"First tomb since Tut's discovered"

First tomb since Tut's discovered
By Tanalee Smith
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 11, 2006

LUXOR, Egypt -- Through a partially opened underground door, Egyptian
authorities gave a peek yesterday into the first tomb uncovered in the
Valley of the Kings since King Tut's in 1922. U.S. archaeologists said
they discovered the tomb by accident while working at a nearby site.
Still unknown is whose mummies are in the five wooden sarcophagi
with painted funeral masks, surrounded by alabaster jars inside the
undecorated single-chamber tomb.
The tomb, thought to be some 3,000 years old and dating to the 18th
Dynasty, does not appear to be that of a pharaoh. But it could be for
members of a royal court, said Edwin Brock, co-director of the team
from the University of Memphis in Tennessee that discovered the site.
"Contemporaries of Tutankhamun are possible -- or of Amunhotep III
or even Horemheb," he said, referring to three pharaohs from the 18th
Dynasty.
Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, said, "Maybe they are
mummies of kings or queens or nobles, we don't know. But it's
definitely someone connected to the royal family."
"It could be the gardener," Otto Schaden, the head of the U.S.
team, joked to Mr. Hawass at the site. "But it's somebody who had the
favor of the king because not everybody could come and make their tomb
in the Valley of the Kings."
Archaeologists have not entered the tomb, having only opened part
of its nearly 5-foot-high entrance door last week. But they have peered
inside the single chamber to see the sarcophagi, thought to contain
mummies surrounded by around 20 pharaonic jars.
Yesterday, Egyptian antiquities authorities allowed journalists a
first look into the tomb, located near Tutankhamun's -- the last burial
site discovered in the valley, on Nov. 4, 1922, by British
archaeologist Howard Carter.
At the bottom of a 33-foot-deep pit, a narrow shaft leads down
another 16 feet to the door, made of blocks of stone. A hole about 1
foot wide has been cleared from the door.
Inside the chamber, alabaster pots, some broken, are lined up next
to the sarcophagi. One coffin has toppled and faces the door, showing
its white, painted face. Another is partially open, showing a brown
cloth covering the mummy inside.
"It was a wonderful thing. It was just so amazing to find an intact
tomb here after all the work that's been done before. This was totally
unexpected," Mr. Brock said.
The discovery has broken the long-held belief that nothing is left
to dig up in the Valley of the Kings, the desert region near the
southern city of Luxor used as a burial ground for pharaohs, queens and
nobles in the 1500-to-1000 B.C. New Kingdom.
The 18th Dynasty lasted from around 1500 to 1300 B.C. and included
the famed King Tut.
Mr. Schaden's team will finish clearing rubble from the bottom of
the shaft, then completely open the door in the coming days to let
archaeologists enter. They can then look for any hieroglyphs that
identify those buried inside.
The team hopes to remove the coffins before the end of the digging
season, usually around May when the weather gets too hot to work in the
desert area outside Luxor, 300 miles south of Cairo, Mr. Schaden said.
Since the discovery of King Tut's tomb, experts thought that the
Valley of the Kings contained only the 62 previously known tombs --
labeled KV1-62 by archeologists.
The archaeologists were working last year on the neighboring tomb
of Amenmeses, a late 19th-Dynasty pharaoh, when they found the remains
of ancient workmen's huts. They then discovered a depression in the
bedrock that they suspected was a shaft.
When they returned to work during this excavation season, they
opened the shaft and found the door, which was opened last week, Mr.
Brock said.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we discover more tombs in the next 10
years," said American archaeologist Kent Weeks, who made the last major
discovery in the valley. In 1995, he opened a previously known tomb --
KV5 -- and found it was far larger than expected and meant for sons of
Pharaoh Ramses II.

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