Tomb KV36, located 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 ...

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 Medit ...

, was used for the burial of the noble Maiherpri from the Eighteenth Dynasty. Rediscovered 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 his second season in the Valley of the Kings, on 30 March 1899, the tomb was found to be substantially undisturbed, but as it has for a long time not been properly published, it is not as well known as other burials in the valley. All the objects found were taken to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo where they were published in the ''Catalogue General'' (short: CG). The only source for the arrangement of the objects in the burial chamber was a short article by

Georg Schweinfurth Georg August Schweinfurth (29 December 1836 – 19 September 1925) was a Baltic German botanist and ethnologist who explored East Central Africa. Life and explorations He was born at Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire. He was edu ...

. He visited the tomb briefly before its contents were brought to Cairo. However, recently the notebooks of Loret were found and published, providing a detailed list and description of the objects found and their arrangement in the tomb chamber. The tomb of Maiherpri is a small shaft tomb with a chamber at the bottom on its west side. The burial chamber was undecorated, as with all burial chambers of non-royals in the Valley of the King. It is 3.90 m long and 4.10 m wide.
Not much is known about Maiherpri as he does not appear in sources outside the tomb. Only two titles appear on the objects within the burial: ''child of the nursery'' and ''fan-bearer on the right side of the king''. The mummy showed that he was a young man when he died. Maiherpri was placed in a set of three coffins. The outer one is rectangular, painted black with gilded inscriptions and gilded decoration. It is more a shrine than a coffin. Inside it there were two anthropoid coffins also in black with gilded decoration. There is a third anthropoid coffin found next to this coffin ensemble with its lid placed next to the box. This caused some confusion and discussion in Egyptology. It seems that the 'extra' coffin was intended as the innermost one, but was actually too big to fit into the set and was therefore left unused next to it. A similar situation was found in the burial 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 ...

, where his second coffin was also slightly too large for the outermost one. There the coffin was ''shortened'' directly in the tomb chamber, while in the burial of Maiherpri a new coffin was obtained. Maiherpri mummy was adorned with a mummy mask. At the foot end of the rectangular coffin, on the east side was found his canopic box with the four canopic jars still in it. Next to it there was the Book of the Dead of Maiherpri and there were found several boxes with mummified pieces of meat. At the head of the coffins many pottery vessels were found. Other objects from this tomb are stone vases, a senet game, a nicely painted faience bowl, a quiver, a glass vase and a funerary bed with the shape of Osiris laid out in wheat.Cairo CG 24061

References

Literature

* Christian Orsenigo: ''La tomba di Maiherperi (KV 36).'' In: ''La Valle dei Re Riscoperta, I giornali di scavo Vitor Loret (1898-1899) e altri inediti.'' Mailand 2004, pp. 214–221, 271–281 (with English translation by

Stephen Quirke Stephen Quirke is an Egyptologist. He is the current Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College London. He has worked at the British Museum (1989–1998) and since 1999 at the Petrie Museum in London. He has publi ...

) * Reeves, N & Wilkinson, R.H. The Complete Valley of the Kings, 1996, Thames and Hudson, London. * Siliotti, A. Guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples, 1996, A.A. Gaddis, Cairo. *

External links

Theban Mapping Project: KV36
- Includes detailed maps of most of the tombs. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kv36 1899 archaeological discoveries Buildings and structures completed in the 14th century BC Valley of the Kings