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Drama is kicking off between Egyptologists concerning some recent scans used to determine whether there are hidden chambers behind Tutankhamun’s tomb.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Late last year, scientists said they were “90 percent sure” that King Tutankhamun’s tomb had a hidden chamber. If their theory proved correct, it could have been evidence for the controversial claim of Nicholas Reeves that Tutankhamun’s tomb is merely a rushed outer chamber of his mother’s tomb, Queen Nefertiti.
Now, radar scans on the tomb have suggested that no such chamber exists. The team of radar technicians, organized by National Geographic, voyaged out to the Valley of the Kings to carry out the scans on the boy king’s tomb two months ago.
“If we had a void, we should have a strong reflection," Dean Goodman, a geophysicist at GPR-Slice software, told National Geographic. "But it just doesn't exist."
He added, “Radar data can often be subjective. But at this particular site, it’s not. It’s nice at such an important site to have clear, convincing results.”
Still, the results have been causing some controversy among Egyptologists. Egypt's antiquities ministry aren’t taking the results seriously and remain optimistic that a chamber does exist.
According to the Associated Press, Egypt's former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass vehemently challenged the accuracy of the project, saying: “In my entire career, I have never come across any discovery in Egypt made by radar scans.”
Nicolas Reeves, who put forward the theory of a hidden chamber last year, also remains positive. As he told the Associated Press: "I was looking for the evidence that would tell me that my initial reading was wrong. But I didn't find any evidence to suggest that. I just found more and more indicators that there is something extra going on in Tutankhamun's tomb."
