New geophysical investigations in Tutankhamun's tomb

Take new measurements

Tutankhamun's tomb, built in the 14th century BC and discovered in 1922, is unusually small in size for a royal burial. Reeves therefore proposed that KV62 was originally part of a much larger royal tomb. Upon the sudden death of the young Tutankhamun, according to this reconstruction, the access would have been widened and modified to accommodate his burial, while the deeper sections would have remained closed. Geophysical investigations conducted in the following years, however, produced conflicting results: some groups reported possible chambers, while others detected no hidden structures. Eldamaty and his collaborators at Egypt's National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics have now made new ground-penetrating measurements from inside the tomb.

Details of the burial chamber

George Ballard, structural engineer and president of geophysical consultancy GBG Group, analyzed these results alongside data from previous campaigns. According to Ballard, measurements would show a corridor about two meters wide, densely filled with debris, leading away from the burial chamber. Previous investigations may not have identified it because they were looking for a large empty space immediately beyond the wall. Because the radar used from inside the tomb has a limited range, the team added a microgravity survey. The technique measures tiny variations in the Earth's gravitational field to reconstruct differences in the density of structures present underground. More than 1,200 measurements were taken on an area of ​​35 square meters on and around the tomb. According to Ballard, the data shows low-density structures with right angles, oriented parallel to the northern wall of the burial chamber, features that could be compatible with artificial environments. Anomalies in similar locations were also detected in 2017 through electrical resistivity tomography, but at the time they were considered unrelated to KV62. Particularly interesting is what the researchers call "anomaly 7": a predominantly low-density area that contains within itself an approximately square area of ​​high density. Ballard speculates that it could be a chamber containing objects, but acknowledges that the signal is "at the limits of detection capability." Furthermore, the alleged chambers do not appear to be connected to other entrances: if the reconstruction was correct, they may therefore not have been reached since antiquity. Another possible environment would be located immediately to the west of the burial chamber, but in this case the interpretation is made more difficult by the presence of another tomb nearby.

Doubts remain

Caution therefore remains essential. Christopher Gaffney, an archaeologist and ground penetrating radar specialist at the University of Bradford, called the report "fascinating", but noted that it did not contain enough information to draw definitive conclusions. Peter Styles, a geophysicist at Keele University, considers the presence of chambers "plausible" on the basis of microgravity data, but believes more details are necessary. Ballard explained that the group does not yet have permission from the Egyptian authorities to make all the data public. Verification could come directly from within. The decision lies with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities: if authorization arrives, small holes could be made as early as November through which miniaturized devices equipped with cameras could be introduced to observe any environments without carrying out invasive excavations. Only direct exploration will therefore be able to establish whether the complex suggested by the geophysical anomalies really exists behind Tutankhamun's tomb and, if so, whether it has any relationship with Nefertiti.