Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb (2020) User Reviews

Better than most people give it credit for

[metallifan-62259 · 8/10 · 28 May 2021]

People who are giving this bad reviews apparently have never watched very many Egyptian archeology programs on tv. First about the gloves everyone keeps griping about. It's 95° and they can't keep gloves on tut while entire time because then their hands would sweat and could bust open and cause even more issues. Plus I saw SEVERAL scenes where gloves were being used. Then there is the opening of coffins out on the open. The head of Egyptian antiquities himself even stated that sometimes those coffins were empty and they checked then to make sure that a mummy was inside. Apparently no-one watched the special with Josh Gates and Zahi Hawass when they opened a coffin while it was still in the tomb. Pretty standard for most Egyptian archeology shows that I watched. Letting the bones out in the crypt was another complaint. They were covered in dirt to begin with and in poor condition. Laying them out isn't going to hurt them any more than they already have. My only gripeis about the way they were handling the mummified animals.

However...

Some people complained about the lack of a narrator made the documentary d disjointed and confusing and didn't fill in extra information. I felt this was actually very refreshing. Never before did I ever get to hear the individual workers talk about their work, discuss their family doing this work for at least four generations, how many of them depended on this work every digging season, or show them teaching their children the work too. It was nice to get their point of views on what they were doing and hearing what it meant to them personally to be there. Seeing their everyday mundane conversations and joking with each other as they worked was wonderful to witness. I honestly don't get how they thought anything was "staged". They probably only filmed when things were found or cleaned up enough for the audience to see what was there. Seeing things as they were found was awesome. You have to remember that what we got to see was probably trimmed down from hundreds or even thousands of hours of filming. We were shown what an archeological dig in Egypt was really all about without the annoyance of a narrator who was never there nor bogged down by wasted minutes of people documenting the finds. It was up close and personal from the actual workers point of view which was beautiful and awesome.

Very interesting but could have been better!

[pritol · 7/10 · 8 November 2020]

Some parts about the discovery of the tomb and the artefacts inside were absolutely fascinating!

However I feel that for the run time, it doesn't ever actually explain or tell you all that much... There's nothing about the history of the area, what they are doing at the site, nothing to create context.

However some genuine archaeological firsts are made and that's very interesting, as is just physically being able to see "live" new discoveries being made / unearthed.

I enjoyed it because I love ancient history, but if you're new to it, you'll find this pretty boring!

pretty amazing

[djurrepower · 8/10 · 30 October 2020]

Its really cool to get a real time experience of an excavation site. pretty unfiltered too, without too much overproduction. its shows some of the step by step method of working. havent seen much movies/docu that show this in the same detail, prob becauze this was such a rare occasion.

8/10: props

I was going to give it a 10

[hasalreadybeentaken · 7/10 · 15 November 2020]

I just finished watching, and I rushed here to givee it a 10. I found the documentary amazing, I loved the people that worked in the site, a lot of passion to the work, and emotion. I always loved Egyptian culture and history, especially ancient. But then, I read some reviews talking about the archeologycal methods applied, about how they didn't wear gloves for example, and exposing the mummy etc. I actually thought it was weird they touched the artifacts and bones with their bare hands, but I simply didn't mind, I thought "well, they know better". But it turns out they didnt. Anyway, I really liked the film.

What they got right.

[AJ_McAninch · 10/10 · 1 November 2020]

Fascinating documentary with terrific archaeological discoveries. What I liked about this one is the joy of the scientists and their workers as well as the compassion and respect they all held for the long-dead Egyptians. At one point, one of the women scientists says science had it wrong before: the beautiful paintings and statues are not about their ancestors' lives but about their dreams....Because they believed more in the afterlife than they did in the earthly life. Simple yet poignant.

seems to be based on some actual history

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 13 April 2021]

Interesting. And annoying. Another grand tomb, discovered quite near the giant pyramids of Giza. The priest of Cats! With mystery and intrigue along the way. But.. WHY do they have white captions on white backgrounds?? I tried turning on additional captions, but the version I was viewing did not seem to have them embedded. Frustrating. I missed about half of what was going on. And did it have to be so LONG? Almost two hours. Of course, a recent discovery of an egyptian tomb in such complete, undisturbed condition is pretty amazing. Produced by Lion and At-Land Productions, it appears netflix is the only distributor. Interesting but frustrating. Searching for burial chamber discoveries, I find several from february and march of 2018, where they think that this may be the tomb of the priestess Hetpet and her family. Hmmm... and why are they disregarding to many archy rules like wearing gloves when they touch newly found items, and opening things out in the bright sunlight, where they will be quickly degraded? Directed by James Tovell, known for his documentaries. It's entertaining. And long. And very non scientific.

Immersive, true grit wonderment of Egyptology in motion.

[kameron-93828 · 9/10 · 28 October 2020]

.....just finished watching a highly anticipated Netflix documentary related to the 2019 archaeological excavations in the Saqqara necropolis. Saqqara is renowned as the site of the step pyramid and is surrounded by a virtual city of the dead dedicated to human and animal burials. The depth of digging and conservation to be done will take at least another two centuries to get anywhere near knowing the sheer scale of the buried sites.

This documentary is perhaps the most arousing cinematic communication of the true grit and wonderment of archaeology since John Romer's Ancient lives. The music was subtle and complimented the scenes beautifully. The reverence of the Egyptian archaeologists for their heritage was palpable however I saw a little rough handling here and there that could have been avoided. Time was a luxury the huge state funded team did not have.

A certain unique animal mummy could have had the dignity of a plastic crate large enough to hold him. They cut that scene the moment it was plonked into an ill fitting crate. I guess I'm just dreaming of what I would do in that situation as handling my own mummified cat on the rare times she is moved is something of special significance to me.

Watch this documentary and be patient. It takes time to excavate and the extra time this doco takes to tell the story lets the story lap at your feet like a tide of intrigue until you are totally immersed in an ancient world.

Overdone

[dc87-52-12880 · 6/10 · 5 November 2020]

So sad that it's overdone. Real facts and a real discovery...but although this is real, this documentary makes it looks fake,

Incredible

[hemangblack · 10/10 · 28 October 2020]

Watching a documentary about ancient history is always a treat. However this one takes you to a ride of lots of emotions, excitement and surprises throughout the whole film. This one is a must watch.

Polishing to familiarity

[chaos-rampant · 10 November 2020]

The basic mode of Netflix, as I'm discovering lately, is a kind of softly produced cable TV with inclusive values. The target is a broad audience that a while ago would have simply watched what was on TV.

Here's the softening effect. In a documentary about important archeological discovery, we have lush, polished images of the interior of the tomb as if Russell Crowe was about to walk in for a scene. I miss an eye that actually discovers as they did, the awe of having a presence.

It's the same thrill that tickles archeologists the world over as they dig; not just acquiring knowledge of distant mores of life, the way a biologist would, but standing in the middle of tangible things that suggest world, broaden horizon. You'll notice this is a recurring fascination in the film. People really stood here, touched this, played this ancient board game that no one has touched for 4000 years. The mummy laying before us is an actual person from ancient Egypt. It' vividly shows how objects are enlivened by the world they suggest. So it defeats the whole point to give us images with the same feel as the movie version.

And this softening extends in how we come around to discover; we want to find out the 'story' behind this place, archeologists explain to us time and again. There are four burial shafts inside the tomb, and once we dig down to the bottom, we discover ordinary human beings who loved and suffered; an ailing father who probably had to bury his children. Instead I find myself captivated more by the notion of world these people inhabited, which is completely unlike ours today; the complete certainty of living in world that is just a first life that extends into next, a whole life building up to this rocketing of the body in the afterlife.

These are not just decorations on walls, one of the archeologists explains to us. They're 'dreams'. More akin to film than painting, I would add, how we peruse film. Will we ever again be able to be moved to such deep belief as these people? Rather than the overt familiarizing of whether or not someone died from malaria, or did they have lion cubs in Egypt, there's a more interesting one here about how we wave abstract worlds into being.

Good documentary

[Calicodreamin · 7/10 · 6 November 2020]

An interesting documentary on the finds at saqqara, providing good background information and visuals. Very good quality and close-ups, felt like you were there. An enjoyable watch.

Incredible.

[Azanspy · 9/10 · 30 October 2020]

This was very impressive. Not too long, not too short and explains things how it should be explained. I think this is how a good documentary should look like. Watching this gives us chills when the archeologists find something new about the mummy or any new objects. It makes us think for a lot of time what would have been to live in that era. It's incredible. And we may never find the whole answer.

Why do we do this?

[Msbnitski · 7/10 · 29 October 2020]

I understand the need to know what people went through 3 to 4 thousand or more years ago. What I will never understand is why it's so important to desecrate a persons grave? Why do we feel the need to take apart a final resting place that it is very obvious that those people wanted to live beyond, into the afterlife? Why? The wall of hieroglyphics says a lot. It tells their story.

Okay, I'm someone working on this discovery and recovery for historic proportions. I have lived my life in this region as my forefathers have. Don't you think that the people digging through this persons grave site ask themselves why are we disturbing this sacred ground? To what purpose? Money, fame, discovery to find something new?

I watch these programs all of the time and again, I ask myself this same question, why are we doing this? To what purpose does this negate the practice of grave robbers and let the future disrupt our ancestors?

I hope that by disrupting these tombs it is worth the basis of explaining the reason why we do this? Again, why?

As far as another movie of grave disruption is concerned, I give it my best. Same destruction, different part of the desert. I hope it is worth it.

Very popularised 'set up', not great archaeological method

[supertaz80 · 5/10 · 1 November 2020]

It's a Netflix show so we should probably expect entertainment over rigorous archaeology, however.... this show was problematic.

To start with, it's a highly interesting discovery and site. Theres a lot of interesting finds that are significant for history of Egypt especially in the tomb of Wahtye. As another reviewer said, the excavators seem very enthusiastic and keen- and as Egyptians, so they should be. I liked that Egyptians were involved in this dig, and that it was filmed largely in Arabic. This is their nations history, so that's important and refreshing.

However!

There were so many elements that were questionable in terms of history and archaeology.

* the forced 'conspiracy' theory is a stretch. Trying not to add a spoiler- the 'conspiracy' around the scene of the man and woman at the offering table- their conclusions are weird. The logical conclusion is it is his dad? But their first and second conclusion seem very unfounded. it made me question their credentials, their logical capability, and/or the highly constructed nature of the doco. Are they playing up conspiracy for viewers?

* they kept touching things without gloves. Like what? Archaeology 101 is wear gloves - our hands have oils which can be destructive to artefacts. My high school archaeology students know this....

* they opened a sarcophagus /exposed a mummy, in the middle of the desert / sunlight, compromising preservation. Oh and its 'discovery' seemed highly staged along with the nicely placed ushabtis in the background.

* there appeared to be little record keeping and site photography. I know they were filming, but archaeological records and reports require mappings, site surveys, diagrams and photos. I can concede some of this *may* have been edited for audience 'interest', but given everything else, I'm not betting a lot on it.

The narrative and conclusions of a conspiracy are dodgy, or at least, not well formed in the doco. The structure, 'script'/dialogue and editing is highly popularised for the non academic.

The final WTH, was at the end, when archaeologists were thanking Wahtye for a lifetime discovery, and saying he'd be happy you dug him up and made him famous? Um no.

Wahtye and his fellow citizens spent a long time putting effort into their tombs and burials for a reason. They needed to be well stocked, appropriately decorated, mummy contained and preserved, in order for their spirits (ka,ba,akh) to survive. Archaeology disrupts that. Wahtye would probably be furious. You disturbed his tomb. You dug up and dumped his, and his families bones in crates, before playing with them to assemble them. I find it interesting an Egyptologist would claim he'd be happy with it.

In all, it's an interesting discovery, and if you aren't an historian/archaeologist/or interested in those professions, you'll probably find this fabulous. If you have any knowledge or experience in these fields, you'll probably be face palming a lot.

But still, you should probably watch it for the fabulous footage of the tomb and some amazing finds there (no spoilers!).

Entertaining enough

[Topgier · 7/10 · 29 October 2020]

Pretty standard fly on the wall documentary. While I did enjoy the subject matter and some of the beautiful shots of the landscape, the film feels a bit long and lacks structure in my opinion. Overall a good watch if you like ancient Egyptian history but not captivating for all viewers.

A great story within a short movie

[mfgaras · 8/10 · 29 October 2020]

What you need to understand about this documentary is that the tale is much bigger than what has been told. There is alot here you still need to know and ask about.1 belies more information by time will be revealed on this & by time this discovery will be more clear - it is still a great documentary that I would totally recommend to watch. Enjoy it!!

wonderful site worth a watch

[howlingwind-30182 · 6/10 · 30 October 2020]

The documentary showed an amazing site and was well shot. It was not very scientific in it's approach and the conduct of the excavations depicted looked a bit amateur in what was shown in the film gangs hacking the ground with mattocks rather than carefully excavating and recording having said that the spirit of the people involved was very charming which was well shown in the film.

Real people, real work

[ff-trombetta · 8/10 · 31 October 2020]

This is a great documentary that shows not only the progressive uncovering of an astounding discovery but also some of the lives of people who are working on it. These are not foreigners going there with a big budget. These are egyptian folk who have been working on the site for generations and who have something to tell. Beautifully documented and portrayed, and impressive camera work on such dark and dusty conditions.

interesting but too long for content

[kellindil-759-448828 · 7/10 · 1 November 2020]

Interesting archeology document, but covering rather basic knowledge about ancient egypt and far too long (almost 2h) for presented content. Trailer is actually more exciting than movie :)

Excellent

[b-ruceg · 9/10 · 30 October 2020]

Really great documentary. Awesome camera work to get views as things are being discovered. Hope to see more like this!

Staged and directed but ok

[PaoReno3 · 6/10 · 1 November 2020]

Too many "what the hell" situations to be a true documentary but still a good piece to learn more about ancient Egypt. Take it with a pinch of salt.

Its got heart

[punkndrublic7542 · 8/10 · 7 November 2020]

Ok I won't lie this wasn't the most technologically advanced documentary on ancient Egypt that I've ever seen. Alot of people seemed put off by some of the methods used but that didn't bother me much. There were also claims that it felt staged but I didn't feel that way either, perhaps I'm not looking into it that deeply. What I really liked was the human connection, these people were working hard and using what they had. I didn't mind seeing some aspects of the lives of certain team members. It made me remember that these are ordinary people in an extraordinary place. I did enjoy this doc and I hope people give it a chance.

Saqqara Tomb

[Whoopz · 7/10 · 6 February 2021]

It seems ridiculous to me, that Egypt would cut funding, because I was trying to google this documentary, and what they found seemed to be a lot of new discoveries that made headlines throughout the news. I feel like it was just to add some kind of timed pressure within the documentary.

The documentary itself was okay, it tell the story of a family that possibly died of malaria, making it the oldest known case in the world. They also found the first mummified lion cub in Egypt among other things. The editing was okay and the story itself was interesting.

Somewhere In This Chaos Is A Great Documentary.

[fargoesto11 · 5/10 · 28 October 2020]

I've looked forward to this film for a while now. Unfortunately, this suffers from a few major things that stop it from being epic.

Recently, I've thought that Netflix multi episodes shows/documentaries could be trimmed down into less episodes or just a 2hr film. This is totally opposite. There is a ton of information here, but the director has unfortunately placed it all over the place. It is very sporadic in its editing and jumps all over the place. Leaving the viewer asking more questions than are being answered. Multi episodes broken into more condensed/direct and specific areas of the "dig" would be much better serving for the audience.

With that being said, I've never wished for a narrator more in any documentary I've ever seen. A narrator would help with tying all of the vast information presented here. Also, to explain what, where and why we are seeing some of the things as well as more explanation of why the Egyptians did some of the thing they did. There is some explanation, but again, it's sporadic and all over the place.

I won't even get into the anxiety I was feeling watching the archaeologists jump around and seem to randomly dig and kinda just toss around (without fully documenting, at least what we see) artifacts and mummies. Again, this may be the bad editing/directing.

Bottom line, the whole thing seems extremely rushed and disjointed.

Now the good, I STILL RECCOMEND that you watch this if you are at all interested in this kind of thing. It's is beautifully shot and shows some amazing things that you do really feel like you are seeing for the first time with the archaeologists. Some images/items that you will never forget. I just wish it was put together better.

Interesting discovery's- cut short by funding and time.

[allanmichael30 · 7/10 · 1 January 2021]

They made a new discovery of a lion cub, which can now be examined as first mummified lion found. they also discover new tombs and each tomb has something new, something that helps us know what life was like at that time. The reviews say that the arachnologist were untrained and rushing. The way this was done was to get in fast and find facts, yes but the documentary is just first stage observations on what they see in the field and after gathering bones and other artefacts they will then be looked at again at later date. The thing I found a bit crazy was using a course haired brush on very old paint, they could have maybe used air blower or soft brush and they lifted the Sarcophagus without support. They have a tough task either get funding and preserve what they can get in short time or they will be robbed from grave robbers or just simply erode and be lost.