Are we so much better nowadays that we can allow us to alter the state of the tomb without significantly destroying it?
Archeology eventually invented itself and practitioners got more careful as time went on, but then seeing photos embedded into the article of opening coffins on site ...
Perhaps. It didn't take long.
A king of Babylon in the 6th century BC was already sponsoring archaeological research into his legendary predecessor Sargon the Great.
Basic physical security should not be an unreasonable cost burden when there is so much national economic and social interest in preserving Egyptian history.
Maybe it lacks dignity in that it's not what the ancient Egyptians would've preferred for us to do with their remains - but I think it's fair to set some statute of limitations on that kind of thing.
The story I learned while doing deep background for my own trip to Egypt is that "in antiquity" means roughly the next period, usually between dynasties, when religious respect for the centralized royalty passed through lows. So for Egypt, that could be even 4000 years ago.
I found this astounding at the time. Egypt has a way of expanding a person's sense of time. I am learning China is sort of the same thing.
A curious position. I use provocative words, not to antagonise but in a probably vain attempt to inspire:
Why does the dust your body becomes deserve any special treatment? Was the dust that became the food that some day became you as precious?
It is not the dust that gives your life meaning but the glances, the words and the hope you will have given; to people, to ideas, and even to yourself.
The wonder of existence is not in the constituent; it is in the arrangement.
500 years ago they would have been looted by whoever found them. At least now it follows some kind of process.
We’re still not perfect of course, but modern archaeology is extraordinarily careful and meticulous. If we wait for perfect procedures we may be waiting forever.
I don't trust modern society to store these artifacts for more than a few hundred years without losing them to war, theft, modification, infrastructure issues, or whatever. The modern world is relatively unpredictable and chaotic compared to the past, in my mortal opinion.
That said, it's nice to have some of these out of the ground, for us still living. But pulling up everything we find feels like science-sponsored grave robbing to stock our treasury of knowledge, which is valuable but not holy.
You can see many other sites that specifically allocate the majority of dig work to the future on the premise that our future technology will better be able to process and preserve our findings.
I suspect that tombs in particular are large tourism draws, or can yield attractive museum exhibits.