Maia was the

wet nurse A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeding, breastfeeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, if she is unable to nurse the child herself sufficiently or chooses not to do so. Wet-nursed children may be known a ...

of the

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian pharaoh

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, (; ), was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of an ...

in the 14th century BC. Her

rock-cut tomb A rock-cut tomb is a burial chamber that is cut into an existing, naturally occurring rock formation, so a type of rock-cut architecture. They are usually cut into a cliff or sloping rock face, but may go downward in fairly flat ground. It was a ...

was discovered in the

Saqqara Saqqara ( : saqqāra ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for ...

necropolis in 1996.

Biography

Maia bears the titles "wet nurse of the king", "educator of the god's body" and "great one of the harem". Her origin and relatives are not known. Apart from Tutankhamun, the Overseer of the Magazine Rahotep, the High Priest of

Thoth Thoth (from , borrowed from , , the reflex of " eis like the ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an African sacred ibis, ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine count ...

, and

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

s named Tetinefer and Ahmose are mentioned in inscriptions. Due to the close resemblance of Maia with Tutankhamun's sister Meritaten, it was suggested that the two are identical.

The tomb

Maia's tomb was discovered in 1996 by the French

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Alain Zivie and his team in the vicinity of the Bubasteion complex dedicated to the deity Bastet at Saqqara. The outside of the tomb is built on

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

with four pillars forming a square. The side walls of the entrance are decorated with colourful and well preserved inscriptions. A relief in the tomb's first chamber shows Maia sitting on a chair with Tutankhamun on her lap and surrounded by six people honouring the young king. On the opposite wall there is a badly damaged scene showing Maia in front of the king. Only three limestone blocks of these scenes are preserved. A door leads to a second longer chamber found full of rubble and partly burnt mummified

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s. The second room is dedicated to the burial rites associated with Maia. Maia is shown in front of offering bearers. She is depicted as a mummy in relation to the opening of the mouth ritual and she is standing before the underworld god

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

. Another door opens to a third chamber, a hall with pillars, also found full of rubble. The pillars are decorated with the image of Maia. The back of the room shows a stela carved into the rock with Maia in front of Osiris. From this hall, a shaft leads to a lower level of the tomb. The tomb's chapel contained a limestone

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek language, Greek wikt:σάρξ, σάρξ ...

with a cat

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...

inside. Masonry work carried out in later periods covered wall paintings in the third chamber and included several pillars into the chamber's walls. Once uncovered, these pillars revealed paintings of Maia. A

stela A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

carved out of rock in the back of this room bears reliefs and inscriptions. In 2001, the team started to explore the tomb's first lower level, which also contained large amounts of cat mummies beside human mummies,

votive A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

objects, statues and sarcophagi. This level had also been reused in later periods of the tomb's history. On this level, the skeleton of a male

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

was found in autumn 2001. It did not have any bandages, but showed signs of mummification similar to other cat mummies found in the tomb. It had probably lived and died in the Ptolemaic period. The second lower level was explored in autumn 2002. It is smaller than the previous levels and has not been reused. In December 2015 the tomb was opened for the public.

References

External links

*National Geographic
King Tut’s Wet Nurse (Video)
* {{Amarna Period Officials of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt Wet nurses