News from the Valley of the Kings

There's little new today. All I have found is a photo on Ferrell Jenkin's travel blog which shows workers reconstructing one of the large earthenware jars we've seen in a couple of earlier pictures. He also has a photo of the ongoing excavations taken 22nd/23rd January. They don't show anything new that I can spot but we can be sure that the excavations are still continuing.

I've linked just the Valley of the Kings article but if you are interested in Egypt generally you might want to read some of his other posts. Until his retirement, Ferrell was the chair of the Bublical Studies department at a college in Florida. He now leads study tours. His present tour is through Egypt and some of his articles and photos of places like Edfu are a nice read.

A huge thank you to Ian Emery who not only has given permission for me to use the two photos he had on Flickr, but has kindly uploaded some more which show the excavations in even greater detail. I've put a medium size image of each on the blog and linked to Ian's Flickr photostream so you can download higher resolution images if you would like them for research. I'm sure Ian would appreciate comments from anybody who agrees with me that these are a cracking set of photos. (There are also one or some further simila photos which I chose not to display.) These images remain copyright to Ian who should be contacted if you would like to display them elsewhere.

The photos were taken on 4th January. Ian's guide didn't comment on the excavations so there's no additional background information.


This first photo clearly shows the scale of central excavation, right next to the main toursit path near KV62. The same image is shown again in the next image. This has a bit of sun flare but the view is less obstructed by workmen.






The image above clearly shows what I believe to be an ancient hut and the entrance to the intriguing cavity. I'm uncertain of the image below but think it shows the cliffside excavationd around KV8. If anybody can confirm this, please add a comment. There is clearly a large workforce drafted.

As I mentioned above, I think the image below shows the entrance to KV8. I initialy got excited by the power cable in the previous images - was this power for temporary lighting in a new tomb - but it seems to be going in to KV8. Putting the images together though, it suggests that activity is concentrated in the area just in front of KV8.

Update

I checked the Theban Mapping Project Database and there's a clear picture of the entrance of KV8. (The image shown is copyright to TMP and is reproduced to aid research into the excavations.) Below it, I've added a crop of Ian's image showing the entrance.

Although the downslope retaining wall has been removed from the bath, the shape of the division between smooth and rough concrete is identical so we can be sure that the entrance is indeed KV8. The scale of the excavation is also very apparent.

PS

This doesn't rate a separate post because the commentary is so awful(she wonders why they are not using bulldozers) and the photographer didn't pan into the excavation, but if you wish to see the pace of work this YouTube video from December 2008 shows work going on.

There are some recent photos on Kick Splinter's new blog of the ongoing activity surrounding the ongoing excavations for KV64 / KV65, although they only show the situation above ground and don't show any excavation per se.

Kate

If like me you find descriptions of locations hard to follow, you may appreciate this photo by Charles Tierney labelled to show the locations on the cliff wall of the Valley of the Kings. Interestingly, a man-made wall is shown as a third location.



Readers should also note that I believe the photo was posted in March 2008, before the Hawass commented in public in July 2008. (Wikipedia's reference to discovery in August 2008 are clearly wrong and sometime I may get round to editing the KV64 and KV65 pages there.)