Curious Dragonfly Monthly Science Newsletter

King Tut - UPDATE! In our April newsletter on Egypt's most famous pharaoh, we discussed a July 2015 claim by British archeologist Nicholas Reeves. Reeves, a scholar at the Univer- sity of Arizona's School of Anthropology and Senior Egyptologist with the Univer- sity's Egyptian expedition, claimed to have discovered the outlines of two doors in Tut's tomb that had been covered in plaster.

Infrared thermography scans conducted in November 2015 showed a temperature change behind the door. This all but confirmed the existence of hollow spaces behind in the tomb, leading many to suspect that the long-lost burial place of Queen Nefertiti had finally been found.

TUT, TUT! NOT SO FAST!

Tut's tomb.

However, further radar scans conducted in May 2016 by a National Geographic team disproved Reeves's claim of a secret tomb within a tomb. Dean Goodman, a geophysicist at GPR-Slice software stated, "If we had a void, we should have a strong reflection. But it just doesn't exist." The comments and findings have not been officially released, but close sources concur that the scans did not find a hidden chamber.

November 2015 radar scan of the west wall of Tut's

tomb. The scan was conducted by Japanese

radar technician Hirokatsu Watanabe.

FINDINGS IN QUESTION?Despite the findings by the National Geographic team, Egypt's antiquities ministry refuses to believe the matteris resolved. They intend to continue the search, stating that additional radar and remote-sensing techniques will be used in the next stages of the search. At a recent conference on King Tutankhamen, both Reeves and Hirokatsu Watanabe - the radar technician in charge of Reeves November 2015 scans - were allowed to present their research and findings. The team from National Geographic, however, was not.

So where does that leave Queen Nefertiti? The location of the long-lost queen's remains is still unknown. When the queen was wed to contentious pharaoh Akhenaten, a religious revolution was started. Akhenaten also built a city in a site now called Amarna. Many archeol-ogists believe Nefertiti was buried in one of the tombs in Amarna. After Akhenaten's death, the tombs were plundered.

If Queen Nefertiti's remains survived the plunder, there is a possibility they were interred in the Valley of the Kings, hence the possibility of their existence in King Tut's tomb.

The most famous image of Queen Nefertiti remains a sculpture excavated from the workshop of an Egyptian royal sculptor named Thutmose in Amarna.

WHERE IS NEFERTITI?

Iron meteorite containing 10% nickel and less than 1% cobalt, like the one

used to make Tut's dagger.

Among the items found in King Tut's tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 were two daggers. One was made of gold, the other iron. Early examinations of the iron blade, done in both the 1970s and the 1990s, tried to prove the blade was from a meterorite. The results were inconclusive.

A WEAPON FROM OUTER SPACE!

The bust of Nefertiti, discovered in December 1913.

Recently, researchers from Italy and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo led a new study. Using x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, they compared the iron in Tut's blade with 11 meteorites that fell within 1250 miles of the site. Made of mostly iron, plus nickel and cobalt, the blade matched closely with a meteorite discovered in 2000. They concluded that Ancient Egyptians, who attributed great value to meteoric iron, used it in the production of fineornamental or ceremonial objects.

Two blades discovered in Tut's wrappings.

NEXT MONTH!

Our regular Curious Dragonfly Science News-letter will return in July, where we'll take a more in-depth look at the science behind tornadoes. How do they form? And howdo meteorologists use Doppler radar todetect them?

In 2015 alone, there were over 1100confirmed tornadoes. It was the firstyear since 2011 in which the numberof twisters was either average orabove average.

More on this in July!

Curious Dragonfly LLCTrina Terrellwww.curiousdragonfly.com303.903.5319