Others theorize that she outlived her husband and ruled alongside Tutankhamen or perhaps served as pharaoh herself before King Tut assumed the throne. With no tomb yet dug for pharaoh’s sole use, KV62 was reopened and accessed. While the results from this most recent radar scan do not support the initial "hidden Nefertiti tomb" theory that instigated the research, Porcelli believes that the project demonstrates that GPR can provide conclusive answers. This tomb is located on the west bank of the Nile, at the height of the current city of Luxor. The Antiquities Museum in the Library of Alexandria The world will have become a much more interesting place—at least for Egyptologists.”. Nefertiti, who ruled Egypt 3,300 years ago from 1353 to 1336 BC, was either the mother or stepmother of the boy-pharaoh King Tutankhamun. “It proves the technique, and it is proof of concept for great work that can be done in Egypt. ... that Queen Nefertiti’s tomb could be concealed behind wall paintings in the famed boy king’s burial chamber. The announcement brings to a disappointing end an investigation that began three years ago, when Egyptologist and National Geographic grantee Nicholas Reeves theorized that the tomb of legendary 18th-Dynasty queen Nefertiti may be hidden behind the walls of Tut's 3,300-year-old tomb. It was July of last year when British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves announced his hypothesis that stunned scholars of the ancient world. ", SOURCES: THEBAN MAPPING PROJECT, Ministry of State for Antiquities. The badly damaged mummy of the woman nicknamed the "Younger Lady" was uncovered in a tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 1898. Nearly a century later, British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves thinks he has solved the mystery. Diagram showing possible location of storeroom behind west wall of King Tut’s tomb. The badly damaged mummy of the Younger Lady was uncovered in a tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 1898, and shown through DNA evidence in 2010, to be King Tut's biological mother. “Rather, the indications are that what we now know as KV 62 represents merely the outermost portion of an extended, corridor-style ‘tomb-within-a-tomb.’”. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. After the experts individually interpreted their radar data, they came together to cross-check their results. The culprit? “The more I looked, the more information I found that I seemed to be looking at something pretty real,” he told the BBC. That thought would not occur until the king’s early and unexpected death a decade later. The sculpture of the Egyptian beauty wearing a distinctive flat-topped blue crown attracted worldwide attention and is now on display in a Berlin museum. They discovered several bodies in Kv21 and observed that two mummies could have been queens . "The finding is that there is no evidence of doors or empty spaces beyond the funeral chamber up to four meters [13 feet]," Porcelli tells National Geographic. The woman who changed Egypt’s history has been missing for more than 3,300 years. "This is the first conclusive GPR project in the Valley of the Kings,” Hiebert says. The Neues Museum in Berlin decided to keep its full-color scan of the Nefertiti bust under lock and key. “At the time of Nefertiti’s burial within KV62 there had surely been no intention that Tutankhamun would in due course occupy this same tomb. Nefertiti was believed to … Nefertiti's mummy was uncovered in a tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 1898, but it wasn't until 2010, via DNA evidence, that she was proven to be King Tut's biological mother. (Credit: CM DIxon/Print Collector/Getty Images), Reeves believes a hidden storeroom lurks behind the western wall of King Tut’s tomb, also known as “KV 62,” and that “the undisturbed burial of the tomb’s original owner—Nefertiti” lies behind the north wall, which is covered in religious frescoes. Howard Carter’s discovery of King Tutankhamen’s nearly intact tomb in the Valley of Kings outside Luxor not only stunned the world, it puzzled archaeologists who noted that the burial chamber wasn’t exactly fit for a king. The next step for researchers is to use seismic X-ray technology and ground-penetrating radar to determine if there are any gaps in the bedrock that would indicate the presence of additional rooms. The research teams—from the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy, in partnership with the University of Turin and two private companies, Geostudi Astier and 3DGeoimaging—worked over the course of seven days and collected data equivalent to scanning 1.6 surface miles. A statement was released today on behalf of Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, during the fourth annual International Tutankhamun GEM Conference, held at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza. Ground-penetrating radar, a remote-sensing technique commonly used in prospecting for oil and gas and other minerals, is an increasingly critical tool for archaeologists. Published: 14:33 EST, 1 February 2018 | Updated: 09:25 EST, 2 February 2018 . The report submitted to Egyptian officials today includes the results of three new GPR scans, conducted in February 2018 by three independent teams and each using a different frequency—high, medium, and low. But where is her mummy now? NILE #17. Science has killed hopes for any new movies based on the mummy of Queen Nefertiti being released from her secret burial chamber in the tomb of Tutankhamun. Reeves’s astonishing hypothesis was that Queen Nefertiti’s tomb—long sought after but never found—is hidden within King Tutankhamun’s tomb, concealed for more than 3,000 years in a secret room behind a wall of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber. Fredik Hiebert, National Geographic's archaeologist-in-residence, agrees. After studying the detailed scans that revealed the texture of the tomb’s walls beneath the layers of paint, Reeves spotted what he believed to be the outlines of two doorways that had been blocked and plastered over to hide them from view. The Tomb of Nefertiti. Following a contentious discussion over the discrepancy between the results of the two scans at the 2016 International Tutankhamun GEM Conference, Minister El Enany commissioned a comprehensive "tie-breaker" radar analysis. The verdict is in for what’s behind King Tutankhamun’s burial chamber Robin Ngo May 11, 2018 1 Comments 3773 views Share A team headed by Francesco Porcelli of the Polytechnic University of Turin conducted the third investigation into whether Queen Nefertiti’s tomb is located on the other side of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber. The announcement brings to a disappointing end an investigation that began three years ago, when Egyptologist and National Geographic grantee Nicholas Reeves theorized that the tomb … (Credit: Theban Mapping Project). Relief showing Akhenaten and Nefertiti under the rays of the sun-god Aten. Egyptologists caution that they can’t know for sure if anything exists beyond the walls of King Tut’s tomb. After nearly a year of silence, the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings is once again back in focus thanks to the Ministry of Antiquities granting permission to a team of Italian experts to conduct radar tests—that are currently underway. Renowned for her beauty, the queen was more than just a pretty face. In a recently released paper, the University of Arizona Egyptologist claims that King Tut may not have been the tomb’s original resident and that the undisturbed resting place of the legendary Queen Nefertiti could be on the other side of the walls of the boy-king’s burial chamber. During her husband’s reign from 1353 to 1336 B.C., Nefertiti played an important political and religious role as co-regent during the height of ancient Egypt. ", It’s Official: Tut’s Tomb Has No Hidden Chambers After All, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/05/king-tut-tutankhamun-tomb-radar-results-science.html. “I will never relinquish the head of the queen,” German dictator Adolf Hitler said of the artifact, which was hidden in a salt mine during World War II before it was recovered by the Allies’ Monuments Men in 1945. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. . Ever since archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the treasure-packed tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings in 1922, experts have believed the space to be strangely small for a pharaoh. Hidden doorways in the ancient Egyptian tomb of King Tutankhamun may lead to the long-lost resting place of Queen Nefertiti, a scientist has claimed. In a second radar scan in Tut's tomb in 2016, National Geographic technicians Eric Berkenpas and Alan Turchik prepare the radar unit. However, in 2018, the Ministry of Antiquities announced that the investigation, which continued for 3 years and included a radar survey of the cemetery, proved conclusively that there were no secret rooms. Updated 1059 GMT (1859 HKT) May 7, 2018 The burial mask of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, whose tomb does not contain the hidden chambers theorized about, according to experts. Scientists are investigating whether there are hidden chambers behind the north and west walls of King Tut’s tomb. Per National Geographic, radar scans inside King Tutankhamun's tomb recently concluded that there are no burial chambers hidden behind the walls. "It may be more efficient than traditional archaeology and less destructive," he adds. The scientific report submitted on Saturday by Porcelli to Waziri and Khaled El Enany, Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities, ends with the statement: "We conclude, with a very high level of confidence, that the hypothesis concerning the existence of hidden chambers adjacent [to] Tutankhamun’s tomb is not supported by the GPR data. As Reeves’ visit to Egypt draws closer, the suspense crescendoes. Two previous tests of Reeves' theory, using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to search for hidden chambers or passages, produced contradictory results. Porcelli suspects that previous radar anomalies detected in the pharaoh's burial chamber, which raised the exciting possibility that Nefertiti's tomb might lie beyond it, were the result of "ghost signals"—rogue radar reflections originating in front of the walls, not behind them. Queen Nefertari—not to be confused with Nefertiti, the powerful queen who ruled alongside her husband, King Akhenaten, in the mid-14th century B.C.—was the first and favored wife of … 62. However, a second radar scan of the tomb, performed by National Geographic Society engineers in 2016, did not replicate Watanabe's results. e-mail; 1.1k shares. The Younger Lady is the informal name given to a mummy discovered within tomb KV35 in the Valley of the Kings by archaeologist Victor Loret in 1898. Nefertiti disappeared from the historical record with five years remaining in Akhenaten’s reign. The wife of pharaoh Akhenaten, Tutankhamen’s father, was one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful women. Is Nefertiti in Tut’s Tomb? Egyptologist Marc Gabolde of Paul Valéry University, who has been searching for Nefertiti’s tomb, thinks so. If her remains were discovered, it would be a significant scientific breakthrough, according to Nicholas Reeves, the British scientist who first proposed that the queen is buried near King Tut’s tomb. "It's disappointing, but this is the result. It was believed that Queen Nefertiti, who died in 1331 BC, was buried in a large room behind a hidden door in the tomb of King Tutankhamen. In addition, the burial chamber appeared to have been built and decorated in stages, and most of the nearly 2,000 artifacts found inside seemed to have been hastily placed and intended for earlier royals. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. ", "The results may be disappointing, but the science is paramount. (Nefertiti was likely King Tut’s stepmother, although some Egyptologists believe she was the boy-king’s biological mother.) But what was its lasting impact? This is conclusive in our point of view," he adds. This is especially important when many in the Egyptian archaeological community still regard the technology with skepticism, despite its proven track record at ancient sites around the world. Under normal conditions, a GPR antenna sends radar waves straight through a wall, and they bounce right back to the receiver, providing a very clear signal. (Nefertiti was King Tut’s stepmother.) 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