What
mysteries might still be hidden under Egypt's pyramids? A team accompanied by
Egypt's former antiquities minister and famed archaeologist Zahi Hawass are
testing a new scanner on the Great Pyramid of Giza on Thursday, hoping that
modern technology could help unlock ancient secrets buried deep beneath the
stone.
The
scanner, which uses subatomic particles known as muons to examine the 4,500
year-old burial structure, was first set up at the site last year and will
complete its data collection this month.
"It's
running right now, and if it manages to detect one of the three chambers we
already know exist inside, then we will continue the scans," Hawass said. He has
been appointed by the Antiquities Ministry to head the team that will review the
scan results.
Late last
year, thermal scanning identified a major anomaly in the pyramid — three
adjacent stones at its base which registered higher temperatures than
others.
Hawass has
in the past downplayed the usefulness of scans on ancient sites, saying that
they have never found anything important. He has clashed publicly with British
Egyptologist Nicolas Reeves, whose theory that secret burial chambers could be
hidden behind the walls of King Tutankhamun's tomb was both prompted and
reinforced by scanning.
For more
than a decade Hawass was a celebrity starring in TV documentaries, eventually
ruling the Antiquities Ministry like a pharaoh. He was dismissed from the post
after Egypt's 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and
faced corruption charges, of which he was later cleared.
But back
in the field following his new appointment, Hawass seemed more reluctant to
criticize scanning technologies. He said they could be useful if directed by the
right hands — such as his own.
"You need
Egyptologists to oversee all this, otherwise mistakes can be made," he said. "I
hope these scans will help us obtain accurate information," he said, adding that
he believed another burial chamber remains undiscovered inside.
Debate
over possible new discoveries in Egyptology echo far outside the country, most
recently over a contested theory that King Tutankhamun's tomb contains
additional antechambers.
Last
month, researchers led by Daniela Comelli of the Polytechnic University of Milan
published a paper on a rare iron dagger found inside the boy king's sarcophagus.
Using a new form of portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, the team said that
the dagger, dating to the Bronze Age, was most likely made using iron from a
meteorite.
(see links below)
By Ahmed Hatem
With many thanks to ABC
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