0:00:12 > 0:00:15Ever since archaeologists began digging mighty temples
0:00:15 > 0:00:17out of the desert,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20and discovering objects of unheralded splendour and luxury,
0:00:20 > 0:00:22ancient Egypt has obsessed
0:00:22 > 0:00:24the imagination of the West.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Usually, though, the objects of its civilisation
0:00:27 > 0:00:29are seen as historical artefacts,
0:00:29 > 0:00:33the exotic relics of a mysterious lost world.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48'I want to consider Egyptian art from a slightly different perspective,
0:00:48 > 0:00:53'not that of an archaeologist or a historian, but of an art lover.'
0:00:54 > 0:00:58'Over three films, I'm telling the story of Egyptian art
0:00:58 > 0:01:01'through 30 of its greatest treasures.'
0:01:03 > 0:01:06'So far, I've encountered surprising and stunning works
0:01:06 > 0:01:10'that chart the emergence of a powerful and distinctive style
0:01:10 > 0:01:13'over the first few thousand years of Egypt's history.
0:01:16 > 0:01:21'Yet the glories of the Old Kingdom couldn't last forever.
0:01:21 > 0:01:26In 2000 BC, Egypt was nothing like the mighty civilisation of old,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29with its limitless wealth, fine paintings and great pyramids.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32The country was impoverished, it was highly militarised,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36and under constant threat of foreign invasion.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40'But out of the darkness, Egypt rose again,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43'to enjoy its golden age,
0:01:43 > 0:01:47'when the art of the old order was reinvigorated
0:01:47 > 0:01:53'by forceful personalities and revolutionary styles.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59'It was a time when sculpture, painting, and architecture
0:01:59 > 0:02:03'would reach new peaks of opulence and beauty.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35'I'm in the ancient city of Thebes, modern-day Luxor,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38'which rose to prominence around 2000 BC,
0:02:38 > 0:02:40'after the breakdown of the Old Kingdom.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45'The centuries that followed
0:02:45 > 0:02:46'would be known as
0:02:46 > 0:02:48'the Middle and New Kingdoms.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53'If the Old Kingdom was the classical age of Egyptian art,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55'when a strong visual style
0:02:55 > 0:02:58'prizing harmony and repetition first emerged,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01'then this would be its Baroque period,
0:03:01 > 0:03:06'an era of grandeur, embellishment and experimentation.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13'This ruined temple is where my first treasure was discovered.'
0:03:16 > 0:03:20No-one has gone in here for years. I think more than two decades.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24It's been blocked up with these old boulders.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26GATE RATTLES
0:03:26 > 0:03:28Look at that!
0:03:28 > 0:03:32There's a whole chamber... corridor leading downstairs.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39'From the moment tombs like this were first sealed,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42'the promise of unimaginable treasures within
0:03:42 > 0:03:44'has captivated raiders, explorers,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48'and, more recently, Egyptologists.'
0:03:48 > 0:03:52You had to be quite brave to be an Egyptologist.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56It's easy to succumb to the idea of...the curse of the mummy.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59I suddenly feel quite a long way from home,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02as though I'm actually walking into...
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Well, I am walking into someone's grave.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07Hopefully, it's not mine.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14'The early years of the Middle Kingdom
0:04:14 > 0:04:17'were a dark and dangerous time,
0:04:17 > 0:04:19'when ruling Egypt required toughness
0:04:19 > 0:04:21'and a stomach for brutality.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26'Among the treasures found around here were portraits
0:04:26 > 0:04:30'of one of the most notorious tyrants in Egyptian history.'
0:04:44 > 0:04:46Compared with the blunt, archaic
0:04:46 > 0:04:49and even slightly primitive sculptures of before,
0:04:49 > 0:04:51the statuary of this ruler,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54with his striking Dumbo-like jug ears,
0:04:54 > 0:04:57which are flapping at right angles to his head,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00offers quite a sophisticated revolution, really.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03We know quite a lot about him. He's called Senwosret III.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06He's a Twelfth Dynasty king who was a warrior.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10He waged a long and quite brutal, aggressive campaign
0:05:10 > 0:05:12suppressing his southern neighbours in Nubia.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15He poisoned their wells, apparently he carried off their women,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17he burnt their fields of barley,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19he built a series of forts and camps
0:05:19 > 0:05:23which had quite unsubtle names like "Destroying the Nubians".
0:05:23 > 0:05:26And these sculptures are typical of his portraiture
0:05:26 > 0:05:30because they depict the king with this idealised torso.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33He looks youthful, virile, he looks trim.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35But his head is something totally different,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38and that face is surprising and new,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41because you find sunken cheeks,
0:05:41 > 0:05:46thick-hooded eyes, and also these noticeable downturned lips.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49He looks careworn and troubled, he's a bit world-weary,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53so you find here the impression of an all-hearing, admittedly,
0:05:53 > 0:05:58autocrat, but one who is also a bit pained by his own brutality,
0:05:58 > 0:06:03and...I think that's why these sculptures feel so contemporary.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Arguably for the first time here,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07you have the glimmer of complex psychology,
0:06:07 > 0:06:11and I know it's anachronistic to say so, but, as result,
0:06:11 > 0:06:15these sculptures feel a bit like modern portraiture.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24'Like Oliver Cromwell 3,500 years later,
0:06:24 > 0:06:28'Senwosret presented himself warts and all.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36'He was a tough-as-nails leader of men
0:06:36 > 0:06:39'and certainly not to be trifled with.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46'But my next treasure, at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,
0:06:46 > 0:06:50'reveals that Senwosret enjoyed the finer things in life, as well.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02'His jewellers were capable of exquisite artistry.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07'This is a pendant that he gave to his daughter.'
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Jewellery in the Middle Kingdom was extremely sophisticated,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17and this pendant on the end of a necklace,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20known as a pectoral, is a particularly fine example.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24And it contains these pieces of carnelian from the Eastern Desert,
0:07:24 > 0:07:26turquoise from Sinai,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29and lapis lazuli from modern Afghanistan.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32And all of those have been secured within a framework of gold
0:07:32 > 0:07:36that was probably mined near the king's stronghold in Nubia.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38It's a very beautiful piece,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42but I find it quite chilling as well as beautiful.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45Beneath this vulture, which is hovering there with outspread wings,
0:07:45 > 0:07:47you can see the king twice,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50in the guise of a sphinx, trampling his enemies underfoot.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53Particularly pathetic are those blue enemies,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57they must be Nubians, right at the bottom, contorted in agony,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00clearly crushed beneath the heel of a tyrant.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03For me, this is a bit of a despot's bauble.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05It's sinister and it's dazzling.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07It's alluring and it's also toxic.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11It's kind of like the jewellery equivalent of a poisonous orchid.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23'Middle Kingdom jewellery is the finest in Egyptian history.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26'Even master-craftsmen today struggle to understand
0:08:26 > 0:08:29'how it was made using ancient technology.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38'Mohamed Kalil has been making jewellery for 50 years.
0:08:54 > 0:09:00'Egyptian craftsmen carefully had to trace and cut the intricate figures,
0:09:00 > 0:09:03'meticulously slice and then set minute precious
0:09:03 > 0:09:05'and semi-precious stones...
0:09:08 > 0:09:13'..and buff the whole piece back to a sparkling finish.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50'After the death of Senwosret,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54'the Middle Kingdom soldiered on for almost 200 years.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59'There was a period of chaos before Egypt re-emerged
0:09:59 > 0:10:02'stronger than ever before.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14'This was the New Kingdom, the pinnacle of the golden age
0:10:14 > 0:10:19'that saw its kings take up a grand new title - pharaoh.'
0:10:24 > 0:10:28The term for the palace, "pr-aa", or literally "great house",
0:10:28 > 0:10:31came to refer to its royal occupant. "Pr-aa", "pharaoh".
0:10:31 > 0:10:34It's a bit like British people talking about the crown.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38And the shift came about to solve a particularly tricky problem
0:10:38 > 0:10:40faced by the administration.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43A new king had laid claim to the throne.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45But there was a fundamental issue.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48Egypt's first pharaoh was a woman.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55'The Egyptians didn't really have a word for "queen".
0:10:55 > 0:10:59'Royal women were given titles like King's Great Wife.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05'So, when a young woman named Hatshepsut came to the throne,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08'her somewhat confused portraiture
0:11:08 > 0:11:11'revealed a little bit of an identity crisis.'
0:11:11 > 0:11:15Hatshepsut ruled Egypt not as a queen but as a king,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18and that clash between her gender and her position
0:11:18 > 0:11:20seemed to be irreconcilable.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24But she appears in the guise of the male god Osiris.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28Her skin is red, and red skin in ancient Egyptian art
0:11:28 > 0:11:31was associated with tanned, masculine skin.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33And she also wears a divine beard,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35hardly the most feminine of attributes.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38Now, Egypt hadn't had a cross-dressing pharaoh before
0:11:38 > 0:11:41but this has a gentle, wide-eyed beauty.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44There's something quite ambiguous and androgynous about the face
0:11:44 > 0:11:48which manages to nod both to her rank and also to her biology.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01'It wasn't just Hatshepsut's image that received a makeover.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03'Thebes was given a face-lift, too,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06'transformed by her ambitious architects
0:12:06 > 0:12:11'into a glorious capital city to showcase her public monuments.
0:12:15 > 0:12:20'She rebuilt shrines and adorned the city with soaring structures
0:12:20 > 0:12:24'that once loomed like skyscrapers.'
0:12:33 > 0:12:35I don't think you need to be an ancient Egyptian
0:12:35 > 0:12:39to appreciate that this gargantuan obelisk is a pretty awesome sight.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43It's a beast of rock, weighing around 300 tonnes,
0:12:43 > 0:12:46and it's monolithic, which means it was carved from a single chunk
0:12:46 > 0:12:49of granite almost 30 metres high.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52This is the tallest standing obelisk in Egypt,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55and obelisks like this came into their own
0:12:55 > 0:12:56under the pharaohs of the New Kingdom.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59They were meant to represent the first rays of the sun's light
0:12:59 > 0:13:01illuminating the known world.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04And the tip of this one was sheathed in gold leaf.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08People often talk about dazzling works of art. This one really was.
0:13:08 > 0:13:13Imagine looking up to the top, in this glaring Egyptian sunlight,
0:13:13 > 0:13:14and seeing that sparkling gold.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17It must've actually been quite hard to look at,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19like staring into the face of a god.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23And Hatshepsut clearly understood the symbolic significance
0:13:23 > 0:13:26of these soaring forms, because there's an inscription at the base
0:13:26 > 0:13:29of this one in which she talks about "peoples of the future
0:13:29 > 0:13:33"who will see my monuments and speak of what I've done".
0:13:33 > 0:13:37So, for Hatshepsut, obelisks were kind of signposts for posterity,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40pointing the way towards eternity.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50'But Hatshepsut's crowning glory
0:13:50 > 0:13:55'was like nothing Egypt had ever seen before.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57'The road she built north from Karnak
0:13:57 > 0:14:00'was a superhighway out of the city
0:14:00 > 0:14:03'to one of the greatest buildings ever constructed.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07'My next treasure is Djeser-Djeseru,
0:14:07 > 0:14:09or "Holy of Holies",
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahri.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23This is the first time I've visited Hatshepsut's mortuary temple,
0:14:23 > 0:14:28and it makes this really...gleaming impression.
0:14:28 > 0:14:29It's ordered and clean,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32set against the wild, rugged disorder
0:14:32 > 0:14:36of those Theban mountains above. It's a wonderful contrast.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40And people often say that this anticipates classical architecture,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42Greek and Roman, that it looks quite similar,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45but, to me, for the first time that I've seen it for real,
0:14:45 > 0:14:46it feels so modern.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48This looks like a piece of
0:14:48 > 0:14:50fascist architecture from the 1930s.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52It could have been built
0:14:52 > 0:14:54within the last 100 years.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58'And, as you walk, there's this brilliant visual coup,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01'because the temple itself is arranged across these terraces
0:15:01 > 0:15:03'but, from a certain angle,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06'particularly when you're further back, you can't quite gauge that.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09'They stack on top of each other as though it's one big facade,
0:15:09 > 0:15:14'and then, as you approach, it unfurls and reveals itself.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18'It's like an Escher drawing, moving around in space before your eyes.
0:15:22 > 0:15:28'Every aspect of the temple boasts of her brilliance...
0:15:28 > 0:15:29'from the pillared porticoes
0:15:29 > 0:15:33'decorated with giant statues of Hatshepsut,
0:15:33 > 0:15:37'to the painted reliefs that extol her exploits.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41'I love this one depicting her mission
0:15:41 > 0:15:44'to the mysterious lost land of Punt.
0:15:47 > 0:15:53'But my favourite part of the temple is tucked away to one side,
0:15:53 > 0:15:58'an intimate chapel where she was free to be herself.'
0:16:13 > 0:16:16It's quite a relief to leave behind those sun-soaked,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19splendid public terraces of the temple outside and come in here
0:16:19 > 0:16:23into this quite intimate, much more feminine space, really.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27It's a chapel and it's dedicated to the mother goddess Hathor,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30who often appeared as a cow. And you see Hathor as you come in,
0:16:30 > 0:16:34her wide-eyed benign faces on the tops of those columns,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38and you find Hathor again in the inner sanctuary
0:16:38 > 0:16:40in these two really delightful
0:16:40 > 0:16:43painted relief scenes on either wall.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45Here she is, this scene dominated...
0:16:45 > 0:16:49the composition in thrall to this image of Hathor,
0:16:49 > 0:16:50the cow, the mother goddess.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54And over here is an infant, a baby being suckled.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56Now, that is Hatshepsut.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59She's claiming the gods as her parents.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02She had to present herself to the outside world
0:17:02 > 0:17:05as a bit of an iron lady, with this sort of tough carapace,
0:17:05 > 0:17:09but here, in this sacred inner space,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11she could afford to show that she was, of course,
0:17:11 > 0:17:13a woman of flesh and blood, as well,
0:17:13 > 0:17:15someone with softer feelings, softer emotions.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19Someone who could fall in love.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22And that's why it's quite revealing to find in here
0:17:22 > 0:17:25this little carving of a figure, a man.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29The hieroglyphs tell us his name, and he was called Senenmut.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40'Senenmut was Hatshepsut's right-hand man,
0:17:40 > 0:17:44'and he was responsible for this extraordinary temple.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53'We'll probably never know how the pharaoh came to recognise
0:17:53 > 0:17:56'the talents of this low-born genius,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59'but a sweltering cave above the temple contains evidence
0:17:59 > 0:18:04'of scurrilous rumours doing the rounds at the time.'
0:18:09 > 0:18:13This is an unfinished tomb cut out of the rock
0:18:13 > 0:18:15just above Hatshepsut's mortuary temple,
0:18:15 > 0:18:19and it was used as a kind of common room for the workers
0:18:19 > 0:18:21who actually built the temple.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24They came in here to shelter from the blazing sun,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26and, as they whiled away their time,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30they did doodles and made pieces of graffiti on the walls,
0:18:30 > 0:18:34many of them quite crude and sexually explicit.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37But there's one piece somewhere around in here...
0:18:37 > 0:18:40I think... Oh, maybe up here,
0:18:40 > 0:18:43if I can get up. There we go.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47This is the doodle that I wanted to find.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51It's two people, and they're having sex.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53The one on the left, a male figure,
0:18:53 > 0:18:57and the one to the right, apparently wearing the pharaoh's headdress.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02And lots of people think that this is a very crude cartoon
0:19:02 > 0:19:06of Senenmut having sex with Hatshepsut.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10This isn't a treasure of ancient Egypt, it's not a great work of art.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12You could just say this is a piece of misogyny,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16it's having a go at a woman in power,
0:19:16 > 0:19:18but it is very instructive and revealing,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21because, even if they weren't actually lovers,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24what this is saying is that, to ordinary people
0:19:24 > 0:19:26who lived under Hatshepsut,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29they felt that Senenmut really was the one in power.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33And isn't that an amazing thing? He came from totally humble origins,
0:19:33 > 0:19:40and yet he rose right to the very top of Egyptian society.
0:19:45 > 0:19:46'With Senenmut's help,
0:19:46 > 0:19:51'Hatshepsut had secured a glorious future for Egypt.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56'I want to get an overview of what she achieved.'
0:20:04 > 0:20:07Hatshepsut rediscovered the glories of ancient kingship.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11Pharaohs no longer looked at all careworn, or troubled, or haggard,
0:20:11 > 0:20:13because they were divine by their very birth.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16And ancient Thebes would go on to become this glittering centre
0:20:16 > 0:20:18of ancient Egypt.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22It was a kind of stage set for this expensive drama of one-upmanship
0:20:22 > 0:20:25as successive kings vied to commission art and architecture
0:20:25 > 0:20:31that was more colossal, almighty, and opulent than ever before.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49'By the 14th century BC, Egypt had settled into peacetime
0:20:49 > 0:20:52'and become a land of plenty.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03'The pharaoh could afford to take the art of monumental sculpture
0:21:03 > 0:21:05'to another level.'
0:21:11 > 0:21:12These two craggy figures
0:21:12 > 0:21:14are some of the most famous
0:21:14 > 0:21:16sights in the whole of Egypt,
0:21:16 > 0:21:17with their weather-beaten faces.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19They're known as the Colossi of Memnon
0:21:19 > 0:21:23and Memnon was an Ethiopian king.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26But they're not of this character Memnon at all.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30In fact, each of these quartzite colossal sculptures,
0:21:30 > 0:21:35weighing over 700 tonnes, five storeys, 60 feet high,
0:21:35 > 0:21:41depicts one of the most important, powerful pharaohs that ever lived,
0:21:41 > 0:21:43a man called Amenhotep III,
0:21:43 > 0:21:48who ruled over Egypt at the pinnacle of its golden age.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01'It's tempting to compare him to Louis XIV.
0:22:01 > 0:22:06'Amenhotep III was the Sun King of the ancient world.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11'He filled his deluxe palaces with distinctive statues of himself,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14'their tranquil, Zen-like features
0:22:14 > 0:22:18'now grace museums and galleries around the world.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31'I've come to Berlin to find my next treasure,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35'which suggests that even tiny objects in Amenhotep's court
0:22:35 > 0:22:39'could be miniature masterpieces in their own right.'
0:22:46 > 0:22:48This charming glass vessel
0:22:48 > 0:22:51is one of the masterpieces of the New Kingdom,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54and it's exactly the sort of thing that Amenhotep would have collected.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56And, looking at it, you can understand why,
0:22:56 > 0:22:58because it is really delightful.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02It's like the ancestor of Nemo and his animated fishy friends.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04It was once a cosmetics vessel.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07It probably contained perfume or lotion,
0:23:07 > 0:23:11and you can see that the rim of the vessel is actually formed
0:23:11 > 0:23:14by the lips of the fish, a tilapia nilotica,
0:23:14 > 0:23:19which was apparently associated with regeneration in the afterlife.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22The thing I find really striking about this is actually that blue,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25yellow, white decorative pattern,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28because the artist has got this very effective tension going on
0:23:28 > 0:23:31between the naturalism, where you can see wavy lines
0:23:31 > 0:23:33creating the impression of fish scales,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36but, at the same time, a sense of abstraction,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39because the pattern's slightly visually distorting.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43You can see, as well, these unusual hypnotic spirals
0:23:43 > 0:23:45for the fish's eyes.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49There's something still quite pliant and malleable about the glass,
0:23:49 > 0:23:51it has this liquid quality.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53And, to be honest,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57I have no idea how the person who made this could have made this.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00I'm blown away by the craftsmanship of this piece,
0:24:00 > 0:24:04especially when you consider that the technique of blowing glass
0:24:04 > 0:24:07wouldn't even be discovered for well over a millennium
0:24:07 > 0:24:10after this sweet little fish was made.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21'One expert has rediscovered how this fish was created.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29'Using an ancient technique known as core forming,
0:24:29 > 0:24:35'Mark Taylor reveals how molten sand could be transformed into art.'
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Now, the idea is that the glass is wrapped around a core
0:24:41 > 0:24:46in the shape of the inside of the fish, minus the tail and the fins.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50Can I try this? I'm desperate to have a go at this.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53- OK, that's yours.- Am I using this rod?- You're using that rod.
0:24:53 > 0:24:54This is cool here to the touch.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56Yeah, that's cold, that end.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58- That's it, just touch it down. - Just touch it?- Yes.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01Now, pull away, and turn with your left hand.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03Ooh, it's sticking there.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05Pull away a little bit with your right hand. That's it.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Just try and get a nice even trail around.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11Now, how do you stop this? It's getting thicker and thicker.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13- Just turn faster with your left hand.- This is the ugliest fish!
0:25:13 > 0:25:16Look at it!
0:25:16 > 0:25:19It's quite... I like this, though, it's good.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21Do you want to take back over for a bit?
0:25:21 > 0:25:23Cos I think otherwise we'll be here forever.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33- You make a lot of glass, Mark? - Quite a lot, yeah.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35How challenging is the Amarna fish?
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Erm, it is difficult, it is difficult.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41All core forming is difficult, it takes a lot of patience.
0:25:41 > 0:25:46And it takes a lot of concentration, and you get rather hot.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51I've got some thin rods of coloured glass,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55and I will heat those up and literally wind them around.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57It's like a piece of spaghetti.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10I'm just using the point of the blade
0:26:10 > 0:26:13and I'm just dragging it across the hot glass.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15It makes the fish come alive,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19- it suddenly looks as though you've got a fish with scales.- Yeah.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22How much admiration do you have, Mark,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25for these ancient Egyptian glass-makers?
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Well, to be honest, I've a lot of admiration for them.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32They're working with a fairly simple technology,
0:26:32 > 0:26:36using a material which can only be used at red heat,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38sort of, you know, 1,000 or so centigrade.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41This particular glass-maker who made this fish,
0:26:41 > 0:26:43he is an experienced glass-maker,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47he would've been probably doing this all his working life.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52Now, the tail is where it all goes a bit free-range?
0:26:52 > 0:26:55That's right. It's the bit I find most difficult.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01This is a tense moment, actually, of making the fish.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06There you go.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08- So, you just sort of bash it?- Literally, yes.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11I'm just trying to squeeze it into a basic tail shape.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16'This hot little fish will spend the night cooling down
0:27:16 > 0:27:19'before being reborn.'
0:27:21 > 0:27:24I have to say, I think this is superb.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26- Do you feel pleased with it? - I do, yes, yes.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29I think it's reasonably similar to the original one.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33Reasonably similar? It's pretty much identical!
0:27:33 > 0:27:37You could swap it in the case, and no-one would really know.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50'From skilled craftsmen to priests and bureaucrats,
0:27:50 > 0:27:54'Amenhotep required a vast workforce to maintain his kingdom.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00'As wealth trickled down during a reign lasting almost 40 years,
0:28:00 > 0:28:04'a new elite could commission splendours of their own
0:28:04 > 0:28:07'where it mattered most - in their tombs.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11'My next two treasures offer very different visions
0:28:11 > 0:28:13'of paradise in the afterlife.'
0:28:19 > 0:28:20This stretch of hills here
0:28:20 > 0:28:24just around the corner from Amenhotep III's grand temple,
0:28:24 > 0:28:25is where many of Egypt's
0:28:25 > 0:28:27lower-ranking officials were buried -
0:28:27 > 0:28:30civil servants, bureaucrats, administrators.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33And yet, some of the most refined tomb paintings
0:28:33 > 0:28:39anywhere in ancient Egypt were discovered...in those slopes.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47'11 fabulous fragments
0:28:47 > 0:28:50'from one of the most sublimely decorated tombs of them all
0:28:50 > 0:28:53'have ended up in the British Museum.'
0:29:02 > 0:29:04I'll tell you what I find extraordinary
0:29:04 > 0:29:06about the works of art in this gallery.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09We know who commissioned them, a man called Nebamun.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12But Nebamun wasn't really that important.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14In fact, he was a middle-ranking accountant,
0:29:14 > 0:29:16he was a bean counter, really,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19and yet, somehow, he persuaded one of the most important artists
0:29:19 > 0:29:23who ever worked in ancient Egypt to decorate his tomb chapel.
0:29:23 > 0:29:25The man who made these has been described
0:29:25 > 0:29:28as antiquities equivalent of Michelangelo.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31In this scene, which is one of the masterpieces of the tomb,
0:29:31 > 0:29:36he is out hunting with his family, and they're hunting birds.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40You can see lots of wildlife behind them, a whole panoply,
0:29:40 > 0:29:43a chaotic mass of activity, vegetation,
0:29:43 > 0:29:45butterflies fluttering through the air.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49It's a flurry of activity and observation of the natural world
0:29:49 > 0:29:52which you see everywhere in the tomb chapel paintings.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56Like here, you've got servants clutching these hares
0:29:56 > 0:29:58with very long velvety ears.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01Their fur has been brilliantly observed.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04But my favourite scene from the whole tomb chapel
0:30:04 > 0:30:06isn't actually that one, it's this.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08It's a big banquet scene
0:30:08 > 0:30:14and the whole piece is tinged with an unabashed eroticism,
0:30:14 > 0:30:16a sexiness which you see
0:30:16 > 0:30:20particularly in this amazing scene of servant girls dancing.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25It's almost, for Egyptian art, raucous.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29You can see that they are sinuous and supple and lithe
0:30:29 > 0:30:31and bending and moving and whirling.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34Getting a bit hot under the collar!
0:30:34 > 0:30:37And there's one woman who's playing this double flute and, again,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40this is very rare in Egyptian art
0:30:40 > 0:30:45because, rather than seeing people in that classic profile appearance,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49you have women here who appear frontal, they're face on,
0:30:49 > 0:30:53and their arms, in the case of the flute player's left arm,
0:30:53 > 0:30:55have actually been foreshortened.
0:30:55 > 0:30:56It's new.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00It feels completely unusual within the context of Egyptian art.
0:31:02 > 0:31:04It's a moment of sudden freedom
0:31:04 > 0:31:08that transports you to this wonderful party
0:31:08 > 0:31:12which Nebamun was hoping to host after his death.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25Having studied these paintings for years,
0:31:25 > 0:31:28Richard Parkinson understands their complexity.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34What's the significance of the marsh setting?
0:31:35 > 0:31:39The marsh landscape is very much equivalent
0:31:39 > 0:31:41to the European pastoral landscape.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44It's the idyllic primeval world.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46It's also where you go to have fun and sex.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49It has huge symbolic significance
0:31:49 > 0:31:54but, if we stress that too much,
0:31:54 > 0:31:55we run the risk of saying that
0:31:55 > 0:31:59when people go to the Sistine Chapel all they see is the theology.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01Compare it with a Renaissance Madonna.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05It is a religious work of art, it does show the Madonna,
0:32:05 > 0:32:10but it also displays the artist's individual artistry
0:32:10 > 0:32:13and it's exuberant, it's meant to be enjoyed.
0:32:13 > 0:32:14The butterflies -
0:32:14 > 0:32:16it's very hard to imagine
0:32:16 > 0:32:19he was thinking deep theological thoughts as he painted.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24You see somebody actively at work and that reminds us,
0:32:24 > 0:32:28not just of the humanity of the ancient Egyptians as a whole,
0:32:28 > 0:32:30but the humanity of this particular craftsman.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33- Do you think...?- He's anonymous but we know what he's doing,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35we know almost what he's thinking.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37Do you think that's quite surprising, perhaps,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40for some modern viewers when they think about Egyptian art?
0:32:40 > 0:32:42Because often it feels like it's quite monumental,
0:32:42 > 0:32:45it's quite static, it's there for eternity.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48It shouldn't, but I suspect it often does.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52I think we underestimate, always, these artists.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13Not to be outdone by a lowly grain accountant,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17the mayor of Thebes had his refined idea of paradise
0:33:17 > 0:33:19carved into the limestone cliffs.
0:33:37 > 0:33:38I guess I shouldn't be surprised
0:33:38 > 0:33:41that the highest-ranking official in the land could afford
0:33:41 > 0:33:42top-notch art in his tomb,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45but the carvings here are just breathtaking.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47They're so beautiful.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50Before you get into the nitty-gritty of who these people are,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53what they represent, what these hieroglyphs mean,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57you're just transported, dazzled by the artistry of the carving.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01For example, here, just take this little passage.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05There's an array of different marks -
0:34:05 > 0:34:08very precise, very accurate -
0:34:08 > 0:34:10to create all of this different patterning of the necklace
0:34:10 > 0:34:11and the various wigs
0:34:11 > 0:34:15and then this contrasting smooth flesh,
0:34:15 > 0:34:17with the modelling of the face,
0:34:17 > 0:34:20which has been created out of nothing more
0:34:20 > 0:34:23than just gently undulating surface of the stones -
0:34:23 > 0:34:26you get a sense of the crease between the jaw and the neck,
0:34:26 > 0:34:27and around the nose.
0:34:27 > 0:34:29And this, it's amazing in stone.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32He's managed to create the impression
0:34:32 > 0:34:36of translucent, diaphanous material out of solid rock.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43You can tell that these are glossy, fashionable courtiers, really,
0:34:43 > 0:34:47in all of their finery, with this black eyebrow and black eye
0:34:47 > 0:34:50which has been drawn on top of the limestone.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52And there's a debate about what's going on there
0:34:52 > 0:34:54because the tomb's unfinished
0:34:54 > 0:34:56and it could be that everything would have been painted,
0:34:56 > 0:35:01but there's another theory which is that this was the finished effect,
0:35:01 > 0:35:06and I like that because it gives it, I think, extra refinement,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09it has a minimalist splendour.
0:35:09 > 0:35:10The man who created this,
0:35:10 > 0:35:15the sculptor or sculptors who worked on it, they were master craftsmen.
0:35:15 > 0:35:16They've created a work of art
0:35:16 > 0:35:19with so much delicacy and poise
0:35:19 > 0:35:22and refinement and confidence.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25These are artists working at the very top of their game.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42Local artists continue to work with this soft limestone,
0:35:42 > 0:35:44inspired by the tombs around them.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02Have you ever almost finished and then made a horrible mistake?
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Of course, many times.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06And what do you do?
0:36:06 > 0:36:08If I try to repair it, I can repair it.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12If not, we can leave the piece
0:36:12 > 0:36:14and I forget that I...
0:36:14 > 0:36:15it was a piece we do.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19Yeah. Do you think I could have a go at doing some carving?
0:36:19 > 0:36:21- You?- Yes.- You want to try?
0:36:21 > 0:36:23Yeah, if that's all right.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30It is soft, isn't it?
0:36:30 > 0:36:34But doing this way will take more than one year.
0:36:36 > 0:36:37This is too timid, you mean?
0:36:37 > 0:36:39I'll try a bolder one, then.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45We'll just slightly narrow his arm.
0:36:48 > 0:36:49How's that?
0:36:49 > 0:36:53That's not bad, it's not the best line.
0:36:53 > 0:36:54Do you see any talent here?
0:36:56 > 0:36:58- Yes.- Such a bad lie!
0:37:12 > 0:37:14When Amenhotep III died,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18Egypt was a superpower the likes of which the world had never seen.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22But everything was about to change.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29When his son took the reins around 1350 BC,
0:37:29 > 0:37:31Egypt underwent a revolution.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38For my money, Amenhotep IV is easily the most fascinating
0:37:38 > 0:37:41and controversial figure in the whole of Egyptian history.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45He was a rebel, he was described as history's first individual
0:37:45 > 0:37:48and he became known as the heretic king.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50This place - the beautiful Karnak Temple -
0:37:50 > 0:37:53represents everything that he came to reject.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56He rejected the god Amun, to whom this temple is dedicated,
0:37:56 > 0:38:00he rejected the city of Thebes, the site of this hallowed ground,
0:38:00 > 0:38:02and, above all,
0:38:02 > 0:38:06he rejected the art and ideology of centuries of Egyptian kingship.
0:38:13 > 0:38:15Amenhotep IV instigated
0:38:15 > 0:38:18one of the greatest revolutions in the history of Egypt.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25He swept away Egypt's religion...
0:38:27 > 0:38:30..abandoned thousands of traditional gods...
0:38:32 > 0:38:34..and instead pledged allegiance
0:38:34 > 0:38:37to the one and only sun disc known as the Aten.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43He even changed his name, in deference, to Akhenaten,
0:38:43 > 0:38:45meaning Effective for the Aten.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51And his new religion required dramatically different art.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12This is one of the colossal statues from Karnak of Akhenaten
0:39:12 > 0:39:17and it's got to be one of the strangest works of art
0:39:17 > 0:39:22in all of the history of ancient Egypt because, ostensibly,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25he appears as a pharaoh in the traditional guise of a king.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28He's got the headdress, he's got the crook and the flail,
0:39:28 > 0:39:32he's wearing his kilt, it's a very frontal statue.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35But just look at it. It's bizarre.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37Something odd is going on here.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40Everything is distorted and elongated,
0:39:40 > 0:39:43it looks almost surreal, quite grotesque.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45If you look at his face, it's been stretched,
0:39:45 > 0:39:49he has a very long nose, very, very full lips,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53slightly slanting eyes set obliquely.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58And then his physique is...so strange.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02It's a sort of combination of a man and a woman.
0:40:02 > 0:40:03You have the shoulders,
0:40:03 > 0:40:07but then it really thins before swelling out to these broad hips.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11And this slight - well, not slight, not just a hint of a paunch -
0:40:11 > 0:40:14he's got a belly here which is sagging over the kilt
0:40:14 > 0:40:18going down to these plump legs. And it's bizarre.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21Who is the kind of man who wants to look like this?
0:40:21 > 0:40:24Why does he want to represent himself like this?
0:40:24 > 0:40:27Was he a visionary or was he completely insane?
0:40:27 > 0:40:30You look at this and you think this isn't just a megalomaniac
0:40:30 > 0:40:33who wants to look powerful, he looks bonkers really.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40This distorted statue isn't my treasure
0:40:40 > 0:40:43because it was only the beginning of Akhenaten's story.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51Five years into his reign, he gave up tinkering with old temples
0:40:51 > 0:40:53and abandoned Thebes altogether
0:40:53 > 0:40:57to build his ideal city 300 miles down river.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07Akhenaten was a man with a vision.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10He was also canny enough to realise that his grand plans
0:41:10 > 0:41:13for a new state religion dedicated to the sun disc Aten
0:41:13 > 0:41:15stood little chance of flourishing
0:41:15 > 0:41:18in the dynastic centre of the new kingdom, Thebes,
0:41:18 > 0:41:20because it was so strongly associated
0:41:20 > 0:41:21with another god altogether - Amun.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24In other words he needed a new royal capital.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26And that's where I'm heading now.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42He selected a barren strip of desert
0:41:42 > 0:41:46and named his settlement Akhetaten - modern-day Amarna.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50It might not look like much today,
0:41:50 > 0:41:54but this city once stretched for 10 kilometres.
0:41:54 > 0:41:55It was a purpose-built metropolis
0:41:55 > 0:41:59designed to meet Akhenaten's exacting standards.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06It's staggering really to think that this vast, stricken dust bowl
0:42:06 > 0:42:10was once a busy city inhabited by around 30,000 people.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13And it was designed as a sort of monumental sun trap.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17There were these open air temples that were filled with food offerings
0:42:17 > 0:42:21in honour of the great sun disc Aten.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23Akhenaten's new religion must have seemed,
0:42:23 > 0:42:26in many ways, pretty strange and austere,
0:42:26 > 0:42:31but in his odd new world, stark and almost bleak,
0:42:31 > 0:42:35there was still ample room for all sorts of ceremony and splendour.
0:42:47 > 0:42:49For the last 100 years,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52this wasteland has proved a treasure trove.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56The objects found beneath the sands
0:42:56 > 0:43:00reveal the scope of Akhenaten's grand plans.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06On his orders, the art of the city was evolving at breakneck speed
0:43:06 > 0:43:10and his new style could be seen all over town.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22This is a limestone relief from a private house in Amarna
0:43:22 > 0:43:25and it contains many of the distinctive features
0:43:25 > 0:43:26of art under Akhenaten.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28You've got the distorted anatomies,
0:43:28 > 0:43:30protruding buttocks,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33brittle, narrow ankles and wrists,
0:43:33 > 0:43:35swelling bellies,
0:43:35 > 0:43:37elongated bony figures.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41And then there's the sun disc with its rays ending in human hands.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44But there's something else here, something new
0:43:44 > 0:43:47because the scene is a domestic scene
0:43:47 > 0:43:53in which Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti are relaxing,
0:43:53 > 0:43:55playing with their daughters, three of them.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58You can see Akhenaten sitting on a stool to the left
0:43:58 > 0:44:00and he's holding out an earring
0:44:00 > 0:44:03which forms a real focal point of the composition
0:44:03 > 0:44:06and, beneath, his eldest daughter, the largest one,
0:44:06 > 0:44:07reaches up to grab it
0:44:07 > 0:44:10with a bit of a smile on her face.
0:44:10 > 0:44:11It's a moment of play.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15And then to the right, Nefertiti's also lounging on a stool
0:44:15 > 0:44:18and two of her daughters are on her lap.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20And it's sweet. And I love it
0:44:20 > 0:44:25because so much Egyptian art was about lasting for ever,
0:44:25 > 0:44:27it was built for eternity, it was about stability,
0:44:27 > 0:44:30but here we find just a transitory moment.
0:44:30 > 0:44:31It's an impression.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35There's a sense that we've wandered into an apartment of the palace
0:44:35 > 0:44:39and come upon the king and the queen and their family
0:44:39 > 0:44:42in a moment of relaxation as if they weren't expecting us.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45It's completely unprecedented in Egyptian art.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57Today, the startling finds from Amarna
0:44:57 > 0:44:59are scattered all over the world.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05My next treasure now resides in Berlin.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11It is the great masterpiece of Egyptian art.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20The bust of Akhenaten's consort, Queen Nefertiti.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34So here she is -
0:45:34 > 0:45:38the second most famous face of antiquity after Tutankhamun.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41This painted limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti
0:45:41 > 0:45:44wearing this enormous, blue, flat-topped headdress
0:45:44 > 0:45:47is actually a model from the workshop of a sculptor.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50We actually know his name, he was called Thutmose.
0:45:50 > 0:45:51And it's possible
0:45:51 > 0:45:54that the eye for the left socket was never even made at all
0:45:54 > 0:45:57because, in Egyptian art, figures are usually seen in profile
0:45:57 > 0:45:59facing towards the right,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02so it would have been redundant to finish off that side of the head.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06And compared with those sculptures of her husband in Karnak,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09which are quite grotesque, quite distorted, it is immediately obvious
0:46:09 > 0:46:13that Nefertiti is the epitome of elegance and purity,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16beauty and order and proportion.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18We don't know much about Thutmose,
0:46:18 > 0:46:20but we know that he was a genius of design
0:46:20 > 0:46:22because he has composed this sculpture
0:46:22 > 0:46:26using very strong, clear geometric shapes
0:46:26 > 0:46:29like that inverted pyramid of the headdress, which rockets down
0:46:29 > 0:46:33in perfect alignment with the forehead and with the cheekbones,
0:46:33 > 0:46:35right down towards the point of her chin.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39Then offsetting that, you have this spindly different axis of the neck
0:46:39 > 0:46:42which looks like it couldn't possibly bear the weight above
0:46:42 > 0:46:47and it creates this beautiful effect of her face gently bobbing about
0:46:47 > 0:46:48like, I don't know,
0:46:48 > 0:46:52a poppy bloom swaying gently in the wind on a slender stem.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54Compared with Akhenaten
0:46:54 > 0:46:57she's like this gentle, fragrant gust of midsummer.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01But I wonder whether she's almost too perfect
0:47:01 > 0:47:05because her skin is stretched right across the skull
0:47:05 > 0:47:08and if you have a look down at the base of her neck,
0:47:08 > 0:47:11you can see these very taut tendons
0:47:11 > 0:47:15and she appears like a very powerful woman in middle age,
0:47:15 > 0:47:17but a woman who has had quite a lot of work done,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19she's had a few nips and tucks.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21The only conversation she hasn't had
0:47:21 > 0:47:26is the one with her optometrist about her left eye.
0:47:26 > 0:47:27It's strange
0:47:27 > 0:47:32because she is always hailed as the vision of ancient Egyptian beauty,
0:47:32 > 0:47:33but the more I look at her,
0:47:33 > 0:47:35the more I see something fraught
0:47:35 > 0:47:37and, if that's right, it kind of makes sense
0:47:37 > 0:47:39because, in real life,
0:47:39 > 0:47:42Nefertiti was this leading player in the great revolutionary drama
0:47:42 > 0:47:46that Akhenaten was enacting upon the national stage
0:47:46 > 0:47:50and that must have come with its own immense pressures.
0:47:50 > 0:47:55So, here, she appears as if she is desperately keeping up appearances
0:47:55 > 0:47:59at the same time as suffering from epoch-changing stress.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01The more I look at this bust,
0:48:01 > 0:48:05the more I wonder whether her neck is, in fact, actually about to snap.
0:48:16 > 0:48:17From the start,
0:48:17 > 0:48:21there were violent palpitations within Amarna's dark heart.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28It's only now that archaeologists are beginning to understand
0:48:28 > 0:48:32why Akhenaten's one-man revolution was doomed to fail.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42Anna Stevens is excavating the workers' tombs here.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49There are a lot of signs here of joint disease,
0:48:49 > 0:48:54so people were carrying loads that were too heavy for the skeleton.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56There are a lot of healed fractures as well.
0:48:56 > 0:49:00They could be the people who were quarrying the stone for Akhenaten,
0:49:00 > 0:49:01carting the stone down to the city
0:49:01 > 0:49:03and erecting his temples and palaces.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06So tell me about some of the things that you've found in the graves,
0:49:06 > 0:49:08aside from the human remains.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12One of the nicest things we find are pieces of jewellery.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14I don't know if you can make out the figure?
0:49:14 > 0:49:17I can, I know him, he's called Bes.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19He is my favourite Egyptian god.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25- I like that.- This is a superb piece, really lovely.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28The detail on this piece is extraordinary.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30You can see parts of his beard.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33Are they lion ears, cat ears coming out the side?
0:49:33 > 0:49:35And is that a tail or a big penis?
0:49:35 > 0:49:37I think that's probably a tail.
0:49:37 > 0:49:38So this was quite common?
0:49:38 > 0:49:40Very common. Yes.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43That's interesting because you sort of have this vision of Amarna
0:49:43 > 0:49:45as being this new religious space
0:49:45 > 0:49:49where it was all about worshipping the sun disc, but you're saying
0:49:49 > 0:49:51that lots of ordinary people were still worshipping
0:49:51 > 0:49:54- common gods that had been worshipped for centuries?- Absolutely.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57There was a tremendously strong current of domestic worship
0:49:57 > 0:50:00that continued throughout the Amarna period.
0:50:00 > 0:50:05There's not a single representation of the sun disc at the cemetery,
0:50:05 > 0:50:11nor mention of Akhenaten on finger rings or scarabs or anything,
0:50:11 > 0:50:13this was life continuing as normal.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16What does that tell us about his power?
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Or what does it tell of the interest of the ordinary people of Amarna
0:50:19 > 0:50:21in the king and in his revolution?
0:50:32 > 0:50:33Without the support of the people,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36there was nobody to uphold Akhenaten's vision
0:50:36 > 0:50:39when he died after less than two decades on the throne
0:50:39 > 0:50:43and his revolution came crashing to an end.
0:50:47 > 0:50:52He's gone down in history as a madman, a megalomaniac and a tyrant
0:50:52 > 0:50:55but, for me, he was a powerful and brave reformer.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02I have to admit I find the story of Akhenaten completely thrilling.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04He's such a compelling figure.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08He was a visionary and a rebel and he was also a prophet of sorts.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11Just imagine what would have happened if his new religion -
0:51:11 > 0:51:13worshipping the Aten, the sun disc - had taken hold.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15Today, maybe we'd talk about Atenism
0:51:15 > 0:51:19in the same breath as we mention other great monotheistic faiths
0:51:19 > 0:51:21like Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24Ultimately his vision burned just too brightly,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27it was too fierce to connect with ordinary people.
0:51:27 > 0:51:32The starkness and austerity of that inscrutable, omnipotent sun disc
0:51:32 > 0:51:34blazing down on the people below -
0:51:34 > 0:51:37that must have seemed ultimately to the ancient Egyptians
0:51:37 > 0:51:40as much a kind of death star as a giver of life.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52Shortly after Akhenaten died,
0:51:52 > 0:51:55his city was abandoned by Egypt's new ruler -
0:51:55 > 0:51:57the child pharaoh Tutankhaten.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02Akhenaten's son was installed on the throne at the tender age of nine.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08Unlike his father who'd initiated a revolution,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12Tutankhaten set about a programme of restoration.
0:52:12 > 0:52:13He issued a proclamation
0:52:13 > 0:52:16lamenting the fact that the gods had abandoned Egypt.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19He boasted that he rebuilt what was ruined
0:52:19 > 0:52:21and drove away chaos throughout the two lands.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25His reign witnessed the rebirth of traditional Egyptian culture
0:52:25 > 0:52:27and a revival of the gods of the old.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30In fact, in deference to the god Amun,
0:52:30 > 0:52:33he even changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46When this tomb was discovered in 1922,
0:52:46 > 0:52:50the name Tutankhamun became known the world over...
0:52:54 > 0:52:55..and the art that was buried with him
0:52:55 > 0:52:59is now as recognisable as any Western masterpiece.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05It was a media sensation
0:53:05 > 0:53:09as the cameras kept rolling to capture the glamour of the find.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14And nobody was disappointed.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38This is quite a strange sensation
0:53:38 > 0:53:42because Tutankhamun is the most famous of all the pharaohs,
0:53:42 > 0:53:47he's this towering figure in history and yet his tomb's tiny.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51He didn't get a lot of real estate here in the Valley of the Kings.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53This was the antechamber.
0:53:53 > 0:53:54I've seen photographs of it,
0:53:54 > 0:53:57it looked a bit like a kind of junk shop, a flea market.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59It was just full of bits, bits and bobs,
0:53:59 > 0:54:01like a very rich granny's attic or something.
0:54:04 > 0:54:06This is him.
0:54:06 > 0:54:07This is genuinely him.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12It's like finding the portrait of Dorian Gray hidden in the attic.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17It's a slightly ignominious tomb anyway in here now.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19I mean, the poor guy's left to rest beneath...
0:54:19 > 0:54:24in this rock-cut tomb with a sort of CCTV camera looking at him,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27a few spiders' webs.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33I feel like he deserves a sort of gentler resting place.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42The treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb
0:54:42 > 0:54:44are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49The quantity of the work as well as its quality is astounding.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55There can be no doubt that this was the zenith of Egypt's golden age.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02But what really fascinates me is that
0:55:02 > 0:55:05despite attempts to wipe Akhenaten out of history,
0:55:05 > 0:55:07the art of Tutankhamun reveals
0:55:07 > 0:55:11that at least some of his father's innovations would live for ever.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19I think this is an exquisite piece of craftsmanship.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22It shows the king hunting hippopotami
0:55:22 > 0:55:26on top of, not a surfboard, but a boat made of papyrus stems.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29It's beautifully made.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32It's carved in wood and then gilded.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35It's very detailed, very precise.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38It's a beautiful, naturalistic representation as well.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41There's something of the art of his father's regime here -
0:55:41 > 0:55:46a certain swelling to the belly, a slight fleshiness to the lips.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48And it's quite rare to find
0:55:48 > 0:55:51a statue of a king or a queen in the round doing something.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53That's why I find this quite exciting
0:55:53 > 0:55:55from an art historical point of view,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58because so much Egyptian statuary, particularly in stone,
0:55:58 > 0:56:01is quite stiff and frontal, quite formal.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03But here, you have something light,
0:56:03 > 0:56:06something that feels like he could almost be surfing.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08That he's in the moment.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21My final treasure is perhaps a little obvious
0:56:21 > 0:56:22but still utterly irresistible.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31I wonder, though, whether it is possible to see a work of art
0:56:31 > 0:56:35as famous as the golden mask of Tutankhamun with fresh eyes.
0:56:40 > 0:56:41The mask of Tutankhamun
0:56:41 > 0:56:44isn't just the most famous face of antiquity,
0:56:44 > 0:56:47it's arguably the most famous face of all time.
0:56:47 > 0:56:48Fashioned from solid gold
0:56:48 > 0:56:51and decorated with precious stones and coloured glass,
0:56:51 > 0:56:55it's become an emblem of the exoticism, the opulence
0:56:55 > 0:56:57and the quality of ancient Egyptian art.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01But for me, this mask is dazzling in a double sense.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03It's spectacular, but it's also blinding.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06And that's because in historical terms,
0:57:06 > 0:57:08Tutankhamun was a bit of a non-entity.
0:57:08 > 0:57:13He was this weakling boy king who didn't make it out of his teens.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16So his reputation as the most famous pharaoh of them all
0:57:16 > 0:57:20is the result of the transformative power of art.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23Tutankhamun conquered eternity not because of his own exploits,
0:57:23 > 0:57:27but because the master craftsmen who worked for him
0:57:27 > 0:57:29during the golden age of ancient Egyptian art
0:57:29 > 0:57:33were capable of summoning potent images of kingship like this
0:57:33 > 0:57:35that have never been surpassed.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41I'm at the end of my journey through Egypt's golden age
0:57:41 > 0:57:44and I'm surprised and moved by what I've seen.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47Beneath the carapace of glitz and sheen
0:57:47 > 0:57:51is a touching and occasionally vulnerable human spirit.
0:57:53 > 0:57:55During the Middle and the New Kingdoms,
0:57:55 > 0:57:58Ancient Egyptian art reached uncharted summits
0:57:58 > 0:58:00of luxury and magnificence.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04But I've discovered something else, something a little bit less shiny -
0:58:04 > 0:58:06the inner thoughts of Senwosret III,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09the private spaces of King Hatshepsut,
0:58:09 > 0:58:13the intimate, informal domestic scenes of Akhenaten.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17Before I came to Egypt, I stared into the face of Tutankhamun
0:58:17 > 0:58:19and I saw a rigid mask of power.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22But now I sense something a little softer and more vulnerable as well
0:58:22 > 0:58:26because, ultimately, there's an affecting naturalism to this mask.
0:58:26 > 0:58:30It isn't just the image of a king, it's also the portrait of a boy.
0:58:38 > 0:58:40Next time - the decline of a superpower.
0:58:42 > 0:58:45Egypt succumbs to economic strife and foreign invasion...
0:58:47 > 0:58:51..but its art follows daring and exciting new directions.