Tomb KV2, found 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 ...

, is the tomb of

Ramesses IV Heqamaatre Setepenamun Ramesses IV (also written Ramses or Rameses) was the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. He was the second son of Ramesses III and became crown prince when his elder brother Amenhe ...

, and is located low down in the main valley, between

KV7 Tomb KV7 was the final resting place of ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II ("Ramesses the Great") of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Location It is located in the Valley of the Kings opposite the tomb of his sons, KV5, and near to the tomb of his son ...

and KV1. It has been open since antiquity and contains a large amount of graffiti.

Contemporary plans of the tomb

There are two known plans of the tomb's layout contemporary to its construction. One on

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

(now located at the Egyptian Museum in Turin) provides a detailed depiction of the tomb at 1:28 scale. All of the passages and chambers are present, with measurements written 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 ...

script. The papyrus plan also depicts the pharaoh's sarcophagus surrounded by four concentric sets of shrines, the same layout of shrines that were found intact within

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 ...

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a :wikt:repository, repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be ...

. The other plan of the tomb was found inscribed on a slab of limestone not far from the tomb's entrance, and is a rough layout of the tomb depicting the location of its doors. The latter plan may have just been a "workman's doodle" but the papyrus plan almost certainly had a deeper ritual meaning, and may have been used to

consecrate Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

the tomb after it was built.

Tomb layout

ostracon An ostracon (Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of ston ...

has been discovered mentioning the initiation of the tomb, its location selected by the local governor and two of the pharaoh's chief attendants in the second year of his reign. Ramesses IV ascended the throne late in life, and to ensure that he would have a sizable tomb (during what would be a relatively brief reign of about six years), he doubled the size of the existing work gangs at

Deir el-Medina Deir el-Medina ( arz, دير المدينة), or Dayr al-Madīnah, is an ancient Egyptian workmen's village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom of ...

to a total of 120 men. Though sizable, KV2 has been described as being "simplistic" in its design and decoration.The Tomb of Ramesses IV, Valley of the Kings, Egypt, accessed July 15, 2009
/ref> The tomb was excavated at the base of a hill on the northwest side of the

. Like other tombs of the

20th 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 toget ...

, KV2 is laid out along a straight axis. The successors of Ramesses III from this dynasty constructed tombs that follow this pattern and most were decorated in a similar manner to one other. The tomb has a maximum length of 88.66 m and consists of three slowly descending corridors labeled B, C, and D. This is followed by an enlarged chamber (E), and then the burial chamber (J). Past the burial chamber lies a narrow corridor (K) flanked by three side chambers a, Kb and Kc The tomb is mostly intact and is decorated with scenes from the ''

Litany of Ra The Litany of Re (or more fully "''Book of Praying to Re in the West, Praying to the United One in the West''") is an important ancient Egyptian funerary text of the New Kingdom.Hornung (1999) p.136 Like many funerary texts, it was written on the ...

'', ''

Book of Caverns The Book of Caverns is an important ancient Egyptian netherworld book of the New Kingdom.Hornung (1999) p.83 Like all other netherworld books, it is also attested on the inside of kings’ tombs for the benefit of the deceased. It describes 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 ...

'', '' Book of Amduat'' and the '' Book of the Heavens''. The

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

is broken (probably in antiquity), and the

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...

was relocated to the mummy cache in KV35.

Visits in antiquity

The tomb was one of about eleven tombs open to early travelers. KV2 contains the second-highest number of ancient graffiti within it (after KV9), with 656 individual graffiti left by both Ancient Greek and Roman visitors. This tomb also contains around 50 or so examples of

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

graffiti, mostly sketched onto the right wall by the entranceway, The tomb was likely used as a dwelling by Coptic monks, and there are also depictions of Coptic saints and crosses on the tomb's walls. Early European visitors to the area included

Richard Pococke Richard Pococke (19 November 1704 – 25 September 1765)''Notes and Queries'', p. 129. was an English-born churchman, inveterate traveller and travel writer. He was the Bishop of Ossory (1756–65) and Meath (1765), both dioceses of the Church ...

, who visited KV2 and designated it "Tomb B" in his ''Observations of Egypt'', published in 1743. The savants accompanying

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

's campaign in Egypt surveyed the Valley of the Kings and designated KV2 as "IIe Tombeau" ("2nd Tomb") in their list. Other visitors of note included

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 ...

, who mapped out the tomb in 1825, and the Franco-Tuscan Expedition of 1828–1829, who did an epigraphic survey of the tomb's inscriptions.

Modern archeological work

Archeologist Edward Ayrton excavated the entranceway to the tomb during 1905/1906, followed 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 ...

in 1920. Both of them found remnants of the materials which had originally come from inside the tomb, such as

shabtis 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 "' ...

, numerous ostraca and fragments of wood, glass and

Faience Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major ad ...

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Theban Mapping Project: KV2
- Includes description, images, and plans of the tomb. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kv02 Buildings and structures completed in the 12th century BC Valley of the Kings Ramesses IV 12th-century BC establishments in Egypt 1920 archaeological discoveries 1905 archaeological discoveries