Tomb KV26 is an ancient Egyptian tomb of the Eighteenth Dynasty located in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings ( ar, وادي الملوك ; Late Coptic: ), also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( ar, وادي أبوا الملوك ), is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th ...

. It is located in a side valley leading to the tomb of Thutmose III (

KV34 Tomb KV34 ( ar, مقبرة تحتمس الثالث, Maqbarat Tahtamis al-Thaalithi) in the Valley of the Kings (near the modern-day Egyptian city of Luxor) was the tomb of 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Thutmose III. One of the first tombs to be dug in the ...

). It was visited by the early

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

James Burton James Edward Burton (born August 21, 1939, in Dubberly, Louisiana) is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 (his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards), Burton has also been recognized ...

in the 1820s or 1830s, and by

Victor Loret Victor Clement Georges Philippe Loret (1 September 1859 – 3 February 1946) was a French Egyptologist. Biography His father, Clément Loret, was a professional organist and composer, of Belgian origin, who had been living in Paris since ...

in 1898. It was mapped in the 1980s by the

Theban Mapping Project The Theban Mapping Project is an archaeological expedition devoted to Ancient Egypt. It was established in 1978 by the Egyptologist Dr. Kent R. Weeks at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1985, it was moved to the American University in Cair ...

. The first documented excavation of the tomb was carried out in 2009 by the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

's Kings' Valley Project. The tomb contained evidence of at least one burial and fragmented pottery and stone vessels of mid-Eighteenth Dynasty date but nothing is known about its occupant(s).

Architecture

The layout consists of a vertical shaft, deep, which opens onto a corridor that leads to a small room. The entire tomb is short, at only long. The shaft and corridor are neatly cut but the chamber is unfinished. It has a lower ceiling that the rest of the tomb, at . Although the tomb had been flooded in the past, the limestone is in good condition and unaffected by moisture.

Exploration and excavation

KV26 is located in a side valley leading to the tomb of Thutmose III (

) and close to other tombs of similar date,

KV32 Tomb KV32, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, is the burial site of Tia'a, the wife of Amenhotep II and mother of Thutmose IV. The tomb was discovered in 1898 by Victor Loret. It is an undecorated tomb and runs back some 40 metres into ...

and

KV42 Tomb KV42 (Kings Valley 42) is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It was constructed for Hatshepsut-Meryetre, the wife of Thutmose III, but she was not buried in the tomb. It was reused by Sennefer, a mayor of Th ...

. The tomb was first visited by the early

in the 1820s or 1830s, and in 1898 by

. It was mapped in the 1980s by the

. The tomb's first documented excavation was conducted in 2009 by the University of Basel's Kings' Valley Project. The open shaft contained modern rubbish above a fill of limestone chip and boulders washed in by flood action. The corridor and chamber were also partly filled with debris. Mixed in with the fill were pieces of ceramics, alabaster jars, faience beads and inlay. The remains of 16 large pottery jars were found scattered throughout the tomb. The jars are not inscribed but can be dated to on stylistic grounds to the reigns of Thutmose III and

Amenhotep II Amenhotep II (sometimes called ''Amenophis II'' and meaning ''Amun is Satisfied'') was the seventh pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few militar ...

. The tomb was used for at least one burial, as evidenced by pieces of black-coloured Eighteenth Dynasty coffins and fragmentary human remains, including a skull. It had been suggested that the tomb was the original burial place of the noble

Sennefer The ancient Egyptian noble Sennefer was "Mayor of the City" (i.e. Thebes) and "Overseer of the Granaries and Fields, Gardens and Cattle of Amun" during the reign of Amenhotep II of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Being a favourite of the king ...

and his wife Senetnay, and that they were transferred from KV26 to

during the dismantling of the royal necropolis at the end of the

New Kingdom New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. However the archaeological evidence suggests that the tomb was entered and probably robbed in the Twentieth or Twenty-first Dynasties (evidenced by fragmentary pottery) but the burials were not reburied elsewhere. A steel door was installed at the conclusion of the 2009 excavation, and the tomb was accurately mapped in January 2010.

Citations

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Theban Mapping Project: KV26
includes detailed maps of most of the tombs. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kv26 Valley of the Kings