1920's scenes of workers at various Egyptian archaeology excavations

We read about the excavations in class, I know I once did in my Ancient Egyptian History class,  however the words of our textbooks describing Howard Carter and his discoveries can hardly paint as vivid a picture of history like this silent documentary does.

Today, 6000 years of collections are being assembled in the Met Museum in order for researchers to further their study and knowledge of the grand civilization in the Valley of the Nile.

As you can see by the video above, the process of removing the earth from the site in the 1920's is not so far removed from the way in which we approach it today. There's an assembly line of workmen, who are in charge of a native foreman and sub-foreman, who ensure the line continues to move in an orderly fashion.

The turieh, or Egyptian hoe, is used to dislodge the material and to fill the small, light baskets in which it is carried to the cars.

Instead of using our trusty water bottles or canteens, women bring jars of water, and mules would carry in water in goatskin.

While the workers weren't finding treasures like Egyptian jewelry, they were finding hoards of jars filled with salt, linen, and powders in the process of mummification. They also uncovered a 3000 year old coffin, which is waxed to preserve its surface decoration.

Watch the entire silent documentary above to see how the process of uncovering archaeological artifacts has changed.