Secrets Remain in Tomb of Pharaoh’s Sons

CAIRO —  Since announcing the discovery of a sprawling tomb for the sons of Pharaoh Ramses II two years ago, American archeologist Kent Weeks has dug through tons of rubble to uncover 108 rooms.

He thinks he’ll find many more in the digging season that is just getting underway.

But the tomb--considered the most significant find in Egypt since the discovery of King Tut’s burial site 75 years ago--is posing one mystery after another for Weeks.

Why did Ramses build such a massive mausoleum in the Valley of the Kings about 3,200 years ago?

Just how many of his about 100 children are buried there?

And what function did the numerous rooms serve?

“I wake up at three in the morning and think, what’s going on here?” Weeks said. “Every time I think I know, it [the tomb] surprises me.”

His latest surprise was the discovery last spring of a skeleton and three skulls in a pit near the entrance--the remains of four mummies that had been tampered with by ancient tomb robbers.

Two appear to be of men in their 20s or 30s who were robust and powerful, while the other two were much more delicate, Weeks said.

Weeks believes the mummies were dragged to the entrance so the robbers could use natural light to strip the bodies of their gold ornaments.

He also thinks they are probably the remains of Ramses’ sons, perhaps from different mothers. DNA testing could show if they’re related and if their chemistry matches that of the mummified bodies of Ramses or his principal wives, he says.

The entrance to the tomb was first noted by 19th-century explorers, then buried under rubble and all but forgotten. It’s called KV5, as the fifth tomb recorded in the Valley of the Kings at Luxor.

In 1987, Weeks began an emergency dig to check out the site in advance of a road-widening project. Eight years later, he caused a sensation with his announcement that at least 67 rooms had been found along with inscriptions identifying Ramses and at least four of his sons.

So far, Weeks, a 55-year-old Egyptology professor from Everett, Wash., has found 108 rooms and expects the number to reach 150 soon.

“There may be more than that,” he said, speculating that there are several whole corridors still to be located.

Two of the corridors Weeks has found lead toward Ramses’ own tomb and that of King Tut, but it’s unclear yet if they connect.

Weeks also says his theory of the tomb, which is unlike anything ever found in Egypt, is still evolving.

He first thought KV5 might have been the burial site for most of Ramses’ male offspring. Ramses II, who ruled for 67 years from 1304 to 1237 B.C., is known to have had dozens of wives and about 100 acknowledged children, about half of them sons.

Now Weeks is not so sure how many are buried there. He has located rooms on 10 different levels, but not a burial chamber. Still, the mummified remains found last spring and inscriptions for four of Ramses’ sons would indicate some were buried in KV5.

“Maybe it was a complex of offering chapels for a single son. Maybe each wing was for a different son,” Weeks said. “Maybe we still haven’t dug enough to find the burial chamber.”

Just why would some of Ramses II’s sons be given such grand treatment?

Weeks thinks it may be because Ramses was declared divine during his lifetime.

“If he was a god, he was limited in what he could do in the secular world,” Weeks said. “A god couldn’t very well go and cut ribbons, adjudicate cases and things like that.”

So perhaps certain sons were given responsibility for secular duties and therefore deserved an elaborate burial, he said.

As for Ramses’ daughters, Weeks has found no evidence of them.

He estimates it will take at least 10 to 15 more years to clear away debris deposited by floods over the years so he can unlock the tomb’s mystery.

Archeology buffs will be able to watch his progress.

In September, Weeks launched an Internet site that already contains 156 pages on the KV5 dig and is still growing. That Web site is at https://www.kv5.com.

It will “give everyone, from students to academics--even average-guy tourists--as much information as we can about KV5,” he said.