Tony Robinson was in Deir el-Bahari near the city of Luzor in Egypt for the filming of Channel 5’s new series “Opening Egypt’s Great Tomb”. He visited a tomb buried beneath the rocks which archaeologists had determined to belong to one of the highest ranking officials to serve the pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty, Mr Robinson revealed how they uncovered the remains of the vizier Ipi inside 56 separate jars.
He said on June 6: “While we may not have his mummy, the story of Ipi is far from over.
“In fact, there has been the most grisly of discoveries.
“Towards the end of last season, the archaeologists had a great find in what looks like a discreet pit right next to where they have their breakfast.
“These 56 pots are all waste material from Ipi’s body, all the cloths, all the gore and all the blood from when he was mummified.
“Nothing tinged with Ipi’s bodily fluid could be thrown away.
“So stained bandages and embalming materials were chucked in these pots and stored just outside the tomb – until now.”
However, Mr Robinson went on to explain how one discovery made recently topped them all.
Archaeologists managed to uncover the heart of this ancient prime minister completely in tact.
Mr Robinson added: “One of the big tasks this season is to scour through these 56 pots and already they’ve had what is my favourite find since I’ve been in Egypt.
“Okay, so, these are some of the finds out of the big jars.
“Now that was the bandage that went around Ipi’s mummy.
“This what looks like a white tablecloth was the wrapping around the mummy.
“And this – yes – this is Ipi’s blood – it is like a horror film isn’t it?”
“But the creme de la creme – is the heart of the Vizier Ipi.”
The find comes after archaeologists made an equally remarkable find in the town of Al-Jarf.
Pierre Tallet and his team uncovered the journal of a man named Merer, who had the title of “inspector” and was in charge of stone transportation from the quarry to Giza.
It was revealed during Channel 4’s “Egypt Great Pyramid: The New Evidence” how Khufu used elite teams of workers with different tasks to complete his vision for the Great Pyramid.
The narrator detailed in 2017: “The papyrus shows that Khufu divided his workers into teams with clear responsibilities and targets.
“A crew of 40 men, like what Merer led, was known as a ‘file’.
“Four files formed a ‘gang’ of 160 elite labourers.
“And it took many of these gangs to make up a huge workforce, thousands strong.
“Khufu didn’t have general labourers, he had focused, elite squads.”