Is ancient queen still buried in iconic tomb?

One-hundred years after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by British archaeologist Howard Carter, evidence has emerged that the site could contain the undisturbed final resting place of his fabled stepmother.

A newly revised book by another British archaeologist has put forward evidence that Tutankhamun’s tomb, created more than 3,000 years ago, is a mere antechamber. Hidden behind it, he suggests, is a larger hidden sepulchre: the undisturbed final resting place of his stepmother, Egyptian queen Nefertiti.

“The greatest archaeological discovery in the world has got more to give, potentially something far more impressive than Tutankhamun’s burial,” Dr Nicholas Reeves said. “I’m suggesting that the mostfamous woman in the ancient world is also buried there.” Nefertiti was the chief consort of the pharaoh Akhenaten, who ruled in the 14th Century BC. She lived during arguably the wealthiest period of ancient Egypt.

Some scholars think she was buried in Amarna, the capital city founded by her husband, while others have argued over the identity of two mummies found 250 miles upriver in the Valley of the Kings. Reeves, a former curator of the British Museum, developed his rival theory in 2014. After studying high-resolution digital scans of the walls of Tutankhamun’s grave complex, he identified what he suggests are two sealed doorways.

One is thought to connect to a store room. If his hunch is correct, the other would lead to Nefertiti’s tomb. Dr Reeves suggests that the court of Tutankhamun was caught unprepared when he died as a young man of about 19 in about 1324BC. It would have taken about 10 weeks to prepare his body for burial, Reeves said. That would not have been long enough, he believes, to construct a new tomb. However, a radar study by Franco Porcelli, of the Polytechnic University of Turin, presented in 2018, found no sign of a hidden room. Reeves counters by saying that Porcelli has not made his data available to other experts.