Tutankhamun

Discovery of the tomb

In 1907, just before his discovery of the tomb of Horemheb, Theodore M. Davis’s team uncovered a small site containing funerary artifacts with Tutankhamun’s name. Assuming that the site was Tutankhamun’s complete tomb, Davis concluded the dig. The details of both findings are documented in Davis’s 1912 publication, The Tombs of Harmhabi and Touatânkhamanou; the book closes with the comment, “I fear that the Valley of Kings is now exhausted.”[2] But Davis was to be proven spectacularly wrong.

The British Egyptologist Howard Carter (employed by Lord Carnarvon) discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb (since designated KV62) in The Valley of The Kings on 4 November 1922 near the entrance to the tomb of Ramesses VI, thereby setting off a renewed interest in all things Egyptian in the modern world. Carter contacted his patron, and on 26 November that year both men became the first people to enter Tutankhamun’s tomb in over 3000 years. After many weeks of careful excavation, on 16 February 1923 Carter opened the inner chamber and first saw the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.

Investigation

1922

The first step to the stairs were found on 4 November. The following day saw the exposure of complete staircase. The end of November saw access to the Antechamber and discovered of Annexe, and then to the Burial Chamber and Treasury.

On 29 November, the tomb was officially opened, and the first announcement and press conference followed the next day, The first item was removed from the tomb of 27 December.

1923

16 February saw the official opening of the Burial Chamber, and 5 April saw the death of Lord Carnarvon.

1924

On 12 February the granite lid of the sarcophagus was raised. In April, Carter argued with the Antiquities Service, and left the excavation for the United States.

1925

In January, Carter resumed activities in the tomb, and on 13 October he removed the cover of the first sarcophagus, 23 October removed the cover of the second sarcophagus, 28 October the team removed the cover of the final sarcophagus and exposure of the mummy, and on 11 November the examination of the remains of Tutankhamun started.

1926

Work started in the Treasury on 24 October.

1927

Between 30 October and 15 December, the Annexe was emptied and examined.

1930

On 10 November, 8 years after the discovery, the last objects are removed from the tomb.

Layout of tomb

n design, the tomb appears to have originally been intended for a private individual, not for royalty. There is some evidence to suggest that the tomb was hastily adapted for a royal occupant during its excavation. This may be supported by the fact that only the burial chamber walls were decorated, unlike royal tombs in which nearly all walls were painted with scenes from the Book of the Dead.

Staircase

Starting from a small, level platform, 16 steps descend to the first doorway, which was sealed and plastered – although it had been penetrated by grave robbers at least twice.

Entrance corridor

Beyond the first doorway, a descending corridor leads to the second sealed door, and into the room that Carter described as the Antechamber. This was used originally to hold material left over from the funeral and material associated with the embalming of the king, after the initial robberies this material was either moved into the tomb proper, or moved to KV54.

Antechamber

The undecorated Antechamber was found to be in a state of “organized chaos” and contained approximately 700 objects (articles 14 to 171 in the Carter catalog) amongst which were three funeral beds, plates in shape of Hippopotamus (the Goddess Tawaret), of lion (or leopards) and cattle (the Goddess Hathor). Perhaps the most remarkable item in this room were the components, stacked, of four chariots of which one was probably used for hunting, one for “war” and another two for parades.

Burial chamber

Decoration

This is the only decorated chamber in the tomb, with scenes from the Opening of the Mouth ritual (showing Ay, Tutankhamun’s successor acting as the king’s son, despite being older than him) and Tutankhamun with the goddess Nut on the north wall, the first hour of Amduat (on the west wall), spell one of the Book of the Dead (on the east wall) and representations of the king with various deities (Anubis, Isis, Hathor and others now destroyed) on the south wall. The north wall shows Tutankhamen being followed by his Ka, being welcomed to the underworld by Osiris.

Contents

The entire chamber was occupied by a series of gilded wooden shrines. The outer shrine measured 5.08 x 3.28 x 2.75 m and 32 mm thick, almost entirely filling the room, with only 60 cm at either end and less than 30 cm on the sides. Outside of the shrines were 11 paddles for the “solar boat”, containers for scents, lamps decorated images of the God Hapi.

The fourth and last shrine was 2.90 m long and 1.48 m wide. The walls were decorated by the king’s funeral procession, and Nut was painted on the ceiling, “embracing” with her wings the granite outer sarcophagus.

Sarcophagus of Tutankhamun

The outer sarcophagus was constructed in granite. The main body and the lid were carved from different coloured stone at each corner, it appears to have been constructed for a different owner, but then recarved for Tutankhamen, the identity of the original owner is not preserved. In each corner a protective goddess (Isis, Nephthys, Serket and Neith) guard the body.

Inside the stone sarcophagus, the king’s body was placed within three further mummy form sarcophagi, the innermost being famously composed of 110.4 kg of pure gold. Inside this the mummy itself was wearing the famous gold mask.

Annex

The ‘Annex’, originally used store oils, ointments, scents, foods and wine, was the last room to be cleared, from the end of October 1927 to the spring of 1928. Although quite small in size, it contained approximately 280 groups of objects, totaling more than 2,000 individual pieces.

Present day

As of 2007, the tomb is open for visitors, as an additional charge above that of the price of general access to the Valley of the Kings. It has been announced that the number of visitors will be limited to 400 per day, as of May 2008.