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SCIENCEMonday 21 March 2016
Tomb radar: King Tut’s burial chamber shows hidden rooms
BRIAN ROHAN In this Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 file photo, one of Egypt’s famed thinks the chambers could ries that there is more to be
Associated Press King Tutankhamun’s golden sarcophagus is displayed at his contain the tomb of a discovered.
CAIRO (AP) — Radar scans tomb in a glass case at the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. member of Tutankhamun’s For many, Tut embod-
of King Tutankhamun’s family, possibly a woman. ies ancient Egypt’s glory,
burial chamber have re- Associated Press Luxor, in southern Egypt, because his tomb was
vealed two hidden rooms, served as the Pharaonic packed with the glitter-
a tantalizing discovery that statuettes of gods, or per- surgency in the northern capital and is home to ing wealth of the rich 18th
could resolve a mystery as haps even the mummy of Sinai Peninsula, and persis- sprawling temples and sev- Dynasty, from 1569 to 1315
old as the pyramids: What a young child who prede- tent attacks since the mili- eral highly decorated an- B.C.
was the fate of Egypt’s ceased Tut.” tary’s 2013 overthrow of an cient tombs in the Valley of Nefertiti was the prima-
beautiful Queen Nefertiti? Still, the discovery has ig- elected but divisive Islamist the Kings. ry wife of the Pharaoh
At a packed Cairo news nited massive interest, and president. The discovery in 1922 of Akhenaten, who unsuc-
conference Thursday to el-Damaty cast the discov- The contents of the newly King Tut’s nearly intact cessfully tried to switch
announce the find in King ery as potentially huge. He found rooms could shine tomb by Howard Carter Egypt to an early form of
Tut’s tomb in Luxor, Antiqui- said the radar scans of the a light on one of ancient yielded unprecedented monotheism. Akhenat-
ties Minister Mamdouh el- chamber, taken last year Egypt’s most turbulent treasures, including the boy en was succeeded by a
Damaty declined to com- and analyzed in Japan, will times, and one prominent king’s sarcophagus and pharaoh referred to as
ment on whether any royal be repeated at the end of researcher has theorized iconic golden burial mask. Smenkhare, and then Tut,
treasure or more mummies the month. that the remains of Nefertiti Reeves reached his theory who was proven by ge-
might be inside the rooms. “It means a rediscovery of could be inside. after high-resolution im- netic testing to have been
But he said the unexplored Tutankhamun ... for Egypt British Egyptologist Nicho- ages discovered what he Akhenaten’s son.
chambers could hold it is a very big discovery, it las Reeves speculates that said were straight lines in Many Egyptologists cite
some kind of organic or could be the discovery of Tutankhamun, who died Tut’s tomb. These lines, pre- strong DNA evidence to ar-
metal objects. the century,” el-Damaty at age 19, may have been viously hidden by the color gue that Nefertiti’s mummy
Most experts say that while said. “It is very important for rushed into an outer cham- and texture of the stones, is, in fact, one that already
the scans might reveal Egyptian history and for all ber of what was originally indicate the presence of a was found more than 100
another tomb behind the the world.” Nefertiti’s tomb. The queen sealed chamber, he said. years ago and is in Cairo’s
false walls, it’s unlikely to be The discovery could also re- was one of the wives of The images were broad- Egyptian Museum.
crammed with solid gold new excitement in Egypt’s Tutankhamun’s father, the cast live on national televi- Reeves believes that Smen-
and a royal mummy like antiquities and help rein- Pharaoh Akhenaten. sion in September. khare and Nefertiti are
Nefertiti, whose 3,300-year- vigorate its flagging tourism El-Damaty said it was too At the Cairo news confer- the same person, with the
old bust on display in Berlin industry, which has been early to tell what the metal ence, el-Damaty showed queen simply changing her
is one of the most famous hit hard in recent years by and organic matter could the results of radar scans name during her rule.
symbols of ancient Egypt political violence, an in- be, saying only that he that revealed anomalies El-Damaty believes that if
and classical beauty. in the walls of the tomb, in- anyone is buried in the new
“Quite often, people have dicating a possible hidden antechambers it is likely
done these sorts of scans, door and rooms behind Kia, believed by some to
and when actually investi- false walls that were cov- be the mother of Tutankha-
gated, things have turned ered up and painted over mun.
out to be nothing like pre- with hieroglyphics. Tut, Nefertiti and Akhenat-
dicted,” said Aidan Dod- Tut’s tomb, the most in- en’s family ruled Egypt dur-
son, an archaeologist at tact one ever discovered ing one of its most turbulent
the University of Bristol in in Egypt, was packed with times, which ended with a
England. “If they are cham- well-preserved artifacts military takeover by Egypt’s
bers, most likely they’d be when it was discovered, top general, Horemheb.
filled with more funeral ob- but the fact that it was rela- The family’s names were
jects of Tutankhamun, pos- tively small for the Valley of later erased from official
sibly including some gilded the Kings is boosting theo- records.q
