Nefertiti's tomb? An archeological sensation?

[{ Emilia }]

Well... nobody knows yet.

I'm sure many of you have heard of Nefertiti whose amazing and truly beautiful bust is on display in Berlin.

She was the wife of Akhenaten, the crazy Pharao who started one of the first monotheistic religions when he abandoned traditional Egyptian polytheism in favor of worshipping Aten.
He made Nefertiti his co-regent during his last years (he was pretty sick apparently) and she probably ruled until their son Tutankhamun (yes, that guy!) was old enough to take the reign.

It's hard to get the facts straight here because the following Pharaos did their very best to destroy as much knowledge about the "heretics" as possible once they returned to traditional Egyptian polytheism (and the Amun priesthood gained power again).

Enter Nicholas Reeves, a British archeologist. He published a piece about some things he noticed about Tutankhamun's grave.

Here's the abstract (the complete paper can be downloaded here):

Recently published, high-resolution scans of the walls of room J (the Burial Chamber) of Valley of the Kings tomb KV 62 (Tutankhamun) reveal, beneath the plastered surfaces of the painted scenes, distinct linear traces. These are here mapped, discussed, and tentatively identified as the 'ghosts' of two hitherto unrecognized doorways. It is argued that these doorways give access to: (1) a still unexplored storage chamber on the west of room J, seemingly contemporary with the stocking of Tutankhamun's burial; and (2) a pre-Tutankhamun continuation of KV 62 towards the north, containing the undisturbed burial of the tomb's original owner - Nefertiti.

So the theory goes that Nefertiti ruled the land as Neferneferuaton (and possibly later as Semenchkare once Aton-references started becoming unpopular). In any case Reeves believes that the whole burial chamber Tutankhamun was found in might not have been designed for him.
His successor probably couldn't be arsed to build shit for an unimportant Pharao who died very young (the stuff found in the chamber also indicates that it wasn't made for Tutankhamun specifically) so he might have just used... his mom's burial chamber.

The suggested layout apparently looks very much like very common burial chamber layouts.

The white rooms are the currently accessible ones. Burial chambers usually had more than two side rooms so the fact that we only know two so far means that it's not unlikely that there are more. The guys who originally found Tutankhamun's tomb apparently also had to clear some doorways first to make the currently known rooms accessible.

So... exciting?!

Personally I've found anything concerning Nefertiti exciting ever since I saw her bust. You really have to see that in person!
And anyway... wouldn't it be awesome to find another burial chamber that's been closed for 3,000 years? Even the air would probably be fun to conduct research on.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I must say that's pretty amazing.

Being a bit unfamiliar with the matter, before reading your post I read the account of the tomb's discovery in 1922, and more details of what was found exactly. For some reason, I find reading about lasting buildings and artifacts unusually exciting. And it is doubly exciting when it's the discovery of something so well-preserved, relatively unknown and unopened, and buried with the intention to forget – only to have that help the preservation. It's almost discordant that one of the best surviving tombs was seemingly left negligently in disarray. The guys from 3 millenniums ago just left, and you come in and spoil their plan to bury this.

So my first thought was "wouldn't it be amazing if a discovery like that happened again? I want to watch it happen!". Then I read your post. Good stuff. Whatever is behind those walls would be immensely interesting even if it isn't Nefertiti's tomb. I want to go in there. Right now.

Even the air would probably be fun to conduct research on.

OK. Maybe not right now. Wouldn't want to be the first to research the air with my nose. Is anyone selling used spacesuits by chance?

A layman's question here: How does one usually proceed when you have to investigate the possibility of a hidden doorway while preserving the wall art? How certain are they these are passages that lead anywhere? Would they dig from the sides to ensure there are chambers there? Can the paintings be relatively preserved when the doorways are opened again? Is there any case for not opening them, or a possibility for alternative passages inside? And is there a way to tell anything about what's inside before going in? Where's my tricorder?

Yes, that was a single question. Don't argue with me on that one!

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

If true, beyond exciting. As historic as finding Tut's tomb.

Since they died only 7 years apart, almost no chance her tomb was ransacked.

 

[sojourner]

A layman's question here: How does one usually proceed when you have to investigate the possibility of a hidden doorway while preserving the wall art? How certain are they these are passages that lead anywhere? Would they dig from the sides to ensure there are chambers there? Can the paintings be relatively preserved when the doorways are opened again? Is there any case for not opening them, or a possibility for alternative passages inside? And is there a way to tell anything about what's inside before going in? Where's my tricorder?

Yes, that was a single question. Don't argue with me on that one!

Earth penetrating radar. Didn't you see Jurassic Park 3?

 

[Silvercrest]

In any case Reeves believes that the whole burial chamber Tutankhamun was found in might not have been designed for him.

His successor probably couldn't be arsed to build shit for an unimportant Pharao who died very young (the stuff found in the chamber also indicates that it wasn't made for Tutankhamun specifically) so he might have just used... his mom's burial chamber.

Let me get this straight. King Tut spent all that time hanging out in his mother's basement?

Do you think he ever posted here?

 

[Gov Kodos]

In any case Reeves believes that the whole burial chamber Tutankhamun was found in might not have been designed for him.

His successor probably couldn't be arsed to build shit for an unimportant Pharao who died very young (the stuff found in the chamber also indicates that it wasn't made for Tutankhamun specifically) so he might have just used... his mom's burial chamber.

Let me get this straight. King Tut spent all that time hanging out in his mother's basement?

Do you think he ever posted here?

King Tut: The First Nerd. Hmm...

The possibility of finding Nefertiti's tomb is exciting. Not having followed Egyptian archaeology with any depth, I had no idea that some of the items buried with Tutankhamen raised questions of why they were buried with him.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Let me get this straight. King Tut spent all that time hanging out in his mother's basement?

Do you think he ever posted here?

Some Pharaohs believed their souls would descend into heaven so they built pyramids. Tut knew his mind would be uploaded so he went into his mother's basement. As most 18 year olds, he wished to be uploaded to 4chan, but his spirit ended up in a Microsoft card game instead.

On a more serious, Nefertiti is not his (biological) mother, who was found in a different tomb.

 

[publiusr]

Nitocris needs to get out about now...

 

[YellowSubmarine]

To follow up my musings, there's something uncanny about the photograph of the unbroken seal of one of the shrines. It's about time we invented the Star Trek transporter. You can feel the dilemma when you're looking at it.

[McCoy's half-sister, an archeologist: “You cut the rope to enter the tomb? My God, man! What is this, the Dark Ages?”]

At least we have photographic cameras to immortalize everything.

I also love how long-lasting ropes can be in these conditions.

 

[RoJoHen]

How long does someone have to be dead before it's acceptable to disturb their grave?

I mean, what if Egyptian beliefs were real? We could be totally fucking with their afterlife!

 

[YellowSubmarine]

“Mom, you said the afterlife is going to be a party, but you never mentioned this ‘no visitors’ thing! Nobody even wants to thrash our tomb! Do they hate us so much?”

 

[Dryson]

There are probably burial chambers deeper underground that were not even included on any original wall glyphs

 

[Scout101]

Personally I've found anything concerning Nefertiti exciting ever since I saw her bust. You really have to see that in person!

I agree, there's a few women I've been excited by since I first saw their busts

But yes, exciting discovery. Will see how long it takes to play out, hopefully they don't rush and destroy anything. Egypt isn't too stable at the moment, so don't imagine they'll be in a huge hurry to crack things open...

 

[Dryson]

Anything regarding the ancient kingdoms is an interesting discovery. Especially involving tombs that have gears buried with the occupant as well as finding gears used in temples as methods to open and close heavy doors with, to set traps all of which without that basic invention of the gear and wheel the Internet would never have existed.

Why are men so excited about busts? Are you reminded of your mummy? Lol.

 

[Dryson]

The perfect mirrored reflection between a sun and a black hole.

We know that without a sun life would not be possible on Earth. We also know that sun although life giving is also a life taker based on various factors such as heat exhaustion, stroke, radiation poisoning due from over exposure during tanning.

This would give the sun a value +1 for ever variable that can be found regarding life sustaining properties where life would not exist without a sun. The sun would also have a -1 value for every destructive force variable.

The black hole.

We know that a black hole comes from a collapsed sun that gives life yet takes life as well. A black hole also creates new life because of the processes created by the black hole such as powerful gravitational forces that keep planets and other celestial objects in orbits. The value for the back hole would therefore be the mirrored opposite of the sun having many -1 values of destruction compared to the + 1 values of life creating variables.

Its really interesting when you set the model of the sun up as an atom with the positive values being protons, the negative values being electrons and the neutral value of a sun becoming a black hole as a neutron.

Each sun with its different properties would have the same negative values but would have different positive values based on what type of particles are eminated from the sun.

 

[Scout101]

You're not even spamming the right threads. What's that have to do with Egyptian tombs?

 

[SPCTRE]

Hehehehehe

you said "Nefertiti"

 

[{ Emilia }]

The Egyptian authorities have a rather bad track record at just not reacting to stuff like this. Apparently Reeves has contacted them about this but they have ignored it (so far).

We'll see what happens. There are non-invasive ways to figure out if there are more rooms so that shouldn't be a huge issue.

 

[SPCTRE]

Well... nobody knows yet.

I'm sure many of you have heard of Nefertiti whose amazing and truly beautiful bust is on display in Berlin.

It's true, the bust really is incredible, even more so if you see it in person. It feels impossibly lifelike, like the artistic... technology so to speak shouldn't have existed yet.

 

[Nightowl1701]

Well... nobody knows yet.

I'm sure many of you have heard of Nefertiti whose amazing and truly beautiful bust is on display in Berlin.

It's true, the bust really is incredible, even more so if you see it in person. It feels impossibly lifelike, like the artistic... technology so to speak shouldn't have existed yet.

Feel her bust?

"Try it, and I'll snap your neck in a heartbeat."