Decrypting the Secret Hieroglyphs: the Pyramid of Pepi II

November 1, 2023 2:32 PM

Decoding Saqqara, the Secret Hieroglyphs of the Pyramids [50m] is a documentary that sort of takes its time. It starts with describing Egypt and pyramids, and then various burial sites, and then it gets into its meat. Cutting edge technology that are used to create views of the necropolis and many other technologies including a lot of human effort, and suddenly they're rebuilding a wall destroyed millennia ago and reading the text off of it. It's a pretty astounding use of technology to recover lost history.
posted by hippybear (7 comments total)

👍👍👍. I've visited Saqqara but this is a great explanation with history.
posted by bluesky43 at 3:45 PM on November 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

bluesky43: you have gained my eternal respect for being the first person to post a response to a video I've posted who has, based on the time from posting to time in response, to possibly have watched the entire video.

The part of this where they start fitting the puzzle pieces together raised the hair on the back of my neck.

I'm just sad they never actually tell us what the text says en toto.
posted by hippybear at 3:52 PM on November 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

:). It was a great video! (and I had a bit of time, so yep, start to finish). Yeah, and sifting through all of the sand to find the itsy bitsy pieces. I also really liked the discussion of why the hieroglyphs were painted green (life!) and the explanation as to why the elephant had part of its trunk and back half purposely obscured. I didn't know, despite touring many sites with hieroglyphs in Egypt that the magical spells in the tombs could refer to animals that would come to life. Super interesting - thanks for the post.
posted by bluesky43 at 5:23 PM on November 1, 2023

That was really interesting. I hadn't thought about some of the new ways they're using technology to piece things back together.
posted by belladonna at 6:39 PM on November 1, 2023

Every time I see people doing reconstruction and restoration work on artifacts my anxiety levels start climbing. I cannot for the life of me imagine handling something that irreplaceable and not doom visualizin!
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:47 AM on November 2, 2023

Interesting video - thanks for the post!
posted by Quietgal at 1:59 PM on November 3, 2023

Not to piggyback but if you like this, especially the puzzle pieces falling into place, I highly recommend the Nova special "Cracking The Maya Code." The cast of characters are compelling raconteurs and it delivers quite a few moments of frisson.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 8:10 AM on November 7, 2023