Posted on 02/09/2024 10:34:55 AM PST by SunkenCiv
A significant problem with Egyptology's current approach to the tomb of Tutankhamun is the assumption that Howard Carter had all the answers, and that now, with online access to most of his Griffith Institute notes, all the data is to hand and the tomb has effectively had its say. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only were Carter's investigations very much a work in progress, with conclusions subject to constant change as yet another piece of the jigsaw fell into place; it is increasingly clear that much of what the excavator did and thought in relation to the find was never committed to paper. A dependence on Carter's notes alone- incomplete first-assumptions which are now a century old-is unlikely ever to reveal the full story...
As we shift the emphasis to this primary evidence, a very different picture of Howard Carter's discovery is seen to emerge, and it is one in which a single concept dominates: re-use.
We find re-use as well on the sarcophagus itself, where alterations in the iconography, these last including the adclose study by Marianne Eaton-Krauss has revealed multiple addition of kingly wings to the goddesses' enfolding arms-a tiple traces of adaptation-of earlier hieroglyphic signs change plainly intended to upgrade, for kingly use, an erased and over-written. Observable too were significant earlier, sub-pharaonic iconography...
Within this new reality we see Tutankhamun relegated to the status of cuckoo in a much larger nest-buried with essentially queenly burial equipment and occupying the outer chambers only of Nefertiti's ancient place of burial. A larger tomb within whose farther reaches, it appears, Nefertiti lies still, undisturbed and surrounded by a new, kingly burial equipment, far richer, I suspect, than anything archaeology has yet seen, anywhere in the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at academia.edu ...
The contractor *said* he’d get it done on time, but then had all kinds of excuses about workers calling in sick (something about a curse), weather problems, supply chain...
He’s mostly alone on this particular claim. It would be *nice* if there were at least one additional chamber, but it’s more likely that it’s a natural cavity that was discovered when the tomb was first being excavated. That work was abandoned, then Tut died and the usual amount of time wasn’t available, so some recarving was done, and the void was bricked up or stones were laid, and it was plastered over. More in the FRchives topics linked above.
Reeves' search for Nefertiti resulted in his use of ground penetrating radar to turn up a couple of previously unknown pit graves in the KV, KV-63 (which has been excavated) and KV-64 (which has not). He was hopeful that 63 would be the burial of Nefertiti.
It's much more likely that the looting problem which resulted in the cache burial of New Kingdom pharaoh remains (TT320) also resulted in a cache burial of non-pharaoh remains (wives and children of pharaohs). Burial of pharaohs with non-pharaohs was a no-no.
TT320 was discovered by robbers apparently in the 19th century, who were caught removing stuff, and then it got scientifically studied and excavated.
There's probably a similar cache, perhaps near TT320, that was found by modern looters. Material with Nefertiti's name showed up in the bazaars of Cairo late in the 19th c or early in the 20th, so that's probably all we'll ever see unless this possible cache is real and is eventually found (the mummies are probably in there and picked clean of artifacts).
The ancient looting of Nefertiti's original burial is suggested by an artifact with her name on it, found aboard the Ulu Burun II wreck.
ooo a curse, i hate it when that happens...
Everybody knows about the curse, everybody knows that the curse is the worse...
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