Movie review - "Mummies: Tales from the Egyptian Crypt" disc two

Movie review number 43

PLOT

The second disc of this documentary is about hieroglyphics and Tutankhamun.  The first part, hieroglyphics, is really interesting - apparently there's two types of writing used in Ancient Egypt: hieratics (like handwriting) and hieroglyphics (like printed words - that's what you see carved into the statues, tombs and so on)  Only 1 or 2% of Ancient Egyptians could write one or the other...... but the ones that could write hieratics couldn't always read hieroglyphics!  So when somebody wanted carving on a wall for a tomb, one scribe would write it out in hieratics (handwritten on papyrus), then another artisan would write out on the walls what he thought the hieroglyphic "translation" would be, then another artisan would come round and correct it!!!!  And THEN it would get carved into the walls!!!  And even then you still sometimes see corrected carvings!

The second part was about the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 by Howard Carter.  He was being funded by Lord Carnarvon who, after five years of searching wanted to give up and go home.  Howard Carter said oh no I'll fund one more year and if we find anything you can have it.  So Lord C said OK, I'll fund another year....... and a few months later, they found the tomb entrance!  It explains what was found in the tomb - and that it may have been built for someone else entirely, since it's so small for a King - and how "The Curse Of The Mummy" came about (all a pile of tosh, by the way!!) and goes on to talk of the famous Tutankhamun exhibition at the British Museum.  They also talk about another big tomb that's been found in 1995 they think is for Ramses and all of his 48 children!  (it's a mausoleum rather than a tomb!)

This one is very interesting.

RECOMMENDED

Oh yes indeed!

SCORE
9 out of 10 - they still used the annoying echo effect on occasion!

SCOOBY SNACKS
Figs, dates and camel milk.

Movie review - "Mummies: Tales from the Egyptian Crypt" disc one

Movie review number 41

PLOT

This is a two disc DVD set I bought at the British Museum in London after seeing their Mummies expedition back in March.  It's narrated by actor Frank Langella.  The first disc is all about the Pyramids and the Sphinx and discusses how mummies came to exist as originally bodies were simply buried in the sand and it was the natural drying from the environment that preserved them so well.  It goes on to tell of how the embalming system was created, and incorporated into the religious thinking and how tombs were initially created as "bench like" buildings.  One of the pharoahs had the bench like tombs built one on top of the other, resulting in the stepped pyramid (the first pyramid built in Egypt) which then were later recreated into the smooth sided pyramids of Giza for other pharoahs.

The second part of disc one talked about the Sphinx, and how it the head was based on one of the pharoahs and still had some of the paint and glazes showing.  Unfortunately, the directors of this part decided to over-use the echo chamber on some of the period quotations which is just downright annoying - for those who are in use of hearing aids this could actually prevent hearing the words spoken.

Otherwise, this was a very interesting dvd - I'll review the second disc later!

RECOMMENDED

For those interested in ancient history/archaeology, this would be an interesting purchase to make.

SCORE
Disc one, six out of ten.  The echo drags it down from an eight!!

SCOOBY SNACKS
Dates and figs and a milkshake (flavour, viewers choice!)