KV55
Encyclopedia
KV55 is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings
in Egypt
. It was discovered by Edward R. Ayrton
in 1907 while he was working in the Valley for Theodore M. Davis
. It has long been speculated, as well as much-disputed, that the body found in this tomb was that of the famous 'heretic king' Akhenaten
. The results of genetic and other scientific tests published in February 2010 have confirmed that the person buried there was both the son of Amenhotep III
(as well as the father of Tutankhamun
), and also that his age at the time of his death was in fact consistent with that of Akhenaten's; it is therefore almost certain that it is indeed Akhenaten's body.
Both the tomb's history and the identification of its single occupant have been problematic. It is assumed to be a royal cache and reburial dating from the late 18th Dynasty
, prepared after the abandonment of Amarna
and the dismantling of the royal necropolis there. The mummy
found in the tomb has been identified by DNA testing as the biological father of Tutankhamun
, confirmed through inscriptional evidence to be Akhenaten. On the basis of the recovered artefacts, it is also suggested that the burial once contained more than a single occupant, either interred on one occasion or over a period of time. Queen Tiye
is most often named in this context.
It is also clear that the tomb was re-entered at a later time, almost certainly during the 20th Dynasty
. At this time, any additional, hypothetical occupants of the tomb would have been removed and (possibly) relocated to KV35
, while the remaining mummy and some of the other artefacts were desecrated and abandoned.
The tomb is often referred to as the Amarna cache, given the mixed nature of its contents.
, and (as the representative of the antiquities service) Arthur Weigall
. On the 11th, the finds were photographed. Ayrton then began clearance of the tomb. On 25 January 1907, the coffin and mummy were investigated in situ.
According to a letter from Davis to Gaston Maspero
, some of the objects found in KV55 were still in place in January 1908, and their study and attempts at conservation were still ongoing at this later date.
In 1921, while excavating south of the tomb, Howard Carter
discovered several items that seem to have originated in KV55. These include a jasper burnisher and some fragments of copper rosettes from a funerary pall.
After its excavation, the tomb's entrance was fitted with a steel door, which however was later removed and replaced by stone blocking. By 1944, this blocking had collapsed and filled the tomb's entrance with debris. In 1993, the tomb was cleared again by Lyla Pinch Brock
for the Theban Mapping Project
. In 1996, she undertook conservational work on the stairs and the plastering inside the burial chamber.
, but because the find was never properly published, the precise nature of its contents, the date of the jars, and its relation (if any) to KV55 are now unclear.
KV55 is a relatively small, undecorated, single-chamber tomb, its total length measuring only 27.61 meters. It is located in the central area of the Valley, immediately adjacent to and below KV 6 (Ramesses IX
) and across the valley floor from KV7
(Ramesses II
) and the near-contemporary tomb KV62
(Tutankhamun
). Orientated almost due east, its entranceway consists of a set of stairs cut into the Valley's bedrock which lead to a gently sloping corridor and then to the tomb's single chamber.
The tomb appears to be unfinished: in the south wall of the burial chamber is a small niche, the commencement of an unfinished antechamber, while red masonry marks within the burial chamber indicate plans for yet another room. When finished these would have made the tomb's layout roughly similar to that of Tutankhamun's. Such a plan seems to indicate that KV55, like KV62, was initially intended as a private burial site and only later taken over for a royal interment.
found by Pinch Brock in 1993 has been interpreted as a plan of the tomb, and possibly indicates a widening of the entrance after its initial cutting. This possibility is also suggested by mason's marks found on the walls by the tomb's entrance. It appears that the stairwell has been enlarged, its ceiling raised, and the number of steps increased.
When the tomb was discovered in 1907, the stairwell was covered with debris, probably originating from the cutting of KV 6 directly above. The upper layer of this filling consisted of chips cemented together by water; underneath, the chips were dry and clean.
The first wall had been partially pulled down in antiquity, and the tomb was closed again by a second wall made of loose limestone fragments, erected in front of the remains of the first wall. Because Weigall described these consecutive blockings in ambiguous terms, it is unclear whether the secondary wall was found intact or had already been partially dismantled, like the primary wall.
On top of the rubble fill were found a panel and door of a large gilded shrine, although the exact position of these items is unclear. Additional pieces of the same shrine were recovered from the burial chamber.
Items found in the burial chamber can be grouped into several categories:
Some wooden objects in the burial chamber seem to have suffered water damage, most notably the coffin, bier, and boxes; however, the elements of the gilded shrine appear to have been reasonably solid. Moisture is also the likely cause of the discoloration visible on some of the faience objects, although other, similar objects appear unaffected.
Recent careful re-examinations of the original publication, of eyewitness reports, and of the photographs taken before the tomb was cleared have brought some clarity to the situation.
Although the tomb was clearly disturbed in antiquity (see below), and although its contents have been described as disorded and chaotic, Martha Bell argued that this disarray was more apparent than real. Her reconstruction of the layout of the tomb indicates an orderly and deliberate arrangement of artefacts, and she suggests that the impression of chaos might be due to the collapse of wooden objects caused by falling plaster and stone. The "cemented" chips and stains in the corridor indicate that water entered the tomb along the corridor ceiling, but the amount of water might not have been great, and most damage could have been caused by increased humidity rather than direct contact with water. Bell also suggested that the moisture under the mummy might have resulted from rainfall shortly after the tomb's opening in 1907. Other damage to wooden objects might result from an insect attack.
The text on the shrine states that it was made by Akhenaten for his mother Tiye. With one exception, the names of Akhenaten were erased and in some places were replaced by those of Amenhotep III
in ink. The text also refers to the "House of the Aten in Akhetaten," perhaps indicating that the shrine was made and originally used in Amarna. The decoration, which appears to have been very similar on all sides of the shrine, features Akhenaten and Tiye making offerings to the Aten, with a focus on the king rather than his mother. As with his names, Akhenaten's figure was erased from the scenes, with one exception.
The orderly arrangement of the shrine parts inside the tomb seems to indicate that it once stood up, fully assembled, with its doors facing south, and that it was later dismantled inside the tomb. It appears that only a single shrine was used in KV55, rather than a suite of four nested shrines as in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The presence of a shrine dedicated to Tiye is usually seen as evidence that Tiye's mummy once reposed inside the shrine in KV55. Other objects inscribed with her name (such as the piece of furniture) and with those of Amenhotep III
are also seen as belonging to her funerary equipment. The seal impressions found near the east wall might indicate further items that were removed together with the queen's mummy at some later point.
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When KV55 was initially opened, Theodore Davis believed that he had found the tomb of Queen Tiye
. However, it was quickly recognized that the human remains interred there were male. Georges Daressy
further deduced that the gilded coffin found in the tomb was originally made for a woman and only later adapted to accommodate a king, through alterations to its inscriptions and the addition of a false beard, a uraeus
, and the royal scepters (crook
and flail
). The identity of the coffin's original owner has been a matter of much discussion over the years, with Tiye, Nefertiti
, Meketaten
, and Meritaten
all proposed as candidates. It is now widely accepted that the coffin was originally intended for Akhenaten
's secondary wife Kiya
. It is also recognized that the four canopic jars discovered near the coffin belonged to Kiya, and that the female heads on the jars' stoppers portray her. Like the coffin, the canopic jars were altered for the burial of a king through the erasure of Kiya's titulary and the addition of a royal uraeus to each portrait head.
All personal names inscribed on the coffin and the canopic jars were excised in antiquity, rendering the identity of the human remains inside the coffin a matter of long debate. Over the past century, the chief candidates for this individual have been either Akhenaten himself or Smenkhkare
, another male member of the Amarna royal family.
Evidence that the occupant of the coffin was Akhenaten is provided by the four magical bricks found inside the tomb. Two were inscribed in hieratic
, but they are poorly preserved and the name of their owner is lost. The other two, however, are of better quality, with hieroglyphic inscriptions naming the Osiris Neferkheprure Waenre, a reference to Akhenaten's nomen. The fact that all four bricks were orientated correctly and that three of them were positioned in close association with the coffin suggests that they were intended as a set and were made for the coffin's final occupant, who would therefore be Akhenaten.
The mummy found in the tomb was however at first identified as belonging to a woman by two visiting physicians who examined the remains in situ. This led Davis to conclude he had found the mummy of queen Tiye and he therefore published his account of the discovery as The Tomb of Queen Tiyi. As possible reasons for this initial identification the (typical female) position of the mummy's arms, post-mortem damage to the pelvic bones and the absence of male genitalia have been suggested. But when anatomist Grafton Elliot Smith
examined the skull and bones in Cairo a few months later he concluded that they were those of a young male, with wide hips, a pendent chin and distorted cranium brought on by chronic hydrocephalus
. The age of death he estimated as being around 25 years although he later suggested the possibility that the body had suffered from Frölich's syndrome which delayed normal skeletal maturation. These results were seen to support the initial claims by Weigall, Maspero and Smith, based on other evidence found in the tomb (see above) that the body was that of Akhenaten.
Later re-examinations of the remains confirmed Smith's original identification of the mummy as belonging to a young male (although with feminine trends) but pushed the estimated age of death back to around 20 years. These re-examinations also indicated that the body showed no signs of delayed maturation and that, while the skull was of unusual shape, it certainly wasn't abnormal, and showed no indication of hydrocephalus. Reconstruction of the facial features of the skull also indicated that there was no resemblance with Akhenaten's representation on his monuments. It must be remembered though, that Akhenaten's representations are highly stylised. After the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun a close resemblance was noted between his mummy and the body found in KV55 and later tests showed both shared the same blood-group (A2) and serum antigen (MN), all of which suggests Tutankhamun and the individual found in KV55 were closely related to each other, either as father and son, or brothers. Based on these results it was concluded that the KV55 body was too young to be Akhenaten and they were seen to support the claim that the mummy was that of Smenkhkare, an idea first proposed by Rex Engelbach in 1931.
Before February 2010, it was pointed out that the reliability of methods to asses the age of death for mummies in general was uncertain. For these reasons the correctness of the age estimates was repeatedly called into question. This opinion found support in the analysis of the skeletal remains which had indicated an age of death around 35 years (based on dentition) or even later (based on anthropological standards and new X-rays of the long bones). Some examinations placed the mummy at 20–25 years at death, while others assessed the mummy as 35 years. The archaeological, inscriptional and now genetic evidence indicate that the ancient Egyptians who buried (and later desecrated) the body in KV55 correctly believed this to be Akhenaten's.
The deposit as it was found in KV55 presents a mixture of chronological and religious anomalies. Objects inscribed with Amenhotep III's nomen and prenomen might be contemporary with that king's reign and could be interpreted as possessions of Queen Tiye. Other items inscribed with Tiye's name (such as the shrine and furniture elements) also clearly belonged to her. Akhenaten's presence is indicated by items originally inscribed for him (such as the magical bricks) and items that were adapted for his use (such as the coffin and canopic jars).
It is nevertheless highly unlikely that either of these two burials within KV55 was original. In the case of Tiye, evidence found in tomb WV22
suggests that Amenhotep III prepared her burial in his own tomb. However, the fact that Tiye outlived her husband by possibly as much as twelve years seems to have disrupted such plans. From inscriptional evidence on the KV55 shrine on the other hand, it seems likely that Tiye was buried at Amarna by her son Akhenaten. In the case of Akhenaten it seems almost certain that he was originally buried in the tomb he prepared for himself in the Amarna royal wadi. Although it is unclear whether or not the original blocking of the tomb was stamped with Tutankhamun's seal, the several small seal impressions carrying his prenomen are most likely related to the reburial(s) in KV55 since he was probably not involved in the original burial preparations of either Tiye (who died several years before Tutankhamun came to the throne) or Akhenaten (who presumably was buried by his co-regent and probable immediate successor Smenkhkare).
One scenario, suggested by Nicholas Reeves, is as follows: Akhenaten and his mother, Queen Tiye, were originally entombed at Akhenaten's new capital Akhetaten (modern Amarna) but their mummies were moved to KV55 following the total abandonment of Akhetaten during the reign of Tutankhamun
, who was Akhenaten's son. The door to KV55 was sealed with Tutankhamun's name. There the mummies remained for about 200 years, until the tomb was rediscovered by workmen excavating the tomb of Ramesses IX
nearby. By this time, Akhenaten was reviled as the "heretic king"; consequently, Queen Tiye's sarcophagus was hastily removed from his defiling presence, except for its surrounding gilded wooden shrine which would have had to be dismantled for removal. Akhenaten's likeness was chiseled off of the shrine's carved relief. Moreover, the gold face mask was ripped from Akhenaten's sarcophagus and his identifying cartouche was removed from its hieroglyphic inscription, thus consigning its occupant to oblivion. As a final insult, a large rock was thrown at the coffin. However, a finely made vulture pectoral—a symbol of royalty in Ancient Egypt—was still found placed around this mummy's head.
to develop his photograph
s documenting Howard Carter
's excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb
.
Valley of the Kings
The Valley of the Kings , less often called the Valley of the Gates of the Kings , is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the Pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom .The valley stands on the west bank of...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. It was discovered by Edward R. Ayrton
Edward R. Ayrton
Edward Russell Ayrton was an English Egyptologist and archaeologist.He was the son of William Scrope Ayrton and his wife Ellen Louisa McClatchie, and was born in Wuhu, China, on 17 December 1882...
in 1907 while he was working in the Valley for Theodore M. Davis
Theodore M. Davis
Theodore M. Davis was an American lawyer and is best known for his excavations in Egypt's Valley of the Kings between 1902 and 1914.-Biography:...
. It has long been speculated, as well as much-disputed, that the body found in this tomb was that of the famous 'heretic king' Akhenaten
Akhenaten
Akhenaten also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton,and Khuenaten;meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
. The results of genetic and other scientific tests published in February 2010 have confirmed that the person buried there was both the son of Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
(as well as the father of Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun , Egyptian , ; approx. 1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom...
), and also that his age at the time of his death was in fact consistent with that of Akhenaten's; it is therefore almost certain that it is indeed Akhenaten's body.
Both the tomb's history and the identification of its single occupant have been problematic. It is assumed to be a royal cache and reburial dating from the late 18th Dynasty
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
The eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt is perhaps the best known of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt...
, prepared after the abandonment of Amarna
Amarna
Amarna is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site that represents the remains of the capital city newly–established and built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty , and abandoned shortly afterwards...
and the dismantling of the royal necropolis there. The mummy
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
found in the tomb has been identified by DNA testing as the biological father of Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun , Egyptian , ; approx. 1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom...
, confirmed through inscriptional evidence to be Akhenaten. On the basis of the recovered artefacts, it is also suggested that the burial once contained more than a single occupant, either interred on one occasion or over a period of time. Queen Tiye
Tiye
Tiye was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu . She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III....
is most often named in this context.
It is also clear that the tomb was re-entered at a later time, almost certainly during the 20th Dynasty
Twentieth dynasty of Egypt
The Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, New Kingdom. This dynasty is considered to be the last one of the New Kingdom of Egypt, and was followed by the Third Intermediate Period....
. At this time, any additional, hypothetical occupants of the tomb would have been removed and (possibly) relocated to KV35
KV35
Tomb KV35 in the Valley of the Kings is the tomb of Amenhotep II.It was discovered by Victor Loret in March 1898.-Layout and history:...
, while the remaining mummy and some of the other artefacts were desecrated and abandoned.
The tomb is often referred to as the Amarna cache, given the mixed nature of its contents.
Discovery and excavations
The entrance to KV55 was uncovered by Ayrton on 6 January 1907. Its discovery was brought to Davis's attention on the following day. The tomb was first entered on 9 January by Ayrton, Davis, Joseph Lindon SmithJoseph Lindon Smith
Joseph Lindon Smith ), was an American painter, best known for his extraordinarily faithful and lively representations of antiquities, especially Egyptian tomb reliefs. He was a founding member of the art colony at Dublin, New Hampshire.-Background:Smith was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on...
, and (as the representative of the antiquities service) Arthur Weigall
Arthur Weigall
Arthur Edward Pearse Brome Weigall was an English Egyptologist, stage designer, journalist and author whose works span the whole range from histories of Ancient Egypt through historical biographies, guide-books, popular novels, screenplays and lyrics.- Biography :Arthur Weigall was born in the...
. On the 11th, the finds were photographed. Ayrton then began clearance of the tomb. On 25 January 1907, the coffin and mummy were investigated in situ.
According to a letter from Davis to Gaston Maspero
Gaston Maspero
Gaston Camille Charles Maspero was a French Egyptologist.-Life:Gaston Maspero was born in Paris to parents of Lombard origin. While at school he showed a special taste for history, and by the age of fourteen he was already interested in hieroglyphic writing...
, some of the objects found in KV55 were still in place in January 1908, and their study and attempts at conservation were still ongoing at this later date.
In 1921, while excavating south of the tomb, Howard Carter
Howard Carter
Howard Carter may refer to:* Howard Carter , English archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb* Howard Carter , American basketball player...
discovered several items that seem to have originated in KV55. These include a jasper burnisher and some fragments of copper rosettes from a funerary pall.
After its excavation, the tomb's entrance was fitted with a steel door, which however was later removed and replaced by stone blocking. By 1944, this blocking had collapsed and filled the tomb's entrance with debris. In 1993, the tomb was cleared again by Lyla Pinch Brock
Lyla Pinch Brock
Lyla Pinch Brock is a Canadian Egyptologist, specializing in epigraphy. She is married to Egyptologist Edwin C. Brock.She has taken part in two important projects, the Tell Borg Project and Theban Mapping Project on behalf of the Royal Ontario Museum. At the time of an excavation of the tomb KV55...
for the Theban Mapping Project
Theban Mapping Project
Theban Mapping Project was established in 1978 by the Theban Foundation, itself established by British archaeologist and Egyptologist John Romer with the goal to create a masterplan of the Valley of the Kings and of the sites of the Theban Necropolis in general....
. In 1996, she undertook conservational work on the stairs and the plastering inside the burial chamber.
KVC
Three days before the discovery of KV55, Ayrton uncovered a recess in the rock (now designated as KVC) located immediately above the entrance to KV55 and containing jars of 20th dynasty type. This recess may have been an unfinished tomb commencement, and its content may be analogous to the embalming cache found in KV54KV54
Tomb KV54 is located in the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt. It was originally excavated by Edward R. Ayrton on behalf of the American lawyer Theodore M. Davis, who funded the work.-Site history:...
, but because the find was never properly published, the precise nature of its contents, the date of the jars, and its relation (if any) to KV55 are now unclear.
Location and general appearance
Ramesses IX
Ramesses IX was the eighth king of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. He was the third longest serving king of this Dynasty after Ramesses III and Ramesses XI...
) and across the valley floor from KV7
KV7
Tomb KV7 in the Valley of the Kings was the final resting place of Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II of the Nineteenth Dynasty. It is located in the main valley, opposite the tomb of his sons, KV5, and near to the tomb of his son and successor, Merenptah, KV8...
(Ramesses II
Ramesses II
Ramesses II , referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire...
) and the near-contemporary tomb KV62
KV62
KV62 is the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings , which became famous for the wealth of treasure it contained. The tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter, underneath the remains of workmen's huts built during the Ramesside Period; this explains why it was spared from the worst of...
(Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun , Egyptian , ; approx. 1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom...
). Orientated almost due east, its entranceway consists of a set of stairs cut into the Valley's bedrock which lead to a gently sloping corridor and then to the tomb's single chamber.
The tomb appears to be unfinished: in the south wall of the burial chamber is a small niche, the commencement of an unfinished antechamber, while red masonry marks within the burial chamber indicate plans for yet another room. When finished these would have made the tomb's layout roughly similar to that of Tutankhamun's. Such a plan seems to indicate that KV55, like KV62, was initially intended as a private burial site and only later taken over for a royal interment.
Entranceway
The tomb is accessed by a flight of 20 steps, cut into the bedrock and covered by an overhanging rock. An ostraconOstracon
An ostracon is a piece of pottery , usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In archaeology, ostraca may contain scratched-in words or other forms of writing which may give clues as to the time when the piece was in use...
found by Pinch Brock in 1993 has been interpreted as a plan of the tomb, and possibly indicates a widening of the entrance after its initial cutting. This possibility is also suggested by mason's marks found on the walls by the tomb's entrance. It appears that the stairwell has been enlarged, its ceiling raised, and the number of steps increased.
When the tomb was discovered in 1907, the stairwell was covered with debris, probably originating from the cutting of KV 6 directly above. The upper layer of this filling consisted of chips cemented together by water; underneath, the chips were dry and clean.
Doorway and blocking
When it was discovered, the tomb's outer door was blocked by two consecutive walls. The primary blocking consisted of a wall of cemented limestone blocks, plastered and stamped with the seal of the Royal Necropolis (with the jackal and nine captives motif). Weigall later stated that a fragment of Tutankhamun's seal had been recovered from this original blocking. However, his statement is not corroborated by any of the other reports dating from the initial discovery, leaving Weigall's claim open to question.The first wall had been partially pulled down in antiquity, and the tomb was closed again by a second wall made of loose limestone fragments, erected in front of the remains of the first wall. Because Weigall described these consecutive blockings in ambiguous terms, it is unclear whether the secondary wall was found intact or had already been partially dismantled, like the primary wall.
Corridor
The sloping corridor beyond the entrance was partially filled with rubble. Since the secondary wall was built on top of material originating from this rubble, the fill seems to date from the time of the original interment. By 1907 this rubble had spread down into the burial chamber. Stains on the ceiling and walls of the corridor indicate that water had infiltrated the tomb in the past.On top of the rubble fill were found a panel and door of a large gilded shrine, although the exact position of these items is unclear. Additional pieces of the same shrine were recovered from the burial chamber.
Burial chamber and niche
The walls of the burial chamber were plastered but otherwise undecorated. This plastering seems to have been done some years after the cutting of the tomb, and repairs are evident. Rubble fill from the corridor had spread down into the chamber, partially covering its floor with debris. Elsewhere in the burial chamber, the floor and numerous objects were covered with fragments of plaster fallen from the walls and stones fallen from the ceiling.Items found in the burial chamber can be grouped into several categories:
- Parts of a dismantled, gilded shrine: Related to the panel and door found in the corridor. A door was found lying on the rubble inflow near the entrance to the chamber; large panels were lying on the floor or stacked against the eastern wall; and smaller elements (such as doorjambs, a lintel, and possibly parts of the cornice) were lying on the floor.
- Coffin, mummy, and related items: Lying against the southern wall and resting on the decayed remains of a lion-headed bier was a badly damaged coffin. Its lid was ajar, and the coffin box had rotted. The mummy contained in this coffin was badly preserved but its linen wrappings appear to have been intact. The damaged skull had been separated from the body and was found with a vulture pectoralPectoral (Ancient Egypt)The Pectorals of ancient Egypt were a form of jewellery, often represented as a brooch. This was mostly worn by richer people.One type, was the pectoral with a necklace, as a form of attachment, to be suspended from the neck, but to lay upon the breast...
wrapped around it. The left arm of the body was crossed over the chest, the right arm extended. In the niche above this coffin was found a set of four canopic jars. Also related to this group of items were four magical bricks. - Remains of boxes and their contents: At least two badly preserved boxes were found in the south-eastern corner of the room, their contents spread on the floor. These included faience objects and appear to have been related to the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony.
- Seal impressions: Several small seal impressions were found underneath the panels of the gilded shrine. These carry Tutankhamun's prenomen and are identical to seal type N found in Tutankhamun's own tomb.
- Other items: Their exact location in the chamber is not always clear. Included are a vase stand, fragment of furniture, a silver head of a goose, pall-discs of gilded copper, and a statue plinth.
Some wooden objects in the burial chamber seem to have suffered water damage, most notably the coffin, bier, and boxes; however, the elements of the gilded shrine appear to have been reasonably solid. Moisture is also the likely cause of the discoloration visible on some of the faience objects, although other, similar objects appear unaffected.
Interpretation
The problems surrounding the interpretation of KV55 are due in large part to the shortcomings of Davis's original publication of the excavation. Its mix of fact, assumption, error, and omission has obscured a full understanding of the deposit ever since. The blame for these shortcomings usually falls on Davis (as editor of the publication) and Ayrton (as supervising archaeologist).Recent careful re-examinations of the original publication, of eyewitness reports, and of the photographs taken before the tomb was cleared have brought some clarity to the situation.
Although the tomb was clearly disturbed in antiquity (see below), and although its contents have been described as disorded and chaotic, Martha Bell argued that this disarray was more apparent than real. Her reconstruction of the layout of the tomb indicates an orderly and deliberate arrangement of artefacts, and she suggests that the impression of chaos might be due to the collapse of wooden objects caused by falling plaster and stone. The "cemented" chips and stains in the corridor indicate that water entered the tomb along the corridor ceiling, but the amount of water might not have been great, and most damage could have been caused by increased humidity rather than direct contact with water. Bell also suggested that the moisture under the mummy might have resulted from rainfall shortly after the tomb's opening in 1907. Other damage to wooden objects might result from an insect attack.
The shrine and Tiye's burial
A recent reconstruction of the shrine, based on photographic evidence, drawings, eyewitness descriptions, and two surviving planks on display in Cairo, indicate that it resembled Tutankhamun's second and third shrines in general appearance and size. The presence of copper rosettes indicate that a funeral pall was draped on a frame associated with the shrine, also comparable to Tutankhamun's shrines. However, the decoration and inscriptions on the shrine are markedly different from those of Tutankhamun: the decoration was dominated by large offering scenes rather than a multitude of smaller mythological scenes; the text was far more brief, and seems primarily concerned with titles, names, and the shrine's dedication, rather than with excerpts from funerary books; and the interior of the shrine was uninscribed and undecorated.The text on the shrine states that it was made by Akhenaten for his mother Tiye. With one exception, the names of Akhenaten were erased and in some places were replaced by those of Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
in ink. The text also refers to the "House of the Aten in Akhetaten," perhaps indicating that the shrine was made and originally used in Amarna. The decoration, which appears to have been very similar on all sides of the shrine, features Akhenaten and Tiye making offerings to the Aten, with a focus on the king rather than his mother. As with his names, Akhenaten's figure was erased from the scenes, with one exception.
The orderly arrangement of the shrine parts inside the tomb seems to indicate that it once stood up, fully assembled, with its doors facing south, and that it was later dismantled inside the tomb. It appears that only a single shrine was used in KV55, rather than a suite of four nested shrines as in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The presence of a shrine dedicated to Tiye is usually seen as evidence that Tiye's mummy once reposed inside the shrine in KV55. Other objects inscribed with her name (such as the piece of furniture) and with those of Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
are also seen as belonging to her funerary equipment. The seal impressions found near the east wall might indicate further items that were removed together with the queen's mummy at some later point.
Coffin, canopic jars and magical bricks
Tiye
Tiye was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu . She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III....
. However, it was quickly recognized that the human remains interred there were male. Georges Daressy
Georges Émile Jules Daressy
Georges Émile Jules Daressy was a French Egyptologist.He worked from 1887 in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Amongst his responsibilies was the museums its move from Bulaq to Giza in 1891, and then to the present day location in 1901. He is an important author of the general catalog of the museum...
further deduced that the gilded coffin found in the tomb was originally made for a woman and only later adapted to accommodate a king, through alterations to its inscriptions and the addition of a false beard, a uraeus
Uraeus
The Uraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian spitting cobra , used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity, and divine authority in ancient Egypt.The Uraeus is a symbol for the goddess Wadjet, who was one of the earliest Egyptian deities and who...
, and the royal scepters (crook
Shepherd
A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...
and flail
Flail
A flail is an agricultural implement for threshing.Several tools operate similarly to the agricultural implement and are also called flails:...
). The identity of the coffin's original owner has been a matter of much discussion over the years, with Tiye, Nefertiti
Nefertiti
Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they started to worship one god only...
, Meketaten
Meketaten
Meketaten was the second daughter of six born to the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti. She was probably born in year 4 of Akhenaten's reign...
, and Meritaten
Meritaten
Meritaten also spelled Merytaten or Meryetaten was an ancient Egyptian queen of the eighteenth dynasty, who held the position of Great Royal Wife to Pharaoh Smenkhkare, who may have been a brother or son of Akhenaten...
all proposed as candidates. It is now widely accepted that the coffin was originally intended for Akhenaten
Akhenaten
Akhenaten also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton,and Khuenaten;meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
's secondary wife Kiya
Kiya
Kiya was one of the wives of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Little is known about her, and her actions and roles are poorly documented in the historical record, in contrast to those of Akhenaten's first royal wife, Nefertiti. Her unusual name suggests that she may originally have been a Mitanni...
. It is also recognized that the four canopic jars discovered near the coffin belonged to Kiya, and that the female heads on the jars' stoppers portray her. Like the coffin, the canopic jars were altered for the burial of a king through the erasure of Kiya's titulary and the addition of a royal uraeus to each portrait head.
All personal names inscribed on the coffin and the canopic jars were excised in antiquity, rendering the identity of the human remains inside the coffin a matter of long debate. Over the past century, the chief candidates for this individual have been either Akhenaten himself or Smenkhkare
Smenkhkare
Smenkhkare was an ephemeral Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh of the late Eighteenth Dynasty, of whom very little is known for certain...
, another male member of the Amarna royal family.
Evidence that the occupant of the coffin was Akhenaten is provided by the four magical bricks found inside the tomb. Two were inscribed in hieratic
Hieratic
Hieratic refers to a cursive writing system that was used in the provenance of the pharaohs in Egypt and Nubia that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system, to which it is intimately related...
, but they are poorly preserved and the name of their owner is lost. The other two, however, are of better quality, with hieroglyphic inscriptions naming the Osiris Neferkheprure Waenre, a reference to Akhenaten's nomen. The fact that all four bricks were orientated correctly and that three of them were positioned in close association with the coffin suggests that they were intended as a set and were made for the coffin's final occupant, who would therefore be Akhenaten.
The identification of the mummy
Grafton Elliot Smith
Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, FRS FRCP was an Australian anatomist and a proponent of the hyperdiffusionist view of prehistory.-Professional career:Smith was born in Grafton, New South Wales...
examined the skull and bones in Cairo a few months later he concluded that they were those of a young male, with wide hips, a pendent chin and distorted cranium brought on by chronic hydrocephalus
Hydrocephalus
Hydrocephalus , also known as "water in the brain," is a medical condition in which there is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles, or cavities, of the brain. This may cause increased intracranial pressure inside the skull and progressive enlargement of the head,...
. The age of death he estimated as being around 25 years although he later suggested the possibility that the body had suffered from Frölich's syndrome which delayed normal skeletal maturation. These results were seen to support the initial claims by Weigall, Maspero and Smith, based on other evidence found in the tomb (see above) that the body was that of Akhenaten.
Later re-examinations of the remains confirmed Smith's original identification of the mummy as belonging to a young male (although with feminine trends) but pushed the estimated age of death back to around 20 years. These re-examinations also indicated that the body showed no signs of delayed maturation and that, while the skull was of unusual shape, it certainly wasn't abnormal, and showed no indication of hydrocephalus. Reconstruction of the facial features of the skull also indicated that there was no resemblance with Akhenaten's representation on his monuments. It must be remembered though, that Akhenaten's representations are highly stylised. After the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun a close resemblance was noted between his mummy and the body found in KV55 and later tests showed both shared the same blood-group (A2) and serum antigen (MN), all of which suggests Tutankhamun and the individual found in KV55 were closely related to each other, either as father and son, or brothers. Based on these results it was concluded that the KV55 body was too young to be Akhenaten and they were seen to support the claim that the mummy was that of Smenkhkare, an idea first proposed by Rex Engelbach in 1931.
Before February 2010, it was pointed out that the reliability of methods to asses the age of death for mummies in general was uncertain. For these reasons the correctness of the age estimates was repeatedly called into question. This opinion found support in the analysis of the skeletal remains which had indicated an age of death around 35 years (based on dentition) or even later (based on anthropological standards and new X-rays of the long bones). Some examinations placed the mummy at 20–25 years at death, while others assessed the mummy as 35 years. The archaeological, inscriptional and now genetic evidence indicate that the ancient Egyptians who buried (and later desecrated) the body in KV55 correctly believed this to be Akhenaten's.
Reconstruction
It is nevertheless highly unlikely that either of these two burials within KV55 was original. In the case of Tiye, evidence found in tomb WV22
WV22
Tomb WV22, in the Western arm of the Valley of the Kings, was used as the resting place of one of the greatest rulers of Egypt's New Kingdom, Amenhotep III...
suggests that Amenhotep III prepared her burial in his own tomb. However, the fact that Tiye outlived her husband by possibly as much as twelve years seems to have disrupted such plans. From inscriptional evidence on the KV55 shrine on the other hand, it seems likely that Tiye was buried at Amarna by her son Akhenaten. In the case of Akhenaten it seems almost certain that he was originally buried in the tomb he prepared for himself in the Amarna royal wadi. Although it is unclear whether or not the original blocking of the tomb was stamped with Tutankhamun's seal, the several small seal impressions carrying his prenomen are most likely related to the reburial(s) in KV55 since he was probably not involved in the original burial preparations of either Tiye (who died several years before Tutankhamun came to the throne) or Akhenaten (who presumably was buried by his co-regent and probable immediate successor Smenkhkare).
One scenario, suggested by Nicholas Reeves, is as follows: Akhenaten and his mother, Queen Tiye, were originally entombed at Akhenaten's new capital Akhetaten (modern Amarna) but their mummies were moved to KV55 following the total abandonment of Akhetaten during the reign of Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun , Egyptian , ; approx. 1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom...
, who was Akhenaten's son. The door to KV55 was sealed with Tutankhamun's name. There the mummies remained for about 200 years, until the tomb was rediscovered by workmen excavating the tomb of Ramesses IX
Ramesses IX
Ramesses IX was the eighth king of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. He was the third longest serving king of this Dynasty after Ramesses III and Ramesses XI...
nearby. By this time, Akhenaten was reviled as the "heretic king"; consequently, Queen Tiye's sarcophagus was hastily removed from his defiling presence, except for its surrounding gilded wooden shrine which would have had to be dismantled for removal. Akhenaten's likeness was chiseled off of the shrine's carved relief. Moreover, the gold face mask was ripped from Akhenaten's sarcophagus and his identifying cartouche was removed from its hieroglyphic inscription, thus consigning its occupant to oblivion. As a final insult, a large rock was thrown at the coffin. However, a finely made vulture pectoral—a symbol of royalty in Ancient Egypt—was still found placed around this mummy's head.
Later use of KV55
In 1923, Harry Burton used KV55 as a darkroomDarkroom
A darkroom is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light sensitive photographic materials, including photographic film and photographic paper. Darkrooms have been created and used since the inception of photography in the early 19th century...
to develop his photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s documenting Howard Carter
Howard Carter (archaeologist)
Howard Carter was an English archaeologist and Egyptologist, noted as a primary discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun.-Beginning of career:...
's excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb
KV62
KV62 is the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings , which became famous for the wealth of treasure it contained. The tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter, underneath the remains of workmen's huts built during the Ramesside Period; this explains why it was spared from the worst of...
.