‘Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb’ gives a different perspective on archeology

Posted on November 6, 2020

By MARK VIOLA

I’ve always considered myself a student of history. In college, I literally was one, briefly studying to be a history major. And, although I graduated with a completely different major, I still finished with a minor in the subject.

Although there are countless civilizations and thousands of years to choose from, I’ve always been most fascinated with the Roman and Egyptian empires. The latter featured people and places who were further back in the past at the time of Christ’s birth than his birth is from us now.

As such, I was intrigued to see Netflix had a new documentary, “Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb,” depicting excavations of a tomb in Egypt that had been untouched for 4,400 years.

Going into it, my primary hope was that the documentary would not feel like simply another feature on The History Channel or the Science Channel (which these days seems to have more history shows than The History Channel — or at least ones that don’t involve aliens).

Fortunately, “Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb” does feel different, depicting a lot more of the hands-on archaeological work and spending much more time with the individuals involved, including everyone from the professors overseeing the work to the foreman and even some of the laborers.

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