T H E V A L L E Y O F T H E K I N G S F O U N DA T I O N
BULLETIN 1
October 2002
The Valley of the Kings
Foundation, PO Box 29798,
London, NW3 5FT, England, UK
Director’s message
“Welcome to The Valley of
the Kings Foundation
Bulletin, bringing you, the
Foundation’s Friends, up to
date on news and
developments.
The focus of this first issue
is The Amarna Royal Tombs
Project, and some highlights
of the fourth season of
excavations carried out in
the Valley earlier this year.
Digging will resume in
September 2003. In the
meantime we are actively
working towards publication,
and further development of
the Foundation’s website to
incorporate ARTP field data
and our extensive archive of
background information on
the site. If you would like to
contribute to this crucial
aspect of the work then we
encourage you please to do
so. Remember, The Valley of
the Kings Foundation
receives no government or
institutional funding. It is
your support which makes
this work happen.”
Nicholas Reeves
Email: vokf@aol.com
Web: www.valleyofthekings.org
©Amarna Royal Tombs Project 2002
ARTP’s 4th season of work, 2002:
where we dug and what we found
What are the ‘five walls’ (or ‘five walled areas’) of the Valley? For years
Egyptologists have puzzled over the meaning of this expression, known from a
number of texts found at Deir el-Medina, village of the ancient tomb workforce.
Thanks to a discovery made during ARTP’s immensely successful fourth season
(22 January-3 March 2002) we may now have the answer.
The discovery came at the end of a roller-coaster season on site 4,
beneath the modern path running between the tomb of Ramesses III (KV11) and
the tomb of Horemheb (KV57). This is an exceptionally busy area which previous
excavators had been unable to access. We were more fortunate: the perennial
problem of tourist flow was this year
solved by the temporary installation of
a 20-metre bridge, generously supplied
by Kajima Corporation’s Cairo office;
beneath this bridge the digging could
proceed without disruption.
Site 4 proved to be untouched
and to have significant surprises in
store. Not far beneath the surface the
ARTP team encountered the top of a
The new shrine as first revealed
solid limestone bluff running across the
wadi—a virtual wall swinging around at the north to provide attenuated access to
the Valley beyond.
As the excavations proceeded it appeared more and more likely that this
feature had in antiquity served as a checkpoint, protected not only by guards
(whose water jars and hearth we uncovered close by) but by the gods
themselves—Amun, Horus, Atum, Hathor, Meretseger and Seth, who were present
(in relief decoration) within a small and previously unknown shrine cut into the
rock face close by. Within this shrine a votive stela still remained in situ, painted
with a scene showing a Ramessid official in adoration before Meretseger, the
serpent goddess of the Theban mountain.
The discovery of this shrine-protected bluff is an important find which
significantly advances our understanding of the cemetery’s ancient topography.
The reason? We believe it is very likely one of the mysterious ‘five walls’ of the
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BULLETIN 1
October 2002 page 2

Valley. If the
identification is correct,
then we may assume
that further ‘walls’ of
the same type, dividing
the interior of the
The Amarna Royal Areas excavated by The Amarna Royal Tombs Project, 1998-2002
Valley into easily
Tombs Project 2002 patrolled sectors,
remain to be uncovered at key points beneath the tourist pathways. The principal
The team: of these ‘walls’ has in fact long been known: the so-called ‘gate’ at the entrance
Tom Blackmore to the Valley, which was demolished in the last century to facilitate public access
Edward D Johnson to the site.
Mohsen Kamel (Associate Field
As the excavation of site 4 proceeded, further interesting finds were
Director)
made including a group of small wood-chisels (made
Andrew Lewsey
of copper) at a depth of around four metres below the
Geoffrey T Martin (Joint Field
present ground level—tools found not far distant from
Director)
a handful of exquisite coffin inlays they had perhaps
David Morcom
been employed to hack out when the royal burials
Mary Anne Murray
were officially stripped around 1000 BC.
Nicholas Reeves (Project
Director) Other areas within
Catharine H Roehrig ARTP’s concession were
Will Schenck investigated also. Site 2,
Paul Sussman which we surveyed fully in
Ana Tavares 2000, was now excavated Position of shrine in ‘wall’
Yumiko Ueno (Associate Project down to bedrock to reveal
Director) graffiti, fragments of burial furniture and several
Thanks to: interesting ostraca—evidence missed when Edward
Dr Zahi Hawass Ayrton cleared the area on behalf of Theodore Davis in
Dr Gaballa Aly Gaballa 1905. And the season saw the final stage in our
Sabry Abd el-Aziz painstaking re-excavation of KV56 (the ‘Gold Tomb’).
Decorated back wall of shrine
Mohammed el-Bialy Patience and care here have been rewarded by a good
Ibrahim Suleiman many finds, including further pieces of 19th Dynasty gold jewellery—three
Ezz el-Din Kamal necklace pendants, a mandrake fruit and a Hathor-mask amulet.
—and our valued Friends As a result of the KV56 re-clearance we are
and Sponsors now fairly certain that this jewellery (strays from the
larger haul recovered by Ayrton in 1908) was associated
The Amarna Royal Tombs Project is a with a secondary phase within the chamber, and that
the tomb had actually been initiated and first employed Jewellery from KV56
project of The Valley of the Kings
Foundation, a not-for-profit company for the interment of a late-18th Dynasty queen. As suggested by a number of
(no. 4228460) registered in England significant Amarna fragments found close by in 2000, this anonymous queen
(registered address 23 London Road, was not impossibly one of the missing Amarna dead—ladies whose absence from
Ascot, SL5 7EN) the archaeological record inspired us to embark upon our excavations in the first
place. NR/GTM