THAT ANCIENT EGYPTIAN "TOMB" discovered recently may not be a tomb, but it's not clear what exactly it is. MSNBC has a long, informative article that interviews the expedition head, Otto Schaden:

Mysteries still surround Egyptian chamber
Is it a tomb? A supply room? Ancient coffins may tell a complex tale

By Alan Boyle
Science editor
MSNBC
Updated: 6:41 p.m. ET May 26, 2006

Is it a royal Egyptian tomb, a glorified supply room for ancient embalmers, or something in between? A year after the discovery of a chamber that had lain hidden in the Valley of the Kings for millennia, archaeologists are still asking themselves exactly what they've found.

When the find was announced in February, it was portrayed as the first tomb to be uncovered in the pharaonic city of the dead since the discovery of King Tutankhamun's treasures in 1922. But a month later, top Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said the chamber was merely a "room for mummification" rather than a royal resting place.

Now it looks as if neither of those claims was true. One scenario is that the chamber, known as KV-63, was originally created as a tomb, then ended up as a cache for sacred supplies. However, the head of the KV-63 expedition is still holding out the possibility that at least one mummy will be found among the chamber's seven coffins.

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(Via Archaeologica News.)