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.)

The SCA inspector specifically mentioned Queen Isisnofret to the JHU team, and her name has cropped up before as a possibility for one of the (possibly three?) tombs in the cliffside excavation. The map above is taken from The Lost Tomb by Kent Weeks, published in 1999. (The version linked is from the Spanish copy - see below.)

Weeks relates that in 1902 Howard Carter found an ostracon in debris somewhere near the entrance to KV5 which mentions several tombs:

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.

Following the translation, Weeks comments on possible interpretation. There's quite a bit I could say in comment on the first face, but for Isisnofret the second face is the important one. Weeks confidently identifies the tomb of Meryatum as KV5 (for details please refer to the book) and it seems reasonable to accept this. The diagram then represents the overlapping of circles: one of 200 cubits centred on KV and one of 445 cubits centred on the Water of the Sky, which Weeks suggests refers to one of the waterfalls where flood waters spilled over the cliffs into the Valley. The intersection of these circles identifies the probable location of these tombs - as shown in the diagram. For unspecified reasons, Weeks suggests that the black dots near KV16 and KV8 represent the most likely locations.

The theory seems sound but I have reservations about his execution. Firstly, it is clear that the Valley of the Kings during the New Kingdom, while probably still relatively arid, was considerably wetter than today. The first face indicates a willow tree growing in the valley - and willows are a tree requiring considerable water. The reference to a waterfall suggests that its appearance was at least semi-regular and Hawass's latest excavation has also discovered a channel [which he presumes was] cut to divert water away from KV8, which suggests that water also came down that side valley. There are therefore more possible waterfall sites than the diagram suggests - and therefore more intersections between the small circle and the large ones.

We must also consider what is meant by a distance in the osatracon. Is a line of sight distance as the diagram suggests or was it, more likely, a distance measured along the ground, which would have the effect of shrinking the circles (particularly the large ones) and making them less regular. I think that would push the intersection of the circles near KV8 south of that tomb rather than north as marked. It would also push the intersection near KV16 back onto the cliff face. Ignoring the lower valley intersections, that suggests two probably locations for the tomb of Isisnofret: one in the cliffs near KV16 and the other just north of the entrance to KV8 - right where Hawass is digging with such energy.

The scan of the diagram came from a Spanish message board with a thread discussing KV64. Google does a passing job of translation - just navigate forwards or backwards in the thread from the link and it should remain in pigeon English. Some of the photos are interesting. Perhaps the most interesting comment is from someone recently in the Valley where he (I think!) says that digging is now concentrated in four areas - lending further credence to the reports that 3 potential tombs have been found in the area around KV8.

It's perhaps also worth adding that the workmen's huts in the central area are more interesting that I'd initially thought as some people believe huts were built on top of tombs to hide them (or, less charitably, so that the worker could rob them more easily).

PS - thanks to Geoff Carter for straightening up the image for me.

Kent Weeks has posted a progress report on the Theban Mapping Project site. There is nothing major to report but if you are interested in the ongoing clearing of KV5 the full report is here.