Researchers have said there is a 90 percent chance that there are hidden chambers in Tut’s tomb, which means there’s nearly certainly more to this story than originally believed. Egypt’s antiques minister Mamduh al-Damati believes that the chamber could be the resting place of Kiya, the woman who became pharaoh Akhenaten’s wife after Nefertiti.
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The BBC’s Orla Guerin reports from King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor in Egypt.
Thus, he was entombed in what was initially the tomb of Nefertiti, who’d died 10 years before in a hurry.
Speaking to “The Economist”, Reeves said that if it were indeed true that the tomb contained the queen’s burial chamber, it would be “potentially the biggest archeological discovery ever made”.
“It does look indeed as if the tomb of Tutankhamun is a corridor tomb and it continues beyond the decorated burial chamber”.
New evidence from the radar imaging taken so far is to be sent to a team in Japan for analysis.
“It does appear from the radar signs like the grave of Tutankhamun is a hallway grave and it continues past the adorned burial chamber”, Reeves said at the press conference.
“REEVES: The tomb of Tutankhamun’s was a staircase going down, then turning to the right, which identifies it, I think, as the tomb of a queen because the king’s tomb normally turns to the left, and the queen’s tomb turns to the right”.
Tutankhamen died at the age of 19 in 1324 BC after just nine years on the throne. Nefertiti also was a wife of Akhenaten, and some experts have speculated that Tut was her son. Reeves is a National Geographic grantee as well as director of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project and senior archaeologist with the University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition. She actively supported her husband Akhenaten – Tutankhamun’s father – who temporarily converted ancient Egypt to monotheism by imposing the cult of sun god Aton.
Reeves theorizes that priests would have been forced to reopen Nefertiti’s tomb a decade after her death, because the young pharaoh’s own mausoleum had not yet been constructed. One expert is convinced that Nefertiti’s role in the sun cult would eliminate the possibility of her being buried near Tut. The tomb that Tut was buried in was small in comparison for a king.
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Nefertiti ruled alongside Akhenaten some 3,300 years ago during a time of social upheaval.
