ARCHAEOLOGIST NICHOLAS REEVES is best known for his excavations in, and writings on, Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Here, in the winter of 2000, a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey carried out by his Amarna Royal Tombs Project (ARTP) first encountered the undisturbed funerary chamber KV63, subsequently cleared by the University of Memphis and Otto Schaden. Other intriguing GPR anomalies revealed during ARTP's central Valley survey are currently being investigated on the ground by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities under Zahi Hawass, and include a second potential tomb tentatively labelled 'KV64'. A specialist in Egyptian history and material culture, Nicholas Reeves graduated with first class honours in Ancient History from University College London in 1979 and received his PhD in Egyptology from Durham University in 1984. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1994 and an Honorary Fellow of the Oriental Museum, Durham University in 1996. Since 1984 Reeves has been active in various museum and heritage roles - as Curator in the former Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum, as Curator to the seventh Earl of Carnarvon at Highclere Castle, as Curatorial Consultant on Egyptian antiquities to the Freud Museum, London, as Director of Collections for The Denys Eyre Bower Bequest at Chiddingstone Castle, and as GAD Tait Curator of Egyptian and Classical Art at Eton College. A pioneer in the field of collection mapping, in 1987 he initiated the British Museum's detailed Survey of Egyptian Collections in the UK - as now developed an important component of Cornucopia, the online database of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). Nicholas Reeves has published extensively on a range of subjects, lectured widely to both academic and popular audiences, and over the years arranged a number of highly acclaimed conferences and exhibitions in London, New York, Tokyo and elsewhere. The present site - very much a work in progress - is intended in due course to document fully his efforts in these and other areas of Egyptology and the broader historical field. [At right: to hold rotating panel hover cursor over image]
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ARTP RADAR SURVEY
OF THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS
by Hirokatsu Watanabe,
Masanori Ito and Nicholas
ReevesMORE TOMBS STILL TO COME?
[Click here]
"With the uncovering of KV63
in 2005 ... it was evident
that further intensive efforts in
the Valley of the Kings were a
foregone conclusion.
The hope we expressed in 2006,
and reiterate now, is that access
to ARTP's GPR data will at least
permit excavators to focus their
efforts, rather than dig
wholesale through what little is
left of the site's unique
stratigraphic record"
AKHENATEN - EGYPT'S
FALSE PROPHET
by Nicholas Reeves[Click here]"... a racy, irresistible detective
story full of hidden clues (and
bodies), magic geometry and
ruthlessness masked as
mysticism" - New York Times
"... a masterful piece of research"
- Helium
"... Reeves leads the reader
adeptly through archaeological
finds and the latest research on
the Amarna period … entertaining
and informative" - The Times Higher Educational Supplement
"... A tremendous read … brings
factional division in ancient Egypt
vividly to life" - Birmingham Post
"... Reeves's proposals ... greatly
clarify the historical picture and
make this work an important
contribution" - Review of Biblical Literature
OBSERVATIONS ON A MODEL
ROYAL SARCOPHAGUS IN THE
BRITISH MUSEUM
by Nicholas Reeves[Click here]"... the fragmentary object British Museum EA 36279 may be identified as a model of a royal sarcophagus of the 19th or 20th Dynasty. It is proposed that this model was employed in the rite of "Presenting the House to its Lord", hitherto attested in the archaeological record only for temple foundations. It is further suggested that the representations employed in this ritual could be two- as well as three-dimensional. This would permit a new interpretation of a number of two- dimensional "architectural" drawings, including the plan of the tomb of Ramesses IV preserved on a papyrus in Turin"
AUS DER WUNDERKAMMER
CHIDDINGSTONE CASTLE -
PHARAONEN, BUDDHAS,
SAMURAI
by Erica Nunn and
Nicholas Reeves
[Click here]
Catalogue of a loan exhibition
of ancient and oriental art from
the little-known Denys Eyre
Bower Bequest, Chiddingstone
Castle, to the Roemer- und
Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim,
28 January-22 May 2005
LEFT-HANDED KINGS?
OBSERVATIONS ON A
FRAGMENTARY EGYPTIAN
SCULPTURE
by Nicholas Reeves
[Click here]
"That left-handedness must,
as a statistical fact, have
manifested itself in the
Egyptian royal persona on
several occasions over three
millennia of pharaonic rule is
clear; yet owing, no doubt, to
its negative connotations, no
more than one explicit
representation of a left-
handed king has so far been
encountered ...
A similar, if more discreet,
indication of the left-
handedness of a kingly
subject ... is perhaps to be
recognised in the right-over-
left fold of the royal kilt ..."
ANOTHER NEW TOMB IN THE
VALLEY OF THE KINGS?
The Mark Rose interview with
Nicholas Reeves[Click here]"Archaeology in the Valley of
the Kings is in many ways at a
crossroads.
The perceived lack of potential
which since Tutankhamun had
kept it safe is now gone for
good.
Do we forge ahead as in the old
days, ripping through the ground,
blinded to context like Loret,
Davis, Carnarvon by the
prospect of more tombs and the
glint of gold?
Or do we stop and reassess -
formulate a systematic program
of work; establish and publish a
formal protocol for excavators
on how to deal with what might
turn up?
I think the answer is obvious" © Archaeological Institute of America 2006
ON SOME QUEENS' TOMBS OF
THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY
by Nicholas Reeves
[Click here]
" ... a relatively clear picture
has hopefully emerged - that a
single-columned burial chamber
was a characteristic feature of
certain queenly tombs during
the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Furthermore, if the side rooms
positioned to either side of the
burial chamber of Horemheb’s
sepulchre (KV57) had been
extended for the same reason
as those in Amenophis III’s
tomb - for queens' burials -
then the absence of the single
column in these later suites may
indicate that it was a feature
which did not survive the
Dynasty's close"
SAMURAI AT THE SPHINX,
1864
by Nicholas Reeves[Click here]" ... In 1864, en route to Paris, the [Japanese] Ikeda mission visited Egypt. The stay was memorialised in one of nineteenth-century photography's most extraordinary images - the embassy's members, dressed in winged kamishimo costume and jingasa hats, carrying their feared long (katana) and short (wakizashi) swords, standing before the Giza Sphinx. The photograph was taken by Antonio Beato (c. 1825- 1903), brother of the photographer Felice Beato"
THE COMPLETE VALLEY
OF THE KINGS
by Nicholas Reeves and
Richard H Wilkinson[Click here]"For all those interested in the burial practices in New Kingdom Egypt, this should be the first book to consult" - Journal of the American Oriental Society
"Packed with astonishing
illustrations ... the perfect
guide for armchair travellers
and those who actually make
it to this vast Egyptian
necropolis ... "- The Independent
A NEWLY DISCOVERED
ROYAL DIADEM OF THE
SECOND INTERMEDIATE
PERIOD
by Nicholas Reeves
[Click here]
"Among the best-known
Egyptian treasures of the
Rijksmuseum van
Oudheden in Leiden is an
inlaid diadem of silver and
gold, ... associated, by
tradition, with the
Dra Abu’l-Naga
burial of King
Nubkheperre Intef of
the 17th Dynasty
(c. 1650-1550 BC).
An early and important find
from the pioneering days
of Egyptology, the Leiden
crown was for long
considered unique.
Now - and quite
unexpectedly - a second
diadem of similar type has
come to light ..."
NEFERTITI - EGYPT'S
MYSTERIOUS QUEEN
A Discovery Channel film
[Click here]
"More than 3,000 years ago,
Pharaoh Akhenaten notoriously
transformed Egypt during what
was known as the Amarna
period. Tutankhamun was his
son and Nefertiti was his "most
beloved wife."
But after his death, a mysterious
Pharaoh became his successor.
Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves
takes us on a journey through
Ancient Egypt and believes that
Nefertiti was this mysterious
Pharaoh. Her name is linked to
great beauty, but Nefertiti played
a much more significant role in
ancient Egypt than has been
previously believed ..."
THE PARTHENON IN RUINS
by Nicholas Reeves and
Dyfri Williams[Click here]"At about 7 o'clock on the evening of 26 September 1687 a mortar bomb fired from a Venetian battery besieging the Acropolis of Athens struck the gunpowder stored inside the Parthenon. The powder ignited and the centre of the building blew up ... The resulting fire raged for a further two days, and the great temple of Athena Parthenos, the Parthenon, was reduced to a ruin. A recent discovery in the Myers Museum at Eton College has brought to light an evocative testimony to this terrible event: a fragment of a Venetian mortar bomb ... [It is] the bomb that blew up the Parthenon"
NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT
EGYPTIAN PROSTHETIC
MEDICINE
by Nicholas Reeves
[Click here]
"In 1881, the British Museum
acquired by purchase from
one of its principal 'scouts',
the Rev. Greville Chester, ...
a 'Leather artificial toe for the
right foot, nail wanting, from a
mummy ...'
Chester’s curious find ... was
far more than a simple
cosmetic restoration applied
by the embalmer to make the
body whole for the hereafter;
it is, as we shall consider, an
artificial limb employed during
life. As such, it represents
one of the earliest
working prostheses to have
been identified from the
ancient world"
THE COLOSSAL STATUE OF
MYCERINUS RECONSIDERED
by Peter Lacovara and
Nicholas Reeves
[Click here]
"... An explanation which
perhaps fits the facts more
closely is that the curious
proportions of the Boston
statue were the result not
of accident but of a
deliberate alteration in the
iconographic composition
of the piece ...
It is the conviction of the
present writers that, as
initially blocked out, the
colossus was intended to
be represented wearing
not the nms but a narrow,
upright crown - probably
the HDt (white crown) ..."
TWO NAME-BEADS OF
HATSHEPSUT AND SENENMUT
FROM THE MORTUARY TEMPLE
OF QUEEN HATSHEPSUT AT
DEIR EL-BAHRI
by Nicholas Reeves
[Click here]
"The main interest of these
beads lies in their material,
which for many years has
been misrepresented as
"crystal". Close examination
reveals that this is, in fact, an
artificial imitation of the natural
stone: a clear, colourless,
soda-lime-silica glass ...
Hitherto, the earliest closely
dated specimens of colourless
glass to have been published
were a number of small inlays
from objects found in the tomb
of Tutankhamun ... The present
beads ... push back the
appearance of colourless
glass in Egypt by more than a
century"
THE COMPLETE
TUTANKHAMUN
by Nicholas Reeves
[Click here]
"A brilliantly presented book
- with over 500 illustrations,
maps, diagrams and
magnificent colour
photographs"- The Good Book Guide
AN AMARNA-PERIOD
OSTRACON FROM THE
VALLEY OF THE KINGS
by Nicholas Reeves[Click here]"... the recent discovery of an Amarna-style ostracon ... in undisturbed layers not far distant from the burial of Tutankhamun and tomb KV 55 is an interesting development - the first clear evidence yet encountered of significant late 18th-Dynasty activity on ARTP's site. Whether this activity is to be associated with the establishment of one or other of the 'missing' Amarna reburials ... remains to be determined"
ARTP DISCOVERS
A NEW QUEEN
by Nicholas Reeves[Click here]"It’s not everyday that Egyptologists are able to add a new member of the royal family to the history books[: the] ‘King’s wife, lady of the Two Lands, Taiay, may she live!’. Who was this mysterious royal lady? And why were her name and titles written on an ostracon in the Valley of the Kings? ... There are two possibilities: that Taiay was buried in a tomb whose decoration is now damaged at the crucial point; or - more dramatically - that the lady’s burial is still waiting to be found ..."
AN UNPUBLISHED ROYAL
SHABTI OF THE 26TH DYNASTY
by Nicholas Reeves[Click here]"Included among the unillustrated lots of the MacGregor collection of Egyptian antiquities, offered for sale by the London auctioneers Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge in 1922, was a rare, 26th Dynasty faience shabti of 'The King, Uah-ab-ra' ... This important shabti, lost to sight for more than seventy years, has recently reemerged from the obscurity of an English private collection. It is here fully illustrated for the first time, and its attribution reassessed ..."
TWO ARCHITECTURAL
DRAWINGS FROM THE
VALLEY OF THE KINGS
by Nicholas Reeves[Click here]"The two ostraca here discussed were found in the course of excavations sponsored by Theodore M Davis in the Valley of the Kings during the season 1905/6. Although both have been known for many years, their true significance seems to have been overlooked. The identification of both as sketch plans of elements from two royal tombs - those of Ramesses IV (KV2) and (probably) Sethos II (KV15) - effectively doubles the total number of such plans that are at present known"
TUTANKHAMUN AND
HIS PAPYRI
by Nicholas Reeves[Click here]"The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV 62) in November 1922 ... raised ... the prospect of a rich harvest of papyri ... Apart from a single, badly decayed 'ritual' recovered from the mummy itself, however, no papyri were found ... One possibility which might be examined is that Carter and his contemporaries had simply misdirected their search ..."
THE SAILMAKERS'
BAZAAR
by Howard Carter
Signed and dated 1906
Formerly the property
of the English architect
and archaeologist
Somers Clarke
(1841-1926)
(now British Museum)
NOTES ON AN
INSCRIBED MEASURE OF
TUTHMOSIS III
by Nicholas Reeves[Click here]"... Although orthography and palaeography are often inadequate criteria by which to judge the authenticity of an inscription of this sort, the peculiarities which this text displays are nevertheless sufficiently numerous to arouse serious misgivings - the more so in that they are paralleled all too closely in the spurious inscriptions found upon a series of gold vessels from the 'Treasure of Three Princesses' ..."
MADRID:
AZULES EGIPCIOS,
PEQUENOS TESOROS
DEL ARTE
by Macu Cores[Click here]Video record of a much- praised loan exhibition from the Myers Museum, Eton College, hosted by the Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid, 25 February-22 May 2005
IN MEMORIAM
Arthur Raymond Reeves
Father, photographer, friend
19 Nov 1927-8 Feb 2009
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