Egyptian Dreams

[Rozette]

Tomb discovered next to King Tut's Valley of the Kings burial site

Cairo - An American archaeological mission discovered a tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings next to the burial place of King Tut, Egyptian antiquities authorities announced Wednesday.

An excavation team from the University of Memphis made the find Tuesday 5 metres from Tutankhamun's tomb while the mission was doing routine excavation work, said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Some three metres beneath the ground, the tomb contained five human mummies with coloured funerary masks enclosed in sarcophagi and several large storage jars. The mummies date to the 18th dynasty (circa 1539-1292 BC).


© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1095894.php/Tomb_discovered_next_to_King_Tuts_Valley_of_the_Kings_burial_site


http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-dig-uncovers-king-tuts-neighbours/2006/02/09/1139379582440.html

[anneke]

WOW! That's really amazing news.

I wonder who were buried there? Hope they come out with more detailed news 18th Dynasty is rather amazing. Would be quite exciting if the mummies were royal. But even non-royals buried in the Valley of the Kings would be very interesting.
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[Claire]

o mi gah cant believe it!!! and people say that the valley is empty!! have the mummies been identified yet?? this is gonna be sooooo interesting!!
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[Rozette]

Anneke and Claire, I found a little bit more information about this amazing find .

It seems that that Egyptian authorities are planning a media event at the site on Friday.
I'am so curious who these mummies are .


The tomb is being excavated by the team from University of Memphis, Tennessee.On the link that I provided you will find their website.
http://www.egyptologyblog.co.uk/2006/02/index.html


CAIRO (Reuters) - An American team has found what appears to be an intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first found in the valley since that of Tutankhamun in 1922, one of the archaeologists said on Thursday.
The tomb contains five or six mummies in intact sarcophagi from the late 18th dynasty, about the same period as Tutankhamun, but the archaeologists have not yet had the time or the access to identify them, the archaeologist added.

The 18th dynasty ruled Egypt from 1567 BC to 1320 BC, a period during which the country's power reached a peak.

The Valley of the Kings in southern Egypt contains the tombs of most of the pharaohs of the time but the archaeologist said the mummies in the newly found tomb need not be royal.

"There are lots of non-royal tombs in the valley. It wouldn't be the only one by any means," said the archaeologist, who asked not to be named because the Egyptian authorities are planning a media event at the site on Friday.

"The archaeologists haven't been inside properly yet. It's very small and cramped but it is late 18th dynasty," she added.

A statement from the government's Supreme Council of Antiquities said the tomb was found by a team from the University of Memphis in the United States.

The five sarcophagi, which are carved to human form, have coloured funerary masks and the tomb contains a large number of big storage jars, the statement said.

"For an unknown reason they were buried rapidly in the small tomb," it added.

The tomb, 5 m from that of Tutankhamun, was covered with the rubble of workmen's huts dating from the latter part of the 19th dynasty, more than 100 years after the tomb was sealed, it said.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

[anneke]

This is really interesting. The mention of a "media event" made me laugh Hawass' idea?

I never thought they would find another intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings. And one so close to Tut's tomb!

I wonder about the statements about non-royals in the Valley. A hint that these are high officials from the time of Tutankhamen?
I'm curious if these will be people we know about, or if they are going to be people who disappeared into the mists of time. We had never heard of Aperel or Maia before their tombs were found.

I guess we may learn more tomorrow.

I looked at the Amenmesse website. The excavation in under the leadership of Otto Schaden, Edwin Brock, and Earl Eartman. Well known egyptologists. Even for them this may be the find of a lifetime though

Coincidentally I just read about a lecture that Eartman gave last week (in Luxor) about images showing Nefertiti smiting enemies.
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Math and Art: http://mathematicsaroundus.blogspot.com/

[RobertStJames]

A Memphis University team of archaeologists led by Otto Schaden found the tomb four meters below the ground, buried under rubble and stones five meters away from Tut's tomb.

Astonishing. For over 80yrs that tomb has been right next to Tut's (ok, considerably longer than 80yrs, but you know what I mean), and no one's found it. Certainly makes you wonder if perhaps there aren't other smaller tombs as well hidden in the same way under rubble from later tomb construction.

Ah, but now the fun part--late 18th Dynasty means Amarna. Lots of missing mummies from around that time. Ankhenaten, at last? Nefertiti? Perhaps Meriaten, Ankhesanamun and the other daughters? Or maybe Ay's family, Nakhtmin and Tey.

Well, enough speculation. Let's hope Friday's media event includes names, names, names!


RstJ

[Osiris II]

Unless it turns out to be a cache, I doubt very much if the newly-found tomb will be that of royalty. More than likely it will be a family of nobles, or servers of some Pharaoh, given the honour of being buried in the Valley. A royal person would be in a much more elaborate tomb, and buried alone, not with others. An exception to this is Tut's burial, of course. But this was, obviously, a hastely prepared burial due to the unexpected death of the Pharaoh.
Of course, it is possible it is a cache or royals taken from Amarna and re-buried in the Valley to "protect" them. Only time will tell...

[Nekht-Ankh]

[anneke]

I wonder how they dated the tomb to Tutankhamen's time? Must be the seals on the door?

If the interment dates to the time of Tutankhamen, then it could not be Nakhtmin or Aye or Tey (they're alive when Tut dies I think).

An Amarna cache is possible. But I would expect more damage to the funerary equipment?

It's also possible the tomb belongs to high ranking officials: Vizier Pentu, Vizier Usermontu?

I don't know what would be more exciting: the mummies of people we know, or those as yet unknown to us
We can always hope this find shed some light on some of the Amarna enigmas. I hope we find out more tomorrow.

I wonder how long it will take to excavate the tomb? Must be quite a job. Can you imagine what the security must be like?
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Math and Art: http://mathematicsaroundus.blogspot.com/

[Rozette]

Quote Anneke: I wonder how they dated the tomb to Tutankhamun's time? Must be the seals on the door?

According to Zahi Hawass the jars they found in the tomb are sealed with pharaonic seals.


The 18th Dynasty tomb included five mummies in intact sarcophagi with colored funerary masks along with more than 20 large storage jars, sealed with pharaonic seals, Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement.
Inside the rectangular tomb, the five wooden sarcophagi were surrounded by the jars, which appeared placed haphazardly, suggesting the burial was completed quickly, the statement by Hawass said.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395376592&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[anneke]

MSNBC shows the following picture:

[RobertStJames]

Hmmm. Not sure what to make of that picture. Pretty much jars and sarcophagi, that's it. Looks like gilt on the outside of the visible one. If that's the original burial place, sure seems crowded. And no decoration either. Sarcophagi are being reported as wooden, just like Smenkhare/Ankhenaten/?? in KV 55, although the face of the visible sarcophagus doesn't look like gilt.

Bets? I'm going with Tut's sisters. Just the romantic in me, I guess.

RstJ

[anneke]

I agree. Doesn't look like a wealthy internment does it?

It's hard to make out any details. I'm sure that with time we'll get better pictures of the objects.

[Sesen]

What a terrifically exciting find - there's still gold in them thar hills.

I hope we get some names and titles released soon. Even though they may not be royal, for them to have been reburied in the KV must mean they were initially buried somewhere handy. That could well indicate they were of respectable standing. I hope so anyway.

The rear coffins look as though most or all of the gilding has been removed. That coffin at the very rear - is that a hand across the chest you can see showing up against the wall - or maybe not?
Hope there's some good photos available soon I'm dying of curiousity.

I also don't know whether to hope for them to be known persons or interesting new names. Either way its very exciting!
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I enter as a hawk, I come out as a benu bird in the morning.-- Pert em-Hru, ch. 13

[ELISE]

Have they said whose pharonic seals are present yet?

Are people just assuming that they are Tutankhamen's (or another Amarna pharaoh's) because that part of the valley is where most Amarna artifacts have previously been found?

I remember seeing a documentary fairly recently where they emphasised that Carters quadrant had not been fully excavated because he had stopped once he found Tutankhamens tomb. This new tomb may not even be the last....

Oh, and is it the same area that Reeves was working on in his quest for 'Nefertiti/Smenkhkare'

It's so exciting! Though when it was reported on Radio 4 yesterday they made it sound as though a sealed entrance had been found but no-one had yet excavated - which got me even more excited. It was almost a comedown to find it was more of a cache - which is silly really when you think how significant a find this really is...