June 28, 2006 1:58

Who Stole King Tut's Mom?

The tomb known as KV63, discovered last year in a fluke accident, is the first found in Egypt's fabled Valley of the Kings since King Tutamkhamen's was excavated back in 1922. It's right next to Tut's resting place—only about 75 ft. away. That and some other hints led Zahi Hawass, the scholar-showman who runs Egypt's department of antiquities, to conclude that the new tomb belonged to Tut's mother, Queen Kiya, who may have died in childbirth when the boy king was still a baby.

That being the case, lots of hope and anticipation was focused on the five adult-size and two miniature coffins found inside. But one by one, they were opened to reveal such mundane items as pottery shards, mud seals, embalming materials, small animal bones, papyrus fragments, trays, pieces of twine or rope, and six small pillows stuffed with feathers or down. The same sort of stuff was in 28 storage jars found in the tomb.

But just a few hours ago, the last coffin was opened to reveal...more stuff. Only the top layer has been examined so far. It contains garlands made of gold foil, dried flowers, reeds, berries or seeds, and string; more embalming materials; and some strips of linen wrapped up like an Ace bandage (around itself, not another object). And more pottery shards, of course, which seem to be as common in Egypt as camels. No one knows if the collars were ever placed on a mummy, or placed in the sarcophagus for future use. Sifting through all of the contents could take weeks.

In short, the tomb seems to have been mostly used as a storage bunker where mummy-makers and tomb-outfitters stashed their materials. If Queen Kiya ever rested there, she was probably spirited away by tomb raiders sometime in the 3,000 years since the crypt was created. And the mystery of who did it—if it was actually done—may never be solved. For his part, Otto Schaden, of the University of Memphis (Tennessee, not Egypt), who led the team that actually did the excavation, doubts very much that she was. "Normally," he says, "if a mummy had been placed there and the tomb was robbed, you’d expect to fingers, toes or other small bones. I think [Hawass] is going out on a limb.”  A program about the opening of the coffin will air on the Discovery Channel on July 9.

Much credit and thanks go to my colleague Andrea Dorfman,by the way who did key reporting on this item, and who has actually been to the Valley of the Kings, to my great envy. We collaborated on this Egyptology piece for TIME back in 1995.

—M.L

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