Egypt 'suppressing truth' over hidden chambers in Tutankhamun’s tomb

Scientists accuse government of failing to release data disproving claims that burial site contains Nefertiti’s remains

After all the research and exiting talk in the world of archaeology it was widely claimed that secret chambers were identified in Tutankhamun’s tomb and possibly containing the remains and riches of Queen Nefertiti.

An announcement in November by the then minister of antiquities, Mamdouh Eldamaty, said that he was “90% positive” that an earlier radar scan of the tomb had revealed an unexplored chamber, it galvanised worldwide excitement, and seemed to add weight to the theory of a British Egyptologist, Richard Reeves, that the tomb was also the intact burial site of Nefertiti, widely believed to be Tutankhamun’s stepmother and who may have preceded him as pharaoh.

Eldamaty has now been replaced as minister of antiquities and the ministry now in charge has not revealed the findings.

So scientists are now claiming the evidence, based on research, is being suppressed by the government in Cairo.

LINK

a reply to: blaenau2000

I was just about to post something about this. 2-3 months ago, the Egyptian authorities were promising to reveal the findings in April. April came and went and nothing.

It seems reasonable that if that if the data was conclusive, it would be a media extravaganza so yeah, the silence seems awfully telling.

a reply to: blaenau2000

If this is true it doesn't surprise me

USA also likes these things suppressed

This is ATS, surely everyone knows why

originally posted by: BobDoleEh
a reply to: blaenau2000

If this is true it doesn't surprise me

USA also likes these things suppressed

This is ATS, surely everyone knows why

Because the annual Tourism income for Egypt is greater than the national debt of most countries and after the recent instability in the region they want people to keep coming...
So they are happy to if not outright lie, then twisting the truth is just fine

a reply to: Marduk

Wouldnt a secret chamber be a fresh breeze and boon to their falling tourism industry?

I dont see why they would, unless its an "Emerald Tablet" super find

originally posted by: Butterfinger
a reply to: Marduk

Wouldnt a secret chamber be a fresh breeze and boon to their falling tourism industry?

I dont see why they would, unless its an "Emerald Tablet" super find

Yeah, but the point is, there probably isn't a hidden chamber, so they are going to milk the publicity as if there was for as long as they can. Its basic tourism economics...

Why shouldn't there be extra chambers or rooms? Maybe there was a rest room for the janitor or a closet to keep his brooms?

a reply to: blaenau2000

As the article says, a number of scientists (having reviewed the data... what there is that's been released) have said that "no, there's no chamber there." The Egyptian government is accused of quashing this report.

Not of hiding chambers... of hiding the fact that there's NOT chambers.

so how did the egyptians lose their history ? according to this, "and who may have preceded him as pharaoh."

why don't they have a record of it ?

originally posted by: syrinx high priest
so how did the egyptians lose their history ? according to this, "and who may have preceded him as pharaoh."

why don't they have a record of it ?

Oh they always made it public where they buried their kings and queens, they weren't at all worried about tomb robbers /sarcasm

It's all rather getting on my nerves to be honest old chap. Why the hell can't anyone drill the tiniest of holes into the wall and send through a fiber-optic cable and film the bloody space behind? Regardless of priceless paintings etc etc, there must be a small space available to pass a very Small cable through?

a reply to: CaptainBeno

Quite right. This is what makes it all such nonsense. People are so keen to learn about this ancient culture so just an apology if they were wrong would have been easily accepted and everyone would have moved on.

originally posted by: syrinx high priest
so how did the egyptians lose their history ? according to this, "and who may have preceded him as pharaoh."

why don't they have a record of it ?

Because the Egyptians of that time deliberately erased the names of the people who were involved in Akhenaten's "monotheistic revolution."

This has happened several times in their history, when people who committed crimes (Akhenaten is described as "the great criminal" in one of the surviving papyri) had their names erased so that they would be destroyed in the afterlife. There's examples of it being done in the tombs of the families of the guards involved in the assassination of the pharaoh Teti (they leave the family names alone but "erase" the sons who were guilty) and elsewhere.

In addition, these pharaohs only reigned a short time - not long enough to commission a lot of works and not long enough to construct a temple or other monument. In cases where they ruled for only a brief time (this happens a lot during the Intermediate Periods) there's disagreement over when they ruled and for how long because the evidence may only be a scarab or two.

a reply to: Byrd

I always learn something new when you post. Thank you !

a reply to: blaenau2000

Clearly, if it is being withheld then there would have to be a political reason for doing so.
This is a nation DESPERATE for tourism, and I mean it's their number one priority. It's basically all they have as a nation, it's what they've built their prosperity on, it's the one thing they need to maintain in order to survive.

So we have to conclude that refusing to release the information is in some way a benefit to tourism, or that releasing it might cause a decline in said tourism.

I'm not sure which would be more damaging, the discovery of more or the discovery of nothing new.

If they believe tourism has increased because of this speculation then they probably want that to continue and don't want to say that nothing else was found, because it would put an end to that increased tourism.
If the discovery of new areas of interest would result in tourism being negatively impacted (for example having to close off areas to visitors) they would probably not want to release this information until they can afford to lose out on that tourism.

This could go either way. We're still none the wiser about whether anything was found or not.

Given that many seemed to believe that there was more to discover there, I think it's more likely they don't want to release this information because it would mean shutting down large areas of their main tourist attraction, and likely a demand for a hell of a lot of money to fund a larger archaeological mission.

Egypt cannot afford to lose out on any tourism $'s, they can't afford to shut anything down for any more digging right now, and they certainly can't afford to pay for another archaeological dig right now.

a reply to: blaenau2000

And as of yesterday, I read somewhere they were wrong. Turns out there are no hidden chambers. Thats the same as when Hawass said there's nothing left to find on the Giza plateau...

That gave me a good laugh how now someone is backtracking the hidden chambers angle....to what end?

originally posted by: mysterioustranger
That gave me a good laugh how now someone is backtracking the hidden chambers angle....to what end?

Because there aren't any hidden chambers, obviously

www.livescience.com...

this is what happens every time science anounces peliminary results of an ambiguous nature :

the woo woo crowd leap to the most extreme possible speculation and declare it " true "

then when the data is studies properly and the results do not match thir fantasies

they invent a conspiracy cover up to explain why the reality does not match thier fantasy

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
this is what happens every time science anounces peliminary results of an ambiguous nature :

To be fair, the ousted Minister of Tourism (he's been replaced) did a lot of the hype on this, as did Reeve (who would love to see his current pet theory on Nefertiti confirmed.) The minister wanted desperately to get tourism numbers back up (they're down again in March) and was ready to roll with any exciting news. So he's partly to blame for the media bandwagon.