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The tomb of Tutankhamun, also known by its tomb number, KV62, is the burial place of
Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...
(reigned c. 1334–1325 BC), a
pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...
of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, in the
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 ...
. The tomb consists of four chambers and an entrance staircase and corridor. It is smaller and less extensively decorated than other Egyptian royal tombs of its time, and it probably originated as a tomb for a non-royal individual that was adapted for Tutankhamun's use after his premature death. Like other pharaohs, Tutankhamun was buried with a wide variety of funerary objects and personal possessions, such as coffins, furniture, clothing and jewellery, though in the unusually limited space these goods had to be densely packed. Robbers entered the tomb twice in the years immediately following the burial, but
Tutankhamun's mummy Tutankhamun's mummy was discovered by English Egyptologist Howard Carter and his team on October 28, 1925 in tomb KV62 of Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Tutankhamun was the 13th pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, making his ...
and most of the burial goods remained intact. The tomb's low position, dug into the floor of the valley, allowed its entrance to be hidden by debris deposited by flooding and tomb construction. Thus, unlike other tombs in the valley, it was not stripped of its valuables during the
Third Intermediate Period The Third Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt began with the death of Pharaoh Ramesses XI in 1077 BC, which ended the New Kingdom, and was eventually followed by the Late Period. Various points are offered as the beginning for the latt ...
(c. 1070 – 664 BC). Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered in 1922 by excavators led by
Howard Carter Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the K ...
. As a result of the quantity and spectacular appearance of the burial goods, the tomb attracted a
media frenzy Media circus is a colloquial metaphor, or idiom, describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to ...
and became the most famous find in the history of
Egyptology 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 ...
. The death of Carter's patron, the
Earl of Carnarvon Earl of Carnarvon is a title that has been created three times in British history. The current holder is George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon. The town and county in Wales to which the title refers are historically spelled ''Caernarfon,'' hav ...
, in the midst of the excavation process inspired speculation that the tomb was cursed. The discovery produced only limited evidence about the history of Tutankhamun's reign and the
Amarna Period The Amarna Period was an era of History of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian history during the later half of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the ...
that preceded it, but it provided insight into the
material culture Material culture is the aspect of social reality grounded in the objects and architecture that surround people. It includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the objects creat ...
of wealthy ancient Egyptians as well as patterns of ancient tomb robbery. Tutankhamun became one of the best-known pharaohs, and some artefacts from his tomb, such as his golden funerary mask, are among the best-known artworks from ancient Egypt. Most of the tomb's goods were sent to the
Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...
in
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
and are now in the
Grand Egyptian Museum The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM; ''al-Matḥaf al-Maṣriyy al-Kabīr''), also known as the Giza Museum, is an archaeological museum under construction in Giza, Egypt. It will house artifacts of ancient Egypt, including the complete Tutankhamun ...
in
Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah'' arz, الجيزة ' ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 ...
, although Tutankhamun's mummy and sarcophagus are still on display in the tomb. Flooding and heavy tourist traffic have inflicted damage on the tomb since its discovery, and a replica of the burial chamber has been constructed nearby to reduce tourist pressure on the original tomb.


History


Burial and robberies

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...
reigned as
pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...
between c. 1334 and 1325 BC, towards the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty during 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, ...
. He took the throne as a child after the death of
Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...
(who was probably his father) and the subsequent brief reigns of Neferneferuaten and
Smenkhkare Smenkhkare (alternatively romanized ''Smenkhare'', ''Smenkare,'' or ''Smenkhkara''; meaning "'Vigorous is the Soul of Re") was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of unknown background who lived and ruled during the Amarna Period of the 18th Dynasty. S ...
. Akhenaten had radically reshaped
ancient Egyptian religion Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. It centered on the Egyptians' interactions with many deities believed to be present in, and in control ...
by worshipping a single deity,
Aten Aten also Aton, Atonu, or Itn ( egy, jtn, ''reconstructed'' ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system established in ancient Egypt by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The Aten was the disc of the sun and originally an aspect of ...
, and rejecting other
deities A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...
, a shift that began the
Amarna Period The Amarna Period was an era of History of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian history during the later half of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the ...
. One of Tutankhamun's major acts was the restoration of traditional religious practice. His name was changed from Tutankhaten, referring to Akhenaten's deity, to Tutankhamun, honouring
Amun Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as (Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → (Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egyptian ...
, one of the foremost deities of the traditional pantheon. Similarly, his queen's name was changed from Ankhesenpaaten to
Ankhesenamun Ankhesenamun (, "Her Life Is of Amun"; c. 1348 or c. 1342 – after 1322 BC) was a queen who lived during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt as the pharaoh Akhenaten's daughter and subsequently became the Great Royal Wife of pharaoh Tutankhamun. Born Ank ...
. Shortly after he took power, he commissioned a full-size royal tomb, which was probably one of two tombs from the same era,
WV23 Tomb WV23, also known as KV23, is located in the Western Valley of the Kings near modern-day Luxor, and was the final resting place of Pharaoh Ay of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The tomb was discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni in the winter of 18 ...
or
KV57 Tomb KV57 is the royal tomb of Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty and is located in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. The tomb was located by Edward Ayrton in February 1908 for Theodore Davis. Due to its location in the valley f ...
. KV62 is thought to have originally been a non-royal tomb, possibly intended for Ay, Tutankhamun's advisor. After he died prematurely, KV62 was enlarged to accommodate his burial. Ay became pharaoh on Tutankhamun's death and was buried in WV23. Ay was elderly when he came to the throne, and it is possible that he buried Tutankhamun in KV62 in order to usurp WV23 for himself and ensure that he would have a tomb of suitably royal proportions ready when he himself died. Pharaohs in Tutankhamun's time also built
mortuary temple Mortuary temples (or funerary temples) were temples that were erected adjacent to, or in the vicinity of, royal tombs in Ancient Egypt. The temples were designed to commemorate the reign of the Pharaoh under whom they were constructed, as well as f ...
s where they would receive offerings to sustain their spirits in the
afterlife The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...
. The Temple of Ay and Horemheb at Medinet Habu contained statues that were originally carved for Tutankhamun, suggesting either that Tutankhamun's temple stood nearby or that Ay usurped Tutankhamun's temple as his own. Ay was succeeded by Tutankhamun's general
Horemheb Horemheb, also spelled Horemhab or Haremhab ( egy, ḥr-m-ḥb, meaning " Horus is in Jubilation") was the last pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt (1550–1295 BC). He ruled for at least 14 years between 1319 BC and 1292 BC. ...
, although the transfer of power may have been contested and created a brief period of political instability. As part of the continued reaction against Atenism, Horemheb tried to erase Akhenaten and his successors from the record, dismantling Akhenaten's monuments and usurping those erected by Tutankhamun. Future king-lists skipped straight from Akhenaten's father,
Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...
, to Horemheb. Within a few years of his burial, the tomb was robbed twice. After the first robbery, officials responsible for its security repaired and repacked some of the damaged goods before filling the outer corridor with chips of limestone, along with objects dropped by the thieves, to deter future thefts. Nevertheless, a second set of robbers burrowed through the corridor fill. This robbery too was detected, and after a second hasty restoration the tomb was once again sealed. The Valley of the Kings is subject to periodic flash floods that deposit
alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
. Much of the valley, including the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb, was covered by a layer of alluvium over which huts were later built for the tomb workers who cut KV57, in which Horemheb was buried. The geologist Stephen Cross has argued that a major flood deposited this layer after KV62 was last sealed and before the huts were built, which would mean Tutankhamun's tomb had been rendered inaccessible by the time Ay's reign ended. However, the Egyptologist Andreas Dorn suggests that this layer already existed during Tutankhamun's reign, and workers dug through it to reach the bedrock into which they cut his tomb. More than 150 years after Tutankhamun's burial, KV9, the tomb of
Ramesses V Usermaatre Sekheperenre Ramesses V (also written Ramses and Rameses) was the fourth pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt and was the son of Ramesses IV and Duatentopet. Reign Ramesses V's reign was characterized by the continued growth of ...
and
Ramesses VI Ramesses VI Nebmaatre-Meryamun (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses, also known under his princely name of Amenherkhepshef C) was the fifth ruler of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt. He reigned for about eight years in the mid-to-late 12th century ...
, was cut into the rock to the west of his tomb. The entrance of his tomb was further buried by mounds of debris from KV9's excavation and by huts built by the tomb workers atop that debris. In subsequent years the tombs in the valley suffered major waves of robbery: first during the late
Twentieth Dynasty The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore togeth ...
by local gangs of thieves, then during the Twenty-first Dynasty by officials working for the
High Priests of Amun The High Priest of Amun or First Prophet of Amun ('' ḥm nṯr tpj n jmn'') was the highest-ranking priest in the priesthood of the ancient Egyptian god Amun. The first high priests of Amun appear in the New Kingdom of Egypt, at the beginni ...
, who stripped the tombs of their valuables and removed the royal mummies. Tutankhamun's tomb, buried and forgotten, remained undisturbed.


Discovery and clearance

Several tombs in the Valley of the Kings lay open continuously from ancient times onward, but the entrances to many others remained hidden until after the emergence of
Egyptology 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 ...
in the early nineteenth century. Many of the remaining tombs were found by a series of excavators working for Theodore M. Davis from 1902 to 1914. Under Davis most of the valley was explored, although he never found Tutankhamun's tomb because he thought no tomb would have been cut into the valley floor. Among his discoveries was
KV54 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. History Not so much a tomb but a small pit located near the tomb ...
, a pit containing objects bearing Tutankhamun's name; these objects are now thought to have been either burial goods that were originally stored in the corridor of Tutankhamun's tomb, which were removed and reburied in KV54 when the restorers filled the corridor, or objects related to Tutankhamun's funeral. Davis's excavators also discovered a small tomb called KV58 that contained pieces of a chariot harness bearing the names of Tutankhamun and Ay. Davis was convinced that KV58 was Tutankhamun's tomb. After Davis gave up work on the valley, the archaeologist
Howard Carter Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the K ...
and his patron
George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, (26 June 1866 – 5 April 1923), styled Lord Porchester until 1890, was an English peer and aristocrat best known as the financial backer of the search for and excavation of ...
, made an effort to clear the valley of debris down to the bedrock. Davis's finds of artefacts bearing Tutankhamun's name gave them reason to hope they might find his tomb. The discovery began on 4 November 1922 with a single step at the top of the entrance staircase. When the excavators reached the antechamber, on 26 November, it exceeded all expectations, providing unprecedented insight into what a New Kingdom royal burial was like. The condition of the burial goods varied greatly; many had been profoundly affected by moisture, which probably derived from both the damp state of the plaster when the tomb was first sealed and from water seepage over the millennia until it was excavated. Recording the tomb's contents and conserving them so they could survive to be transported to Cairo proved to be an unprecedented task, lasting for ten digging seasons. Although many others participated, the only members of the excavation team who worked throughout the process were Carter, Alfred Lucas (a chemist who was instrumental in the conservation effort), Harry Burton (who photographed the tomb and its artefacts) and four foremen: Ahmed Gerigar, Gad Hassan, Hussein Abu Awad and Hussein Ahmed Said. The spectacular nature of the tomb goods inspired a
media frenzy Media circus is a colloquial metaphor, or idiom, describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to ...
, dubbed "Tutmania", that made Tutankhamun into one of the most famous pharaohs, often known by the nickname "King Tut". In the Western world the publicity inspired a fad for ancient Egyptian-inspired design motifs. In Egypt it reinforced the ideology of
pharaonism The Pharaonist movement, or Pharaonism, is an ideology that rose to prominence in Egypt in the 1920s and 1930s. It looked to Egypt's pre- Islamic past and argued that Egypt was part of a larger Mediterranean civilization. This ideology stressed ...
, which emphasized modern Egypt's connection to its ancient past and had risen to prominence during Egypt's struggle for independence from
British rule The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was hims ...
from 1919 to 1922. The publicity increased when Carnarvon died of an infection in April 1923, inspiring rumours that he had been killed by a curse on the tomb. Other deaths or strange events connected with the tomb came to be attributed to the curse as well. After Carnarvon's death, the tomb clearance continued under Carter's leadership. In the second season of the process, in late 1923 and early 1924, the antechamber was emptied of artefacts and work began on the burial chamber. The Egyptian government, which had become partially independent in 1922, fought with Carter over the question of access to the tomb; the government felt that Egyptians, and especially the Egyptian press, were given too little access. In protest of the government's increasing restrictions, Carter and his associates stopped work in February 1924, beginning a legal dispute that lasted until January 1925. Under the agreement that resolved the dispute, the artefacts from the tomb would not be divided between the government and the dig's sponsors, as had been standard practice on previous Egyptological digs. Instead most of the tomb's contents went to the
Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...
in Cairo. The excavators opened and removed Tutankhamun's coffins and mummy in 1925, then spent the next few seasons working on the treasury and annexe. The clearance of the tomb itself was completed in November 1930, though Carter and Lucas continued to work on conserving the remaining burial goods until February 1932, when the last shipment was sent to Cairo.


Tourism and preservation

The tomb has been a popular tourist destination ever since the clearance process began. Sometime after the mummy was reinterred in 1926, someone broke into the sarcophagus, stealing objects Carter had left in place. A likely time for the event is the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, when a shortage of security workers led to widespread looting of Egyptian antiquities. The body was subsequently rewrapped, suggesting local officials may have done so after discovering the theft, but did not report it. The theft was not exposed until 1968, after the anatomist Ronald Harrison re-examined Tutankhamun's remains. Each of the Valley of the Kings tombs were vulnerable to flash flooding. When analysing Tutankhamun's tomb in 1927, Lucas concluded that despite the moisture seepage, no significant liquid water had entered before its discovery. In contrast, since the discovery water has periodically trickled in through the entrance, and on New Year's Day in 1991 a rainstorm flooded the tomb through a fault in the burial chamber ceiling. The flood stained the painted chamber wall and left about of standing water on the floor. Tombs are also threatened by the tourists who visit them, who may damage the wall decoration with their touch and with the moisture introduced by their breath. The mummy is also vulnerable to this kind of damage, so in 2007 it was moved to a climate-controlled glass display case that was placed in the antechamber, allowing it to be displayed to the public while protecting it from humidity and mould. The Society of Friends of the Royal Tombs of Egypt suggested the idea of creating a replica of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1988, so that tourists could see it without further damaging the original. In 2009, Factum Arte, a workshop that specialises in replicas of large-scale artworks, took detailed scans of the burial chamber on which to base a replica, while the Egyptian government and the
Getty Conservation Institute The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), located in Los Angeles, California, is a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It is headquartered at the Getty Center but also has facilities at the Getty Villa, and commenced operation in 1985.J. Paul Getty T ...
launched a long-term project to assess the condition of the tomb and renovate it as needed. The replica was completed in 2012 and opened to the public in 2014; the renovation was completed in 2019. In 2015, the Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves argued, based on Factum Arte's scans, that the west and north walls of the burial chamber included previously unnoticed plaster partitions. That would suggest the tomb contained two previously unknown chambers, one behind each partition, which Reeves suggested were the burial place of Neferneferuaten. The Ministry of Antiquities commissioned a
ground-penetrating radar Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a Geophysics, geophysical method that uses radar pulses to Geophysical imaging, image the subsurface. It is a non-intrusive method of surveying the sub-surface to investigate underground utilities such as concrete, ...
examination later that year, which seemed to show voids behind the chamber walls, but follow-up radar examinations in 2016 and 2018 determined that there are no such voids and therefore no hidden chambers. Tutankhamun's tomb is in higher demand from tourists than any other in the Valley of the Kings. Up to 1,000 people pass through it on its busiest days.


Architecture

Tutankhamun's tomb lies in the eastern branch of the Valley of the Kings, where most tombs in the valley are located. It is cut into the limestone bedrock in the valley floor, on the west side of the main path, and runs beneath a low foothill. Its design is similar to those of non-royal tombs from its time, but elaborated so as to resemble the conventional plan of a royal tomb. It consists of a westward-descending stairway (labeled A in the conventional Egyptological system for designating parts of royal tombs in the valley); an east–west descending corridor (B); an antechamber at the west end of the passage (I); an annexe adjoining the southwest corner of the antechamber (Ia); a burial chamber north of the antechamber (J); and a room east of the burial chamber (Ja), known as the treasury. The burial chamber and treasury may have been added to the original tomb when it was adapted for Tutankhamun's burial. Most Eighteenth Dynasty royal tombs used a layout with a bent axis, so that a person moving from the entrance to the burial chamber would take a sharp turn to the left along the way. By placing Tutankhamun's burial chamber north of the antechamber, the builders of KV62 gave it a layout with an axis bent to the right rather than the left. The entrance stair descends steeply beneath an overhang. It originally consisted of sixteen steps. The lowest six were cut away during the burial to make room to maneuver the largest pieces of funerary furniture through the doorway, then rebuilt, then removed again 3,400 years later when the excavators removed that same furniture. The corridor is long and wide; the antechamber is north–south by east–west; the annexe is north–south by east–west; the burial chamber is north–south by east–west; and the treasury is north–south by east–west. The chambers range from to high, and the floors of the annexe, burial chamber and treasury are about below the floor of the antechamber. In the west wall of the antechamber is a small niche for a beam that was used for manoeuvring the sarcophagus through the room. The burial chamber contains four niches, one in each wall, in which were placed "magic bricks" inscribed with protective spells. Partitions constructed of limestone and plaster originally sealed the doorways between the stairway and the corridor; between the corridor and the antechamber; between the antechamber and the annexe; and between the antechamber and the burial chamber. All were breached by robbers. Most were resealed by the restorers, but the robbers' hole in the annexe doorway was left open. There are several faults in the rock into which the tomb is cut, including a large one that runs south-southeast to north-northwest across the antechamber and burial chamber. Although the workmen who cut the tomb sealed the fault in the burial chamber with plaster, the faults are responsible for the water seepage that affects the tomb.


Decoration

The plaster partitions were marked with impressions from seals borne by various officials who oversaw Tutankhamun's burial and the restoration efforts. These seals consist of
hieroglyphic Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
text that celebrates Tutankhamun's services to the gods during his reign. Aside from these seal impressions, the only wall decoration in the tomb is in the burial chamber. This limited decorative programme contrasts with other royal tombs of the late Eighteenth Dynasty, in which two chambers in addition to the burial chamber often received decoration, and with the practice in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties, in which all parts of the tomb were decorated. None of the decoration is executed in
relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
, a technique that was not used in the Valley of the Kings until the reign of Horemheb. KV62's burial chamber is painted with figures on a yellow background. The east wall portrays Tutankhamun's funeral procession, a type of image that is common in private New Kingdom tombs but not found in any other royal tomb. The north wall shows Ay performing the
Opening of the Mouth The opening of the mouth ceremony (or ritual) was an ancient Egyptian ritual described in funerary texts such as the Pyramid Texts. ''PeseshKaf'' is an instrument used for this ritual, ''psš'' (“an instrument for Opening of the mouth”) + '' ...
ritual upon Tutankhamun's mummy, thus legitimising him as the king's heir, and then Tutankhamun greeting the goddess
Nut Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut or Nuts may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Co ...
and the god
Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...
in the afterlife. The south wall portrayed the king with the deities
Hathor Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky ...
,
Anubis Anubis (; grc, Ἄνουβις), also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian () is the god of death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the Underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depict ...
and
Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
. Part of the decoration of this wall was painted on the partition dividing the burial chamber from the antechamber, and thus the figure of Isis had to be destroyed when the partition was demolished during the tomb clearance. The west wall bears an image of twelve baboons, which is an extract from the first section of the
Amduat The Amduat ( egy, jmj dwꜣt, literally "That Which Is In the Afterworld", also translated as "Text of the Hidden Chamber Which is in the Underworld" and "Book of What is in the Underworld"; ar, كتاب الآخرة, Kitab al-Akhira) is an imp ...
, a
funerary text Funerary texts or funerary literature feature in many belief systems. Its purpose is usually to provide guidance to the newly deceased or the soon-to-be-deceased about how to survive and prosper in the afterlife. Antiquity The most famous example ...
that describes the journey of the sun god Ra through the
netherworld Netherworld (''nether'', ″beneath, lower″) may refer to: *Underworld, a region thought to be beneath the surface of the world in many religions and mythologies Film and television * ''Netherworld'' (film), a 1992 American horror film *''Nethe ...
. On three walls the figures are given the unusual proportions found in the art style of the Amarna Period, although the south wall reverts to the conventional proportions found in art before and after Amarna.


Burial goods

The contents of the tomb are by far the most complete example of a royal set of burial goods in the Valley of the Kings, numbered at 5,398 objects. Some classes of object number in the hundreds: there are 413
shabti The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings) was a funerary figurine used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. The Egyptological term is derived from , which replaced earlier , perhaps the nisba of "' ...
s (figurines intended to do work for the king in the afterlife) and more than 200 pieces of jewellery. Objects were present in all four chambers in the tomb as well as the corridor. The efforts of the robbers, followed by the hasty restoration effort, left much of the tomb in disarray when it was last sealed. By the time of the discovery, many of the objects had been damaged by alternating periods of humidity and dryness. Nearly all leather in the tomb had dissolved into a pitch-like mass, and while the state of preservation of textiles was highly inconsistent, the worst-preserved had turned into a black powder. Wooden objects were warped and their glues dissolved, leaving them in a very fragile state. Every exposed surface was covered with an unidentified pink film; Lucas suggested it was some kind of dissolved iron compound that came from the rock or the plaster. In the process of cleaning, restoring and removing the damaged artefacts, the excavators labeled each object or group of objects with a number, from 1 to 620, appending letters to distinguish individual objects within a group.


Outer chambers

The corridor may have contained miscellaneous materials, such as bags of natron, jars and flower garlands, that were moved to KV54 when the corridor was filled after the first robbery. Other objects and fragments were incorporated into the corridor fill. One well-known artefact, a wooden bust of Tutankhamun, was apparently found in the corridor when it was excavated, but it was not recorded in Carter's initial excavation notes. The antechamber contained 600 to 700 objects. Its west side was taken up by a tangled pile of furniture among which miscellaneous small objects, such as baskets of fruit and boxes of meat, were placed. Several dismantled
chariots A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000  ...
took up the southeast corner, while the northeast contained a collection of funerary bouquets and the north end of the chamber was dominated by two life-size statues of Tutankhamun that flanked the entrance to the burial chamber. These statues are thought to have either served as guardians of the burial chamber or as figures representing the king's '' ka'', an aspect of his soul. Among the significant objects in the antechamber were several funerary beds with animal heads, which dominated the cluster of furniture against the west wall; an alabaster
lotus chalice The Lotus chalice or Alabaster chalice, called the Wishing Cup by Howard Carter, derives from the tomb of the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun of the 18th Dynasty. The object received the find number 014 and is now on display in the Egyptia ...
; and a painted box depicting Tutankhamun in battle, which Carter regarded as one of the finest works of art in the tomb. Carter thought even more highly of a gilded and inlaid throne depicting Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun in the art style of the Amarna Period; he called it "the most beautiful thing that has yet been found in Egypt". Boxes in the antechamber contained most of the clothing in the tomb, including tunics, shirts, kilts, gloves and sandals, as well as cosmetics such as unguents and
kohl Kohl may refer to: *Kohl (cosmetics), an ancient eye cosmetic *Kohl (surname), including a list of people with the surname *Kohl's Kohl's (stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. ...
. Scattered in various places in the antechamber were pieces of gold and semiprecious stones from a
corselet In women's clothing, a corselet or corselette is a type of foundation garment, sharing elements of both bras and girdles. It extends from straps over the shoulders down the torso, and stops around the top of the legs. It may incorporate lace in ...
, a ceremonial version of the armor that Egyptian kings wore into battle. Reconstructing the corselet was one of the most complex tasks the excavators faced. This room also contained a wooden dummy of Tutankhamun's head and torso. Its purpose is uncertain, although it bears marks that may indicate it once wore a corselet, and Carter suggested it was a
mannequin A mannequin (also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles. Pr ...
for the king's clothes. The annexe contained more than 2,000 individual artefacts. Its original contents were jumbled together with objects that had been haphazardly replaced during the restoration after the robberies, including beds, stools, and stone and pottery vessels containing wine and oils. The room housed most of the tomb's foodstuffs, most of the shabtis and many of its wooden funerary models, such as models of boats. Much of the weaponry in the tomb, such as bows,
throwing stick The throwing stick or throwing club is a wooden rod with either a pointed tip or a spearhead attached to one end, intended for use as a weapon. A throwing stick can be either straight or roughly boomerang-shaped, and is much shorter than the ja ...
s and ''
khopesh The ''khopesh'' ('; also vocalized khepesh) is an Egyptian sickle-shaped sword that evolved from battle axes. Description A typical ''khopesh'' is 50–60 cm (20–24 inches) in length, though smaller examples also exist. The inside c ...
''-swords, as well as ceremonial shields, were found here. Other objects in the annexe were personal possessions that Tutankhamun seemingly used as a child, such as toys, a box of paints and a fire-lighting kit. File:Tutankhamun emerging from lotus flower.jpg , A bust of Tutankhamun found in the corridor File:Tutankhamun Treasure in Paris coupe au lotus-cropped.jpg , The
lotus chalice The Lotus chalice or Alabaster chalice, called the Wishing Cup by Howard Carter, derives from the tomb of the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun of the 18th Dynasty. The object received the find number 014 and is now on display in the Egyptia ...
from the antechamber Ägyptisches Museum Kairo 2019-11-09 Tutanchamun Grabschatz 26.jpg , A painted chest from the antechamber File:Egyptian Museum (342).jpg , A chariot, reassembled from the pieces in the antechamber File:King Tutankhamun's tomb goods gloves DSC 0880 (1) (44795620015).jpg , Two of the embroidered gloves found in the antechamber and annexe File:King Tutankhamun's tomb goods shield with image of the King threatening lions DSC 0944 (30769015407).jpg , Ceremonial shield from the annexe File:Ägyptisches Museum Kairo 2016-03-29 Tutanchamun Grabschatz 12.jpg , A calcite model boat from the annexe File:Egyptian Museum 000 (6).jpg , A ''
senet Senet or senat ( egy, znt, translation=passing; cf. Coptic language, Coptic ⲥⲓⲛⲉ /sinə/ "passing, afternoon") is a board game from ancient Egypt. The earliest representation of senet is dated to E from the Mastaba of Hesy-Re, while sim ...
'' game-board from the annexe File:Ägyptisches Museum Kairo 2016-03-29 Tutanchamun Grabschatz 13.jpg ,
Shabti The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings) was a funerary figurine used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. The Egyptological term is derived from , which replaced earlier , perhaps the nisba of "' ...
s, many of which were found in the annexe


Burial chamber

Most of the space in the burial chamber was taken up by the gilded wooden outer shrine enclosing three nested inner shrines and, within them, a stone sarcophagus containing three nested coffins. Also a wooden frame stood between the outermost and second shrines which was covered with a blue linen pall spangled with bronze rosettes. Yet even this chamber contained burial goods, including jars, religious objects such as '' imiut'' fetishes, oars, fans and walking sticks, some of which were inserted in the narrow gaps between shrines. Each wall of the chamber bore a niche containing a brick, of a type that Egyptologists call "magic bricks", because they are inscribed with passages from Spell 151 from the funerary text known as the
Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' ( egy, 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, ''rw n(y)w prt m hrw(w)'') is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom ...
, and are intended to ward off threats to the dead. The decoration of the shrines, executed in relief, includes portions of several funerary texts. All four shrines bear extracts from the
Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' ( egy, 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, ''rw n(y)w prt m hrw(w)'') is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom ...
, and further extracts from the Amduat are on the third shrine. The outermost shrine is inscribed with the earliest known copy of the
Book of the Heavenly Cow The ''Book of the Heavenly Cow'' ( ar, كتاب البقرة السماوية '), or the ''Book of the Cow of Heaven'', is an Ancient Egyptian text thought to have originated during the Amarna Period and, in part, describes the reasons for th ...
, which describes how Ra reshaped the world into its current form. The second shrine bears a funerary text that is found nowhere else, although texts with similar themes are known from the tombs of Ramesses VI (KV9) and
Ramesses IX Neferkare Setepenre Ramesses IX (also written Ramses) (originally named Amon-her-khepshef Khaemwaset) (ruled 1129–1111 BC) was the eighth pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt. He was the third longest serving king of this Dynasty after Ra ...
( KV6). Like them, it describes the sun god and the netherworld using a cryptic form of hieroglyphic writing that uses non-standard meanings for each hieroglyphic sign. These three texts are sometimes labeled "enigmatic books" or "books of the solar-Osirian unity". The sarcophagus is made of
quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...
but with a red
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
lid, painted yellow to match the quartzite. It is carved with the images of four protective goddesses (
Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
, Nephthys,
Neith Neith ( grc-koi, Νηΐθ, a borrowing of the Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic form egy, nt, likely originally to have been nrt "she is the terrifying one"; Coptic language, Coptic: ⲛⲏⲓⲧ; also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an early ancien ...
and Serqet), and contained a golden lion-headed bier on which rested three nested coffins in human shape. The outer two coffins were made of gilded wood inlaid with glass and semiprecious stones, while the innermost coffin, though similarly inlaid, was primarily composed of of solid gold. Within it lay Tutankhamun's mummified body. On the body, and contained within the layers of mummy wrappings, were 143 items, including articles of clothing such as sandals, a plethora of amulets and other jewellery and two daggers. Tutankhamun's head bore a beaded skullcap and a gold diadem, all of which was encased in the golden
mask of Tutankhamun The mask of Tutankhamun is a gold mask of the 18th-dynasty ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (reigned 1334–1325 BC). It was discovered by Howard Carter in 1925 in tomb KV62 in the Valley of the Kings, and is now housed in the Egyptian Mu ...
, which has become one of the most iconic ancient Egyptian artefacts in the world. File:Egyptian Museum 000 (5).jpg ,
Imiut fetish The Imiut fetish (''jmy-wt'') is a religious object that has been documented throughout the history of ancient Egypt. It was a stuffed, headless animal skin, often of a feline or bull. This fetish was tied by the tail to a pole, terminating in a ...
es from the burial chamber File:Shrinesandsarcophagos.png , Diagram of shrines and coffins in the tomb File:Egyptian Museum (340).jpg , The middle coffin, from the burial chamber File:Egyptian Museum (341).jpg , The inner coffin, from the burial chamber File:Kairo Museum Eisendolch Tutanchamun 01.jpg , The iron dagger, found on Tutankhamun's body


Treasury

In the doorway of the treasury stood a shrine on carrying poles topped by a statue of the jackal god Anubis, in front of which lay a fifth magic brick. Against the east wall of the treasury was a tall gilded shrine containing the
canopic chest Canopic chests are cases used by ancient Egyptians to contain the internal organs removed during the process of mummification. Once canopic jars began to be used in the late Fourth Dynasty, the jars were placed within canopic chests. Although th ...
, in which Tutankhamun's internal organs were placed after mummification. Whereas most canopic chests contain separate jars, Tutankhamun's consists of a single block of alabaster carved into four compartments, each covered by a human-headed stopper and containing an inlaid gold coffinette that housed one of the king's organs. Between the Anubis shrine and the canopic shrine stood a wooden sculpture of a cow's head, representing the goddess Hathor. The treasury was the location of most of the tomb's wooden models, including more boats and a model granary, as well as many of the shabtis. Boxes in the treasury contained miscellaneous items, including much of the tomb's jewellery. A nested set of small coffins in the treasury contained a lock of hair belonging to
Tiye Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the daughter of Yuya and Thuya. She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III. She was the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. I ...
, the wife of
Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...
, who is thought to have been Tutankhamun's grandmother. One box contained two miniature coffins in which mummies of Tutankhamun's stillborn daughters were interred. File:Tutankhamun jackal.jpg , The
Anubis shrine The Anubis Shrine was part of the Grave goods, burial equipment of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, 18th Dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun, whose tomb of Tutankhamun, tomb in the Valley of the Kings was discovered almost intact in 1922 by Egyptologist ...
, from the entrance to the treasury File:Tapa de un cofre encontrado en la tumba de Tutankhamón.jpg , A box from the treasury shaped like the
cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fea ...
of Tutankhamun's name File:Tutankhamun pendant with Wadjet.jpg , A pendant in the shape of a winged scarab carrying the
Eye of Horus The Eye of Horus, ''wedjat'' eye or ''udjat'' eye is a concept and symbol in ancient Egyptian religion that represents well-being, healing, and protection. It derives from the mythical conflict between the god Horus with his rival Set, in wh ...
, from the treasury File:GD-EG-Caire-Musée137.JPG , The canopic shrine from the treasury File:Egyptian Museum Cairo collections (2) 2019.jpg , The
canopic chest Canopic chests are cases used by ancient Egyptians to contain the internal organs removed during the process of mummification. Once canopic jars began to be used in the late Fourth Dynasty, the jars were placed within canopic chests. Although th ...
from the treasury, with three of the four stoppers present File:By ovedc - Egyptian Museum (Cairo) - 268.jpg , Figurines of deities, found in the treasury


Significance

The volume of goods in Tutankhamun's tomb is often taken as a sign that longer-lived kings who had full-size tombs were buried with an even larger array of objects. Yet Tutankhamun's burial goods barely fit into his tomb, so the Egyptologist
Joyce Tyldesley Joyce Ann Tyldesley (born 25 February 1960) is a British archaeologist and Egyptologist, academic, writer and broadcaster who specialises in the women of ancient Egypt. Life Tyldesley was born in Bolton, Lancashire and attended Bolton Scho ...
argues that larger tombs in the valley may have contained assemblages of similar size that were arranged in a more orderly and spacious manner. The fragmentary remains of burial goods in other tombs in the Valley of the Kings include many of the same objects found in Tutankhamun's, implying that there was a somewhat standard set of object types for royal burials in this era. The life-size statues of Tutankhamun and the statuettes of deities have parallels in several other tombs in the valley, while the statuettes of Tutankhamun himself are closely paralleled by wall paintings in
KV15 Tomb KV15, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, was used for the burial of Pharaoh Seti II of the Nineteenth Dynasty. The tomb was dug into the base of a near-vertical cliff face at the head of a wadi running south-west from the main part ...
, the tomb of
Seti II Seti II (or Sethos II) was the fifth pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt and reigned from  1203 BC to 1197 BC. His throne name, Userkheperure Setepenre, means "Powerful are the manifestations of Re, the chosen one of Re." H ...
. Funerary models, such as Tutankhamun's model boats, were mainly a feature of burials in the
Old Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
and Middle Kingdoms and fell out of favour in non-royal burials in the New, but several royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings contained them. Conversely, Tutankhamun's tomb contained no funerary texts on papyri, unlike private tombs from its era, but the existence of an excerpt of the Book of the Dead on a papyrus from KV35, the tomb of
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 ...
, suggests that their absence in Tutankhamun's tomb may have been unusual. No papyrus texts at all were among the burial goods—a disappointment to Egyptologists, who hoped to find documents that would clarify the history of the Amarna Period. Instead much of the value of the discovery was in the insight it provided into the
material culture Material culture is the aspect of social reality grounded in the objects and architecture that surround people. It includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the objects creat ...
of ancient Egypt. Among the furniture was a foldable bed, the only intact example known from ancient Egypt. Some of the boxes could be latched with the turn of a knob, and Carter called them the oldest known examples of such a mechanism. Other everyday items include musical instruments, such as a pair of trumpets; a variety of weapons, including a dagger made of iron, a rare commodity in Tutankhamun's time; and about 130 staffs, including one bearing the label "a reed staff which His Majesty cut with his own hand." Tutankhamun's clothes—loose tunics, robes and sashes, often elaborately decorated with dye, embroidery or beadwork—exhibit more variety than the clothes depicted in art from his time, which consist largely of plain white kilts and tight sheaths. No
crowns A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
were found in the tomb, although crooks and flails, which also served as emblems of kingship, were stored there. Tyldesley suggests that crowns may have not been considered personal property of the king and were instead passed down from reign to reign. Some of the objects in the tomb shed limited light on the end of the Amarna Period. A piece of a box found in the corridor bears the names of Akhenaten, Neferneferuaten and Akhenaten's daughter Meryetaten, while a calcite jar from the tomb bore two erased royal names that have been reconstructed as those of Akhenaten and Smenkhkare. These are key pieces of evidence in attempts to reconstruct the relationships between members of the royal family and the sequence in which they reigned, although scholars' interpretations have varied greatly. The faces of Tutankhamun's second coffin and his canopic coffinettes differ from the faces of most portrayals of him, so these items may originally have been made for another ruler, such as Smenkhkare or Neferneferuaten, and reused for Tutankhamun's burial. Some objects bear evidence of the shift in religious policy in Tutankhamun's reign. The golden throne portrays Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun beneath the rays of the Aten, in the Amarna art style. The king and queen are labeled with the later forms of their names, referring to Amun rather than the Aten, but there are signs that these labels were altered after the throne was made, and the open-work arms and back of the throne bear the king's original name, Tutankhaten. A sceptre from the annexe bears an inscription mentioning both the Aten and Amun, implying an attempt to integrate the two religious systems. Other information about the reign is provided by the labels on wine jars, which are labeled by the year in which they were produced. Jars that are explicitly labeled as coming from Tutankhamun's reign range from Year 5 to Year 9, while one jar from an unidentified reign is labeled Year 10 and another Year 31. The Year 31 wine probably comes from the reign of Amenhotep III, so the remaining jars suggest that Tutankhamun reigned for nine or ten years. The flowers and fruits in the funerary garlands would have been available from mid-March to mid-April, indicating that Tutankhamun's funeral took place then. The royal annals of the
Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...
record a letter from an unnamed Egyptian queen, referred to as "
Dakhamunzu Dakhamunzu (sometimes ''Dahamunzu'') is the name of an Egyptian queen known from the Hittite annals '' The Deeds of Suppiluliuma'', which were composed by Suppiluliuma I's son Mursili II. The identity of this queen has not yet been established ...
", recently widowed by the death of a pharaoh and offering to marry a Hittite prince. The dead king is most commonly thought to be Tutankhamun, and Ankhesenamun the sender of the letter, but the letter indicates the king in question died in August or September, meaning either that Tutankhamun was not the king in the Hittite annals or that he remained unburied far longer than the traditional 70-day period of mummification and mourning. The thefts make Tutankhamun's tomb one of the most important sources for understanding tomb robbery and restoration in the New Kingdom, particularly for the early part of that period, when robberies were more opportunistic than the large-scale plundering that took place in the late Twentieth Dynasty. Many of the boxes in the tomb bear dockets in
hieratic Hieratic (; grc, ἱερατικά, hieratiká, priestly) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BC until the ris ...
writing that list their original contents, making it possible to partially reconstruct what the tomb originally held and which items were lost. The dockets of the jewellery boxes in the treasury, for instance, indicate that about 60 per cent of their contents is missing. Thieves would have prized what was valuable, portable and either untraceable or possible to disguise through dismantling or melting. Most of the metal vessels originally buried with Tutankhamun were stolen, as were those of glass, indicating that glass was a valuable commodity at the time. The robbers also took bedding and cosmetics; the theft of the latter shows that the robberies took place soon after burial, as the Egyptians' fat-based unguents would have turned rancid within a few years. One of the boxes in the antechamber contained a set of gold rings wrapped in a scarf, which Carter believed had been dropped by the thieves and placed in the box by the restorers. The unlikelihood that robbers would forget something so valuable led him to suggest they had been caught in the act. The broken objects found in the fill of the corridor all came from the antechamber, implying that the first group of thieves only had access to that chamber and that it was the second group who reached as far as the treasury. A man named Djehutymose, apparently the official who carried out the restoration of the tomb, wrote his name on a jar stand in the annexe. The same man left a note in
KV43 Tomb KV43 is the tomb of Pharaoh Thutmose IV in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. It has a dog-leg shape, typical of the layout of early 18th Dynasty tombs. KV43 was rediscovered in 1903 by Howard Carter, excavating on behalf of Theodore ...
, the tomb of
Thutmose IV Thutmose IV (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis IV, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek; egy, ḏḥwti.msi(.w) "Thoth is born") was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century ...
, recording the restoration of that tomb in Year 8 of the reign of Horemheb. These two tombs were among several in the Valley of the Kings that were robbed at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, suggesting that political uncertainty following Tutankhamun's death caused a weakening of security there.


Disposition

After the completion of the clearance in 1932, the tomb was emptied of nearly all its contents. The main exceptions were the sarcophagus, with its original lid replaced by a glass plate, and the outermost of the three coffins, in which Tutankhamun's mummy was placed. Carter also took a handful of small artefacts from the tomb, without permission; upon his death, his heir, Phyllis Walker, discovered them and had them returned to the Egyptian government. A few items are suspected of having illicitly made their way into other collections of Egyptian antiquities, but their provenance is uncertain. For several decades after his tomb was cleared, the overwhelming majority of Tutankhamun's burial goods were stored at either the
Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...
in Cairo or
Luxor Museum Luxor Museum is an archaeological museum in Luxor (ancient Thebes), Egypt. It stands on the corniche, overlooking the east bank of the River Nile. Establishment The Luxor Museum was inaugurated in 1975. It is a two-story building. The range of ...
. Only the most major pieces have been on display, while the rest have been in storage at one of the two sites. Selected pieces have also gone on museum exhibition tours, raising money for the Egyptian government and serving to improve its relations with the host countries. There have been several exhibitions, visiting Europe, North America, Japan and Australia, in three major phases, one from 1961 to 1967, another from 1972 to 1981, and a third from 2004 to 2013. Many exhibitions of replicas have also taken place, beginning with a set made for the
British Empire Exhibition The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London England from 23 April to 1 November 1924 and from 9 May to 31 October 1925. Background In 1920 the British Government decided to site the British Empire Exhibit ...
in 1924. Beginning in 2011, the objects from the tomb were gradually transferred to the
Grand Egyptian Museum The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM; ''al-Matḥaf al-Maṣriyy al-Kabīr''), also known as the Giza Museum, is an archaeological museum under construction in Giza, Egypt. It will house artifacts of ancient Egypt, including the complete Tutankhamun ...
in
Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah'' arz, الجيزة ' ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 ...
. Upon its opening in 2022, the museum is planned to display all the tomb's artefacts.


Mummies

When it was uncovered in November 1925, Tutankhamun's mummy was in poor condition. The unguents that were poured over the wrappings before burial had undergone a chemical reaction that Lucas called "some kind of slow spontaneous combustion", possibly caused by fungi in the tomb. As a result most of the wrappings, and even much of the tissues in the mummy, had been carbonised. Tutankhamun's condition contrasted with the much better-preserved mummies of other New Kingdom rulers. These mummies had been removed from their plundered tombs, placed in simpler coffins and buried in two caches during the Twenty-first Dynasty, a few centuries after they were originally entombed. It is not known whether they suffered less deterioration because they were less liberally treated with unguents, or because their removal from their original coffins prevented the unguents from soaking through the wrappings. The solidified unguents glued together Tutankhamun's remains, his mummy wrappings and the objects on his body, forming a single mass stuck to the bottom of the coffin encasing it. The excavators concluded that to remove the mummy and extricate the burial goods they would have to cut it into sections, chiseling each piece out of its setting. Two anatomists, Douglas Derry and Saleh Bey Hamdi, examined the pieces as they came free before coating the fragile flesh in paraffin wax to prevent further deterioration. They determined that Tutankhamun had been close to the age of 18 when he died, and that his skull shape, closely resembling that of an unidentified royal mummy from
KV55 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 wa ...
, showed he was of royal blood rather than having married into the royal family, as Egyptologists had previously believed. When the examination concluded, Carter placed the dismembered mummy on a sand tray, which he returned to the sarcophagus in the burial chamber the following year. The mummified fetuses found in the treasury are at different stages of development, one at five months' gestation and the other at seven to nine. Their coffins do not specify names, so they are designated based on the object number of the box that contained them (317); the smaller fetus is known as 317a(2) and the larger as 317b(2). They were examined by Derry in 1932 and subsequently stored at the medical school where he worked, now part of
Cairo University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...
. Tutankhamun's mummy has often been analysed to see what health conditions he had, and particularly to determine his cause of death. Such efforts are often contentious, as it is difficult to distinguish damage inflicted on the body in recent times from damage Tutankhamun suffered while alive. For instance, in 1996, the Egyptologist
Bob Brier Robert Brier (; born December 13, 1943) is an American Egyptologist specializing in paleopathology. A senior research fellow at Long Island University/LIU Post, he has researched and published on mummies and the mummification process and has appear ...
suggested that fragments of bone in the skull cavity, seen in the X-rays that Harrison had taken in 1968, were a sign that Tutankhamun had died of a blow to the head and might have been murdered. The bone fragments were later found to be fragments of vertebrae that were pushed into the skull cavity during Derry's examination. The fetuses have faced similar problems; Harrison, in 1977, said 317b(2) had
Sprengel's deformity Sprengel's deformity (also known as high scapula or congenital high scapula) is a rare congenital skeletal abnormality where a person has one shoulder blade that sits higher on the back than the other. The deformity is due to a failure in early f ...
, but a study in 2011 by the radiologist
Sahar Saleem Sahar Saleem is a professor of radiology at Cairo University where she specialises in paleoradiology, the use of radiology to study mummies. She discovered the knife wound in the throat of Ramesses III, which was most likely the cause of his deat ...
argued that the signs of deformity were actually postmortem damage. Both Tutankhamun's mummy and the fetuses have undergone genetic testing. A 2010 study of the DNA of many of the mummies from the Valley of the Kings announced that the fetuses were Tutankhamun's children by a woman whose mummy was found in
KV21 Tomb KV21 is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It was discovered in 1817 by Giovanni Belzoni and later re-excavated by Donald P. Ryan in 1989. It contains the mummies of two women, thought to be Eighteenth Dy ...
, who was presumed to be Ankhesenamun. However, the results of genetic studies of Egyptian mummies have been questioned by several geneticists, such as
Svante Pääbo Svante Pääbo (; born 20 April 1955) is a Swedish geneticist who specialises in the field of evolutionary genetics. As one of the founders of paleogenetics, he has worked extensively on the Neanderthal genome. In 1997, he became founding dire ...
, who argue that DNA breaks down so rapidly in Egypt's heat that remains more than a few centuries old cannot produce an analysable DNA sample.


Replica

The replica of the burial chamber includes copies of the wall decoration and of the sarcophagus. Both were reproduced based on highly detailed scans. The replica was presented to the Egyptian government in 2012 and installed next to Carter House, where Carter lived while working on the tomb, near the entrance to the
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 ...
.


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Citations


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Further reading

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External links


Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation
at the website of the
Griffith Institute The Griffith Institute is an Egyptological institution based in the Griffith Wing of the Sackler Library and is part of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, England. It was founded for the advancement of Egyptology and Ancient N ...

High-resolution image viewer of the tomb
by Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation
KV62: Tutankhamen
at 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 Carter Centenary Gallery
at the website of Swaffham Museum {{DEFAULTSORT:Kv62 1922 archaeological discoveries Buildings and structures completed in the 14th century BC Valley of the Kings Tutankhamun