Nicholas Reeves’ controversial theory that Nefertiti is buried in a hidden room within Tutankhamun’s tomb is in the news again, as Reeves claims to have found further evidence in the ‘opening of the mouth’ scene on the north wall of KV62.
The scene shows Ay as pharaoh performing the ritual on the Osiride mummy of Tutankhamun, but Reeves has discovered traces of what he believes are Tutankhamun’s cartouches underneath those of Ay.
This suggests that the scene originally depicted Tutankhamun burying Nefertiti and was later overpainted to show Ay burying Tutankhamun. Reeves also argues that the facial features of the figure labelled as Ay precisely follow the standardised facial outline of Tutankhamun at the beginning of his reign, while the face of the Osiris-form mummy has the features of Nefertiti.
There is as yet no conclusive evidence for the presence of a hidden door leading to an undiscovered room in the tomb.
