Os Segredos de Saqqara

Fascinating documentary with terrific archaeological discoveries. What I liked about this one is the joy of the scientists and their workers as well as the compassion and respect they all held for the long-dead Egyptians. At one point, one of the women scientists says science had it wrong before: the beautiful paintings and statues are not about their ancestors' lives but about their dreams....Because they believed more in the afterlife than they did in the earthly life. Simple yet poignant.

.....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.

I just finished watching, and I rushed here to givee it a 10. I found the documentary amazing, I loved the people that worked in the site, a lot of passion to the work, and emotion. I always loved Egyptian culture and history, especially ancient. But then, I read some reviews talking about the archeologycal methods applied, about how they didn't wear gloves for example, and exposing the mummy etc. I actually thought it was weird they touched the artifacts and bones with their bare hands, but I simply didn't mind, I thought "well, they know better". But it turns out they didnt. Anyway, I really liked the film.

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!!

Its really cool to get a real time experience of an excavation site. pretty unfiltered too, without too much overproduction. its shows some of the step by step method of working. havent seen much movies/docu that show this in the same detail, prob becauze this was such a rare occasion.

8/10: props