It would seem we have found the infamous Curse of King Tut, and it is us…

The Supreme Council of Antiquities has entered into a partnership with the Getty Conservation Institute to implement some much-needed restoration and preservation work on the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62).  According to an Associated Press article, King Tut’s tomb set for 5 year renovation project [story no longer online], the venture was prompted by brown moisture spots on the walls, damage which has been exacerbated by the humidity from the thousands of visitors that crowd into the rather confined space every month.

Humidity from visitors threatens to ruin the painted walls of King Tut’s tomb (Photo by Hajor)

The Getty Conservation Institute has a long history of collaborating with the SCA in the preservation of everything from tombs to the mummies they contain.  According to an article by France 24, King Tut’s tomb to get a facelift, the paintings which adorn the tomb’s walls will receive special attention.  “I am happy that Getty will look at the tomb and preserve its beautiful scenes,” stated Dr. Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the SCA (Source).

Dr. Hawass has made site preservation and conservation a priority and his recent appointment as Vice Minister of Culture will only help further that goal.  Dr. Hawass has announced he also intends to continue his post at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, which he had previously planned to vacate in accordance with Egyptian law.  His term was set to expire in the spring of 2010.

As an aside, the AP article cites the 2005 CT scan done of Tutankhamun’s mummy, stating “The results ruled out that Tut was violently murdered — but stopped short of definitively concluding how he died around 1323 B.C.”  Dr. Hawass promised an audience at Butler University’s Clowes Hall on August 7, 2009, that the exact cause of Tut’s death would be revealed “in one month.”

Amateur and professional Egyptologists alike patiently await further news.

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2009.  All rights reserved.

Photographs “Egypt.KV62.01.jpg” by Hajor, and “Tomb of Tutankhamun sign.jpg” by Joshdboz are provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of those files under the conditions that you appropriately attribute them, and that you distribute them only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

 

The Children’s Museum, which just bid farewell to the Tutankhamun:  The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs travelling exhibit last week, has a special relationship with Egypt so it should come as no surprise that they would continue to deliver Egypt to the region, an easy drive from the Louisville and Kentuckiana area.

The tomb of Seti I (KV17) is the largest tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings to date.  The tomb was discovered in 1817 by Giovanni Battista Belzoni and was originally believed to be about 328 feet long.  More recent excavations have shown the tomb to be at least 446 feet long, and there is reason to believe that more remains to be discovered.  The tomb of Seti I is one of the most exciting digs currently underway in Egypt.

The tomb of Seti I (KV17) is the largest discovered in the Valley of the Kings to date (Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbera)

Painted hieroglyphs in bas-relief from the wall of KV17 (Photo by Jon Bodsworth)

In addition to being the largest tomb in the Valley of the Kings, KV17 is also one of the most richly decorated.  Every wall of every passageway and room is adorned with intricate raised reliefs and vividly colored hieroglyphs and paintings.  The second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and father of Ramesses the Great, Seti I ruled Egypt during one of its most culturally and artistically productive periods, and his tomb reflects this sophistication.

The work to stabilize and preserve the tomb of Seti I is a continual process (Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbera)

As part of an exhibit called National Geographic Treasures of the Earth, the Seti I section will be a partial replica that will teach kids about hieroglyphics, archaeology, and site conservation.

Heroic efforts have been made to stabilize and preserve KV17, and young future archaeologists will gain an appreciation for the kind and amount of work that goes into protecting these heritage sites for generations to come.  Due to open in late 2011, Dr. Patchen will be making a more detailed announcement about the exhibit in the next few months.

Anubis guarding the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis skywalk (Photo by Meredith Hayden)

Young people (and the young at heart alike) will have an opportunity to enjoy the next best thing to standing within the tomb of Seti I.  The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis has a reputation for transporting its visitors to distant locations on a grand scale.  In a current exhibit called Take Me There: Egypt, kids can board a two minute simulated Egypt Air flight that lets out in a 13,000 square feet reproduction of Egyptian urban and rural settings where they can interact with “locals” and participate in cultural events.

To learn more about Take Me There: Egypt, and to learn what other archaeological sites wil be featured in the National Geographic Treasures of the Earth exhibit, be sure to read the full interview with Dr. Jeffrey Patchen, which will premiere on Monday, November 9, 2009, on Em Hotep!  We will be talking about how the Tutankhamun travelling exhibit came to Indianapolis, Dr. Patchen’s involvement with the Suzanne Mubarak Children’s Museum in Cairo, and a number of other issues of interest to local and international readers.

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2009.  All rights reserved.

Photo “La tombe de Sethi 1er (KV.17) (Vallée des Rois, Thèbes ouest) – 2.jpg” by Jean-Pierre Dalbera, “Image-La tombe de Sethi 1er (KV.17) (Vallée des Rois, Thèbes ouest) -3.jpg” by Jean-Pierre Dalbera, “Hieroglyphs from the tomb of Seti I.jpg” by Jon Bodsworth, are provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of those files under the conditions that you appropriately attribute them, and that you distribute them only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

Ben Morales-Correa of Egypt Then and Now brings us an update of the joint conservation efforts of the Getty Conservation Institute and the Supreme Council of Antiquities regarding Egyptian tombs.  Read about it at Conservation of Ancient Egyptian Tombs.

Bringing us some News from the Valley of the Kings, Kate Phizackerley asks Do mummies sweat?  The same link will bring you more info on the opening of Horemheb’s tomb. 

Pavements of Silver offers us a great videoblog on the Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II – Last Native Egyptian Pharaoh.  For some Ancient Egypt in the Multimedia Age, tune in and watch!

Su Bayfield pays a visit to more off-the-beaten-trail locations in Egypt at Reflections in the Nile.  Join her in Following in Petrie’s Footsteps to a Predynastic Period site with some Old Kingdom tombs.  End the day with the moon over the Nile.

Vincent Brown talks pyramids at Talking Pyramids with a review of Beneath the Pyramids, by Andrew Collins.  Read about it in The Underworld Beneath the Pyramids of Giza.  When you are done, scan down to Vincent’s Related Reading and there is a clickable audio interview with Collins.

The Scholar has been particularly busy this week over at The Egyptian Yell.  From the American Research Center in Egypt the Yell brings us an International Colloquium:  Pharaonic Renaissance.  From the American Journal of Archaeology, read about a Royal Gift Exchange Between Mycenae and Egypt.  And for your daily dose of forensic mummy studies, try High-Tech Scanner Reveals Mummy’s 2,500-Year-Old Past.

For the latest on the repatriation of Nefertiti, read Tim Reid on The Egyptians:  Nefertiti Please come Home.  For more about the efforts to preserve Egyptian tombs read Saving Tombs, Replica Tombs, and Saving History in Replica.  Tim is really on top of this subject!

For news that is truly straight from the tap, read Zahi Hawass’s Blog—The Synagogue of Ben Maimon.