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The simple existence of an ancient mass grave near Luxor in southern Egypt is enough to pique the interest of anyone with a love of ancient history. After all, mass graves were not commonly used by the Ancient Egyptians; they were very keen on elaborate funerary rites and the pyramids, the most famous remnant of their civilisation, are really just huge cemetery plots, each dedicated to a single important figure and their family. But this site, The Tomb of the Warriors in Deir el Bahari, contains over 60 mummified corpses and points to something out of the ordinary.

Sealed since its discovery in 1923 and dating back over 4000 years to the dwindling days of the Old Kingdom (around 2200 BC), the tomb has only recently been investigated, and the documentary Ancient Egypt’s Darkest Hour lets us join the quest. Accompanying archaeologist Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, we delve into the tomb, learning that the bodies interred there all died violent deaths, bearing evidence of arrow and mace wounds. Flying in the face of what we know about Egyptian rites for the dead, they seem to have been hastily buried, which indicates that those who buried them had other, more pressing matters on their mind at the time.