The latest on KV 63

Lecture Report by Roy W. Hopper

First posted to EEF, and copied here with the very kind permission of author Roy W. Hopper, this psoting summarizes some of the key points in an account given by KV63 team member Dr Lorelei:

"Dr. Lorelei Corcoran, director of the IEAA at The University of Memphis just gave a presentation at 3:00 P.M. CST at the FedEx Institute of Technology on campus. Here are just a few bits of information I'd like to share with the list members.

The overhang on the shaft of KV 63 has been compared and found similar to two Eighteenth Dynasty private tombs, thereby dating the construction to the later half of the Eighteenth Dynasty (Note: Dr. Corcoran did not specify, but Yuya and Tuya is once such tomb
with an overhang-RWH).

A photo was shown of the foot holds in the shaft used by the ancient workers to climb down the shaft and/or used for beams for lowering the objects in KV 63.

Of the 28 jars in KV 63, at least 5 examined so far. The first examined was full of mud, chaff, and pottery. The second was full of natron, the third with a mixture of pottery vessels. The remainder were filled with materials similar to the first two. Dr. Corcoran identifiedthe jars and contents as similar to those from KV 54, the Tutankhamun embalming cache.

There are seven coffins in the tomb, but no indications to prove a recent statement that 5 or all were filled with embalming refuse. The only one examined, or at least examined before Dr. Corcoran returned to the USA, was the yellow faced coffin present in the foreground of the news images of KV 63. While being conserved of termite damage, it was found to have contained pot sherds, cloth, and at least three large pottery vessels-no human remains. The other six will have to await further details from the KV 10/KV 63 mission. "

Again, many thanks to Roy W. Hopper for permission to reproduce his posting here.


KV63 - not a tomb
Also on the subject of KV63, the following web page contains repeated information about Zahi Hawass's short announcement that KV63 is not a tomb but an embalming room - with a response by Salima Ikram.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4810282.stm


Discovery Channel have exclusive rights to film KV63
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060315/clw529.html?.v=20
"Dr. Zahi Hawass, Head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has signed an agreement giving Discovery Channel exclusive documentary television rights to the newly discovery KV63 tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Dr. Hawass has granted permission for news organizations to film and photograph, while Discovery Channel retains the only worldwide documentary television rights. Effective immediately, Discovery Channel will chronicle each phase of the team of University of Memphis archaeologists as they explore KV63, culminating in a documentary to air on Discovery Channel in the US in early summer 2006."
See the above page for more details.