Has Queen Nefertiti been found behind King Tut's tomb?

sToRmR1dR

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
Scientists claims to have discovered a secret door to her burial chamber in Tutankhamun's grave:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3193092/Has-Queen-Nefertiti-Scientist-claims-discovered-secret-door-burial-chamber-Tutankhamun-s-tomb.html
 
The whereabouts of that dynasty of weirdos is a piece of work indeed. Haven't read the report yet, if the hypothesis makes sense, it could be very interesting.
 
mkrnhr said:
The whereabouts of that dynasty of weirdos is a piece of work indeed. Haven't read the report yet, if the hypothesis makes sense, it could be very interesting.

Amen.

It seems sensible to me because all the problems he mentions about the burial, are factual. Same thing about the body in KV55 which is probably that of Smenkhare. Also, the famous Tut mask actually belongs to Smenkhare.
 
Just for the record, on 4 November, the same day Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered, the radar results of scans on the two walls in Tut's tomb will be announced: http://www.sott.net/article/302899-King-Tuts-tomb-reveals-two-secret-chambers

more here
 
The latest on this story: Reeves announces in a press conference on 1 October 2015 that Tutankhamun’s gold funerary mask originally belonged to Queen Nefertiti

Tutankhamun's treasures may have originally belonged to his stepmother

Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 1 Oct 2015
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/151817/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Tutankhamuns-treasures-may-have-originally-belonge.aspx

During the press conference held Thursday at the State Information Authority in Heliopolis, archaeologist Nicholas Reeves announced that the gold funerary mask belonging to the boy king was originally made for his stepmother Nefertiti.

Reeves, who believes that Nefertiti’s final resting place hides behind Tutankhamun’s burial chamber, cited this as a piece of evidence proving his theory.

Reeves explained to Ahram Online that the gold mask was remounted years ago at the museum, allowing him to examine the back. He then realised that the face was made independently of the opposite side.

“I thought that it was very strange and may just be a technical feature.” However, he also noticed that the type of gold used for the face is different than that used on the back of the mask as well as the inlays. The eyes are in lapis while other blue portions of the mask are made from glass.

“It is very unusual,” Reeves said, adding that he then started to look at other features of the mask.

When the mask was uncovered, Reeves said, the earholes and the ears themselves “were covered with little disks of gold foil which I did not understand at first.”

With more studies, Reeves learned that ancient Egyptian kings never wore earrings. “There is no image of any ancient Egyptian king wearing earrings,” he asserted, adding that Tutankhamun did not have pierced ears but a depression that shows he wore earrings only as a child.

“But the funerary mask has holes to hang earrings,” he pointed out.

“Looking at the mask again I can see that the inscription on the cartouch has been changed, meaning that all these treasures found in Tutankhamun’s tomb were originally made for Nefertiti as a co-regent to her husband king Akhenaten, and not for Tutankhamun as previously thought.

“I believe that Nefertiti never used these treasured items since she obviously had a better collection because, according to other evidence, she became a king,” Reeves pointed out.

He continued, saying that 80 per cent of Tutankhamun’s collection was made for Nefertiti, especially the canopic jars.

For now, we have to wait until the end of November to confirm the existence of a hidden chamber. At that time, radar and thermal imaging will be used to scan the tomb, differentiating between bedrock and artificial walls.

“Even if he finds a hidden passageway, that doesn't mean that digging will begin immediately,” Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty said.

Eldamaty said that before starting any work to reveal such a tomb, we must find a way to protect the tomb of Tutankhamun.

“Does that mean we will dig from above, below or from the side? We don't know yet," he explained.

Despite the note of caution in his voice, Eldamaty appears to be as excited as Reeves at the prospect of solving this ancient mystery.

“When we find Nefertiti, I think it will be more important than the discovery of King Tutankhamun himself," Eldamaty told Ahram Online.

He added that he hopes the hidden chamber belongs to Nefertiti, but he doubts it does. Eldamaty added that King Tutankhamun had many women in his life, and if a new tomb is discovered, it could easily belong to one of them.

“It could belong to one of his sisters, or his mother Kiya, or Merit-Atun, the wife of King Smenkare, whose mummy was unearthed in tomb number KV55, located in front of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Let us wait for the end results,” Eldamaty told Ahram Online.
 

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Excitement continues:

Hidden Chamber Theory to be Confirmed or Denied by Radar Scans beginning Thursday in Tutankhamun Tomb


A three-day operation to scan behind the walls in the burial chamber of Tutankhamun is set to begin this Thursday with the results being announced by press conference on November 28. The official investigations are designed to test out the theory by archaeologist Nicholas Reeves that the tomb of Tutankhamun contains two hidden chambers and that one of them is the final resting place of Queen Nefertiti.
The Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt launched high-tech analyses within the boy king’s tomb on November 4 and initial infrared scans of the walls of Tutankhamun’s tomb detected an area of greater heat, which may indeed point to a hidden chamber. Excitement among historians is mounting that the long lost queen, and no doubt her wealth of treasures, may finally be found.


_http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/hidden-chamber-theory-be-confirmed-or-denied-radar-scans-beginning-thursday-020632
 
Radar Scans in King Tut’s Tomb Suggest Hidden Chambers

After two days of radar scans in the tomb of Tutankhamun, archaeologists have concluded that preliminary examination of the data provides evidence that unopened sections lie behind two hidden doorways in the pharaoh’s underground burial chamber.
The results, announced Saturday morning at a news conference in Luxor, bolster the theory of Nicholas Reeves, a British archaeologist who believes that the tomb contains another royal burial. The hidden tomb, he has speculated, belongs to Nefertiti, King Tut’s mother-in-law, who may have ruled as a female pharaoh during Egypt’s 18th Dynasty. If so, this would be only the second intact royal burial site to be discovered in modern times—and it would, in the words of Mamdouh Eldamaty, the Egyptian antiquities minister, represent “one of the most important finds of the century.” At the press conference, he said he was “90 percent positive” that another chamber lies behind the north wall of the tomb.

_http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151128-tut-tomb-scans-hidden-chambers/
 
Very cool. I'd say someones likely to have already emptied the valuable stuff to make sure there's no history redefining papyri in there, like the one covered in 911: Ultimate Truth that was smuggled out of Tuts tomb by Carter.
Would be nice to get them to do similar scans on the sphinx but the PTB will probably never let that happen.
 
Could King Tut have hidden Nefertiti’s secret chamber?

_https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/could-king-tut-have-hidden-nefertitis-secret-chamber/2015/12/07/e620a590-9861-11e5-8917-653b65c809eb_story.html

LUXOR, Egypt — Chances are high that the tomb of Tutankhamen, ancient Egypt’s boy-king, has passages to a hidden chamber, which may be the last resting place of the lost Queen Nefertiti, Egyptian officials say.

There is huge international interest in Nefertiti, who died in the 14th century B.C. and is thought to have been Tutankhamen’s stepmother. Confirmation of her final resting place would be the most remarkable Egyptian archaeological find this century.

New evidence from recent radar imaging is to be sent to a team in Japan for analysis. The results are expected to be announced in a month.

“We said earlier there was a 60 percent chance there is something behind the walls. But now after the initial reading of the scans, we are saying it’s 90 percent likely there is something behind the walls,” Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty told reporters.

He said he expected to reach the other side of the tomb’s wall within three months.

Discovery of Nefertiti, whose chiseled cheekbones and regal beauty were immortalized in a 3,300-year-old bust now in a Berlin museum, would shed fresh light on what remains a mysterious period of Egyptian history.

It also could be a boon for Egypt’s ailing tourism industry, which has suffered near endless setbacks since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak from the country’s presidency in 2011 and which is a vital source of foreign currency.

“There is, in fact, an empty space behind the wall based on radar, which is very accurate, there is no doubt,” Japanese radar specialist Hirokatsu Watanabe said, his hand hovering over a fuzzy blue radar scan he said indicated the presence of a false wall. The size of the cavity is not known.

British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, leading the investigation, said in October that he believed Tutankhamen’s mausoleum was originally occupied by Nefertiti and that she had lain undisturbed since then behind what he believes is a partition wall.

But at a news conference with Damaty, Reeves warned that even the most minor of incisions in the wall could do damage to an inner chamber that may have been hermetically sealed for many years.

“The key is to excavate slowly and carefully and record well. The fact is, this isn’t a race. All archaeology is disruption. We can’t go back and redo it, so we have to do it well in the first place,” Reeves said.

“I’m feeling more certain today than I expected to be,” he said outside the Howard Carter House, a site named after the British archaeologist propelled to international celebrity for his discovery of the Tutankhamen tomb in 1922.

King Tut, as he is known, died around 1323 B.C. His intact tomb, complete with his famous golden burial mask, was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

Experts have long sought to understand why Tut’s tomb was smaller than that of other pharaohs and why its shape was more in keeping with that of the Egyptian queens of the time.

Egyptologists remain uncertain about where Nefertiti died and was buried. She was long believed to have passed away during her husband’s reign, suggesting she could be buried in Amarna, where her bust was found in 1912, about 250 miles north of Luxor.

More recently, many experts, including Reeves, have come to believe she outlived Akhenaten, who may have been Tut’s father, but changed her name and may have briefly ruled Egypt.

“Research doesn’t always translate into reality. But it looks like we’re headed in the right direction, and our investigations are going well,” Reeves said.
 
Egyptian expert disputes new theory that Queen Nefertiti is in Tutankhamun's tomb

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/12067553/Egyptian-expert-disputes-new-theory-that-Queen-Nefertiti-is-in-Tutankhamuns-tomb.html

British expert's tomb theory 'baseless', says leading Egyptologist

One of Egypt’s leading archaeologists has taken sides in a bitter dispute arising from the events of more than 3,000 years ago: the fabled location of Queen Nefertiti’s tomb.

The wife of Pharaoh Nefertiti died in about 1,330 BC and her final resting place has never been discovered.

Nicholas Reeves, a British Egyptologist now at the University of Arizona, believes that he has found the answer. Last month, he announced that Queen Nefertiti's tomb probably lay behind one wall of King Tutankhamun's tomb.

But Zahi Hawass, a leading archaeologist and formerly Egypt’s minister of antiquities, told the Telegraph that Mr Reeves was peddling a “baseless” theory.

“Mr Reeves sold the air to us”, said Mr Hawass during an interview in Cairo. “I confirm that there is nothing at all behind the wall.

"He succeeded in saying something exciting - the tomb of Nefertiti is inside the tomb of Tutankhamun. But his theory is baseless."

Mr Hawass promised that Mr Reeves would not be allowed to test his idea. "I will not allow - neither would any archaeologist allow - making a hole in Tutankhamun's tomb,” he said. “The tomb is very vulnerable; any hole may expose the paintings to complete collapse."

• Has the tomb of Nefertiti finally been found?

Mr Reeves based his theory on high-resolution images of the interior of Tutankhamun’s tomb. He believes that two secret passageways are faintly visible through cracks and fissures.

In a recently published paper, The Burial of Nefertiti?, Mr Reeves sets out his belief that one passage could contain a mundane store room, but another could lead to Nefertiti’s tomb.

Mamdouh al-Damaty, the current minister of antiquities, has said that there is a 90 per cent chance that hidden chambers exist behind the walls of Tutankhamun's tomb.

But Mr Hawass insisted that the new theory was not even worth examining. "It's not logical that every archaeologist come up with an idea and you run after him - because theories are not based on evidence," he said. "There is not a one per cent chance Reeves's theory is correct."

Mr Reeves believes that the tomb of Tutankhamun was originally built for Queen Nefertiti and that she lies undisturbed behind what he believes is a partition wall.

Meanwhile, Mr Hawass believes that the Pharaoh’s tomb was originally built for his brother, Ay. He suggests that because Tutankhamun died suddenly and unexpectedly, he was buried in his brother's tomb.

As for the resting place of Queen Nefertiti, Mr Hawass has another theory; he says that she lies in Amarna, the remains of an ancient capital in the Nile Valley.

Mr Hawass also believes that one of two female mummies found in the Valley of the Queens is, in fact, Nefertiti.

The two mummies have been moved from tomb 21 to the Egyptian Museum for DNA testing.

The DNA of the unknown mummy will be compared with that of the recently discovered mummy of Queen Mutnodjmet, the sister of Nefertiti.

These tests would reveal the truth, said Mr Hawass, and there was no point in pursuing Mr Reeves’s theory and risking damage to Tutankhamun’s tomb.

"There is nobody in Egypt - whether the minister of archaeology or anyone else - who can take the responsibility for making a scratch in Tutankhamun's tomb,” said Mr Hawass.

“So that is why I think that the idea was born dead."
 
Zahi Hawass, after all, is still the guardian of the status quo in egyptology. I wonder what he's afraid of because even if the hidden chamber is not the tomb of Nefertiti (that's a possibility put forward to gain media momentum and possibly funds), any eventual discovery would be interesting anyway.
 
Documentary

'We have never seen anything better' – the secrets of King Tut's tomb

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/feb/19/the-secrets-of-king-tuts-tomb-nefertiti

Archaeologists believe they have found two hidden doors that may lead to ‘the most incredible hoard since Carter found Tut’

It could be the plot of an Indiana Jones film – a hidden chamber, a mysterious female pharaoh and a secret room filled with gold. Instead, it is the latest twist in a centuries-old tale; a new theory that inside the famous tomb of Tutankhamun is the hidden entrance to the burial chamber of one of Egypt’s most famous rulers, Queen Nefertiti. Now, for the first time, the evidence that has led archaeologists to this conclusion has been laid out in a new documentary.

The idea first gripped the attention of the world in autumn last year, when radar images bore out archaeologist Nicholas Reeves’ claim that Tutankhamun’s tomb had two undiscovered doors. Chris Naunton, director of the Egypt Exploration Society, who took part in the documentary, says the news was explosive. “It’s the biggest archaeological news from Egypt – or anywhere – for at least a decade.” In fact, he says, he believes that given the interest and the credibility of the theory, it is almost inevitable that the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities will actually agree to explore the idea – by making a small hole in a wall and passing a fibreoptic cable through to find out if there really are concealed rooms. “We are at the point where we have to know. I wouldn’t want to be the person who tells everyone to go home if this is true.”

But when burial tombs are known to have hidden doors, how could these entrances in the most famous archeological site in the world remain undiscovered – for so long?

“This period and the valley of the kings has been raked over by more eyes and brains than any other part of Egyptian history,” Naunton admits. “But Reeves is still finding new ideas against all odds.” This is because the amount of objects in Tutankhamun’s tomb is so overwhelming: “There is so much to go through,” he explains, “that not all the objects have been scientifically photographed and analysed – not even the coffin and the death mask.”

“Despite the mythology of Egyptology, that it is all about traps and hidden doors – why would anyone think that what look like solid walls aren’t solid walls? People don’t look for hidden rooms in any tombs.”

Reeves believes that behind one door will be the tomb of Nefertiti, the wife of the maverick pharaoh Akhenaten, whose beauty was famously captured in a limestone bust now housed in Berlin. During their reign the royal couple attempted to change the whole religion of Egypt, to the monotheistic worship of a new form of the sun god. The art of the period also underwent a dramatic change. Under the new religion, the pharoah’s family – Nefertiti and her children – assumed huge importance. Nefertiti was unique in other ways. “In one relief she is smiting foreigners with a mace – she has them by the hair. That is usually the pharoah’s prerogative.” While royal wives and pharaohs were often indistinct from the royal figures who came before them, Nefertiti was always presented as an individual – in the distinctive headdress that was unique to her. “There is no question that she has an image and a role that is far more prominent than any other woman ever had,” says Naunton.

Most experts now accept that Nefertiti was a pharaoh in her own right, he says, while Reeves argues that she first ruled in tandem with her husband, and then with Tutankhamun, who was only nine when his father Akhenaten died. This, says Naunton, explains why the pair could be buried in the same tomb.

In the documentary, experts explain that Tutankhamun is thought to have been buried in a hurry after his unexpected death at just 19 years old. Pharaohs usually had their tombs, and burial objects, prepared well in advance. Yet Tut’s tomb seemed to be finished in a rush – and to be unusually small for a pharaoh. But if the tomb was originally created for Nefertiti, then a room for her stepson (or son, as some archaeologists believe), hurriedly improvised after his early death, starts to make more sense.

This idea would explain why Tutankhamun’s tomb turns to the right, rather than the left, which is traditional for male tombs. There are also female figures instead of male on some burial objects – which could indicate that these were created for Nefertiti before she became a pharaoh, then discarded when her status rose – before being repurposed for the young boy. Even Tutankhamun’s famous death mask is said to be secondhand, with inscriptions superimposed over older ones that Reeves believes spell out Nefertiti’s name.

Yet Naunton says there is one flaw with this idea: “What’s tricky for me is that it doesn’t look like second-class stuff. We have nothing that looks comparable to this. We have never seen anything better.”

The idea that there are two doorways, Naunton warns, is still just a theory. And even if there do turn out to be doors, many archeologists believe the body of Nefertiti has already been found – DNA tests on another corpse found in the Valley of the Kings has been positively identified by DNA to be Tutankhamun’s mother – which some believe mean it is Nefertiti herself.

Even if the secret rooms turn out not to hold Nefertiti’s tomb, he won’t be dismayed. “If it’s ‘just’ a store room like the others in the tomb, it is probably chock full of unbelievable stuff – the most incredible hoard since Carter found Tut!”
 
Is Nefertiti Hidden Behind Tutankhamun's Tomb?

http://news.sky.com/story/1661745/is-nefertiti-hidden-behind-tutankhamuns-tomb

There is speculation that hidden chambers confirmed to be in the boy king's final resting place could hold another secret.

Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities has confirmed that scans done on King Tutankhamun's tomb last November show there are two hidden spaces or chambers behind it.

The ministry said the scans also showed that there is organic and metallic matter in the chambers, suggesting it could be another burial site.

Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities, Mamdouh el-Damaty, told reporters in Cairo this could be "the discovery of the century".

"It means a rediscovery of Tutankhamun. It is very important for Egyptian history and for all of the world," he added.

British Egyptologist Nicolas Reeves has argued that Queen Nefertiti's burial chamber is in the room beyond her stepson King Tut’s tomb.

The idea is that the sudden and early death of the King caught everyone by surprise and as they didn’t have time to build a tomb, they buried him in Nefertiti’s.

Mr Reeves points to the fact the tomb looks similar to others that were built for women, contained artefacts belonging to a female and is too small for a king.

But other Egyptologists say that, although there may be chambers, there are unlikely to be "new" tombs, still less that of the notorious Nefertiti.

Dr Aidan Dodson, an Egyptologist and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, told Sky News: "We need to be careful about separating reality from speculation.

"There are interesting marks on that wall in King Tut’s tomb - fact.

"That they look possibly like the outlines of doorways I think we all agree with.

"But after that it goes into a range of possibilities."

Dr Dodson and others have questioned why Egypt has been so slow to reveal the results of the scan.

By drilling a small hole into the wall and feeding in a fibre optic camera, they argue, we would be able to determine exactly what are in those chambers.

But Egyptian authorities say they don’t want to risk any damage to the tomb or priceless paintings on the wall until they are 1005 sure there is something in there worth exploring.

King Tut’s tomb was found in 1922 in good shape and considered to be the biggest antiquities find of the century. Now, decades later, an even bigger discovery may be revealed.

Queen Nefertiti, who ruled alongside her Pharaoh husband in mid-1300s BC, was one of ancient Egypt’s most important and influential figures and has become a symbol of Egyptian culture and history.

The next step will be on 31 March when more radar scans will be done in order to determine the size of the chambers and thickness of the walls.

The results of that scan could be announced as early as 1 April in Luxor at the Valley of the Kings.

Egyptologists say even if nobody is buried in those chambers it is still of major archaeological value that they are there at all.

Salima Ikram, a professor at the American University of Cairo, told Sky News "I think that all of us Egyptologists alive now would be excited whether it is Nefertiti or not because we missed out on Tutankhamun and so we want our own version."

The mystery of whether the missing queen is actually hidden in the Valley of the Kings continues.
 
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