Pacific Northwest Chapter of The Explorers Club

FLAG #71

Pacific Lutheran University Valley of the Kings Project

2006 Field Season.

Luxor, Egypt  (25.41N / 32.38E)

Personnel:
Dr. Donald P. Ryan (FN 87),
Dr. Salima Ikram (FI),
Dr. Lawrence Berman,
Dr. Paul Buck,
Dr. Barbara Aston,
Mr. Mohammed Khalil,
Mr. Denis Whitfill.

The Pacific Lutheran University Valley of the Kings Project has been investigating, documenting and conserving a series of tombs in the Valley, virtually ignored by Egyptologists because they lack decoration
and inscriptions. The very fact that these tombs exist among the great New Kingdom royal burials indicates that they belonged to very important people indeed!

Beginning with our first field season in 1989 and with the kind permission of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization (now the Supreme Council of Antiquities), the Project has addressed a series of six tombs located behind the prominent hill in the Valley. (The tombs are designated by "Kings Valley" numbers: KV 21, 27, 28, 44, 45 and 60)  All of these tombs date to the 18th Dynasty (c.1550-1295 B.C.) although at least two were later reused in the 22nd (c.945-715 B.C.).  Field seasons were conducted in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 2005, plus the current expedition.

During the month of November 2006, our team concentrated on excavating tomb KV 27.  The tomb consists of a shaft which leads to four rooms carved into the limestone bedrock.  All of the rooms had suffered greatly from several large ancient flood events that had deposited a good detail ofdebris within; in some places, nearly to the ceiling.  We were able tocarefully excavate two of the larger chambers in which we found a huge quantity of broken pots, mostly dating to the mid-18th Dynasty (c. 1400B.C.).  We also found the partial skeletal remains of what was once amummy, presumably that of the tomb's owner.  Very few objects
with legibleinscriptions were recovered, the exception being two fragments of acanopic jar bearing the name of a deceased individual, "Userhet".Apart from excavating, we also installed a protective door on KV 27,
enhanced flood diversion walls around its shaft, and built a smallstructure above its entrance to direct water away from the shaft.

Twosmall rooms remain left to excavate in the tomb and they will have toawait a future field season.  As with previous field seasons, the Egyptian government officials were professional and helpful, and we enjoyed the company of fellow foreign expeditions working in the Luxor area from theU.S., Italy, France, Germany and elsewhere.  Carrying the Explorers Club Flag was, again a delight and we look forward to its company on
future expeditions.

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John Harlan is featured in the new Imax Film The Alps. You can see the film at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle or at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland.

Watch the trailer here first.

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Leader of the 1973 Mt. Kenya Ecosystem Expedition with the University of Calif.
I led a group of fifteen biologists up Mt. Kenya, East Africa on a six-week, ecosystem research project of African flora and fauna.
 
 
Cartographer-1974 Columbia University’s Peru Pre-Inca Archaeological Expedition
I was the map maker for a pre-Inca archaeological expedition which turned out to be a very important site revealing much unknown data about Pre-Inca life.
 
 
1975 habitat study of reptiles in the Amazon Basin with the University of Calif.
I spent a week in the Amazon Jungle with a reptologist studying lizards and the flora of the basin.
 
 
1976 Ecosystem Study of the Galapagos Islands with the University of Calif.
I spent two weeks studying the flora and fauna of the fragile ecosystems of fifteen islands of the Galapagos five hundred miles off the Ecuadorian Coast.
 
 
1977 Leader of the First Ascent of the West Ridge of Mt. Foraker, Alaska (17,420’)
I led a four-man, forty-seven day expedition up unclimbed west ridge of Mt. Foraker.  This involved over 15,000 feet of extreme ice climbing and extended exposure to altitude. It was a success.
 
 
1977 Program Director for the Outdoor Program at the Evergreen State College in Washington State
This involved organizing Outward Bound patterned programs in the fields of climbing (ice and rock)/skiing/white water rafting and mountain related natural sciences.
 

Keep reading about Murrays experiences.

1978 Field Research with the American Avalanche Institute in Jackson Hole, WY.
I participated in the AAI school as a student and then worked with them in continued research in snow crystalography and snow physics.
 
 
I went through the entire National Leadership School program including their extensive Instructor Program and worked for them as a full instructor for two years.  I worked at the Pacific Crest Outward Bound School as a instructor for several years and then worked for a year as their Marketing Director.
 
2007- Experimental Research on the use of Thermography to locate heat signatures from caves for NASA

Thermal differences between cave entrances and the surrounding landscape have long been known.  Cavers traditionally  ridge walked in cave-likely temperate regions in cold mid-winter with a falling barometer in order to visually detect ‘fog-plumes’ of escaping subterranean air from crevices and unknown earth openings in order to locate caves. We are experimenting with  a high-technology solution to this cave detection method by applying infrared thermography, a useful tool in  fire detection,  human body location and other building examination remote sensing to the surface of the earth. Early trials during the spring of 2005 with a Therma CAMTM B20 HSV infrared camera,  even under foilage-filled and warm atmospheric conditions, have resulted in promising results in New Mexico, Missouri and Virginia. This work is in the experimental stages. The evidence of its success is presented in the matched infrared/visual images.

 
1978- Present,  Management Analyst in Portland, OR for Hollander Consultants; an educational consulting firm.

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Here are links to the email newsletters:

• March 28, 2007
  
• March 5, 2006 

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Ed Sobey, Ph.D., has directed several science museums, was the founding director of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and founder of the National Toy Hall of Fame.  Formerly a research scientist specializing in polar oceanography, Ed conducted research in Antarctica, Alaska, and throughout the Pacific Ocean.  He now operates the Northwest Invention Center in Redmond, Washington.  He has published 16 books, including Locomotion, a guide for teachers on hands-on science projects; and has hosted the television show, The Idea Factory.  Elected to The Explorers Club as a Fellow, Ed chairs the Pacific Northwest Chapter.  He runs marathons and triathlons; and enjoys ocean kayaking and SCUBA diving.

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Pacific Northwest Chapter Members :

2007 is here and dues to fund mailings, this website and events are still only $25 dollars. If you have not paid you can mail a check in to Ed Sobey, Chapter Chair:

Northwest Chapter EC
2420 18th Avenue NE
Redomond, WA 98052

We are now also offering another option you may pay your dues online using paypal.  There is a $5 surcharge for fees associated with paypal for a total of $30.... but think the time that you will save in addressing that envelope, and you pay right now, just select the button below 

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