A sense of liberation in unearthing your history : Watching Netflix's documentary Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb

 

"You get a lot of mistakes about history, seeing the great temples, the great statues and you think everything in history was perfect. And then you see these people, you discover they're like us. Exactly like us. This is the real story." - Amira Shaheen, professor of Rheumatology in the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University.

The film by James Tovell presents the odyssey of several excavations at Saqqara, Egypt, to unearth the tomb of the ancient priest lord Wahtye. A team of Egyptologists, archaeologists, researchers from Cairo University, and excavators are deployed at the excavation site, where they unearth artifacts dating back to the 5th Century BCE.

In 2018, the excavation site at Saqqara had recently witnessed some of the most important historical discoveries, such as the oldest mummified lion cub, the discovery of the Bubasteion Necropolis, the Egyptian goddess 'Bastet' statues, playing figurines, etc. 

According to the hieroglyphs that were deciphered by hieroglyphists Nermeen and Nadeen, the tomb of the priest god Wahtye consisted of his mother Meritmen, his wife Weretptah, his daughter Seket, and his sons Seshemnefer, Kaiemakhnetjer, and Sebab. It has luxe depictions of the life of Wahtye and his family. The grand depictions that Professor Shaheen touted as 'dreams.' She said, "These were their dreams, as they believed so much in the afterlife. These remains were their life."

Unlike movies made in ancient Egypt previously, James Tovell's film has researchers and people on screen from Egypt talking about their own heritage. For years, we have had Western excavators and thinkers propagating the findings of ancient Egypt, unearthing artifacts for Western museums. The depiction of the ancient Egyptian culture in popular media has long carried a Western bias. 

However, seeing the local electricians, laborers, and plumbers working on the excavation and the Egyptian intellectuals unearthing skeletal remains or mummies is like pulling themselves out of a thousand-year-old debris. Their eyes light up as they speak to each other in Arabic; in their unique cultural idiosyncracies, they pull out a neatly preserved sarcophagus of a lion cub. 

Hamad, one of the excavators, enters a pit barely 5 feet wide to pull out the remains of the skull of the priest lord Wahtye peculiarly. Similarly, Ghareeb, an elderly excavator, talks about how his family has been working in the excavations in and near Saqqara, and he wants his son to learn the craft of the ropes as well. Every person exploring the grandiosity of their ancient past is in total awe, remarking, 
"They're just like us." 

Trovell's film is a sand-wrapped gift to the people of Egypt, saying, 'just immerse yourself in intellectual and corporeal genuinity of your people as they deliver the finest brushtokes to reveal the tantalizing beauty of your heritage.' 

The most astounding part of the film, as it cuts to its climax, is the euphoric outcry of the people as the team makes an unplanned discovery of the Bubasteion Necropolis (The temple area of the Egyptian Goddess Bastet) two days before the curtailment of the entire project. As the camera gradually glides us to the underlying necropolis, being unearthed for the first time in a thousand years, and the applause echoing in the background, it is impossible not to hear the epiphany clearly conveying, 'This is us. This is who we are. It is our history."