The last missing tomb from this wealthy Egyptian dynasty has been found
But it is the first since Tut's found near the Valley of the Kings, an ancient royal graveyard a few miles west of modern Luxor in southern Egypt, where many powerful pharaohs and their families were buried in tombs cut into the desert cliffs. The Valley of the Kings was part of a vast "necropolis" or "city of the dead" beside the Nile and the ancient city of Thebes, the capital of Egypt at different times and center of worship of the god Amun.
Archaeologists first discovered the tomb's entrance and passageway in October 2022 during explorations of a different tomb cut into the cliff above it. The passageway led to the tomb itself. Initially, researchers thought it belonged to a queen or lesser royal.
But University of Cambridge archaeologist Piers Litherland, who led the excavation, points to two features that confirm it was the tomb of a pharaoh: walls decorated with hieroglyphic tracts from a kingly funereal text known as the "Amduat" and plaster fragments of a blue ceiling painted with yellow stars, a representation of the night sky. Finally, inscriptions on fragments in the rubble of alabaster "duck vessels"—small stone or pottery jars shaped like ducks that the ancient Egyptians used to hold cosmetics, perfumes, and ointments—identified the pharaoh as Thutmose II.
Who was Pharaoh Thutmose II?
Little is known about Thutmose II, who reigned as pharaoh from about 1493 B.C. until about 1479—more than 100 years before Tutankhamun lived, but part of the same 18th Dynasty of Egyptian kings. His rich collection of grave goods, which might be equal to Tut's, was removed from the tomb thousands of years ago, probably when priests relocated and reburied the king's mummy to protect it from flooding about 500 years after his death, Litherland says.
The reburied mummy and those of other pharaohs—royal reburials were relatively common—were discovered nearer Thebes in the nineteenth century, and medical scans of his mummy a few year ago suggested Thutmose II may have died from heart failure. But the original tomb of Thutmose II had never been found, although Egyptologists knew that he must have had one. "It is the last missing tomb of the kings of the 18th Dynasty," Litherland says.
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