Dr Hawass in the Valley of the Kings: KV64 is going to be discovered! (Part 1 of 2)

Submitted by Prad on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 18:21

Description

Dr Zahi Hawass is closing in on the discovery of a new tomb - KV64 - which he hopes will be the tomb of Ramesses VIII. If his team is successful, the discovery will be historically noted for being the first made in the Valley of the Kings by an Egyptian team. Dr Hawass shares some of the finds at the site of the excavations, and explains that he disagrees with those who believe nothing more is left to be discovered in the Valley of the Kings - for him and his Egyptian team are going to discover KV64! Go here for background information on KV63 & KV64.

Related Heritage ExpertsZahi Hawass, Sandro Vannini

CreditsSandro Vannini, Nico Piazza, Dr. Zahi Hawass

Transcription

We have been excavating in the Valley of Kings for one and a half years now. We actually started our excavation in November 2007, and the reason why we have started the excavation here is because we know there are many missing kings like Ramesses VIII and Thutmose II., whose tombs have not been found,

Sixty-three tombs have now found in the Valley of the Kings of which twenty-six tombs are for kings. Every tomb is different from each other, but no single tomb has yet been found by an Egyptian team. This is why we decided to release the work in this Valley.

The first site that we excavated is the site I am standing on now, which is behind the tomb of Tutankhamun, where I thought between the tomb of Ramesses II and the tomb of Merenptah could exist the tomb of Ramesses VIII. We started our excavation and we found graffiti, the area where the workmen could have sit down and the hole for their food and drink. But the interesting thing is that at the end of the cliff, we took the huge stones (which took us six months) and at the end we found a huge hole like a spot.

To the South of that hole is a paved wall and stairs, which are both man-made, and we found out this is exactly what Howard Carter discovered. In his excavation he found a piece of writing, which we call “Ostraca”. It talks about the 'Tears of the Gods' – the flood. When it came to the Valley of Kings, the Ancient Egyptians redirected the flood to avoid the damage and the destruction of the tomb.

The other interesting area in front of the tomb of King Tut directly, we found over nine storage rooms. They stored artefacts for offering, as well as the objects for embalming. Because of the tourists, we refilled them back up and left two rooms for people to see. We also found the area of workmen huts, because we know that the workmen of the Deir el-Medina used to leave there to come to the Valley of the Kings where they lived inside huts (we call them workmen huts) until they could finish decorating or cutting the tomb.

I disagree with people who believe that nothing more can be discovered in the Valley. And I'm saying now that KV64 is going to be discovered. KV64 is going to be discovered by the Egyptian team for the first time in the Valley of the Kings.