Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb

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source: Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb

I'm disappointed with SECRETS OF THE SAQQARA TOMB, mainly because the vaunted secrets remain ... well ... secrets. What little "new" information this documentary contains is scattered and disorganized. There are some nice visuals, but in the absence of explanation and context, viewers don't learn much. It's frustrating to watch a documentary and come away with far more questions than answers. Aside from some rank speculation about a possible malaria epidemic (the first in known history were it proved) and the discovery of a mummified lion cub, what's really new here? What new information can we glean from the tomb's pristine state? What's the full story the hieroglyphics tell rather than just the mystery they present regarding for whom the tomb was originally intended? Where does this find fit within the timeline of world and Egyptian history, and how does it enlighten us about contemporaneous Egyptian culture? Unlike most documentaries of its kind, there is precious little in the way of expository animation and illustration, and it's sorely missed. How would the tomb complex and its environs have appeared at the time of completion? What would its inhabitants have looked like? What are the tomb's dimensions? Where, specifically, is it located and where is it in relation to more famous sites? Should the viewer have to stop the movie to consult a map? (I did.) Moreover, how are archaelogists applying scientific technologies, both old and new, and what exciting things do those technologies reveal? Cat mummy X-rays are great, but isn't there more? Bottom line: I don't know, and I ought to after investing two hours in a documentary film. Unfortunately, the focus of this documentary was the archeologists and not the artifacts, and that's not what was promised. The workers' story might have been an interesting aside, but no more than an aside, were it somehow related to class and labor among the ancients. The poor and seemingly unsafe conditions under which the diggers are toiling today echo what we know about class and labor in ancient Egypt, and this irony is wholly lost on the filmmakers. I'm by no means an expert in archaeology, but it bears mentioning here that the methodology I saw in this film seems sloppy and doesn't align with the methodology I've seen in other documentaries about Egyptian antiquities. Perhaps worst of all, this documentary occasionally loses all semblance of discipline and wanders into pure irrelevance. Do we really need no know how much an archeologist loves his 4-year-old daughter, and how his fear of losing her makes him "exactly the same" as an ancient Egyptian? No, because he's really not, and we already know the collective pathos surrounding the loss of a child is universal. Is one archeologist's quaint story about being rejected by his pet cats after unearthing a pile of mummified felines significant? I'll go out on a limb and say it's not only insignificant, but it's also of questionable veracity. Perhaps, oddly enough, the finding of the Saqqara Tomb hasn't aged enough to support a documentary film yet. One hopes we'll learn more ... in time.