Les Secrets de la tombe de Saqqarah

.....just finished watching a highly anticipated Netflix documentary related to the 2019 archaeological excavations in the Saqqara necropolis. Saqqara is renowned as the site of the step pyramid and is surrounded by a virtual city of the dead dedicated to human and animal burials. The depth of digging and conservation to be done will take at least another two centuries to get anywhere near knowing the sheer scale of the buried sites.

This documentary is perhaps the most arousing cinematic communication of the true grit and wonderment of archaeology since John Romer's Ancient lives. The music was subtle and complimented the scenes beautifully. The reverence of the Egyptian archaeologists for their heritage was palpable however I saw a little rough handling here and there that could have been avoided. Time was a luxury the huge state funded team did not have.

A certain unique animal mummy could have had the dignity of a plastic crate large enough to hold him. They cut that scene the moment it was plonked into an ill fitting crate. I guess I'm just dreaming of what I would do in that situation as handling my own mummified cat on the rare times she is moved is something of special significance to me.

Watch this documentary and be patient. It takes time to excavate and the extra time this doco takes to tell the story lets the story lap at your feet like a tide of intrigue until you are totally immersed in an ancient world.

What you need to understand about this documentary is that the tale is much bigger than what has been told. There is alot here you still need to know and ask about.1 belies more information by time will be revealed on this & by time this discovery will be more clear - it is still a great documentary that I would totally recommend to watch. Enjoy it!!

I've looked forward to this film for a while now. Unfortunately, this suffers from a few major things that stop it from being epic.

Recently, I've thought that Netflix multi episodes shows/documentaries could be trimmed down into less episodes or just a 2hr film. This is totally opposite. There is a ton of information here, but the director has unfortunately placed it all over the place. It is very sporadic in its editing and jumps all over the place. Leaving the viewer asking more questions than are being answered. Multi episodes broken into more condensed/direct and specific areas of the "dig" would be much better serving for the audience.

With that being said, I've never wished for a narrator more in any documentary I've ever seen. A narrator would help with tying all of the vast information presented here. Also, to explain what, where and why we are seeing some of the things as well as more explanation of why the Egyptians did some of the thing they did. There is some explanation, but again, it's sporadic and all over the place.

I won't even get into the anxiety I was feeling watching the archaeologists jump around and seem to randomly dig and kinda just toss around (without fully documenting, at least what we see) artifacts and mummies. Again, this may be the bad editing/directing.

Bottom line, the whole thing seems extremely rushed and disjointed.

Now the good, I STILL RECCOMEND that you watch this if you are at all interested in this kind of thing. It's is beautifully shot and shows some amazing things that you do really feel like you are seeing for the first time with the archaeologists. Some images/items that you will never forget. I just wish it was put together better.

It's a Netflix show so we should probably expect entertainment over rigorous archaeology, however.... this show was problematic.

To start with, it's a highly interesting discovery and site. Theres a lot of interesting finds that are significant for history of Egypt especially in the tomb of Wahtye. As another reviewer said, the excavators seem very enthusiastic and keen- and as Egyptians, so they should be. I liked that Egyptians were involved in this dig, and that it was filmed largely in Arabic. This is their nations history, so that's important and refreshing.

However!

There were so many elements that were questionable in terms of history and archaeology.

* the forced 'conspiracy' theory is a stretch. Trying not to add a spoiler- the 'conspiracy' around the scene of the man and woman at the offering table- their conclusions are weird. The logical conclusion is it is his dad? But their first and second conclusion seem very unfounded. it made me question their credentials, their logical capability, and/or the highly constructed nature of the doco. Are they playing up conspiracy for viewers?

* they kept touching things without gloves. Like what? Archaeology 101 is wear gloves - our hands have oils which can be destructive to artefacts. My high school archaeology students know this....

* they opened a sarcophagus /exposed a mummy, in the middle of the desert / sunlight, compromising preservation. Oh and its 'discovery' seemed highly staged along with the nicely placed ushabtis in the background.

* there appeared to be little record keeping and site photography. I know they were filming, but archaeological records and reports require mappings, site surveys, diagrams and photos. I can concede some of this *may* have been edited for audience 'interest', but given everything else, I'm not betting a lot on it.

The narrative and conclusions of a conspiracy are dodgy, or at least, not well formed in the doco. The structure, 'script'/dialogue and editing is highly popularised for the non academic.

The final WTH, was at the end, when archaeologists were thanking Wahtye for a lifetime discovery, and saying he'd be happy you dug him up and made him famous? Um no.

Wahtye and his fellow citizens spent a long time putting effort into their tombs and burials for a reason. They needed to be well stocked, appropriately decorated, mummy contained and preserved, in order for their spirits (ka,ba,akh) to survive. Archaeology disrupts that. Wahtye would probably be furious. You disturbed his tomb. You dug up and dumped his, and his families bones in crates, before playing with them to assemble them. I find it interesting an Egyptologist would claim he'd be happy with it.

In all, it's an interesting discovery, and if you aren't an historian/archaeologist/or interested in those professions, you'll probably find this fabulous. If you have any knowledge or experience in these fields, you'll probably be face palming a lot.

But still, you should probably watch it for the fabulous footage of the tomb and some amazing finds there (no spoilers!).

People who are giving this bad reviews apparently have never watched very many Egyptian archeology programs on tv. First about the gloves everyone keeps griping about. It's 95° and they can't keep gloves on tut while entire time because then their hands would sweat and could bust open and cause even more issues. Plus I saw SEVERAL scenes where gloves were being used. Then there is the opening of coffins out on the open. The head of Egyptian antiquities himself even stated that sometimes those coffins were empty and they checked then to make sure that a mummy was inside. Apparently no-one watched the special with Josh Gates and Zahi Hawass when they opened a coffin while it was still in the tomb. Pretty standard for most Egyptian archeology shows that I watched. Letting the bones out in the crypt was another complaint. They were covered in dirt to begin with and in poor condition. Laying them out isn't going to hurt them any more than they already have. My only gripeis about the way they were handling the mummified animals.

However...

Some people complained about the lack of a narrator made the documentary d disjointed and confusing and didn't fill in extra information. I felt this was actually very refreshing. Never before did I ever get to hear the individual workers talk about their work, discuss their family doing this work for at least four generations, how many of them depended on this work every digging season, or show them teaching their children the work too. It was nice to get their point of views on what they were doing and hearing what it meant to them personally to be there. Seeing their everyday mundane conversations and joking with each other as they worked was wonderful to witness. I honestly don't get how they thought anything was "staged". They probably only filmed when things were found or cleaned up enough for the audience to see what was there. Seeing things as they were found was awesome. You have to remember that what we got to see was probably trimmed down from hundreds or even thousands of hours of filming. We were shown what an archeological dig in Egypt was really all about without the annoyance of a narrator who was never there nor bogged down by wasted minutes of people documenting the finds. It was up close and personal from the actual workers point of view which was beautiful and awesome.