In Egypt, a rare and surprising find

"Everybody burst into applause," says Anthony Geffen, producer of the Discovery Channel's Egypt's New Tomb Revealed, who was present for the discovery May 24. "Everyone's (usually) very reserved in the world of archaeology." [My birthday in strange coincidence. :-)]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060601/tc_usatoday/inegyptarareandsurprisingfind



By Jessica Sidman, USA TODAY Thu Jun 1, 6:56 AM ET

Archaeologists in Egypt's Valley of the Kings were skeptical there was any more to find beyond the ancient workers' quarters they had been excavating for years. Then they unexpectedly found a shaft.

What lay below - the first tomb uncovered in the valley since King Tutankhamen's was found in 1922 - will come to light Sunday on the Discovery Channel (9 p.m. ET/PT). The archaeologists discovered seven coffins; there are no mummies in the first five they have opened, but there is one big surprise.

When they first peered into one of the coffins, they found a layer of six pillows, all of which were almost perfectly preserved in the vacuum-packed tomb after more than 3,000 years. At least one of the pillows contained hieroglyphic markings reading, "life, stability, and power." But as the team carefully removed them, they noticed a much smaller coffin buried inside.

As lead archaeologist Otto Schaden picked it up, the light of a torch caught a glimmer of gold.

"Everybody burst into applause," says Anthony Geffen, producer of the Discovery Channel's Egypt's New Tomb Revealed, who was present for the discovery May 24. "Everyone's (usually) very reserved in the world of archaeology."

Schaden, an Egyptologist for the University of Memphis in Tennessee, cradled the coffin like a child as others broke into tears.

Discovery Channel Quest recorded and financed the excavation, in which archaeologists endure 100-degree temperatures and the threat of flash floods and sandstorms as they dig up the past.

"It's like being in Indiana Jones," Geffen says. "You're actually seeing them piece together the clues."

So what's inside the 42-centimeter gold-plated coffin? Nothing. It probably contained a "funerary figurine" which would represent a person in the afterlife if his or her body were destroyed, Schaden says, not an infant mummy. The gold coffin is one of the most dazzling artifacts that has been found in the Valley of the Kings since archaeologist Howard Carter uncovered the resting place of King Tutankhamen more than 80 years ago, Geffen says.

The tomb in which the coffin was found is less than 50 feet from the tomb of King Tutankhamen, and archaeologists have discovered pottery and face masks inside that date to around the time of Tutankhamen.

Mansour Boraik, the head of antiquities in Egypt's Luxor region, hypothesized in front of Discovery cameras that the tomb might have belonged to the widow of King Tutankhamen. The archaeologists found a broken seal in the tomb with the faint inscription "PA-ATEN," which may have been the former name of the king's wife.

But Schaden is not rushing to conclusions about the identity of the tomb's inhabitant.

"I haven't seen enough to want to go that route," Schaden says, explaining that a piece of an inscription may give a false impression and that the writing would "have to be a little more complete" before any conclusions can be reached.

"How something looks doesn't necessarily tell you how important it is," he adds. While everyone continued "oohing and ahhing" at the gold coffin, Schaden says he began picking through mud on the ground that might have inscriptions. For him, one of the greatest discoveries in the tomb was a ceramic "wine label" from the same time period and town as wine jars found in Tutankhamen's tomb.

More discoveries lie ahead as well. Two of the coffins - one adult and one child - are still sealed.

"Everyone's hoping there's a mummy somewhere," Schaden says. "Everyone should have a mummy."