http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090310/ap_on_sc/ml_egypt_antiquities
Interesting. They look like some of the rings from the Hissarlik and Troy.
And the fact that the tomb had been looted but these items seemed to have been over looked.I have heard it claimed that it is thought that as much of 70% of Egyptian sites are still unexplored.With as many spectacular finds as we have, it is hard to imagine that much more left to be found.
When you have hundreds of miles of expansive desert, I'm surprised they don't stumble on new antiquities more often. I don't know if they're digging in new areas they haven't in the past, or what, but there's been a slew of finds in Egypt just in the past year or so.
It's amazing to think, when you look at the size of what the old Egyptian empire controlled. I'm sure there are tons of places out there. With wind storms and everything out there. I can only imaging what is still buried under all that sand. We are making discoveries about our planet all the time now, with the new satellite imagery they've taken.
Vexed Viscount and I visited Egypt years ago and explored many of these sites. At Queen Hatshepsut's palace (for lack of a better word) you could still clearly see the paintings on the walls. The colors were faded, but still visible.
We stood as close to the spynx as was allowed at the time and looked at pictures from history to see how the sands have shifted and changed the landscape. It's really quite amazing that they find anything out there!
King Tut's tomb was in fact a surprise find in the Valley of the Kings. The tombs are scattered and hidden all thrughout the valley. IIRC they were actually expecting a lesser noble. Since his death was young, and unexpected, his tomb was not properly finished to match his standing.
During our visit the Cairo museum had the entire Tut collection home for the first time is some 30 years. Pieces were often on loan to other museums around the world. It was exilierating, to say the least, to stand next to these priceless treasures of history.
We went down inside one of the great pyramids and the power went out (very exciting), took a boat ride down the Nile, made papyrus. Amazing.
You mentioned that Tut's collection was back home and all together when you visited. I was fortunate enough to see a traveling display of much of it back in the 70's while it was on display at the Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Seems I have read something about them bringing out the traveling display again this year to the U.S., though I am unsure if it is to be as extensive as the traveling display was in the past.