Daily Junction.mobi portal<p>More recent investigations added microgravity surveys made from above the theorised complex. These measure minute variations in the Earth’s gravitational field caused by differences in density below ground. Higher-frequency GPR has also now been added to the team’s toolkit.</p>
<p>This was a sensible evolution of the research strategy. The problem was, to protect the wall paintings, the GPR antennae could not be placed directly against the decorated surfaces. </p>
<p>The resulting air gap weakened coupling between the antenna and the wall, reducing signal quality and complicating interpretation. For GPR, the farther the antenna is from the surface, the more difficult it becomes to resolve subtle architectural features.</p>
<p>Microgravity surveys do not suffer from this limitation. They are capable of identifying anomalies within the limestone below the sensor. The challenge facing both types of investigation is that they have not produced unambiguous evidence for a large open chamber immediately beyond the wall. </p>
<p>To account for this, proponents of the hidden chamber hypothesis have suggested that any passageways may have been deliberately backfilled with rubble, obscuring <a href="https://www.academia.edu/39903971/The_Decorated_North_Wall_in_the_Tomb_of_Tutankhamun_KV_62_The_Burial_of_Nefertiti_II_2019_">the void signatures</a> that investigators <a href="https://www.academia.edu/175580520/An_Archaeo_Geophysical_Review_and_Assessment_of_the_Structure_and_Morphology_of_Tutankhamuns_Tomb_KV_62_The_Burial_of_Nefertiti_IV_2026_">originally expected to detect</a>. This is plausible and merits further testing, but it remains an interpretation, not fact.</p>
<p>Some investigators have argued that the currently available geophysical evidence <a href="https://www.academia.edu/40243114/Response_to_Nicholas_Reeves_The_decorated_North_Wall_in_the_tomb_of_Tutankhamun_KV62_The_Burial_of_Nefertiti_II_">does not demonstrate</a> the presence of hidden chambers.</p>
<p>This has led to the next logical step in the scientific process: direct testing. The current proposal to drill a small borehole and deploy miniature cameras into one of the identified anomalies has the potential to move the discussion from inference to observation. </p>
<p>Whatever the outcome, the investigations undertaken by Eldamaty and colleagues represent the most comprehensive scientific assessment of the question to date.</p>
<p>Currently, the hidden chamber theory remains exactly what a good scientific hypothesis should be: intriguing, testable, and worthy of investigation. What it is not, at least yet, is a discovery.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/292973/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jay-silverstein-1417677">Jay Silverstein</a>, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Forensics, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/nottingham-trent-university-1338">Nottingham Trent University</a></em></span></p>
<p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/secret-chambers-in-tutankhamuns-tomb-could-hold-the-burial-of-a-lost-egyptian-queen-we-may-get-answers-soon-292973">original article</a>.</p> </div>