Tomb KV42 (Kings Valley 42) is an
ancient Egyptian tomb in the
Valley of the Kings near
Luxor
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...
, Egypt. It was constructed for
Hatshepsut-Meryetre, the wife of
Thutmose III
Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, (1479–1425 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He is regarded as one of the greatest warriors, military commanders, and milita ...
, but she was not buried in the tomb. It may have been reused by
Sennefer, a mayor of
Thebes during the reign of
Amenhotep II, and by several members of his family. The tomb has a
cartouche
upalt=A stone face carved with coloured hieroglyphics. Two cartouches - ovoid shapes with hieroglyphics inside - are visible at the bottom., Birth and throne cartouches of Pharaoh KV17.html" ;"title="Seti I, from KV17">Seti I, from KV17 at the ...
-shaped burial chamber, like other early
Eighteenth Dynasty
The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...
tombs.
Discovery, layout, and contents
The tomb was uncovered by two local
Copts
Copts (; ) are a Christians, Christian ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt since antiquity. They are, like the broader Egyptians, Egyptian population, des ...
, Chinouda Macarios and Boutros Andraos, in late 1900;
they obtained an excavation permit through their statement that they knew the location of a tomb. However,
Howard Carter
Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptology, Egyptologist who Discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, discovered Tomb of Tutankhamun, the intact tomb of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, 18th Dynasty Pharaoh ...
notes in his report that "I doubt the secret was really their own, as the site was discovered by and known to
Monsieur Loret some eighteen months previously, and probably their informations was obtained from his workmen."
The excavation commenced on 27 November 1900 and the blocking in the doorway was officially taken down on 9 December. Only the lower part of the door sealing was original, the rest being composed of fallen rock. It was immediately apparent that the tomb had suffered from ancient robbing and had been inundated with water.
On inspecting the interior, the former plundering of this tomb was only too evident, for the funereal furniture, vases, and Canopic jar
Canopic jars are funerary vessels that were used by the Ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptians to house embalmed organs that were removed during the mummification process. They also served to store and preserve the viscera of their soul for the afterl ...
s, were mashed and lying about the ground of the passages and chambers, evidently just as the former robbers had thrown them, some being partly buried in the fine yellow mud, now dry, which had covered the floors of the lower chambers.
The cartouche-shaped burial chamber contained an unfinished stone
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 ...
, the lid of which was propped up with a piece of wood. The tomb contained a set of well-preserved canopic jars belonging to Sentnay, the wife of Sennefer.
Analysis of the remnants of the embalming balm from two of these jars housed in Museum August Kestner, Germany, identified they were composed of a complex blend of plant oils, beeswax, fat, bitumen, and ''
Pinaceae
The Pinaceae (), or pine family, are conifer trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as Cedrus, cedars, firs, Tsuga, hemlocks, Pinyon_pine, piñons,
larches, pines and spruces. The family is incl ...
'' and
dammar or ''
Pistacia'' resins, many of which were imported into Egypt.
A set of fragmentary jars were located, along with an alabaster offering table, both inscribed for a woman named Baketra who bore the title "
royal ornament". Additionally, four canopic jar lids in the form of bearded heads were found which Carter suggested belonged to Sennefer.
An unspecified number of model vessels inscribed for both Sennefer and Sentnay were also found.
The wood once present in the tomb had rotted, though there was evidence of sledge-style bases and wooden coffins, the ivory inlay of which "was impossible to preserve, as, on being touched, it instantly fell to pieces."
Carter suggested that the tomb was robbed for its metal during the
Twenty-second Dynasty, as the foreman found "some gold leaf and an exquisite gold inlay rosette, probably the bottom part of a
menat
In ancient Egyptian religion, a menat (, ) was a necklace closely associated with the goddess Hathor.
Operation
The menat was held in the hand by its counterpoise and used as a Rattle (percussion instrument), rattle by Hathor's priestesses. It ...
wrenched off..."
in the upper passageway. He also suggested that the tomb had been reentered "in comparatively late times," as antiquities were found scattered on the dry mud inside and many pottery vessels were encountered sitting on the steps outside the burial chamber.
The small room off the burial chamber contained approximately twenty to thirty whole and broken earthenware jars, some of which were still sealed. Carter thought the space might contain a burial shaft as there was a dip in the floor but excavation proved this was not the case.
Only the burial chamber was decorated. Part of the ceiling is covered with yellow stars on a blue background; in the rest of the room only the upper parts of the walls containing the dado and ''khekher''-frieze were painted.
Graffito
A graffito inscription occurs at the entrance of the KV42:
3rd month of summer, day 23: work was begun on this tomb by the necropolis team, when the scribe Butehamun went to the town to see the general's arrival in the north.
This may record the uncovering and emptying of the tomb on the orders of
Piankh, the
High Priest of Amun, either for reburial elsewhere or as part of a state-sanctioned campaign of robbery.
Intended ownership

There is no agreement on the original owner of the tomb. The unfinished quartzite sarcophagus is seen as an indication that the tomb may have at some point been intended for
Thutmose II. However, no trace of royal funerary equipment was found in the tomb, making it doubtful that the tomb was ever used for a royal burial.
The lack of the customary figural decoration with scenes from the
Amduat, which in this period were only executed after the funeral, also supports the idea this tomb was never used.
The discovery of
foundation deposits by Carter in 1921 point to the intended owner being Queen
Merytre-Hatshepsut.
Unusually, the vessels in this foundation deposit are inscribed in hieratic written in ink instead of the usual incised, blue pigment-filled hieroglyphs. This may indicate the vessels are secondary, to claim the tomb left vacant by Thutmose II.
If the tomb ever held the body of Thutmose II, it would have been usurped from the queen.
[René Preys, Les tombes non-royales de la Vallée des Rois, Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur, Bd. 40 (2011), pp. 315–338, ]
Sennefer and Senetnay
Carter ascribed the tomb to Sennefer, a mayor of Thebes, based on the presence of a set of canopic jars belonging to Sentnay, four male canopic jar lids, and numerous model vessels inscribed for the pair.
Catherine Roehrig, in her tracing of the tomb's contents, proposed that Sentnay, as the royal nurse of Amenhotep II, was originally granted a burial elsewhere in the Valley and later re-interred in KV42 with two other individuals as part of a cache, possibly as late as the 21st Dynasty.
Nicholas Reeves sees the presence of parts of the original blocking and the storage jars as proof that the tomb was used for a primary burial. He suggests that Sennefer and Sentnay were granted use of the tomb by Amenhotep II,
something which Marianne Eaton-Krauss considers highly unlikely given that
Yuya and
Tjuyu, the parents in-law of
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III ( , ; "Amun is satisfied"), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenization, Hellenized as Amenophis III, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. According to d ...
were granted a much smaller, undecorated tomb (
KV46) despite their close relationship to the king.
References
External links
Theban Mapping Project: KV42includes detailed maps of most of the tombs.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kv42
Buildings and structures completed in the 15th century BC
Valley of the Kings