Wolfson’s Senior Tutor co-heads groundbreaking discovery of pharaoh’s tomb

As the first royal tomb to be found since the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, the discovery of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh’s tomb has rocked global news. 

“Getting hard hatted up and exploring the tomb chamber is a long adrenaline burn,” says Judith, a geo-archaeologist who has taught at Cambridge for decades, and is a member of the Department of Earth Sciences.

“When a tomb is created, all materials imbued with the magic of the pharaohs have to stay with it. These are placed at a respectful distance in guardian pits or foundation deposits,” says Judith. 

“There are usually two deposits – one on each side of the tomb … we unearthed a foundation deposit with a whole sacrificed calf, which seemed lavish. We were looking for the other pit when we found an entrance buried by a metre and a half of rockfall, with a step going down. Then another step, and another… Well, that's not a foundation deposit!”

The corridors to the tomb had been badly damaged by repeated flooding. After navigating collapsed ceilings and debris “set like concrete”, the team made it into a chamber with evidence of decoration: a patch of ceiling painted blue with yellow stars.

On the north wall they found scenes from the Amduat, a funerary text similar to the Book of the Dead. Divided into hours, the Amduat portrays the daily journey through the underworld of Ra the sun god, and is almost exclusively reserved for royalty.

The hours depicted in Thutmose II’s tomb are from hour seven – when Ra is faced with the serpent Apophis, the embodiment of chaos – to hour twelve – the final hour, when Ra is reborn. While the team knew they had the tomb of a king, they didn’t know which one. 

“We found enough to know it was a Thut, but there are several Thutmoses,” says Judith. “We went around photographing every version of Thutmoses in the Luxor Museum to see if we could do a stylistic comparison, but it wasn't enough.”

Finally, a further fragment was found in a separate chamber which read “... great chief wife his beloved... Hatshepsut, may she live...”, indicating that the king was married to a still living Hatshepsut and so could only be Thutmose II.

“When we found the bit that nailed it, the team held a ‘hafla’, a spontaneous party, and there was dancing and singing,” says Judith. “There was a sense of ‘this is it’. The next day we had a big feast and roasted a goat.”

Image: Judith points to the location of the tomb of Thutmose II on a topographic model of the geology of the mountain. 

Learn more

Judith will be giving a short lunchtime talk about her work and research on Thursday 20 March in the Lee Hall. Book your place via our event page.

Read more about this incredible discovery and Judith’s involvement on the University's website. 

With thanks to the University and Fred Lewsey for their permission to reproduce text.