Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities Announces there are NO Hidden Chambers in Tut’s Tomb

Ancient Origins

The Egyptian antiquities ministry have announced the results of a new survey on the tomb of Tutankhamun. They have apparently discredited a theory, that suggest there was a second chamber in the Pharaoh’s tomb. It had been speculated that this second undiscovered chamber was the tomb of the famous Queen Nefertiti. Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities announced the official result of the investigation and stated categorically that there is no second chamber. According to the Egyptian authorities, an Italian scientific team from the University of Turin found that there is " conclusive evidence of the non-existence of hidden chambers adjacent to or inside Tutankhamun's tomb ". Has this ended the speculation that there remains to be discovered another tomb alongside that of Tutankhamun’s?

The stone sarcophagus containing the mummy of King Tut is seen in his underground tomb. Credit: Nasser Nuri.

The Tomb of Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun was Pharaoh of Egypt during the New Kingdom period, a golden age in Egyptian history. His father was the controversial Pharaoh Akhenaten, but the identity of his mother is still unknown. Tutankhamun became Pharaoh several years after the death of his father and a succession of short lived rulers, whose religious innovations had badly divided the kingdom. Under the boy-king, his father’s Monotheism was abandoned, and the traditional Egyptian religion was restored. He later married his half-sister and died while still a very young man and this has led to various theories about his death, including that he was secretly assassinated.

The gold laden tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. It is arguably the most spectacular archaeological find in history and it produced an unprecedented trove of treasures that have astonished the world ever since they were brought into the light. The tomb and the life of Tutankhamun has remained a source of fascination for both the expert and the public ever since.

Researchers scanning the walls of King Tutankhamun’s burial chamber using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) equipment. (Ministry of Antiquities)

Second-Chamber Theory
British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves had been the chief proponent of a theory that there was a second chamber in the tomb of Tutankhamun . He argued that it was likely to be the burial chamber of the famous Nefertiti , the wife of Tutankhamun's father, King Akhenaten and reputed to be one of the most beautiful women in history. Reeves argued that because Tutankhamun died unexpectedly that he was hurriedly buried in the outer chamber of Nefertiti’s tomb. This he argued means that the royal burial chamber of the queen was hidden behind the tomb of Tutankhamun and that many fabulous treasures were laying there waiting to be discovered. Reeves even believed that he had detected hidden doors behind the funerary painting on the walls of the Pharaoh’s tomb.

Previous scans of the north wall of King Tutankhamun's burial chamber indicated features beneath the intricately decorated plaster (highlighted) a researcher believes may be a hidden door, possibly to the burial chamber of Nefertiti. Credit: Factum Arte.

Inconclusive Survey Results
The theory prompted a group of researchers to test if Reeve’s assertions had any basis in fact. A team of Japanese experts used radar to scan the tomb of Tutankhamun and they claimed ‘with 95 percent certainty the existence of a doorway and a hall with artefacts’. This seemed to provide support to the theory of Reeves that there was a secret chamber and was presumably undiscovered. Initially the findings were supported by a former Egyptian minister of the antiquities, but this drew criticism from many experts.

In 2016 an American survey, used ground penetrating radar (GPR) on the tomb but was unable to confirm or to reject the second—chamber theory. A new Minister of antiquities convened a conference that ‘ decided to conduct a third GPR analysis to put an end to the debate’ . This third survey was led by Francesco Porcelli, of the Polytechnic University in Turin with the assistance of two private geophysics companies.

‘No Indication’
After an exhaustive survey, the Italian team have found no evidence that there was any second chamber or corridors in the tomb complex of Tutankhamun. The technology that was used by the team simply did not find any data that would indicate the existence of a chamber. According to the statement released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on its Facebook page:

 the radargrams do not show any indication of plane reflectors, which could be interpreted as chamber walls or void areas behind the paintings

They state this with a high degree of confidence and they are effectively rejecting earlier investigations and the theory of Reeves.

The views of Reeves and others who supported his theory are as yet unknown. However, the statement, issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities would suggest that the argument for a second burial chamber has been decisively rejected. It will undoubtedly disappoint many who had hoped that the burial chamber of the legendary Queen Nefertiti could be once more revealed to the world.

Top image: Sarcophagus of Tutankhamun double image. ( Public Domain )

By Ed Whelan

Tomb Could Be That of Tutankhamun’s Wife and Egyptian Leading Lady Ankhesenamun

Ancient Origins

Egyptologists believe they may be on the verge of a major discovery related to a leading lady of ancient Egypt. A new tomb found in the Valley of the Kings may have been created as the final resting place for the famous Egyptian queen Ankhesenamun – wife of Tutankhamun.

Live Science reports that the researchers were tipped off to the tomb’s existence by the discovery of four foundation deposits which Zahi Hawass described as “caches or holes in the ground that were filled with votive objects such as pottery vessels, food remains and other tools as a sign that a tomb construction is being initiated.”

According to a National Geographic interview, the researchers were examining the site between February and May. Hawass said a follow-up examination using radar showed “a substructure that could be the entrance of a tomb.”

Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt. (Wouter Hagens/CC BY SA 3.0)

Although nothing has been confirmed yet, Hawass proposes that the tomb’s owner could have been Ankhesenamun. This idea is based on the location near Pharaoh Ay’s tomb.

Ankhesenamun was a longstanding member of ancient Egyptian royalty. Her story begins as the third of six daughters to Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti. Ankhesenamun married her half-brother Tutankhamun when he was just 8 to 10 years old and she was 13. It is said the couple had stillborn twins. She may have also been briefly married to Tutankhamun's successor, Ay, (believed by many to be her maternal grandfather). There have also been suggestions that Ankhesenamun may have been married to her father for a time as well.

Detail; gold plate depicting Pharaoh Tutankhamun and consort, Ankhesenamun. (CC BY SA 3.0)

This may be shocking for people today, but it was a rather common practice for the royals of ancient Egypt. As April Holloway explains:

“Marriage within family was not uncommon in ancient Egypt and was practiced among royalty as a means of perpetuating the royal lineage. The pharaohs believed they were descended from the gods and incest was seen as acceptable so as to retain the sacred bloodline. However, what they were unaware of at the time was the severe consequences of family inbreeding.”

Detail; Tutankhamun receives flowers from Ankhesenamun as a sign of love. (Public Domain)

Proof for Ay and Ankhesenamun’s marriage has been offered in the form of a finger-ring that was found by Professor Percy Newberry in an antique shop in Cairo in the spring of 1931. It had cartouches of Ay and Ankhesenamun inscribed side by side―which many scholars say is proof of wedlock.

Although the possibility of finding Ankhesenamun’s lost tomb is exciting, it is also worth noting that there is an argument against a marriage between Ay and Ankhesenamun. “Her name never appeared within his tomb and it is believed that she may have died during or shortly after Ay’s reign, as she disappears from history shortly after his period.” If this is true, the tomb near KV23 may have nothing to do with Ankhesenamun.

Portrait study thought to be of Ay from the studio of the sculptor Thutmose. (CC BY SA 3.0) 

To date, it is not known where exactly Ankhesenamun was buried and no funerary objects with her name are known to exist. However, back in 2010 it was proposed that a mummy found in KV21A was Ankhesenamun. As Ancient Origins reported “Although her remains are headless and mostly destroyed, it was possible to use her DNA to confirm that this woman is the mother of two of Tutankhamun’s children.” These results have been debated, but do not discount her as the new tomb’s owner either. Moving mummies was another common practice by ancient priests looking to save them from looters.

It seems that you’ll have to wait to discover who the tomb’s owner is until a much later date. Hawass, who is currently the Director of the Italian expedition in the Valley of the Kings, told Live Science he will oversee future excavations at the site; but no expected start date has been provided for the dig.

Top Image: Ankhesenamun Hands Tutankhamun an Arrow. Source: Asaf Braverman/CC BY NC SA 2.0

By Alicia McDermott

8 surprising facts about Tutankhamun

History Extra

Golden funeral mask of Tutankhamun. Egyptian National Museum, Cairo. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

 1) His original name was not Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun was originally named Tutankhaten. This name, which literally means “living image of the Aten”, reflected the fact that Tutankhaten’s parents worshipped a sun god known as “the Aten”. After a few years on the throne the young king changed his religion, abandoned the Aten, and started to worship the god Amun [who was revered as king of the gods]. This caused him to change his name to Tutankhamun, or “living image of Amun”.

 Tutankhamun was not, however, the name by which his people knew him. Like all of Egypt’s kings, Tutankhamun actually had five royal names. These took the form of short sentences that outlined the focus of his reign. Officially, he was:
 (1) Horus Name: Image of births
 (2) Two Ladies Name: Beautiful of laws who quells the Two Lands/who makes content all the gods (3) Golden Horus Name: Elevated of appearances for the god/his father Re
(4) Prenomen: Nebkheperure
(5) Nomen: Tutankhamun

 His last two names, known today as the prenomen and the nomen, are the names that we see written in cartouches (oval loops) on his monuments. We know him by his nomen, Tutankhamun. His people, however, knew him by his prenomen, Nebkheperure, which literally translates as “[the sun god] Re is the lord of manifestations”.

 2) Tutankhamun has the smallest royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings
The first pharaohs built highly conspicuous pyramids in Egypt’s northern deserts. However, by the time of the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC), this fashion had ended. Most kings were now buried in relative secrecy in rock-cut tombs tunnelled into the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile at the southern city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor). These tombs had inconspicuous doors, but were both spacious and well decorated inside.

 Cemeteries carried their own potent magic, and dead kings were thought to have powerful spirits that might benefit others. Burial amongst his ancestors would have helped Tutankhamun to achieve his own afterlife. It therefore seems likely that Tutankhamun would have wished to be buried in a splendid tomb in either the main valley or in an offshoot, the Western Valley, where his grandfather, Amenhotep III, was buried. But, whatever he may have had intended, we know that Tutankhamun was actually buried in a cramped tomb cut into the floor of the main valley.

 It may be that Tutankhamun simply died too young to complete his ambitious plans. His own tomb was unfinished, and so he had to be buried in a substitute, non-royal tomb. However, this seems unlikely, as other kings managed to build suitable tombs in just two or three years. It seems far more likely that Tutankhamun’s successor, Ay, a king who inherited the throne as an elderly man, made a strategic swap. Just four years after Tutankhamun’s death, Ay himself was buried in a splendid tomb in the Western Valley, close by the tomb of Amenhotep III.

 The unexpectedly small size of Tutankhamun’s tomb has led to recent suggestions that there may be parts as yet undiscovered. Currently Egyptologists are investigating the possibility that there may be secret chambers hidden behind the plastered wall of his burial chamber.

British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter (left) and his assistant Arthur Callender opening the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb, 1922. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

 3) He was buried in a second-hand coffin
Tutankhamun’s mummy lay within a nest of three golden coffins, which fitted snugly one inside another like a set of Russian dolls. During the funeral ritual the combined coffins were placed in a rectangular stone sarcophagus. Unfortunately, the outer coffin proved to be slightly too big, and its toes peeked over the edge of the sarcophagus, preventing the lid from closing. Carpenters were quickly summoned and the coffin’s toes were cut away. More than 3,000 years later Howard Carter would find the fragments lying in the base of the sarcophagus.

 All three of Tutankhamun’s coffins were similar in style: they were “anthropoid”, or human-form coffins, shaped to look like the god of the dead, Osiris, lying on his back and holding the crook and flail in his crossed arms. But the middle coffin had a slightly different style and its face did not look like the faces on other two coffins. Nor did it look like the face on Tutankhamun’s death mask. Many Egyptologists now believe that this middle coffin – along with some of Tutankhamun’s other grave goods – was originally made for the mysterious “Neferneferuaten” – an enigmatic individual whose name is recorded in inscriptions and who may have been Tutankhamun’s immediate predecessor. We do not know what happened to Neferneferuaten, nor how Tutankhamun came to be buried in his or her coffin.

Howard Carter removing oils from the coffin of Tutankhamun, 1922. (Photo by Mansell/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

 4) Tutankhamun loved to hunt ostriches
Tutankhamun’s ostrich-feather fan was discovered lying in his burial chamber, close by the king’s body. Originally the fan consisted of a long golden handle topped by a semi-circular ‘palm’ that supported 42 alternating brown and white feathers. These feathers crumbled away long ago, but their story is preserved in writing on the fan handle. This tells us that that the feathers were taken from ostriches captured by the king himself while hunting in the desert to the east of Heliopolis (near modern-day Cairo). The embossed scene on the palm shows, on one face, Tutankhamun setting off in his chariot to hunt ostrich, and on the reverse, the king returning in triumph with his prey.

 Ostriches were important birds in ancient Egypt, and their feathers and eggs were prized as luxury items. Hunting ostriches was a royal sport that allowed the king to demonstrate his control over nature. It was a substitute for battle and, as such, was a dangerous occupation. We can see that Tutankhamun’s body was badly damaged before he was mummified. Is the placement of his ostrich fan so close to his body significant? Is this, perhaps, someone’s way of telling us that the young king died following a fatal accident on an ostrich hunt?

Howard Carter (left) and Arthur Callender systematically remove objects from the antechamber of the tomb of Tutankhamun with the assistance of an Egyptian labourer. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

 5) His heart is missing
The ancient Egyptians believed that it was possible to live again after death, but thought that this could only be achieved if the body was preserved in a lifelike condition. This led them to develop the science of artificial mummification.

 Essentially, mummification involved desiccating the body in natron salt, then wrapping it in many layers of bandages to preserve a lifelike shape. The body’s internal organs were removed at the start of the mummification process and preserved separately. The brain, its function then unknown, was simply thrown away – the heart, rather than the brain, was regarded as the organ of reasoning. As such, the heart would be required in the afterlife. It was therefore left in place and, if accidentally removed, immediately sewn back; though not always in its original location.

 Tutankhamun, however, has no heart. Instead he was provided with an amuletic scarab inscribed with a funerary spell. This may have happened simply because the undertakers were careless, but it could also be a sign that Tutankhamun died far from home. By the time his body arrived at the undertakers’ workshop, his heart may have been too decayed to be preserved.

The mask of Tutankhamun, seen at the British Museum, London, January 1972. (Photo by Kean Collection/Getty Images)

 6) One of Tutankhamun’s favourite possessions was an iron dagger Howard Carter discovered two daggers carefully wrapped inside Tutankhamun’s mummy bandages. One dagger had a gold blade, while the other had a blade made of iron. Each dagger had a gold sheath. Of the two, the iron dagger was by far the more valuable because, during Tutankhamun’s lifetime (he reigned from c1336–27 BC), iron, or “iron from the sky” as it was known, was a rare and precious metal. As its name suggests, Egypt’s “iron from the sky” was almost entirely obtained from meteorites.

 Several other iron objects were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb: 16 miniature blades, a tiny headrest and an amulet. The fact that these pieces are not particularly well made, combined with their small size, suggest that they were made by local craftsmen who struggled to work the rare meteorite iron. The dagger blade, however, is very different. Beautifully crafted, it is likely to have been imported to Egypt from a region accustomed to working iron. The royal diplomatic archives tell us that, several years before Tutankhamun’s birth, king Tushratta of Mitanni sent a metal dagger to Egypt as a gift to his new son-in-law, Amenhotep III. Given the rarity of good quality iron artefacts at this time, it is possible that Amenhotep’s dagger was inherited by his grandson, Tutankhamun, and eventually buried with him. Given its prominent location within the mummy bandages, it may even be that Tushratta’s dagger was used in Tutankhamun’s mummification ritual.

Tutankhamun’s daggers, one with a blade of gold, the other of iron. (Robert Harding/Alamy Stock Photo)

 7) His trumpets have entertained an audience of more than 150 million Tutankhamun’s grave goods included a small collection of musical instruments: one pair of ivory clappers, two sistra (rattles) and two trumpets, one made from silver with a gold mouthpiece and the other made of bronze partially overlaid by gold. This would not have made a very satisfactory orchestra, and it seems that music was not high on Tutankhamun’s list of priorities for his afterlife. In fact, his trumpets should more properly be classified as military equipment, while his clappers and sistra are likely to have had a ritual purpose.

 On 16 April 1939, the two trumpets were played in a BBC live radio broadcast from Cairo Museum, which reached an estimated 150 million listeners. Bandsman James Tappern used a modern mouthpiece, which caused damage to the silver trumpet. In 1941 the bronze trumpet was played again, this time without a modern mouthpiece.

 Some, influenced by the myth of “Tutankhamun’s curse”, have claimed that the trumpets have the power to summon war. They have suggested that it was the 1939 broadcast which caused Britain to enter the Second World War.

 8) Tutankhamun was buried in the world’s most expensive coffin
Two of Tutankhamun’s three coffins were made of wood, covered with gold sheet. But, to Howard Carter’s great surprise, the innermost coffin was made from thick sheets of beaten gold. This coffin measures 1.88m in length, and weighs 110.4kg. If it were to be scrapped today it would be worth well over £1m. But as Tutankhamun’s final resting place it is, of course, priceless.

 Joyce Tyldesley teaches a suite of online courses in Egyptology at the University of Manchester. She is the author of Tutankhamen’s Curse: the Developing History of an Egyptian King (Profile 2012).

8 things you (probably) didn’t know about Tutankhamun

History Extra

Golden funeral mask of Tutankhamun. Egyptian National Museum, Cairo. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

1) His original name was not Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun was originally named Tutankhaten. This name, which literally means “living image of the Aten”, reflected the fact that Tutankhaten’s parents worshipped a sun god known as “the Aten”. After a few years on the throne the young king changed his religion, abandoned the Aten, and started to worship the god Amun [who was revered as king of the gods]. This caused him to change his name to Tutankhamun, or “living image of Amun”.
Tutankhamun was not, however, the name by which his people knew him. Like all of Egypt’s kings, Tutankhamun actually had five royal names. These took the form of short sentences that outlined the focus of his reign. Officially, he was:
(1) Horus Name: Image of births
(2) Two Ladies Name: Beautiful of laws who quells the Two Lands/who makes content all the gods
(3) Golden Horus Name: Elevated of appearances for the god/his father Re
(4) Prenomen: Nebkheperure
(5) Nomen: Tutankhamun
His last two names, known today as the prenomen and the nomen, are the names that we see written in cartouches (oval loops) on his monuments. We know him by his nomen, Tutankhamun. His people, however, knew him by his prenomen, Nebkheperure, which literally translates as “[the sun god] Re is the lord of manifestations”.

2) Tutankhamun has the smallest royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings

The first pharaohs built highly conspicuous pyramids in Egypt’s northern deserts. However, by the time of the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC), this fashion had ended. Most kings were now buried in relative secrecy in rock-cut tombs tunnelled into the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile at the southern city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor). These tombs had inconspicuous doors, but were both spacious and well decorated inside.
Cemeteries carried their own potent magic, and dead kings were thought to have powerful spirits that might benefit others. Burial amongst his ancestors would have helped Tutankhamun to achieve his own afterlife. It therefore seems likely that Tutankhamun would have wished to be buried in a splendid tomb in either the main valley or in an offshoot, the Western Valley, where his grandfather, Amenhotep III, was buried. But, whatever he may have had intended, we know that Tutankhamun was actually buried in a cramped tomb cut into the floor of the main valley.
It may be that Tutankhamun simply died too young to complete his ambitious plans. His own tomb was unfinished, and so he had to be buried in a substitute, non-royal tomb. However, this seems unlikely, as other kings managed to build suitable tombs in just two or three years. It seems far more likely that Tutankhamun’s successor, Ay, a king who inherited the throne as an elderly man, made a strategic swap. Just four years after Tutankhamun’s death, Ay himself was buried in a splendid tomb in the Western Valley, close by the tomb of Amenhotep III.
The unexpectedly small size of Tutankhamun’s tomb has led to recent suggestions that there may be parts as yet undiscovered. Currently Egyptologists are investigating the possibility that there may be secret chambers hidden behind the plastered wall of his burial chamber.

_{British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter (left) and his assistant Arthur Callender opening the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb, 1922. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)}

 

3) He was buried in a second-hand coffin

Tutankhamun’s mummy lay within a nest of three golden coffins, which fitted snugly one inside another like a set of Russian dolls. During the funeral ritual the combined coffins were placed in a rectangular stone sarcophagus. Unfortunately, the outer coffin proved to be slightly too big, and its toes peeked over the edge of the sarcophagus, preventing the lid from closing. Carpenters were quickly summoned and the coffin’s toes were cut away. More than 3,000 years later Howard Carter would find the fragments lying in the base of the sarcophagus.
All three of Tutankhamun’s coffins were similar in style: they were “anthropoid”, or human-form coffins, shaped to look like the god of the dead, Osiris, lying on his back and holding the crook and flail in his crossed arms. But the middle coffin had a slightly different style and its face did not look like the faces on other two coffins. Nor did it look like the face on Tutankhamun’s death mask.  Many Egyptologists now believe that this middle coffin – along with some of Tutankhamun’s other grave goods – was originally made for the mysterious “Neferneferuaten” – an enigmatic individual whose name is recorded in inscriptions and who may have been Tutankhamun’s immediate predecessor. We do not know what happened to Neferneferuaten, nor how Tutankhamun came to be buried in his or her coffin.
_{Howard Carter removing oils from the coffin of Tutankhamun, 1922. (Photo by Mansell/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)}

4) Tutankhamun loved to hunt ostriches

Tutankhamun’s ostrich-feather fan was discovered lying in his burial chamber, close by the king’s body. Originally the fan consisted of a long golden handle topped by a semi-circular ‘palm’ that supported 42 alternating brown and white feathers. These feathers crumbled away long ago, but their story is preserved in writing on the fan handle. This tells us that that the feathers were taken from ostriches captured by the king himself while hunting in the desert to the east of Heliopolis (near modern-day Cairo). The embossed scene on the palm shows, on one face, Tutankhamun setting off in his chariot to hunt ostrich, and on the reverse, the king returning in triumph with his prey.
Ostriches were important birds in ancient Egypt, and their feathers and eggs were prized as luxury items. Hunting ostriches was a royal sport that allowed the king to demonstrate his control over nature. It was a substitute for battle and, as such, was a dangerous occupation. We can see that Tutankhamun’s body was badly damaged before he was mummified. Is the placement of his ostrich fan so close to his body significant? Is this, perhaps, someone’s way of telling us that the young king died following a fatal accident on an ostrich hunt?
_{Howard Carter (left) and Arthur Callender systematically remove objects from the antechamber of the tomb of Tutankhamun with the assistance of an Egyptian labourer. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)}

 

5) His heart is missing

The ancient Egyptians believed that it was possible to live again after death, but thought that this could only be achieved if the body was preserved in a lifelike condition. This led them to develop the science of artificial mummification.
Essentially, mummification involved desiccating the body in natron salt, then wrapping it in many layers of bandages to preserve a lifelike shape. The body’s internal organs were removed at the start of the mummification process and preserved separately. The brain, its function then unknown, was simply thrown away – the heart, rather than the brain, was regarded as the organ of reasoning. As such, the heart would be required in the afterlife. It was therefore left in place and, if accidentally removed, immediately sewn back; though not always in its original location.
Tutankhamun, however, has no heart. Instead he was provided with an amuletic scarab inscribed with a funerary spell. This may have happened simply because the undertakers were careless, but it could also be a sign that Tutankhamun died far from home. By the time his body arrived at the undertakers’ workshop, his heart may have been too decayed to be preserved.

_{The mask of Tutankhamun, seen at the British Museum, London, January 1972. (Photo by Kean Collection/Getty Images)}

 

6) One of Tutankhamun’s favourite possessions was an iron dagger

Howard Carter discovered two daggers carefully wrapped inside Tutankhamun’s mummy bandages. One dagger had a gold blade, while the other had a blade made of iron. Each dagger had a gold sheath. Of the two, the iron dagger was by far the more valuable because, during Tutankhamun’s lifetime (he reigned from c1336–27 BC), iron, or “iron from the sky” as it was known, was a rare and precious metal. As its name suggests, Egypt’s “iron from the sky” was almost entirely obtained from meteorites.
Several other iron objects were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb: 16 miniature blades, a tiny headrest and an amulet. The fact that these pieces are not particularly well made, combined with their small size, suggest that they were made by local craftsmen who struggled to work the rare meteorite iron. The dagger blade, however, is very different. Beautifully crafted, it is likely to have been imported to Egypt from a region accustomed to working iron. The royal diplomatic archives tell us that, several years before Tutankhamun’s birth, king Tushratta of Mitanni sent a metal dagger to Egypt as a gift to his new son-in-law, Amenhotep III. Given the rarity of good quality iron artefacts at this time, it is possible that Amenhotep’s dagger was inherited by his grandson, Tutankhamun, and eventually buried with him. Given its prominent location within the mummy bandages, it may even be that Tushratta’s dagger was used in Tutankhamun’s mummification ritual.
_{Tutankhamun’s daggers, one with a blade of gold, the other of iron. (Robert Harding/Alamy Stock Photo)}

7) His trumpets have entertained an audience of more than 150 million

Tutankhamun’s grave goods included a small collection of musical instruments: one pair of ivory clappers, two sistra (rattles) and two trumpets, one made from silver with a gold mouthpiece and the other made of bronze partially overlaid by gold. This would not have made a very satisfactory orchestra, and it seems that music was not high on Tutankhamun’s list of priorities for his afterlife. In fact, his trumpets should more properly be classified as military equipment, while his clappers and sistra are likely to have had a ritual purpose.
On 16 April 1939, the two trumpets were played in a BBC live radio broadcast from Cairo Museum, which reached an estimated 150 million listeners. Bandsman James Tappern used a modern mouthpiece, which caused damage to the silver trumpet. In 1941 the bronze trumpet was played again, this time without a modern mouthpiece.
Some, influenced by the myth of “Tutankhamun’s curse”, have claimed that the trumpets have the power to summon war. They have suggested that it was the 1939 broadcast which caused Britain to enter the Second World War.
To listen to a clip of the broadcast, click here.

8) Tutankhamun was buried in the world’s most expensive coffin

Two of Tutankhamun’s three coffins were made of wood, covered with gold sheet. But, to Howard Carter’s great surprise, the innermost coffin was made from thick sheets of beaten gold. This coffin measures 1.88m in length, and weighs 110.4kg. If it were to be scrapped today it would be worth well over £1m. But as Tutankhamun’s final resting place it is, of course, priceless.
Joyce Tyldesley teaches a suite of online courses in Egyptology at the University of Manchester. She is the author of Tutankhamen’s Curse: the Developing History of an Egyptian King (Profile 2012).

Precious Dagger of Tutankhamun Found to be of Meteoric Origin

Ancient Origins

In an exciting new find, a team of researchers have confirmed that the iron in one of the daggers found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, as well as a number of other precious artifacts from Ancient Egypt, have celestial origins as they were made from meteorites.

According to ABC.es, the research was undertaken by an international team of scientists from the Polytechnics of Milan and Turin, the University of Pisa, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the CNR, the University Fayoum, and the XGlab company. Archeologists had suspected for many decades that the iron used during the reign of the New Kingdom Dynasties and earlier, could come from meteorites, however, it was never known for certain until now.
In 2014, The Guardian presented the research of Diane Johnson from the Open University and Joyce Tyldesley from the University of Manchester. They examined artifacts discovered in the Gerzeh cemetery, 70km south of Cairo, dating from 3600 BC to 3350 BC. The burial of a man contained an ivory pot, copper harpoon, bead jewelry made of gold and iron, and more. A few rare examples of iron artifacts have also been unearthed in other places. The most impressive examples were discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun, including a dagger and iron amulet on a gold bracelet. Johnson and Tyldesley used the electron microscope and the micro x-ray computer tomography to scrutinize the surface of the artifacts. They also examined the iron beads from the Gerzeh tomb, and discovered that the structure and chemistry of the iron suggested a meteoric origin.
The most recent research confirmed that Johnson and Tyldesley were right. The composition of iron used in Tutankhamun's dagger, is nickel and cobalt, which is commonly found in meteorites. In addition, the study of the iron beads from Gerzeh, which are c. 5,000 years old, confirmed that in the times of the 18^th dynasty, ancient Egyptians were advanced in working iron and that the iron used to create them comes from meteorite.  Previously, it had been believed that the Egyptian Iron Age started after 600 BC.

Close up of the Gerzeh bead made from meteoritic iron. Image credit: Open University / University of Manchester

According to the authors of the research:

''The celestial or terrestrial origin of ancient Egyptian iron, and when its usage became common are contentious issues, which are subject to debate. Evidence is drawn from many areas, including architecture, language, and belief.''

The researchers suggest that meteoric iron may have been very important in Egyptian culture and religion. The iron in the blade of the knife from Tutankhamun's tomb came from one of the many meteorites that has fallen in the desert.
In Ancient Egypt people started to make jewelry not later than around 4,000 BC. It is unknown why they did start using the meteoric iron, but it seems that ancient people in many parts of the world worshiped the stones, which came from the sky. The same kind of the iron structure was discovered in two Chinese blades from 1000 BC, and in Native American iron beads from the Hopewell burial mounds in Illinois from 400 BC.
According to the article by Liz Leafloor from Ancient Origins:

''Back on Earth, meteorites have long fascinated humanity. Ancient man was in awe of and feared what were seen as unfathomable events in the skies. Modern science can now explain the meteor showers, lightning and thunder, aurora lights, and eclipses that inspired myths, religions, and legends. In antiquity meteorites were seen as messages from the gods, or profound omens.
The worship of celestial rocks continues even with modern meteorites. The ‘Church of the Meteorite’ was set up in Chelyabinsk after a meteor rocked the Russian region in 2013 and injured over 1500 people.''

The Hoba meteorite is the largest known meteorite found on Earth, as well as the largest naturally-occurring mass of iron known to exist on the earth. The meteorite, named after the Hoba West Farm in Grootfontein, Namibia where it was discovered in 1920, has not been moved since it landed on Earth over 80,000 years ago. (public domain)

Meteorites, have been important in religions and cultures of many civilizations. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed that they were gifts of the Gods. In ancient Greece, meteorites were held at Apollo's temple at Delphi as objects of veneration. Even the shrine of Islam in Mecca holds a stone, which is believed to be a meteorite.
Top image: These daggers were from within Tutankhamun's burial wrappings.  The top one of made of gold and the lower, significantly rarer, made from meteorite. (ancient-egypt.co.uk) 
By Natalia Klimczak

Search for Secret Chambers in King Tut's Tomb Begins

Discovery News

Howard Carter opens King Tut’s tomb.

Harry Burton/Wikimedia Commons

Gallery InsideKingTut'sTombView Caption +#1: King Tut's Mask

"Tutankhamun: His Tomb and the Treasures" is a new exhibition now in Zurich that has meticulously reconstructed the tomb complex and its treasures. Specially trained craftspeople in Cairo built more than 1,000 exact replicas under scientific supervision. The work took over five years. Here is a replica of the famous mask of King Tut, weighing 24 lbs, which was pressed over the head of the king's bandaged mummy. The idealized portrait of the young king echoes the style of the late Amarna period. The life-like eyes are formed by bright quartz, with obsidian inlays for the pupils.

View Caption +#2: King Tut, With Wife

This scene, depicted on the backrest of King Tut's throne, shows how Tutankhamen used to lean back in a relaxed manner while his wife, Anchesenamun, stood beside him and rubbed ointment into his shoulder.

View Caption +#3: Tomb Discovery

This is how the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun appeared to archaeologist Howard Carter when he discovered it in 1922.

View Caption +#4: King Tut's Tomb in 3-D

Tutankhamun's tomb and its contents, as viewed in a 3-D model. A corridor led to an antechamber and an annex filled with objects. The antechamber opened into the coffin chamber with King Tut's sarcophagus. The coffin chamber led to another small room filled with King Tut's treasures.

View Caption +#5: Treasures Galore

Two tiny mummified female fetuses were found in the tomb with the king. But they were not the only companions placed in the tomb for King Tut's journey to the afterlife. The boy king was buried with more than 5,000 priceless objects, including this treasure chest.

View Caption +#6: Boy Throne

The famous gold throne found in the tomb was ordered when Tutankhamen became king at the age of nine.

View Caption +#7: Lion Head

The dead king in the underworld was akin to the sun at night and, in the New Kingdom, this was identified with the god of death, Osiris. The heads of lions corresponded to the time the sun god spent in the body of the god of heaven in feline form. The facial details of the lion head –- the rims of the eyes, tip of the nose and tear ducts -- are given almost life-like properties through the use of glass.

View Caption +#8: Hired Help for the Afterlife

These figures were supposed to take the place of the king in performing the daily tasks that came up in the afterlife. A total of 413 of these figures, known as ushabtis, were found in Tutankhamun's tomb. Among the collection, 365 were responsible for carrying out day-to-day duties, 36 ushabtis served as overseers for groups of 10 workers each, and 12 acted as monthly supervisors

An investigation of King Tut’s tomb to find secret chambers will begin tomorrow and will last until Friday, Egypt’s Minister of Antiquity announced on Wednesday.
The announcement, reported in the Egyptian media, comes on the 93rd anniversary of the tomb’s discovery in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. On this day in 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter found the entrance to King Tutankhamun’s treasure-filled tomb.
A team from Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering and the Paris-based organization Heritage, Innovation and Preservation will investigate the tomb using infrared thermography.
PHOTOS: Inside King Tut's Tomb
The non-invasive search follows a claim by Nicholas Reeves, a British Egyptologist at the University of Arizona, that high-resolution images of the tomb’s walls show “distinct linear traces” pointing to the presence of two still unexplored chambers behind the western and northern walls of the tomb.
According to Reeves, one chamber contains the remains, and possibly the intact grave goods, of queen Nefertiti, the wife of the “heretic” monotheistic pharaoh Akhenaten, Tutankhamun’s father.
He argued that a painting located behind King Tut’s sarcophagus has been wrongly interpreted. Egyptologists have always believed the scene shows Ay (who largely directed King Tut’s reign and succeeded him) performing the Opening of the Mouth ritual on the boy king.
Tut’s Funeral: Burying the Boy King
Reeves believes the figure labelled Tutankhamun is actually Nefertiti. He noted that a line at the side of the figure’s mouth, called “oromental groove,” is a trademark in pictures of Nefertiti. On the other hand, the figure labelled Ay would be Tutankhamun, completing the death ritual for Nefertiti.
Reeves speculated that the tomb of King Tut was not ready when he died unexpectedly at 19 in 1323 B.C. after having ruled a short reign of nine to 10 years. Consequently, he was buried in a rush in what was originally Nefertiti’s tomb, who had died 10 years earlier.
An examination of King Tut’s tomb in September revealed several unusual features, such as a contrast in the materials that cover different parts of the same wall and an extended ceiling which suggests King Tut’s burial chamber was originally a corridor.
Weird Facts About King Tut and His Mummy
After the visual examination, Egypt’s Antiquities minister Mamdouh al-Damaty agreed it was very likely that there were hidden chambers in the tomb.
However, he disagreed with Reeves on the Nefertiti claim.
An international team of researchers led by mummy expert Frank Rühli, director of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, also cautioned last month about the possibility of Nefertiti being the occupant of the secret crypt.
“Queen Nefertiti might be the already found Younger Lady,” Rühli said.
Who Else May Be in King Tut’s Tomb?
The “Younger Lady” is a mummy found in 1898 by archaeologist Victor Loret in tomb KV35 in the Valley of the Kings.
Nefertiti is labelled in inscriptions to be Tutankhamun’s mother; genetic analyses identified the “Younger Lady” as the mother of Tutankhamun.
Such evidence would automatically rule out Nefertiti, the researchers concluded.
King Tut Felled by Malaria, Bone Disease
If a mummy is found, it could belong to the elusive pharaoh Smenkhkare, or to queen Meritaton, the full or half sister of Tutankhamun, they added.
It is also possible that nothing at all will be found behind those walls.
“The possible findings range from nothing at all or unfinished and closed corridors to storage chambers or intact burials with treasures,” Rühli told Discovery News.
by Rossella Lorenzi