Archaeologists hope to make the discovery of the century
They might have found tomb of Egyptian queen
HIGH-RESOLUTION scans suggest the tomb of ancient Egypt’s boy-king Tutankhamun contains passages to two hidden chambers, including what one British archaeologist believes is the last resting place of Queen Nefertiti.
If proved, the discovery would be the most significant this century and shed light on what remains a mysterious period of Egyptian history despite frenzied international interest.
Nefertiti, whose chiselled cheekbones and regal beauty were immortalised in a 3 300-year old bust now in a Berlin museum, died in 14th century BC.
British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves told a news conference in Cairo yesterday that he believes Tutankhamun’s mausoleum was originally occupied by Nefertiti, thought by experts to have been his stepmother, and that she has lain undisturbed, behind what he believes is a partition wall, for more than 3 000 years.
“If it is true, we are facing a discovery that would overshadow the discovery of Tutankhamun,” Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty said. “This would be the most important discovery of the 21st century.”
Reeves said radar and thermal imaging could help establish whether secret rooms were hidden behind Tutankhamun’s burial chamber and what they might hold.
Damaty said the next step would be to carry out radar studies at the site, which could begin in the next one to three months.
King Tut, as he is affectionately known, died around 1323 BC. His intact tomb, complete with his famous golden burial mask, was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by another British Egyptologist, Howard Carter.
Experts have long sought to understand why Tut’s tomb was smaller than that of other pharaohs and why its shape was more in keeping with that of the Egyptian queens of the time.
Egyptologists are uncertain on where Nefertiti died and was buried. She was long believed to have died during her husband’s reign, suggesting she could be buried in Amarna, where her bust was found in 1912. More recently, most experts, including Reeves, have come to believe she outlived the pharoah Akhenaten but changed her name and may have briefly ruled Egypt.
Reeves developed his theory about Nefertiti’s resting place after studying high-resolution scans he believes suggest the presence of two rooms hidden behind the northern and western walls of Tut’s burial chamber.
He believes one is a Tutankhamun-era storage area and another may contain the remains of Nefertiti.
But some archaeologists have urged caution. The evidence remains scant and others believe Nefertiti’s mummy was found in 1898 and lies in the Egyptian Museum. “The idea that one (room) might lead to a pre-existing burial chamber, let alone that of Nefertiti, is pure speculation,” Aidan Dodson, an Egyptologist at Bristol University, said.