That led archaeologists to the three tombs, one of which included an inscription warning that anyone who violated the sanctity of the grave would be eaten by a crocodile and a snake, Hawass said.
A towering, painted profile of the chief dentist stares down at passers-by from the wall opposite the inscription.
The tombs date back more than 4,000 years to the 5th Dynasty and were meant to honor a chief dentist and two others who treated the pharaohs and their families, Hawass said.
Oddly, though, once again we see the dynamic where 5th Dynasty tradesmen have decorated and inscribed tombs but the 4th Dynasty King of Kings was content to be buried in anonymity?
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
Good point Min, but I also keep wondering why... with all the technology of modern archaeology, are these tomb robbers and black market venturists so often the first to find these sites.
The 'profit motive' can be a hell of an incentive.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
Often the smuggler's have the 'hometown advantage'.
Illicit excavations by smugglers at the 3000-year-old Babajian mound in Lorestan Province have drawn a team of archaeologists to the site to save the rest of the artifacts, if anything remains , said MNA .
“The safeguarding of the Babajian mound faces many problems due to the fact that the site is located in a mountainous region. The path leading to the site is difficult to tread, but the smugglers, most of whom are locals, can easily overcome the challenge,” archaeologist Ata Hassanpur of the Lorestan Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department told on Friday.
The smugglers have almost completely excavated the cemetery of the site.
It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
"Give us the timber or we'll go all stupid and lawless on your butts". --Redcloud, MTF
Beagle wrote:Good point Min, but I also keep wondering why... with all the technology of modern archaeology, are these tomb robbers and black market venturists so often the first to find these sites.
Because they don't mind breaking the law. Archaeologists require permits, and these aren't easy to get.
A 42-year-old method for finding water, monitoring pollution and helping with tunneling may also be a way to locate and protect tombs in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens and other burial sites in Egypt, according to Penn State researchers.
An initial study in Egypt showed that some tomb passages and resting chambers were aligned along these fracture zones, suggesting that the builders knew that these locations had less resistant rocks and easier digging. The Parizeks report today (Oct. 22) at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Philadelphia, on recent work in the area.
More extensive surface and subsurface mapping confirmed the idea that the builders knew what they were doing. The tomb builders placed the entrances to their tombs in valley bottoms or receding depressions on the cliffs where the crumbling stone would hide the tombs. These tombs, built between 1500 and 1000 B.C., usually have a long entry hall leading to a burial chamber. They may have additional rooms for equipment and provisions and other storage areas. Tomb walls are often plastered and painted. The tombs are usually built sloping downward or actually have vertical shafts. To date, 63 tombs are identified in the Valley of the Kings with tomb 63 located in February 2006.
"Katarin predicted that the location of still to be discovered tombs might be determined using the fracture-trace method," R. Parizek said. "The discovery of KV-63 showed the correlation between tombs and fracture traces.
The open entrances, however, are not the only way water enters the tombs. Water finds the fracture concentrations beneath the fracture traces and seeps into the ground. If tombs are built along or below the traces, eventually water insinuates itself through the fractured rock and enters the tombs. Water can ruin even undiscovered, unopened tombs in this way.
"If we can map the fracture traces and their associated fracture zones above and below ground, then we can see how to divert water so that it not only misses the tomb entrances, but also bypasses the permeable areas of the traces," says R. Parizek.
While the article is about protecting the tombs from water damage, I can see great possibilities for finding and securing new tombs from smugglers. I know next to nothing about geology so only hope this idea pans out.
It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
"Give us the timber or we'll go all stupid and lawless on your butts". --Redcloud, MTF
"What they need to do is channel water along the pavement, away from the pathways that otherwise lead into the tombs," says K. Parizek. "Keep flow away from the tombs."
Allowing that money is always at the root of these problems, her suggestion seems most reasonable. As water flows downhill it would not even be necessary to surround the entire site with a man-made channel, just the spots which are higher. Tourism being Egypt's biggest attraction one would think that they could make such an investment.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
A slideshow of the newly found tombs. Zahi gets his face in but also some fine photos of the inscriptions.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
