News from the Valley of the Kings

Dr Kent Weeks has published one of his eagerly awaited - but utterly unpredictable in terms of timing - updates on the clearing of tomb KV5. It doesn't report much: work over the past two seasons has mostly been consolidation of the precarious ceilings. It does promise much for the 2009/10 season though, and hopefully they may discover remains of a burial in Chamber 5.

Dr Weeks has also attached a TMP report on Site Management for the Valley of the Kings.

(My thanks for Len Solt for spotting the update.)

A couple of months ago I posted about the location of the tomb of Queen Isisnofret. You might want to re-read that post, but to recap the ostracon found by Howard Carter has been translated as:

From tr(t)yt [Kate: willow tree] to the general in chief 30 cubits; (and to) the tomb of the Greatest of Seers, Meryatum, 25 cubits. From Tr(t)yt (and? to?) tomb of the oils to my Greatest of Seers, 40 cubits. Downstream on the northern path where the old tomb is, 30 cubits to the general-in-chief.

And on the other side:

(From?) tomb of Isisnofret to the tomb of my Greatest of Seers, Meryatum, 200 cubits. From the end of the Water of the Sky to the tomb of Isisnofret 445 cubits.

I must spend some time looking at the front as the Ahram Weekly article suggests that the location of the willow tree has been identified, but for now it's worth considering the second carefully as the location of the water course by KV8 (Merenptah) suggests strongly that the Water of the Sky may be in the cliffs behind KV8.

I wish my Photoshop was good enough to add a new circle to Weeks' diagram but sadly it isn't. However, if the cliffs behind KV8 are the location of the Water of the Sky, my measurements seem to suggest a location around KV4. There are unidentified tombs in this area, such as KV21 which Kent Weeks on the Theban Mapping Project site identifies as a probable Queens' tomb (which has mummies of two queens still inside); however, Weeks also identifies these tombs as probably 18th Dynasty. They are also largely undecorated and, judging by the tomb Ramses II created for Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens, one would have expected an even more lavish tomb for Queen Isisnofret if she rated burial in the Valley of the Kings itself. It therefore seems unlikely that her tomb is one of the known but unidentified, undecorated tombs.

Interestingly, a location facing KV4 would locate Isisnofret's tomb backing on to KV5 (the Sons of Ramses II) which does seem a plausible location.

If anybody feels like attempting to draw out the new circles to show their overlaps, a better starting point might be contour maps on the Theban Mapping Project site. If anybody manages something they want to show off, then send it to me and I'll gladly post it up on the blog.

Talking of the excavation right up against the cliffside, on this thread you can see photos of the large rocks being moved. The thread is in Dutch, but I've linked to the Google translation. Fortunately the pictures speak largely for themselves.

They are somewhat older than the photos I have been posting recently - the central excavation has only just been started - but the picture of the extensive excavations right up against the cliffside is very interesting.

(I am guessing that the tomb being excavated by workers in masks is KV5. It seems to tie up with images of the entrance of that tomb, but somebody may know for certain.)