Exploration of the Valley of the Kings Period tombs in the main valley. Various expeditions have continued to explore the valley, adding greatly to the knowledge of the area. In 2001 the Theban Mapping Project designed new signs for the tombs, providing information and plans of the open tombs. On February 8, 2006, the Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that an American team led by the University of Memphis had uncovered a pharaonic-era tomb (KV63), the first uncovered there since King Tutankhamun's in 1922. The 18th Dynasty tomb included five intact sarcophagi with coloured funerary masks along with 28 large storage jars, sealed with pharaonic seals. It
The Jewel of Seven Stars an attempt to eradicate any hints of an unconventional, female ruler, "best erased to prevent the possibility of another powerful female ever inserting herself into the long line of Egyptian male kings". The tomb of Queen Hatshepsut was discovered by Howard Carter early in 1903, the same year as the publication of "The Jewel of Seven Stars", in the Valley of the Kings—similar to the Valley of the Sorcerer, where Tera is found in the novel. The similarities between the two, Hebblethwaite states, are "almost too overt to be mere coincidence"; both are extremely powerful female rulers who take on