Leading up to 1922, Egyptologists had discovered 62 tombs in West Thebes in a section they called the Valley of the Kings. All the tombs were empty. Although they were well hidden, the tombs had been robbed, most likely in ancient times. Egyptian writings describe harsh punishments handed out to thieves who were caught. When ancient Greek writer Diodorus Siculus visited the tombs in 60 BCE, he wrote, “We found nothing there except the results of pillage and destruction.” In 1922, after eight years of digging through the Valley of the Kings, Howard Carter struck gold, both figuratively and literally. The tomb he and his team unearthed showed an
1. abundance of treasures that had been preserved for centuries
2. extraordinary amount of damage from thieves
3. evidence of rituals used in ancient burials
4. collection of writings from ancient historians