An Egyptian stands guard next to the wooden sarcophagus found in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The sarcophagus, disappointingly, did not contain a mummy.

Credit: AFP

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CAIRO, 29 June 2006 - The first tomb discovered in Luxor's Valley of the Kings since 1922 did not reveal its expected mummy, but egyptologists remained bent on Wednesday on cracking the mystery of 'KV63'.

Three thousand year-old flowers and royal necklaces were the only things Egypt's chief archeologist Zahi Hawass saw when he lifted the lid off the last of seven coffins found in the tomb.

"It's superb but there is no room for a mummy," said Otto Schaden, the American archaeologist who uncovered the tomb almost by chance in February, only a few feet away from 'KV62 - the famous sepulchre of King Tut.

The six other coffins contained pottery shards, and the team of Egyptian and U.S. archaeologist working on the site tried - but failed - to conceal their disappointment after much anticipation that the last coffin might contain a royal mummy.

But they vowed to continue their research and reveal the origin of this tomb, which is niched in a cliff of the pharaonic necropolis and has been dubbed 'KV63'.

The flambloyant Hawass even risked a theory.

"I do believe that it could be for the mother of King Tut. It's a theory. But I believe King Tut came here to be buried beside her, because maybe it's the tomb of his mother," he said.

"No mummy ... but I'm sure we will find very interesting elements underneath, maybe tools," added Nadia Lukma, a senior archaeologist at Cairo Museum.

When Schaden and his team from Memphis University uncovered the tomb, burried under several feet of rubble, the world of archaeology held its breath.

No tomb had been found in more than more than 80 years in this arid complex west of the ancient city of Thebes where three dynasties of Sun kings and their relatives had their tombs dug into the rock.

"Although there is no mummy here, there are strong indications that this tomb is linked to Tut's, with elements relating to the cult of Aten and Amon," Otto Schaden said.

Aten was the sun god, considered a creator of the universe in ancient Egyptian mythology, whose worship was the basis of the religion instituted by Akhenaten, thought to be Tut's father.

Hawass was more assertive. "I can rule out that this is linked to (Tut's) widow" Ankhesenamun, he said. "But why not to his mother, who could be Nefertiti?"

The identity of Tut's mother remains more mysterious than his father's, with some theories identifying her as Nefertiti and others as Kiya, a foreign princess, or even his wet nurse Maya.

Tut, the boy king who died at the age 18, rejected his father's "heretical" monotheistic religion and returned to the traditional worship of many gods.

"Now Shaden and his team have to carefully study, maybe after taking the resin out of the last coffin they will be able to read some of the letters, because there are no complete words, and get accurate information to prove who was the owner of the tomb," Hawass explained.

The archaeologists have a collection of pieces of linen, flowers, 28 earthenware urns and other objects to analyse before they can break the secret of KV63.

"Many tombs were opened in the past, hundred of mummies were found but now, opening that coffin, we found for the fist time a kind of material that they used after mummification like large very decorative necklaces and flowers," Hawass said.

Schaden explained that clues would probably have to come from the coffins themselves as the tomb appeared to have been looted some 1,300 before Christ and the caskets were most likely moved around from one location to another.