News from the Valley of the Kings

It's been a slow news day so I have caught up on some housekeeping/development.

Comments
I'm delighted that the post on the Western Valley has attracted 12 comments so far. I am pleased that people are contributing their views as well mine. To make it easier for those 50+ of you who read the blog via a newsfeed, I've now added the links to make it easy for people to subscribe to comments if they wish.


Facebook
A few people have contacted me on Facebook and said they are keen to make contact with other people who share there interest in Ancient Egypt so I've created a FaceBook Group. It's an open group so anybody is free to join. I've left permissions set fairly open and unless the group gets spammed (I help not) I'll leave them that way. I think the only thing I turned off is the ability to post links since that blocks the most likely source of spam. If any regular reader from here would like to post links message me and I'll give you full admin permissions. You can upload photos and videos, post on the wall or in the discussion forum. Hope to see people there soon. (If you wish to just friend me as well, could you please mention that you know me from this blog.)

Poll: Has a new tomb been found?
The results of the most recent poll is:

Response	You said
No	37%
Yes	42%
More than one	20%

Reportedly Dr Hawass was asked why KV63 wasn't announced when it was discovered and replied, "They did already find it last year but I told them they cant make it public until they excavate it." The gap between the discovery of KV63 and its announcement in 2006 is well-documented and it is a simple, small chamber. The same has happened with many of the discoveries at Saqqara.

With that in mind how long should be expect to wait between the discovery of any major tomb and it's announcement?

So that's the inspiration for a new poll. Should any new tomb found be opened? KV5 was damaged by tour buses parked above it and another tomb was damaged by a leaking sewer pipe. Knowing where tombs are helps to safeguard them. With that in mind, all the surveying and excavation seems prudent (if one presumes that tombs are more valuable that any stratigraphy cut away to find them). However, it's less clear whether a tomb found should be opened. For instance, should be wait until a world class team can be assembled. How much might be missed by not treating the tomb as a sterile environment and sampling the air for instance?