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By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
June 28, 2006
VALLEY OF THE KINGS, Egypt, June 28 — There was hope of finding a mummy inside the 3,300-year-old coffin and when it was finally opened today someone excitedly whispered "a neck!" But it wasn't. Instead the coffin was packed with bits and pieces of materials used to prepare mummies, including elaborate collars decorated with flowers, and one with gold beads.
That no mummies were found in KV 63 — the first tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings in nearly 84 years — was neither disappointing nor entirely surprising to those who unearthed the tomb and painstakingly worked to preserve all that they found inside.
"We found hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of mummies, but we never discovered something like this," said Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief Egyptologist, as he peered at the contents. "Look at what we discovered here, look at it."
Archaeology is about patience — and about expecting the unexpected. It is about finding a clue in the sand and gently sifting through layers of time. KV 63, as the Valley of the Kings' newest discovery was dubbed, has offered up many mysteries. Seven coffins were found inside and each was filled with items like pillows and linens and broken pottery.
But archaeology is also about show business, and in modern Egypt the master of ceremonies, the only man allowed to pull back the curtain for the audience, is Dr. Hawass, the general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
He has a theory abut KV 63 — but by the end of the day today it was hard to know how much of that was show business and how much science, or whether there was a bit of both.
Dr. Hawass's theory is that the tomb was the burial place of King Tut's mother, Queen Kiya. While there is evidence linking Tut's tomb with this one, others who have actually worked inside the newest tomb said there is no evidence a mummy was ever buried there.
"I really believe that KV 63 is the tomb of the mother of King Tut," Dr. Hawass said with great dramatic flair as he referred over and over to the "Golden Boy" King Tut. "She died when she was delivering him and therefore there was no time to cut a beautiful decorative tomb. That is actually the tomb that the mother should be buried [in]. Why King Tut is buried here? He wanted to be buried beside his mother." Dr. Hawass is fiercely protective of Egypt's past — and of his monopoly on revealing it to the world. When this tomb was discovered by Otto Schaden, an Egyptologist from the University of Memphis, Dr. Hawass insisted that he be the first inside as television cameras rolled.
But after that day in February, he went back to his office in Cairo, and to his many other projects, including a hunt for the grave of Cleopatra. He returned today to open the last coffin, and effectively to become the star of a Discovery Channel program scheduled to be broadcast July 9 about the new tomb, the one he contends was the burial place of King Tut's mother.
Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't.
Deep beneath the surface, as Dr. Hawass performed for the cameras — pointing, thinking, walking, staring — Dr. Schaden stood off to the side and in a very clinical manner laid out what seemed to be a refutation of Dr. Hawass's theory, though he did not call it that. He said that there was some evidence linking the tomb he discovered to the tomb of King Tut. The face carved on one of the coffins was similar to the one on King Tut's coffin. There were seals and large sealed jars in the new discovery that were also similar to those found in Tut's tomb.
But, Dr. Schaden said in his understated way, the team had not uncovered any evidence that mummies had ever been buried in KV 63. "It was set up as a tomb, but it may not have been used," he said. "That is not unusual. Many tombs were built or they started to be built and were abandoned."
The walls of the tomb were white, and the hatch marks from the ancient craftsmen clearly visible. As the coffin was opened today, the tomb was packed with cameramen and reporters that Dr. Hawass brought along from Cairo.
Nadia Lokma, who works for Dr. Hawass's antiquities council, stared in disbelief into the pile of ancient mummification materials and seemed to forget she was in a crowded room. All she could think about was the work involved in trying to remove and preserve the delicate items before her.
"It's like powder," she said, as if talking to herself. "I was happy, now I am worried. I am not sure I can save them."
Ms. Lokma was asked a question about the contents and she looked up, saw Dr. Hawass and seemed a bit nervous. "Please," she said, "ask Dr. Hawass."
So he was center stage again. Dr. Hawass took a small red stool, sat at the head of the coffin and with a metal pointer began to expound on what was found, and what it meant — to him.The cameras, of course, were again rolling.
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