Hidden King Tut Chambers? Not So Fast, Officials Caution

Egypt's new antiquities minister, Khaled El Anany, sounded caution this morning at a press conference in Luxor over the claim that Tutankhamun's tomb holds two hidden chambers.

Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project, had proposed that two hidden chambers were lurking in the tomb of Tutankhamun and that the hidden rooms may hold the tomb of Queen Nefertiti, the stepmom of King Tutankhamun.

Radar scans conducted last year by Japanese radar technologist Hirokatsu Watanabe supposedly supported this idea. On March 17, Egypt's ministry of antiquities, led at the time by Mamdouh ‪El-Damaty, stated that Watanabe's scans "suggest the presence of two empty spaces or cavities beyond the decorated north and west walls of the burial chamber," as well as the "presence of metallic and organic substances."

The radar scans also showed what could be door lintels that indicate the presence of doorways, the antiquities minster said at the time in a statement to media.

However, radar experts not affiliated with the project disputed the results of those scans. These experts noted that the sediment layers at the Valley of the Kings, where King Tut's tomb is located, contain natural voids and rock inclusions that make it difficult for radar to distinguish between archaeological remains and natural phenomena.

Over the past two weeks, the antiquities minister at the time, ‪El-Damaty, along with Egypt's minister of

However, radar experts not affiliated with the project disputed the results of those scans. These experts noted that the sediment layers at the Valley of the Kings, where King Tut's tomb is located, contain natural voids and rock inclusions that make it difficult for radar to distinguish between archaeological remains and natural phenomena.

Over the past two weeks, the antiquities minister at the time, ‪El-Damaty, along with Egypt's minister of tourism, Hisham Zazou, were replaced in a cabinet shuffle. Yesterday, a team supported by the National Geographic Society conducted new radar scans. Those scans are being processed and analyzed; however, the new antiquities minister — El Anany — sounded a note of caution at today's press conference.

"We are not looking for hidden chambers but for the reality of the truth," El-Anany said. "We are very keen to follow the scientific procedures," he said, adding that more radar work would be performed in late April, followed by an international conference in May in which experts would review the results. Egypt's former antiquities minister, El-Damaty, was also at today's press conference and said that while the two cavities could exist, "we have to be sure 100 percent."

Even so, the Egypt's antiquities ministry said in a statement that "the preliminary results [of yesterday's scans] reached so far do not contradict with the results of the previous radar scans."

Reeves also said that the two cavities, possibly holding a tomb, could still exist.

No new radar images were released to media.

Third set of scans

For the next scan, scheduled for the end of April, another team of scientists will use a different radar-scanning method on King Tut's tomb. In the previous two scans, scientists tried to peer behind the walls of the Tutankhamun burial chamber. The new scans will take place in the hills above Tutankhamun's tomb, using radar equipment that can peer 40 meters (130 feet) below the ground to see if hidden chambers exist.

The international conference to review the results will be held in the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, El Anany said. There, experts will discuss whether the two chambers exist, and if so, what could be in them and what would be the best way to access them. Scientists will not use any methods that could damage the artwork in Tutankhamun's tomb,
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Reference:

Jarus, Owen. 2016. “Hidden King Tut Chambers? Not So Fast, Officials Caution”. Live Science. Posted: April 1, 2016. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/54263-hidden-king-tut-chambers-may-not-exist.html

Facts on Tutankhamun's tomb

Specialists believe two rooms might be hidden inside the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, which was built some 3,300 years ago in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

Here are key facts about the site.

Untouched treasure

In November 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb along with its treasure of more than 5,000 objects, many in solid gold. The tomb was nearly intact and it took Carter six years to excavate, with funding from Britain's Lord George Carnarvon.

The treasure was laid out in five rooms and included thrones, statues, furniture and arms.

The walls of the chamber in which Tutankhamun lay were covered in gold, and his coffin was a three-piece sarcophagus of which the outermost was in red quartzite and the innermost was 110 kilograms (240 pounds) of solid gold.

The pharaoh, who died in 1324 BC at the age of 19, had a funeral mask that was also made from gold, inlaid with lapis lazuli. Its eyes were made of obsidian and quartz. The mask has become one of the world's most widely-recognized Egyptian artifacts.

It took Carter 10 years to complete his exploration of the tomb and catalogue the thousands of objects that he found. Lord Carnarvon died In April 1923 in mysterious circumstances, fuelling speculation that the fabled "curse of the pharaohs" had struck one of those responsible for violating "King Tut's" tomb.

A child pharaoh

The discovery made Tutankhamun, who died after just nine years on the throne, one of Egypt's best-known pharaohs. In 2010, a study of DNA tests and CT scans concluded that he suffered from an often-fatal form of malaria and a club foot that caused him to walk with a cane.

Tutankhamun's reign coincided with a troubled time in Egyptian history known as the Amarna period, during which the pharaoh Akhenaten tried to radically transform religion to focus on just one god, Aton.

The DNA tests showed that Tutankhamun was Akhenaten's son, but not that of Nefertiti, an influential wife of the pharaoh celebrated for her beauty.

In fact, his mother is now believed to have been Akhenaten's sister.

Tutankhamun sired two children, both girls, but they died in the womb, the study found. King Tut's mummy is now on display in Luxor.

What's in the two rooms?

Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamduh al-Damati told reporters Thursday that preliminary scans of Tutankhamun's tomb revealed "two hidden rooms behind the burial chamber" of the boy king that appeared to contain "some organic and metal material".

British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves believes that Nefertiti's tomb might be in a secret chamber adjoining that of King Tut.
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Reference:

Phys.org. 2016. “Facts on Tutankhamun's tomb”. Phys.org. Posted: March 17, 2016. Available online: http://phys.org/news/2016-03-facts-tutankhamun-tomb.html

Ancient DNA: Curse of the Pharaoh's DNA

Some researchers claim to have analysed DNA from Egyptian mummies. Others say that's impossible. Could new sequencing methods bridge the divide?

Cameras roll as ancient-DNA experts Carsten Pusch and Albert Zink scrutinize a row of coloured peaks on their computer screen. There is a dramatic pause. "My god!" whispers Pusch, the words muffled by his surgical mask. Then the two hug and shake hands, accompanied by the laughter and applause of their Egyptian colleagues. They have every right to be pleased with themselves. After months of painstaking work, they have finally completed their analysis of 3,300-year-old DNA from the mummy of King Tutankhamun.

Featured in the Discovery Channel documentary King Tut Unwrapped last year and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)1, their analysis — of Tutankhamun and ten of his relatives — was the latest in a string of studies reporting the analysis of DNA from ancient Egyptian mummies. Apparently revealing the mummies' family relationships as well as their afflictions, such as tuberculosis and malaria, the work seems to be providing unprecedented insight into the lives and health of ancient Egyptians and is ushering in a new era of 'molecular Egyptology'. Except that half of the researchers in the field challenge every word of it.

Enter the world of ancient Egyptian DNA and you are asked to choose between two alternate realities: one in which DNA analysis is routine, and the other in which it is impossible. "The ancient-DNA field is split absolutely in half," says Tom Gilbert, who heads two research groups at the Center for GeoGenetics in Copenhagen, one of the world's foremost ancient-DNA labs.

Unable to resolve their differences, the two sides publish in different journals, attend different conferences and refer to each other as 'believers' and 'sceptics' — when, that is, they're not simply ignoring each other. The Tutankhamun study reignited long-standing tensions between the two camps, with sceptics claiming that in this study, as in most others, the results can be explained by contamination. Next-generation sequencing techniques, however, may soon be able to resolve the split once and for all by making it easier to sequence ancient, degraded DNA. But for now, Zink says, "It's like a religious thing. If our papers are reviewed by one of the other groups, you get revisions like 'I don't believe it's possible'. It's hard to argue with that."

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References:

Marchant, Jo. 2011. "Ancient DNA: Curse of the Pharaoh's DNA". Nature. Posted: April 27, 2011. Available online: http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110427/full/472404a.html

Looting in Revolutionary Egypt and its aftermath

I am publishing two different articles about the looting of the Cairo Museum during the recent Revolution.

About '1,000 Relics' Stolen During Egypt Uprising

Thieves stole around 1,000 relics from museums and archeological sites across Egypt since protests against the government broke out in January, Egypt's minister for antiquities Zahi Hawass said Sunday in a newspaper interview.

"We are investigating all the incidents to find the items. Up until now we have identified many culprits, criminals who were looking for gold or mummies and who lacked knowledge of the value of the items they stole," he told Spanish daily El Mundo.

"They were not organized, they lived near the archeological sites where the objects were kept. They would take advantage of the night to enter the archeological sites and pillage," he added.

"About 1,000 objects were stolen, none of them major items. There is an inventory of everything and it will be difficult for the items to leave the country."

The inventory of all the items that were stolen during the uprising and the weeks of unrest that followed will be given to UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, Hawass said.

The tomb of Hetep-ka at Saqqara and the tomb of Em-pi at Giza as well as the Egyptian museum in Cairo, which houses most of the King Tutankhamen collection, were among the places targeted by thieves, he added.

Hawass was named minister of antiquities last month. He had served as head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and later became minister of state under ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Priceless Egyptian Treasures Returned

A statue of King Tutankhamun, which was looted during Egypt's anti-government protests, has been returned to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo along with three other pharaonic artifacts, Zahi Hawass, Minister of State for Antiquities, announced today.

Stolen when vandals and looters broke into the Cairo museum during the January revolution that brought down President Hosni Mubarak, the statue, cataloged as JE 60710.1, is one of three gilded wooden statues of King Tutankhamun that were declared missing in March (the official list of the items that were stolen from the Egyptian museum included a total of 63 objects).

Showing the boy king standing in a boat and throwing a harpoon, the statue suffered a minor damage.

"A small part of the crown is missing as well as pieces of the legs. The boat is still in the museum, and the figure of the king will be reunited with it and restored," Hawass, who was named minister of antiquities last month, said in a statement.

One is the pharaoh's gilded bronze and wooden trumpet (JE 62008).

"It was received in excellent condition and will be put on display immediately," Hawass said.

Also returned was a part of Tutankhamun's fan. One face is in good condition, while the other has been broken into 11 pieces.

The fourth retrieved piece is a shabti statue cataloged as JE 68984. It is one of 10 missing shabtis belonging to the pharaonic couple Yuya and Tjuya, which recent DNA tests identified as King Tut's great-grandparents.

"It is still in very good condition. It does not require restoration and will be placed on display again immediately," Tarek El-Awady, director of the Egyptian Museum, said in a statement.

About 1,000 relics have been stolen from museums and archeological sites across Egypt since protests against the government began in January.

Hawass announced today that a special police force will be set up to protect sites and museums around the country.
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References:

AFP. 2011. "About '1,000 Relics' Stolen During Egypt Uprising". Discovery News. Posted: April 10, 2011. Available online: http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/egypt-uprising-looted-artifacts-110410.html

Lorenzi, Rossella. 2011. "Priceless Egyptian Treasures Returned". Discovery News. Posted: April 12, 2011. Available online: http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/priceless-rgyptian-artifacts-returned-110412.html

Statue Unearthed in Tomb of Tut's Grandfather

Red granite statues of King Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of King Tutankhamun, are popping up like mushrooms in Luxor, Egypt.

Today an Egyptian team from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) led by Dr. Zahi Hawass has found the upper half of a double statue featuring the powerful Egyptian pharaoh with the falcon-headed sun god Re-Horakhti.

The ninth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Amenhotep III (ca. 1390-1352 B.C.), reigned for 38 years during a time when Egypt was at the height of prosperity and cultural development.

His mummy was found in 1898 in a tomb dubbed KV35 by French Egyptologist Victor Loret.

The newly discovered double statue has been unearthed on the northwestern side of Amenhotep III’s funerary temple on Luxor’s west bank.

Demolished during the Nineteenth Dynasty, the temple was apparently the largest ever built of its class .

Originally, it had two entrances: one on the eastern side guarded by two (still standing) gigantic statues of the Pharaoh, known as the Colossi of Memnon, and one at the northern side, where the granite statue was located.

Last February a massive granite head depicting Amenhotep III was unearthed at the same site.

Moreover, last month a similar double statue of the Egyptian pharaoh, seated on a throne next to the Theban god Amun, was also dug out in the same area.

In fact, an overwhelming number of the statues feature King Amenhotep III in company of different deities, such as Amun-Re, Re-Horakhti, Sobek, and Sekhmet, the goddess of healing.

"The Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project has unearthed more than 80 statues of the goddess Sekhmet during their excavations at the temple," Hawass, secretary General of the SCA, said in a statement.

Most likely, the Sekhmet statues were erected because Amenhotep III was very sick during his final years.

More Amenhotep III statues are expected to come to light in the next few months. According to Mansour Boraik, General Supervisor of the Luxor Antiquities Department of the SCA, a number of statues of the pharaoh are still partially buried under some private farmland that surrounds the temple.

Luxor authorities are now trying to reach an agreement with the farmers to buy this section of land so that the statues can be fully excavated.

“In the future, this area will be converted into an open-air museum that will display the objects found in the mortuary temple complex,” Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said.
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References:

Lorenzi, Rossella. 2010. "Statue Unearthed in Tomb of Tut's Grandfather". Discovery News. Posted: November 4, 2010. Available online: http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/statue-unearthed-in-tomb-of-tuts-grandfather.html