Searching for hidden chambers adjacent to Tutankhamun’s tomb

Author:洛伦佐·博内利（Lorenzo Bonelli）

The original full article by Luigi Sambuelli, Cesare Comina, Gianluca Catanzariti, Filippo Barsuglia, Gianfranco Morelli, Francesco Porcelli was published on the March–April 2019 issue of Elsevier:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1296207418308124

The tomb of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun is the most famous of all the royal tombs within the Valley of the Kings (VOK) in Luxor, Egypt. This tomb was discovered, with an almost intact funerary treasure by Howard Carter in 1922.

存在hidden chambers and corridors adjacent to Tutankhamun’s tomb(code name KV62) has been long debated. In 2015, it was suggested these chambers may host the yet undiscovered burial of Nefertiti. To test this hypothesis, two Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016 from inside KV62 were carried out but gave contradictory results. To solve these uncertainties and obtain a more confident and conclusive response, a third GPR survey was conducted in 2018 using IDS GeoRadar technology.

“This work was both a thrill and a challenge at the same time. The thrill is obvious – it felt like spying on the most famous Pharaoh’s golden burial palace, only some 3300 years later. In fact, our 21st-century state-of-the-art, multichannel and multi-frequency GPR instrumentation allowed an unprecedented scan through the chambers’ walls, in terms of resolution and clarity of the results,”saidGianluca Catanzariti, GPR specialist at 3DGeoimaging.

世纪的发现

This image represents a sketch of the frame positions and the area covered by HF scans along the West and North walls.

GPR is commonly and successfully used in archaeological and forensic applications. Given the expected physical contrast between the bedrock in which the tomb is carved and the supposed sealed doorways as well as the possible presence of a wooden lintel above the doors,GPR是建立隐藏室的最有效方法adjacent to KV62.

第一次GPR调查表明，除了装饰有埋葬室的北墙和西墙之外，存在两个不同的区域或腔。这一发现称为“世纪的发现”。

埃及的古物国（MOA）委托进行了第二项GPR调查，以重新确认第一次KV62 GPR调查的结果。第二次调查是由国家地理团队使用中/高GPR天线进行扫描到坟墓墙壁的国家地理团队进行的。但是，第二次KV62 GPR扫描无法确认初始发现。因此，第二次KV62 GPR调查的结论与第一个GPR调查的结论不一致。

The fact the two previous KV62 radar scans proved inconclusive was a strong indication that the complexity of the task was somehow underestimated. Given this, the MoA called for a third, comprehensive geophysical survey of Tutankhamun’s tomb能够提供有关隐藏室存在的结论性证据and corridors adjacent to KV62.

To counter potential technical difficulties, the Italian team from the Polytechnic University of Turin, Geostudi Astier, 3D Geoimaging, and the University of Turin carried out the third survey using three GPR systems covering多频带， 从150 MHz至3 GHz。

Combining high- and low-frequency GPR surveys

由于需要扫描墙壁而不会破坏其宝贵的装饰，因此研究团队设计和执行了特殊设备，以将天线移动到距墙壁的一定距离。

“The challenge resided in the peculiar instrumentation-target configuration – our GPR system had to 'slide' parallel to the vertical chamber's walls in order to scan the volumes beyond them, and this had never been tried before,”解释了Catanzariti.

高频（HF）调查允许更高的分辨率，以识别与门角相关的浅异常，并存在由不连贯材料（包括非形石头块）制成的回填结构。计划进行HF扫描，以调查西部和北墙的一条条纹，约1.5米高。所有GPR轮廓都是由由GPR单元组成的Aladdin 2GHz IDS GeoRadarantenna box and an IDS GeoRadar K2 control unit.

Low-frequency (LF) GPRsurveys promote electromagnetic wave penetration and the potential identification of deeper voids. Acquisition of LF scans happened with anIDS GeoRadar RIS TR200以横向电动（TE）模式运行的屏蔽天线，从垂直方向收集数据，从底部到顶部收集数据。专家以双极化多渠道获得了中间频率（IF）扫描IDS Georadar流Csystem.

Stream C allowed to simultaneously record, by a single swath, 23 radar profiles in transverse magnetic (TM) mode and 9 radar profiles in TE-mode.

In the end, the collected data obtained during a very large number of horizontal and vertical scans of the relevant KV62 walls summed up to about 2.7 kilometres of radargrams.

In the quest for finding hidden chambers

根据HF采集的处理数据，意大利研究团队没有发现垂直平面（与扫描墙正交的）可以解释为可以解释为岩石和封锁壁之间的边界的证据。专家认为，第一次KV62 GPR调查很可能在结论中被“幽灵信号”误导了，，，，agreeing with the conclusions of the second GPR survey.

但是，可能由于时间的可用性和空间延长有限，第二次KV62 GPR调查无法提供令人信服的确定答案。GPR数据不支持有关隐藏室的存在的理论，该理论具有很高的信心，该理论得出了有关隐藏室的存在的理论。