New tomb found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
American archaeologists have uncovered a tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the first new tomb to be uncovered there since King Tutankhamun's in 1922, Egypt's antiquities chief announced. The 18th Dynasty tomb included five mummies in intact sarcophagi with colored funerary masks along with more than 20 large storage jars, sealed with pharaonic seals, Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement. The statement, issued Wednesday, did not specify whether the tomb was believed to be that of a pharoah. The 18th Dynasty ruled from around 1560 BC to 1085 BC, and Tutankhamun was among its kings. A Memphis University team of archaeologists led by Otto Schaden found the tomb four meters below the ground, buried under rubble and stones five meters away from Tut's tomb. Inside the rectangular tomb, the five wooden sarcophagi were surrounded by the jars, which appeared placed haphazardly, suggesting the burial was completed quickly, the statement by Hawass said. Antiquities officials could not be reached for further comment. Hawass desribed the find as the first tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings _ the desert valley outside the southern city of Luxor where many pharoahs are buried _ since Tut's tomb was found in 1922 by Howard Carter. In 1995, American archaeologist Kent Weeks opened a previously known tomb and discovered it was larger than expected. He determined that it was the tomb for the sons of the pharoah Ramses II.