Kings' Valley Web page. Chapter (2)

THE ROYAL VALLEY
GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY [hline]

The cover and centerpiece of this presentation show a view of the Valley of the Kings facing the tomb of Ra Meses VI (KV-9) and the tomb of Tut Ankh Amen (KV-62). The view looks W by S as it was in 1923, a year after its opening. The valley floor was much lower when Tut Ankh Amen died, being at least a meter below the workmen's huts removed in 1922. That was the depth dug below them to expose the entrance to KV-62, Tut Ankh Amen's tomb. Late in the reign of Ra Messes II an historic flood wreaked much change on this scene. Readers can understand the impact of this by the markers on the illustrations (Figure 1. & Centerpiece).

Howard Carter had begun to work in the Kings' Valley for Theodore Davis, an American lawyer and philanthropist, after 1890. He lost that job over a dispute with influential tourists. However, he began to work for Lord Carnarvon in 1907. He spent the first years working for his new patron in areas outside of the Valley, as Davis still had the concession to the Valley itself. In 1914, Davis surrendered his concession, which then descended to Lord Carnarvon. However, war work then interrupted the excavations, and the two only returned to the Valley in 1917 when war dangers in the Middle East abated.

They spent the next years proceeding up the valley from a starting point near the tomb of Ra Meses II. Eventually, they cleared nearly everything to south of the entrance to the KV-9 and discovered the remains of ancient workers' huts. Further clearance would have closed the entrance to the Ra Meses VI tomb. Because it was a popular site for visitors, they moved to other parts of the triangle they had been clearing.

Another season of clearances without major results led to Lord Carnarvon considering stopping work. However, the season ended and Carnarvon retreated to England. Carter followed some time after. In that 1922 English summer, he persuaded his patron to continue for the next season. In October, he began to advance up the Valley, hoping to close the Ra Meses VI tomb only for a short time. So they dug past the ancient workers' huts before beginning to clear them[1].

They were similar to those shown above the KV-9 entrance. When Carter had recorded them and cleared them away, the crew cleared the site to bedrock. This revealed the first step of the entrance to the tomb of Tut Ankh Amen. Carter at once informed Lord Carnarvon, then in England. While he waited for the arrival of his patron, Carter now could rebuild the ramp to the entrance of the upper tomb, leaving the farther part of the pit unfilled for the time being.

In Figure 2 & the Centerpiece, you can see that unfilled part up the Valley reached by Carter's people in 1922 before he ordered the workmen's huts over the entrance to KV-62 demolished. You can also see how far they advanced into the uncleared area from earlier in the century.

We have thereby a vivid marker of how far he had proceeded into virgin valley bottom. The camera foreshortens the view up the valley, yet it shows clearly where his work and that of Davis, done earlier in the century coming down the valley, ended. The distance separating these clearances is not large. The labels on the centerpiece explain the situation clearly.

An interesting footnote in the persistence of human behavior over time exists in the footpaths on the debris. They still survive fifty years after. The reader can compare the two views of the entrance to the Ra Meses VI tomb.

Howard Carter, Lord Carnarvon and Theodore Davis, between 1890 and 1922, among them cleared the Valley to bedrock as noted by the shadings on the chart (Figure 2. opposite) with this presentation. There are few places not explored to bedrock except the 50 metres or so shown.

The location of KV-55, the Amarna cache, where laid the remains of Smenkh Ka Ra until 1907, and the site of KV-62, Tut Ankh Amen's tomb, are both below the level of debris left by the flood late in the reign of Ra Meses II. Both locations argue that the third king of the trio must therefore lie in that area and at the same depth below the debris as the others. Since the clearances have not yielded the site, the one profitable location is the gap seen.

Archaeologists have never excavated the gap, but they have done some work there with underground imaging. The rock and soil of most of Egypt is often difficult to penetrate with present techniques. (Because the Nile runs between walls of rock, the dry air "wicks" water up through the rock, leaving salts which effectively make the rock opaque to "radar".)

A difficult but effective way is to use seismic sounding or "sonar". A group led by Lambert Dolphin from The Stanford Research Institute did several studies in the 1970's at Giza, Sakkara and the Kings' Valley. Many of these were electromagnetic soundings. They did fewer seismic studies because coupling the sounders to the rock proved difficult. The group checked between two known tombs, KV-9 (Ra Meses VI) and KV-62 (Tut Ankh Amen). Those checks show in Figure 3.[2]

You will also note in Figure 3. the team did soundings from within KV-62 (Tut Ankh Amen) South and West. The reflections show the possibility of a void 15-20 metres Southwest of the Annex of KV-62. Note also the location on the ground marked in Figure 4 by an (X). The geology of the bedrock in this area describes regular fissuring, where the rockbeds fracture at consis- tent intervals. The expected fissures are outside the noted echoes.

We propose a novel imaging technique based on new technology for this work. The technology should give convincing results as to what, if anything, lies within this gap. We describe the various apparatus in detail in the next section.

Armed with the imaging data generated (and depending on its results) we would sink a small shaft to locate the entrance to any discovered tomb. This work would plainly determine the feasibility of launching a full scale excavation campaign.

As argued above, the circumstantial, historical and archaeological evidence for the existence of the missing tomb at this location is convincing.

Carter, H. & Mace, A. C., rev. White, J. M. The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen. New York: Dover, 1977.
Dolphin, Lambert. Personal communication, 1982 and sending the following:
Dolphin, L. and Vickers, R. S. `Locating Hidden Tombs in the Valley of the Kings.' Menlo Park CA: Stanford Research International, 1980. * Figures 1 and 3 come from this publication.
Dolphin, L. and Moussa, Ali. `Applications of Modern Sensing Techniques to Egyptology.' Menlo Park, CA: Stanford Research International, 1977.
Dolphin, L. et al. `Electromagnetic Sounder Experiments at the Pyramids of Giza.' Menlo Park, CA: Stanford Research International, 1975.

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