180 When you started digging, what did you discover here? 559 00:40:37,180 --> 00:40:39,300 It's really amazing. 560 00:40:39,300 --> 00:40:41,860 They built their tombs from what was left over 561 00:40:41,860 --> 00:40:43,900 from building the pyramids. 562 00:40:43,900 --> 00:40:47,500 Every workman will save a piece of granite or limestone 563 00:40:47,500 --> 00:40:48,820 to build his tomb. 564 00:40:48,820 --> 00:40:51,940 Underneath each tomb there is a skeleton, 565 00:40:51,940 --> 00:40:54,540 and in the hand of the skeleton you will have a 566 00:40:54,540 --> 00:40:58,820 pottery vessel for beer, because he has to drink beer in the afterlife. 567 00:40:58,820 --> 00:41:03,180 Then actually, here also you have areas for making bread. 568 00:41:03,180 --> 00:41:07,460 So they were looked after? They ate meat every day. 569 00:41:07,460 --> 00:41:10,140 They were not slaves then, as we might think? 570 00:41:10,140 --> 00:41:14,300 If they were slaves, they would never be buried beside the pyramids. 571 00:41:14,300 --> 00:41:15,860 This can't be a place for slaves, 572 00:41:15,860 --> 00:41:22,700 this is an organised community of people living, eating, drinking. 573 00:41:24,580 --> 00:41:27,220 'There's one question I really want to put to Zahi.' 574 00:41:29,020 --> 00:41:31,620 Is it possible to consider the pyramid not so much 575 00:41:31,620 --> 00:41:34,860 as a work of monumental architecture, but as a work of art? 576 00:41:34,860 --> 00:41:36,620 It is a work of art. 577 00:41:36,620 --> 00:41:40,420 Building the pyramid itself, the design of the interior 578 00:41:40,420 --> 00:41:44,980 of the pyramid, the statues in the tombs, the statues of the kings - 579 00:41:44,980 --> 00:41:50,580 it is a combination of arts to help the king to be a god, 580 00:41:50,580 --> 00:41:53,820 and that's really for the quest of immortality. 581 00:41:53,820 --> 00:41:57,740 Art in Ancient Egypt was not for the sake of art, 582 00:41:57,740 --> 00:42:00,820 but art in Ancient Egypt was for the sake of religion. 583 00:42:04,340 --> 00:42:07,700 Whether it's a work of art or of religious faith, 584 00:42:07,700 --> 00:42:10,140 the Great Pyramid is a pretty hard act to follow. 585 00:42:17,140 --> 00:42:19,500 But Khufu's son, Khafra, had a go. 586 00:42:26,140 --> 00:42:30,020 Khafra built this enormous causeway that connected his pyramid 587 00:42:30,020 --> 00:42:33,780 with his Valley Temple down here, and near it is this 588 00:42:33,780 --> 00:42:36,940 monumental guardian to the entire site at Giza. 589 00:42:36,940 --> 00:42:38,500 It's the Great Sphinx. 590 00:42:38,500 --> 00:42:40,580 It was probably carved with his own features, 591 00:42:40,580 --> 00:42:42,340 and the American writer Mark Twain said, 592 00:42:42,340 --> 00:42:44,700 "The Sphinx is grand in its loneliness, 593 00:42:44,700 --> 00:42:47,340 "it is imposing in its magnitude, 594 00:42:47,340 --> 00:42:49,860 "it is impressive in the mystery that hangs over its story", 595 00:42:49,860 --> 00:42:51,580 all of which is true. 596 00:42:51,580 --> 00:42:54,620 Beautifully written, a wonderful, evocative description 597 00:42:54,620 --> 00:42:57,420 of our obsession with Ancient Egypt, but I still think 598 00:42:57,420 --> 00:43:01,220 that the Great Sphinx is a little bit obvious to be my next treasure. 599 00:43:11,220 --> 00:43:13,500 In fact, my seventh treasure was found 600 00:43:13,500 --> 00:43:15,820 in Khafra's magnificent Valley Temple. 601 00:43:19,500 --> 00:43:22,500 These indentations on the alabaster floor provide a clue. 602 00:43:23,940 --> 00:43:25,580 There are 23 in all, 603 00:43:25,580 --> 00:43:28,300 and each one was designed to take a statue of the King... 604 00:43:31,700 --> 00:43:35,540 ..which marked an astonishing leap forward in the art of sculpture. 605 00:43:50,060 --> 00:43:53,620 Well, this is one of those 23 seated statues of Khafra, 606 00:43:53,620 --> 00:43:57,260 and it's one of the masterpieces not only of the Old Kingdom, 607 00:43:57,260 --> 00:44:00,260 but also of Egyptian art as a whole. 608 00:44:00,260 --> 00:44:03,780 It is the quintessential expression of kingship. 609 00:44:03,780 --> 00:44:07,620 He looks like he has such innate authority and command. 610 00:44:09,140 --> 00:44:12,420 And it's sculpted out of a stone called diorite, 611 00:44:12,420 --> 00:44:15,900 a very hard, dark stone, and the sculptor has managed to 612 00:44:15,900 --> 00:44:18,980 polish it up so that you've got the grain of the stone, 613 00:44:18,980 --> 00:44:23,820 almost like mottled tiger stripes, very beautiful to look at, 614 00:44:23,820 --> 00:44:28,700 and in the case of his torso and his face, appears soft and smooth. 615 00:44:28,700 --> 00:44:30,900 With great care and deliberation 616 00:44:30,900 --> 00:44:33,220 they've created that sense of musculature. 617 00:44:37,020 --> 00:44:39,940 But my favourite detail of all is up here. 618 00:44:41,140 --> 00:44:44,420 The falcon, the god Horus. 619 00:44:44,420 --> 00:44:47,020 And he raises his wings in a protective gesture 620 00:44:47,020 --> 00:44:49,260 around the King's head. 621 00:44:49,260 --> 00:44:53,020 It's as if they're fused, one's merging into the other, 622 00:44:53,020 --> 00:44:57,460 and the message here is that the King, Khafra, is divine. 623 00:45:21,860 --> 00:45:25,780 Modern sculptor Nathan Doss is amazed that his ancestors 624 00:45:25,780 --> 00:45:29,300 were capable of carving some of the hardest stones known to man. 625 00:46:53,660 --> 00:46:56,060 The idea that Ancient Egyptian artists were 626 00:46:56,060 --> 00:46:58,620 driven by their religious beliefs explains a lot to me. 627 00:47:01,900 --> 00:47:06,900 We've seen how animals like Horus were thought to have divine powers. 628 00:47:06,900 --> 00:47:10,260 This meant that artists excelled at portraying animals 629 00:47:10,260 --> 00:47:12,260 in a range of different materials, 630 00:47:12,260 --> 00:47:14,940 including alabaster and faience pottery. 631 00:47:23,180 --> 00:47:26,380 When we think of Egyptian treasure, we tend to think of gold, 632 00:47:26,380 --> 00:47:30,100 it was the precious metal associated with the pharaohs and the gods, 633 00:47:30,100 --> 00:47:34,220 but no golden statues of the royals survive from the Old Kingdom, 634 00:47:34,220 --> 00:47:37,900 and only one deity, and this is it, it is Horus, the falcon. 635 00:47:37,900 --> 00:47:41,380 Horus being one of the oldest and most important of all the gods, 636 00:47:41,380 --> 00:47:44,020 and appropriately enough this was discovered in Nekhen, 637 00:47:44,020 --> 00:47:46,020 which means the City Of The Falcon. 638 00:47:59,340 --> 00:48:04,300 It is clearly an exquisite piece of metal work, beautifully made, 639 00:48:04,300 --> 00:48:08,380 but I particularly love the eyes, the obsidian eyes, 640 00:48:08,380 --> 00:48:13,020 which almost appear to be swivelling, scoping for prey, 641 00:48:13,020 --> 00:48:17,500 looking around, it gives the head of this bird a real alertness, 642 00:48:17,500 --> 00:48:20,540 but also has an imperious quality, 643 00:48:20,540 --> 00:48:22,980 so it's as if the artist who made it, 644 00:48:22,980 --> 00:48:27,020 who's up there with the finest gold workers of all time, 645 00:48:27,020 --> 00:48:29,820 has been closely observing nature, 646 00:48:29,820 --> 00:48:33,820 but also trying to create something numinous, godlike, 647 00:48:33,820 --> 00:48:38,060 something that you could worship, and to think that this is one really 648 00:48:38,060 --> 00:48:40,820 rare piece of gold that survived from the Old Kingdom, 649 00:48:40,820 --> 00:48:44,500 everything else was stolen, melted down, recycled, 650 00:48:44,500 --> 00:48:46,460 it's a sublime piece. 651 00:48:46,460 --> 00:48:50,020 Imagine everything else that there once was which has now been lost, 652 00:48:50,020 --> 00:48:51,660 it's enough to make you weep. 653 00:48:58,260 --> 00:48:59,940 It may seem bizarre to us 654 00:48:59,940 --> 00:49:02,900 that a bird could mean so much to the Egyptians, 655 00:49:02,900 --> 00:49:06,660 but from the earliest times animals played a starring role 656 00:49:06,660 --> 00:49:08,180 in art and religion. 657 00:49:11,020 --> 00:49:14,260 The Egyptians used animals to communicate with the gods 658 00:49:14,260 --> 00:49:17,860 because they felt that the animals were at an intermediate stage 659 00:49:17,860 --> 00:49:20,660 of evolution as it were. 660 00:49:20,660 --> 00:49:23,700 So you have humans slightly on a lower level perhaps, 661 00:49:23,700 --> 00:49:27,740 who are called Cattle Of The Gods and then you have actual animals 662 00:49:27,740 --> 00:49:31,740 who speak the secret language and know what the gods are going to do 663 00:49:31,740 --> 00:49:36,420 because the animals are very good at knowing what nature is going to do. 664 00:49:36,420 --> 00:49:39,620 So for example, when the baboon stands up in the morning 665 00:49:39,620 --> 00:49:44,340 and raises its arms and shrieks, it helps the sun to rise. 666 00:49:44,340 --> 00:49:48,260 Crocodiles know where to lay the eggs before the inundation, 667 00:49:48,260 --> 00:49:49,900 so if you want to predict the flood, 668 00:49:49,900 --> 00:49:53,620 look and see where the crocodiles are building their nests. 669 00:49:53,620 --> 00:49:58,020 Cats, dedicated to the goddess Bastet, and the cat was sort of 670 00:49:58,020 --> 00:50:01,300 self-indulgent and beautiful and Bastet is the goddess of 671 00:50:01,300 --> 00:50:03,260 self-indulgence, beauty and love. 672 00:50:03,260 --> 00:50:06,380 And if you look at these statues you can see that 673 00:50:06,380 --> 00:50:09,220 animals are carved with great diligence. 674 00:50:11,340 --> 00:50:14,100 These gorgeous pieces are well-observed, 675 00:50:14,100 --> 00:50:17,620 they are beautifully made and they are astonishingly lifelike. 676 00:50:25,260 --> 00:50:27,900 Egyptian artists were brilliant at animals, 677 00:50:27,900 --> 00:50:33,460 but when it came to humans, their work was more rigid and stylised. 678 00:50:33,460 --> 00:50:35,460 But Egyptian society was changing. 679 00:50:38,460 --> 00:50:42,100 During the Fifth Dynasty, around about 2450 BC, 680 00:50:42,100 --> 00:50:45,580 a full-time professional bureaucracy developed 681 00:50:45,580 --> 00:50:48,140 made up of hundreds of civil servants and priests. 682 00:50:48,140 --> 00:50:50,380 These men, who started out as commoners, 683 00:50:50,380 --> 00:50:53,620 were social climbers and they had a profound impact on 684 00:50:53,620 --> 00:50:54,820 the course of Egyptian art. 685 00:50:58,180 --> 00:51:03,100 One of the best examples of this was discovered at Sicara. 686 00:51:03,100 --> 00:51:06,900 For the first time we can meet one of the pharaoh's subjects - 687 00:51:06,900 --> 00:51:09,700 and it feels like coming face-to-face with a living, 688 00:51:09,700 --> 00:51:11,980 breathing person from the ancient world. 689 00:51:17,500 --> 00:51:20,220 This is a marvellous sculpture of a priest called Ka-aper, 690 00:51:20,220 --> 00:51:23,380 a rather self-important man. 691 00:51:23,380 --> 00:51:25,460 And there's a lovely story about its discovery 692 00:51:25,460 --> 00:51:28,940 because the Egyptian workmen who uncovered it felt that he was a 693 00:51:28,940 --> 00:51:32,260 dead-ringer for their local boss, their mayor, 694 00:51:32,260 --> 00:51:35,980 and as a result this sculpture has had a nickname ever since of 695 00:51:35,980 --> 00:51:39,460 Sheik Al Beled, meaning village headman. 696 00:51:39,460 --> 00:51:41,940 It's been sculpted from sycamore, 697 00:51:41,940 --> 00:51:46,220 the whole thing was covered in a thin layer of plaster and painted. 698 00:51:46,220 --> 00:51:49,220 What I find startling about this statue is that it's 699 00:51:49,220 --> 00:51:52,380 so full of vigour and animation, there's a real gesture here 700 00:51:52,380 --> 00:51:56,980 towards a realistic style in the promise of his man-boobs, 701 00:51:56,980 --> 00:52:01,380 in that great paunch, even in the podgy lower legs and ankles. 702 00:52:01,380 --> 00:52:04,140 He's quite pleased with himself. 703 00:52:04,140 --> 00:52:07,260 Here is a man who feels like he is striding towards us 704 00:52:07,260 --> 00:52:09,460 across 4,500 years of history, 705 00:52:09,460 --> 00:52:12,620 perhaps not in the prime of life, but in the pride of middle age. 706 00:52:23,180 --> 00:52:25,460 It wasn't just bureaucrats and priests 707 00:52:25,460 --> 00:52:27,620 who were scaling the social ladder. 708 00:52:27,620 --> 00:52:32,620 Men like Ka-aper had serious competition from hairdressers. 709 00:52:38,620 --> 00:52:40,420 The right hairdo was vital 710 00:52:40,420 --> 00:52:45,740 because it was a social signifier about status, age and gender. 711 00:52:45,740 --> 00:52:47,580 And of course, being Egypt... 712 00:52:47,580 --> 00:52:50,300 Oh, yeah, sorry, I've got to keep my head in one place. 713 00:52:50,300 --> 00:52:54,580 But being Egypt, there was a hierarchy of hairstyles, 714 00:52:54,580 --> 00:52:56,940 and good hairdressers were like artists, 715 00:52:56,940 --> 00:53:02,740 their skills were much sought after, a bit like couture designers today. 716 00:53:02,740 --> 00:53:07,940 Elite men, they kept their hair very short, or shaven, 717 00:53:07,940 --> 00:53:11,380 and relied on a decent wig to make the right impression. 718 00:53:11,380 --> 00:53:13,660 Pharaohs had shoulder length wigs 719 00:53:13,660 --> 00:53:17,220 which were arranged in curls and braids. 720 00:53:17,220 --> 00:53:19,180 The sons of the elite, 721 00:53:19,180 --> 00:53:23,340 they had round wigs or just opted for the shaven look. 722 00:53:23,340 --> 00:53:26,780 Servants and musicians were completely shaved as well. 723 00:53:26,780 --> 00:53:29,060 This obsession with hair in ancient Egypt meant that 724 00:53:29,060 --> 00:53:31,460 the hairdresser was quite a star. 725 00:53:38,900 --> 00:53:43,380 Suitably coiffured, I'm heading for my tenth and final treasure. 726 00:53:43,380 --> 00:53:46,260 It's one of the most beautiful tombs in all of Egypt. 727 00:53:49,460 --> 00:53:51,020 And, you may have guessed, 728 00:53:51,020 --> 00:53:54,100 it belonged to a very important hairdresser called Ty. 729 00:54:09,820 --> 00:54:13,140 We've witnessed the conventions of art being laid down, 730 00:54:13,140 --> 00:54:16,340 now we can see them being brought together in one place. 731 00:54:17,820 --> 00:54:19,540 The main event is through here. 732 00:54:27,940 --> 00:54:29,820 This is an offering hall. 733 00:54:33,100 --> 00:54:35,820 There's a sense here of a whole world, 734 00:54:35,820 --> 00:54:37,980 it's a real glimpse into the Old Kingdom. 735 00:54:40,780 --> 00:54:44,220 And it's really wonderful because Egyptians loved order, 736 00:54:44,220 --> 00:54:47,900 they loved repetition, but it was never absolute. 737 00:54:47,900 --> 00:54:50,940 So here's a little example, here are some agricultural workers, 738 00:54:50,940 --> 00:54:52,580 they're driving some donkeys, 739 00:54:52,580 --> 00:54:57,620 and the donkeys' heads seem to be exactly the same, again and again 740 00:54:57,620 --> 00:55:01,980 and again, but there's a little donkey head leaning down, 741 00:55:01,980 --> 00:55:05,140 just to break up what would otherwise potentially be 742 00:55:05,140 --> 00:55:06,780 a tedious line. 743 00:55:06,780 --> 00:55:10,300 There's a lot of vigour and energy and hubbub. 744 00:55:10,300 --> 00:55:13,500 There are all sorts of activity, people building boats, 745 00:55:13,500 --> 00:55:16,940 there are agricultural workers, there are sculptors, 746 00:55:16,940 --> 00:55:20,780 there are metalworkers, there's a melee of activity on behalf of Ty. 747 00:55:23,260 --> 00:55:26,900 And on the southern wall here you have these slits 748 00:55:26,900 --> 00:55:31,420 and if you look through... you meet Ty himself, the statue. 749 00:55:34,580 --> 00:55:37,460 And I think my favourite bit is over here. 750 00:55:49,420 --> 00:55:53,220 This wall is dominated by one brilliant scene 751 00:55:53,220 --> 00:55:57,380 in which Ty is on a boat with a number of attendants 752 00:55:57,380 --> 00:56:00,900 and they're out for a day's hunting, but they're not hunting fish, 753 00:56:00,900 --> 00:56:03,700 even though you can see loads of fish in the waters beneath, 754 00:56:03,700 --> 00:56:05,700 they are hunting hippos, 755 00:56:05,700 --> 00:56:10,300 and one poor hippo over here has been harpooned. 756 00:56:10,300 --> 00:56:15,620 Hunting hippos is quite a dangerous thing to do, so our hairdresser Ty 757 00:56:15,620 --> 00:56:20,300 is standing well back just overseeing things, it's a good view. 758 00:56:20,300 --> 00:56:24,620 I love that sense of almost abstract pattern, 759 00:56:24,620 --> 00:56:28,820 because you have these strong verticals of the background, 760 00:56:28,820 --> 00:56:33,420 you have these dramatic zigzags which represent the water beneath, 761 00:56:33,420 --> 00:56:36,660 and then within that, you have all sorts of variation. 762 00:56:36,660 --> 00:56:39,260 Here, there's a fish which is actually being pulled out of 763 00:56:39,260 --> 00:56:42,700 the water crossing one register into the next. 764 00:56:42,700 --> 00:56:46,660 There's room for a slight insouciance, 765 00:56:46,660 --> 00:56:51,980 there's room for variety, and it's very pleasing to the eye. 766 00:56:51,980 --> 00:56:56,420 And in here you can see the hippos almost floating, 767 00:56:56,420 --> 00:56:59,460 tumbling around in the water, there's a sense of motion, 768 00:56:59,460 --> 00:57:01,860 there's actually a real sense of energy, 769 00:57:01,860 --> 00:57:06,220 it's a totally delightful scene, this, completely absorbing. 770 00:57:21,820 --> 00:57:24,700 I've reached the end of the first leg of my journey through 771 00:57:24,700 --> 00:57:28,540 Egyptian art and for me it's been a revelation. 772 00:57:30,900 --> 00:57:33,860 I've been travelling around Egypt for several weeks now 773 00:57:33,860 --> 00:57:38,740 and over that time I've really had to confront a prejudice 774 00:57:38,740 --> 00:57:42,580 that I didn't know I even had about ancient Egyptian art, 775 00:57:42,580 --> 00:57:48,900 I assumed that it was a little bit monotonous and samey and unchanging, 776 00:57:48,900 --> 00:57:53,460 but what I've discovered is something very different. 777 00:57:53,460 --> 00:57:56,580 There is a lot of this kind of stuff, real life, 778 00:57:56,580 --> 00:57:58,780 you find daily scenes in the tombs, 779 00:57:58,780 --> 00:58:02,900 you find observation of the natural world, which is utterly charming. 780 00:58:04,140 --> 00:58:07,980 So I have found a great deal more experimentation, 781 00:58:07,980 --> 00:58:12,660 a great deal more innovation than I thought was there. 782 00:58:12,660 --> 00:58:15,660 So this idea that Egyptian art didn't change 783 00:58:15,660 --> 00:58:18,460 over thousands of years is just not true, 784 00:58:18,460 --> 00:58:20,580 it really couldn't be further from the truth. 785 00:58:29,620 --> 00:58:32,660 Next time, the Golden Age. 786 00:58:32,660 --> 00:58:37,260 Art reaches new heights of splendour and ambition 787 00:58:37,260 --> 00:58:40,100 as one man ushers in one of the most dramatic revolutions in 788 00:58:40,100 --> 00:58:42,540 the history of art.