Archaeologists Find a Pharaoh’s Tomb, the First Since King Tut’s, Egypt Says

The fact that the whole area where the new tomb has been found was previously only associated with royal women makes this new discovery all the more intriguing,

said archeology professor Joann Fletcher at the University of York in Britain

It was a very rich period,

said British Egyptologist Chris Naunton, who was not involved in the excavation

It is one of the most important discoveries in this century because it was one of the tombs that we were not able to locate since the discovery of King Tut,

Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told NBC News in an interview

Part of the ceiling was still intact: a blue-painted ceiling with yellow stars on it. And blue-painted ceilings with yellow stars are only found in kings’ tombs,

Litherland told the BBC World Service

When you come across something that you’re not expecting to find, it’s emotionally extremely sort of turbulent,

he said

This assumption was based on its proximity to the tombs of King Thutmose III’s wives and Queen Hatshepsut’s tomb, which she had originally prepared as a royal consort before ascending the throne as pharaoh,

said the post

Notably, this discovery includes funerary furniture belonging to the king, marking the first-ever find of such items, as no funerary furniture of Thutmose II exists in museums worldwide,

he added

Initially we thought we might have found the tomb of a royal wife, but the wide staircase and the large doorway suggested something more important,

he said

This is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent years, as the artifacts uncovered are a significant addition to the history of the site and the era of King Thutmose II,

the SCA chief added

The possible existence of a second, and most likely intact, tomb of Thutmose II is an astonishing possibility.”

Considering the evidence the contents of the tomb were moved to a second tomb, Mohsen Kamel, assistant field director, said

This discovery solves a great mystery of ancient Egypt, the location of the tombs of the early 18th-dynasty kings.”

Prof Litherland said

It is an extraordinary moment for Egyptology and the broader understanding of our shared human story.”

Egypt’s minister of tourism and antiquities, Sherif Fathy, said yesterday

This is the first royal tomb to be discovered since the groundbreaking find of King Tutankhamun’s burial chamber in 1922.

Sherif Fathy, Egyptian minister of tourism and antiquities, said

Water inundated the tomb, damaging its interior and necessitating extensive restoration work by the archaeological team to recover fallen plaster fragments,

the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry said

The artifacts found within the tomb provide critical insights into the history of the region and the reign of Thutmose II,

he said

We, like many others, thought this was a wadi (valley) associated with royal women,

Litherland told CNN Wednesday

It does not, so far, tell us much about his life,

said Litherland about the tomb’s discovery

The tomb is situated in a poorly-chosen place beneath two waterfalls and at the bottom of a slope down which water would have (and did) pour in the much wetter weather of the 18th dynasty,

he said