The first moment you look inside a newly discovered ancient tomb is at once exciting and terrifying. I was fortunate to experience this recently as director of an international research team carrying out fieldwork in the Theban necropolis, a Unesco world heritage site near the modern Egyptian city of Luxor.
Our project’s primary aim is to implement a conservation and risk management program for the necropolis (burial ground) of Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna. Due to its location at the foothills of the Theban mountain, monuments in this area are extremely vulnerable to flash flooding from intense bursts of rain.
To direct this floodwater away from the tombs, we are systematically removing debris and excavating the area, using archaeological techniques that ensure all historical information is preserved. This is how we came across this previously unknown, roughly 3,000-year-old tomb.
As we prepared to enter it, we had no idea if the ceiling had collapsed, if the tomb had been looted or destroyed, or if it was still well preserved.
Its layout is typical of Theban elite tombs dating to the New Kingdom period (ca. 1550-1069 BC). At this time, Thebes (now Luxor) was Egypt’s capital and main religious and political center.
