Baskets, pots found abandoned in Tutankhamun tomb

CAIRO, Sep 24 (Reuters) Egyptian archaeologists working in the tomb of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun have found baskets and intact clay pots apparently overlooked when the tomb was cleared out in the 1920s, the government said today.

The 20 clay pots, sealed with Tutankhamun's name, probably contain seeds and the remains of drinks, a government statement said, quoting chief government archaeologist Zahi Hawass.

One of the baskets contains dried fruit and eight others hold almost 60 small limestone plaques also inscribed with Tutankhamun's name in the traditional cartouche format.

They were found in the treasure room next to the burial chamber where British archaeologist Howard Carter found Tutankhamun's mummy wrapped in its golden covers in 1922.

''Carter didn't mention these things in his report but it looks as though his people put them aside and left them in the treasury room,'' an official at the Supreme Council for Antiquities said, asking not to be named.

Tutankhamun ruled Egypt between about 1361 and 1352 BC. He was buried along with many other pharaohs of the period in the Valley of the Kings near the modern town of Luxor.

REUTERS JK RN1736