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
Minor tombs in the Valley of the Kings had been intended to contain a human burial or not: KV50 contained fragmentary remains of a wooden coffin and KV52 an empty canopic chest. KV51 contained material which was dated to the Eighteenth dynasty, a dating which is ascribed to all three of these closely related tombs. It has also been suggested (although there is no real evidence to support this theory) that the animals interred here were a king's pets and that, given the proximity of his tomb (KV35), this king might have been Amenhotep II. KV53 is located north of KV29. It was discovered by Ayrton in 1905