Ancient Egyptian tomb held royal sons.

Ramses II, one of ancient Egypt's most powerful rulers, continues to wield his influence from beneath the desert sands he once trod. An archaeological team announced last week its discovery of the largest and most complex tomb known in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Ramses II (or Ramesses II, according to some researchers) apparently built this sprawling set of at least 67 chambers as a mausoleum for many of his 52 sons.

Further excavation and study of the massive burial site will shed light on the chronology, artwork, and royal family life during a critical period in Egypt's history, the 67 years from 1279 B.C. to 1212 B.C. when Ramses II was pharaoh. Ramses II is traditionally thought to have reigned at the time of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt.

"We've found a new type of tomb from ancient Egypt, a family mausoleum," Kent R. Weeks told Science News. "This is the first major discovery in the Valley of the Kings since 1922, when Tutankhamen's tomb was found." Weeks, an archaeologist at the American University in Cairo, directs the ongoing excavation.

Nearly all pharaohs from 1550 B.C. to 1070 B.C. were buried in the Valley of the Kings, located about 300 miles south of Cairo on the western side of the Nile River.

An English traveler first exposed the entry area to the new find in 1820, after digging through flood debris that clogged the passage. English archaeologist Howard Carter reopened the tomb about 100 years later but soon abandoned the site and heaped dirt from the excavation of Tut's tomb on top of it.

Weeks' team knew from a previously found piece of ancient papyrus scroll that a captured thief had tried in 1150 B.C. to rob the tomb of Ramses II and an adjacent burial, which they assumed was the site covered over by Carter.

They established the location of the tomb's entrance in 1988 and have conducted annual fieldwork since then. Last February, Weeks and his coworkers finished clearing debris from the entry area and two chambers just beyond it. Beyond the back door of the second chamber lay dozens of rooms along three corridors arrayed in a T shape.

Stairs and sloping passages at the end of two corridors apparently lead to rooms on a lower level, probably the actual burial chambers, Weeks says.

The team has identified the names of four sons of Ramses II, including his first-born son, on walls or artifacts in the tomb. Objects found so far include pottery, inscribed stone vessels, pieces of wooden furniture, statue and stone-coffin fragments, offerings of cooked meats, and pieces of mummified human bodies.

Rooms on the mausoleum's upper level may have served as chapels where priests performed rituals for the dead, Weeks says. More than a dozen walls in these chambers display painted scenes of Ramses II presenting various of his sons to Egyptian gods and goddesses, accompanied by written descriptions of the scene and religious texts.

Burials probably occurred on the lower, still unexplored level, Weeks asserts. Ancient grave robbers probably dragged bodies out of the tomb, he says, and left behind the mummified pieces found on the upper level.

Investigators assume that as many as 50 of Ramses II's sons were buried in the tomb; separate graves for two of his sons have already been found.

The date of the mausoleum's construction remains unknown, although Weeks suspects it occurred late in Ramses II's reign. Curiously, artistic styles in the tomb resemble those from his early years of power, Weeks says.

Researchers have noted that Ramses II mentioned his more than 100 children in numerous pieces of art and inscriptions. Other pharaohs left records mainly of their first-born sons and built much smaller tombs than the one authorized by Ramses II.

"Ramses II was a unique Egyptian king in that he had so many sons and daughters and was so devoted to them," says Abdel Halim Nour ed-Din, head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities in Cairo. "But the size of this new tomb still surprises me."

Work at the site will resume in July. Further excavations may take 6 years or more, Weeks says. "This tomb is so weird, all bets are off on what or who we'll end up finding," he remarks.