http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/09/egypt.new.tomb.ap/
The first photos that I've seen anywhere are shown on the above page, together with a description of what is know so far, quoting Kent Weeks. Below are extracts from other pages, offering more information on the find which is expected to be officially announced by SCA head Zahi Hawass later today.
http://tinyurl.com/9u8y7 (LA Times/Associated Press)
"American archeologists have uncovered a Pharaonic-era tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the first uncovered there since King Tutankhamen's in 1922, Egypt's antiquities chief announced. The tomb's spare appearance suggests it was not dug for a pharaoh, said U.S. archeologist Kent Weeks, who was not involved in the University of Memphis team's find but has seen photographs of the site. 'It could be the tomb of a king's wife or son, or of a priest or court official,' he said Thursday. The 18th Dynasty tomb included five mummies in intact sarcophagi with colored funerary masks, along with more than 20 large storage jars with their seals intact, Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement Wednesday. American archeologist Otto Schaden, who headed the team that uncovered the site, declined to answer questions."
The first photos that I've seen anywhere are shown on the above page, together with a description of what is know so far, quoting Kent Weeks. Below are extracts from other pages, offering more information on the find which is expected to be officially announced by SCA head Zahi Hawass later today.
http://tinyurl.com/9u8y7 (LA Times/Associated Press)
"American archeologists have uncovered a Pharaonic-era tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the first uncovered there since King Tutankhamen's in 1922, Egypt's antiquities chief announced. The tomb's spare appearance suggests it was not dug for a pharaoh, said U.S. archeologist Kent Weeks, who was not involved in the University of Memphis team's find but has seen photographs of the site. 'It could be the tomb of a king's wife or son, or of a priest or court official,' he said Thursday. The 18th Dynasty tomb included five mummies in intact sarcophagi with colored funerary masks, along with more than 20 large storage jars with their seals intact, Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement Wednesday. American archeologist Otto Schaden, who headed the team that uncovered the site, declined to answer questions."
This is the entire item on the LA Times website.
Something rather more comprehensive on The Independent's website:
Something rather more comprehensive on The Independent's website:
"The sarcophagi are carved in human form, like Tutankhamun's. The tomb is rectangular, and the wooden sarcophagi are surrounded by the jars, which seem to have been placed haphazardly, suggesting that the burial had been completed quickly, according to Dr Hawass. Dr Schaden has been working in the valley on the Amenmesse Tomb Project, a minor tomb of the 19th dynasty, for many years. 'They had finished clearing up that tomb and had started to dig down to the bedrock in front of the entrance,' said Dr Podvorzski. 'They were looking for foundation deposits - the models of tools, vessels and other things that were put around the tomb of a king to assure the permanence of the structure. While doing that they found workmen's huts made of dry stone and dating from the 19th dynasty. I believe they were in the process of dismantling the huts when they found the new tomb.' . . . . Details of the find are expected to be announced officially by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities today, including possibly the identities of the occupants. Kent Weeks, an American archaeologist, said the tomb was a single chamber, probably intended for a single mummy. Some or all of the other sarcophagi could have been put in later. He added that photographs of the tomb suggested it did not belong to a king."
"Photos released by the Supreme Council of Antiquities showed the interior of the tomb the bare stone walls undecorated with at least five sarcophagi of blackened wood amid white jars, some apparently broken. What appeared to be a sixth sarcophagus was set on top of two of the other coffins, though the council's statement mentioned only five. . . . The fact that the tomb is a single chamber likely means it was meant for only one mummy, Weeks said. . . . More likely is that the tomb was used as a storeroom for sarcophagi moved from other tombs later either by priests to protect them from thieves, or by thieves to stash before removing them completely. The jars, he said, appear to be meat jars for food offerings. Weeks made the last major discovery in the valley. In 1995, he opened a previously known tomb KV5 and found it was far larger than expected: more than 120 chambers, which he determined were meant for sons of the pharaoh Ramses II."
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