Armchair Archeology

The tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings called KV5 is thought to be a mausoleum housing the remains of as many as 50 of the sons of Ramses II, one of Egypt’s greatest organizers and planners and perhaps the pharaoh of the Exodus.

Unearthed in 1994 in a last-chance study of an unimposing tomb before it was covered over by a parking lot for buses, KV5 has proved to be an unprecedented monument to Ramses’ progeny and to the toil of countless Egyptian stonemasons.

Never before had archeologists found an Egyptian tomb that served as a family burial plot. It was also one of the biggest tombs ever found.

Since the discovery, researchers have been steadily accumulating evidence and are now discussing new finds not only in interviews but on the Internet as well.

This is the first time that archeologists conducting a major expedition in Egypt are posting their discoveries on the Internet as soon as they are made. The new World Wide Web site (https://www.kv5.com) offers Indiana Jones wannabes in their own living rooms the chance to look over archeologists’ shoulders as they excavate what has been called the most significant find since King Tut’s tomb was unearthed.

When archeologist Kent Weeks of the American University of Cairo announced the discovery in 1995, he said the 3,200-year-old tomb contained 67 rooms--far more than in tombs previously found. Weeks’ team has now found 110 rooms, he said recently, and the group is “fairly confident” that there are at least 150.

Corridors well below the main levels of the tomb also lead off in the directions of the tombs of Ramses II himself and Tutankhamen, although the halls are still filled with rubble and researchers do not know how far they extend. But there is the possibility of a previously unsuspected network of underground passageways among the tombs, Weeks said.

Unfortunately for archeologists, grave robbers looted KV5 half a century after it was sealed--and were executed for their efforts. Three millenniums of floods have also washed through the multiple chambers, scattering and smashing artifacts and burying them in mud and rock.

Nonetheless, the team has removed tens of thousands of artifacts, most of them potsherds and other fragments.

Among the more illuminating remains are fragments of canopic jars, which once held the mummified remains of internal organs of the tomb’s occupants. Many such fragments have been recovered, all but one of them made of alabaster. Inscriptions carved on the jars were filled with blue paint and gave the names and titles of Ramses II’s sons.

The researchers have also found several small, mummy-like statues called ushabtis, which generally accompanied buried royalty. In Egyptian theology, they performed menial chores for the deceased and kept them well fed.

Other discoveries revealed more about the builders and explorers of the tomb. An ostracon (a limestone chip on which notes were written) found in Chamber 2 recorded the delivery of candlewicks used to provide light for the artisans. A piece of graffiti on the ceiling of Chamber 3 is dated in the sixth year of Ramses II’s reign. Scrawled nearby is “Burton 1825,” left by James Burton, who visited the tomb in that year.

The “most exciting” finding was the discovery in April of four skulls and a fully articulated skeleton in a pit in the floor of Chamber 2, Weeks said. “Although they have been banged about a bit--and were originally mummies, not just skeletons--I suspect that they are the remains of the sons of Ramses II,” the archeologist said.

The skeleton and one of the skulls appear to have been from men in their 20s or 30s who were quite robust and powerful, Weeks said, while the other two skulls appeared much more delicate. He thinks that looters dragged the mummies from their burial sites to have better light while removing jewelry from the bodies.

All of these discoveries are documented on the Web site, which covers not only the excavation itself but also the activities of the parent Theban Mapping Expedition, which is documenting the entire Valley of the Kings.

The Web site, which was opened at the end of September, already has 156 pages of information and photographs. “Our plan is to add another 50 pages or so every two weeks for the next couple of years,” Weeks said. “Coming up will be a travel section, kids page, teachers page and extensive materials for Egyptologists and Egyptology students. By the end of the year, we’ll also have a 35,000-entry bibliography of Egyptology.”

And, of course, updates on their progress at KV5.

The team returned to the archeological dig Sunday to do six weeks of conservation and engineering work, propping up ceilings that are in danger of falling and generally stabilizing the excavation sites. Experts will also be analyzing pottery fragments.

In January the team will begin excavating the lower passageways at the front of the tomb in earnest to determine whether they lead to other rooms or other tombs. That effort will continue until April.

Weeks estimates that it will take 10 to 15 more years of such hard labor to remove all the rubble from the site and reveal all its hidden treasures.

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Hidden Treasures

Archeologiest Kent Weeks has so far found 110 rooms in the tomb known as KV5, and believes there are at least another 40 to be unearthed. The tomb may be a mausoleum for the 50 sons of Ramses II. Two still-blocked corridors in the lowest level lead toward the tombs of Ramses and Tutankhamen, but Weeks does not yet know if they go all the way.

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Chamber 1 is decorated with scenes of Ramses II presenting various deceased sons to the gods.

Chamber 8 contained a large number of pig and cow bones, as well as plastic reliefs.

Chamber 14 opens on a corridor extending southward, but it is still blocked by rubble.