(3 of 6)
At the end of this claustrophobic journey lies the door Weeks found, and the relatively spacious corridors beyond. It is here, as well as in two outermost rooms, that the artifacts were discovered-most of them broken. "Clearly," says Weeks, "the tomb was pretty well gone over in ancient times." The archaeologists have tracked down a record of one of those robberies, which occurred in about 1150 B.C. A 3,000-year-old papyrus fragment housed in a museum in Turin, Italy, recounts the trial of a thief who was caught in the Valley of the Kings. He confessed under torture that he had broken into Ramesses II's tomb and then returned the next night to rob the tomb of Ramesses' children, which lay across the path. The absence of artifacts in the rubble above the floor suggests that the tomb remained undisturbed-except by floodwaters-for more than 2,000 years.
Additional artifacts could lie buried if, as Weeks believes, the tomb had an unusual split-level design. The ceilings of the corridors to the left and right of the statue of Osiris slope downward and then drop abruptly about 4 ft.-strong evidence of stairways. Says Weeks: "I think there are more rooms on the lower level." Moreover, while the doors that line the corridors all lead to identical 10-ft. by 10-ft. chambers, the openings themselves are only about 2 1/2 ft. wide, too narrow to accommodate a prince's sarcophagus. That suggests to Weeks that the rooms weren't burial chambers but rather "chapels" for funeral offerings. And cracks in these rooms and in four of the massive pillars in the larger chamber are clues that the floors are unsupported-that hollow areas lie below. Could they contain intact sarcophagi with mummies inside? "I'm hoping," says Weeks.
That hope is based largely on the paintings and carvings adorning the tomb walls. Because of floods, vibrations from buses, and a leaky sewage pipe built over the tomb's entrance, only hand-size fragments remain of some of the scenes painted by ancient artists. Others, however, are nearly whole. "Some of the paint," says Weeks, "is as bright and fresh as the day it was applied."
Hieroglyphics above each painting make it clear that the pharaoh's first, second, seventh and 15th sons, at the very least, were buried in Tomb 5. Many of the engravings show Ramesses presenting one or another of the newly deceased young men to Re-Harakhty, the god of the sun; Horus, the falcon-headed god of the sky; or Hathor, goddess of motherhood, who is often depicted as a cow. These scenes reflect the belief that pharaohs were demigods while alive and that life was merely a short-term way station on the road to full deity.
Anything that researchers learn in Tomb 5 about Ramesses' oldest son, Amen-hir-khopshef, could be especially significant to religious scholars. Although Egyptian records don't even mention the empire's dealings with the troublesome slaves known as the Israelites, Exodus 12: 29 says that "at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon." Cautions Weeks: "I'm not saying that we'll prove the validity of the Bible." But scholars are hungry for any new information about this crucial time in Judeo-Christian history.