- Home >
- Top Stories
Egyptologist talks about discovery of lost queen
September 21, 2007
In 1989, Faculty Fellow Don Ryan and his team began working their first field season in Egypt’s ancient burial ground, the Valley of the Kings. When they discovered the lost tomb designated KV-60 on that first day, they never imagined they’d discover the missing mummy of Egypt’s greatest female pharaoh inside.
But that’s exactly what happened. After extensive testing and a bit of luck, the Egyptian head of antiquities, Zahi Hawass, believes a mummy Ryan’s team rediscovered on the floor of KV-60 is that of Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled during the 18th dynasty.
Ryan will discuss his rediscovery of the tomb and the process used to identify the mummy at the lecture, “Ancient Egypt’s Lost Queen Found,” on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Scandinavian Cultural Center.
Ryan directs the Pacific Lutheran University Valley of the Kings Project, which focuses on finding and studying the more obscure tombs in the valley. Most were burial sites for Egypt’s elite, but not necessarily for its royalty. These tombs are largely ignored because they lack the inscriptions and decoration of royal tombs, Ryan explained. His team has been the first to look at these tombs seriously.
“If you want to find something new and interesting, then you have to go where others don’t,” Ryan said. “That’s the theme of my work there.”
Howard Carter, famous for discovering the tomb of King Tutkanhamun in the early 1920s, originally discovered KV-60 in 1903. The tomb contained two mummies, one in an uncovered coffin and another laying the floor.
Eventually, the coffined mummy was identified as Hatshepsut’s wet nurse and removed to Cairo. The tomb was covered up and its exact location lost for nearly 80 years, when Ryan’s team rediscovered it on the first day of digging. Ryan approximated the tomb’s location from Carter’s notes. He used a broom to sweep away the sand, and after half an hour found the entrance of the tomb.
“It was pretty cool because we found it so quickly,” he said.
Inside, the tomb remnants of ancient burial containers and the uncoffined mummy laying on the floor of the burial chamber. Several Egyptologists had speculated that the mummy could be that of Hatshepsut, as her royal tomb was discovered nearby but didn’t contain her mummy.
Ryan said the mummy appeared to striking the royal female pose: her left arm was bent at the elbow diagonally, the left fist was clenched and the right arm was straight along her side.
“Our conclusion was that it’s possible it was Hatshepsut,” Ryan said. “We sort of entertained the theory, but there was no way of testing it.”
At the end of the field season, Ryan and his team built a wooden coffin for the mummy, left it in KV-60 and sealed the entrance. There the mummy remained until Hawass started his quest to find Hatshepsut.
Hawass gathered three possible candidates, including the mummy Ryan’s team found, and shipped them off to Cairo for testing. By a stroke of luck, the Egyptian scientists discovered a molar inside a box that bore the royal seal of Hatshepsut, what Ryan called the “Cinderella slipper tooth.”
Using the tooth, the scientists were able to match it to the mouth of the Ryan’s 3,000-year-old mummy. According to Hawass, the tooth proves the mummy is Hatshepsut.
Ryan will return to the Valley of the Kings in November to finish excavating the six tombs currently being studied by his team. The team has worked field seasons in the valley from 1989 to 1991, and in 1993, 2005 and 2006.
His team will be taking a second look at all the artifacts, making sure everything is well-documented and that they have all the data necessary to produce a formal publication of their findings.
Ryan directs the Pacific Lutheran University Valley of the Kings Project, which worked in the valley from 1989 to 1991, and in 1993, 2005 and 2006. The tombs Ryan focuses on are some of the more obscure tombs in the valley.
Ryan will discuss his rediscovery of the tomb and the process used to identify the mummy at the lecture, “Ancient Egypt’s Lost Queen Found,” on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Scandinavian Cultural Center.
Don Ryan Podcast
“If you want to find something new and interesting, then you have to go where others don’t,” Ryan said. “That’s the theme of my work there.”
Howard Carter, famous for discovering the tomb of King Tutkanhamun in the early 1920s, originally discovered KV-60 in 1903. The tomb contained two mummies, one in an uncovered coffin and another laying the floor.
Eventually, the coffined mummy was identified as Hatshepsut’s wet nurse and removed to Cairo. The tomb was covered up and its exact location lost for nearly 80 years, when Ryan’s team rediscovered it on the first day of digging. Ryan approximated the tomb’s location from Carter’s notes. He used a broom to sweep away the sand, and after half an hour found the entrance of the tomb.
“It was pretty cool because we found it so quickly,” he said.
Inside, the tomb remnants of ancient burial containers and the uncoffined mummy laying on the floor of the burial chamber. Several Egyptologists had speculated that the mummy could be that of Hatshepsut, as her royal tomb was discovered nearby but didn’t contain her mummy.
Ryan said the mummy appeared to striking the royal female pose: her left arm was bent at the elbow diagonally, the left fist was clenched and the right arm was straight along her side.
“Our conclusion was that it’s possible it was Hatshepsut,” Ryan said. “We sort of entertained the theory, but there was no way of testing it.”
At the end of the field season, Ryan and his team built a wooden coffin for the mummy, left it in KV-60 and sealed the entrance. There the mummy remained until Hawass started his quest to find Hatshepsut.
Hawass gathered three possible candidates, including the mummy Ryan’s team found, and shipped them off to Cairo for testing. By a stroke of luck, the Egyptian scientists discovered a molar inside a box that bore the royal seal of Hatshepsut, what Ryan called the “Cinderella slipper tooth.”
Using the tooth, the scientists were able to match it to the mouth of the Ryan’s 3,000-year-old mummy. According to Hawass, the tooth proves the mummy is Hatshepsut.
Ryan will return to the Valley of the Kings in November to finish excavating the six tombs currently being studied by his team. The team has worked field seasons in the valley from 1989 to 1991, and in 1993, 2005 and 2006.
His team will be taking a second look at all the artifacts, making sure everything is well-documented and that they have all the data necessary to produce a formal publication of their findings.
Ryan directs the Pacific Lutheran University Valley of the Kings Project, which worked in the valley from 1989 to 1991, and in 1993, 2005 and 2006. The tombs Ryan focuses on are some of the more obscure tombs in the valley.