KV49
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Tomb KV49, located in the
Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings, is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and power ...
, in
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
is a typical
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 ...
corridor tomb. It was the first of a series of tombs discovered in 1906 by
Edward R. Ayrton Edward Russell Ayrton (17 December 1882 – 18 May 1914) was an English Egyptologist and archaeologist. Early life Ayrton was the son of William Scrope Ayrton (1849-1904), a British consular official in China, and his wife Ellen Louisa McClatc ...
in the course of his excavations on behalf of
Theodore M. Davis Theodore M. Davis (May 7, 1838 – February 23, 1915) was an American lawyer and businessman. He is best known for his excavations in Egypt's Valley of the Kings between 1902 and 1913. Biography Theodore Montgomery Davis was born in Springfield, N ...
. The tomb was abandoned before it was completed, and the work was halted as the stairwell in the single chamber was being cut. It was probably used as a store for royal linen, or was used as a mummy-restoration area in the later
New Kingdom New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
.


Location, discovery, and layout

The tomb is located in a side valley that runs towards 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. He inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few military campaigns i ...
,
KV35 Tomb KV35 is the burial place of Amenhotep II, a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. Later, it was used as a cache for other royal mummies. It was discovered by Victor Loret in March 1898. L ...
. The valley is formed by two rocky promontories. On the northern side are the tombs KV12 and KV9; the southern side had not been investigated and "presented to the eye a surface level of loose rubbish, unbroken by depressions." Ayrton began clearing to the bedrock as part of Davis' "system of exhaustion" strategy, working methodically from east to west. KV49 was the first tomb uncovered and is located on the northern side of the promontory, running south into the rock. The entrance was filled with limestone chips, amongst which were several
ostraca An ostracon (Greek language, Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeology, archaeological or epigraphy, epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer ...
. One depicts an official worshipping, while the other, drawn in red and black ink depicts a man presenting an offering to the deified Queen
Ahmose-Nefertari Ahmose-Nefertari (Ancient Egyptian: '' Jꜥḥ ms Nfr trj'') was the first Great Royal Wife of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. She was a daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep I, and royal sister and wife to Ahmose I. Her son Amenhotep I beca ...
. The tomb is a typical mid-Eighteenth Dynasty corridor tomb, although unfinished. It consists of a flight of stairs that lead down to the first doorway. Beyond this is a long sloping corridor, the doorway at the far end of which was once sealed with stones and plaster. This opens onto a square chamber, in the floor of which the cutting of a staircase was begun but never finished.


Contents

The single chamber contained scraps of mummy cloth, fragments of white-washed ceramic storage jars, and in a small pit over the unfinished stairs, an ostracon naming "Hay, overseer of workmen in the Place of Truth." He is depicted making offerings to the goddess
Meretseger Meretseger (also known as Mersegrit' or Mertseger) was a Theban cobra-goddess in ancient Egyptian religion, in charge with guarding and protecting the vast Theban Necropolis — on the west bank of the Nile, in front of Thebes — and especiall ...
on one side; on the other is a list of workmen. Also found were several rough game boards carved from limestone slabs. A broken wooden label bearing the inscription "corpse oil" was also found.


Graffiti and later use

Ayrton noted
hieratic Hieratic (; ) 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 BCE until the rise of Demotic in the mid-first millennium BCE ...
graffiti listing workmen written in red ink written above the entrance. They record two visits of officials to the tomb in the reigns of
Ramesses XI Menmaatre Ramesses XI (also written Ramses and Rameses) reigned from 1107 BC to somewhere between 1078 BC and 1068 BC and is generally considered the tenth and final pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt and as such, the last king of the Ne ...
or
Smendes I Hedjkheperre Setepenre Smendes was the founder of the Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt and succeeded to the throne after burying Ramesses XI in Lower Egypt – territory which he controlled. His Egyptian nomen or birth name was actually Nesban ...
to deliver large quantities of royal linen. The first reads:
1
Peret Pedro Pubill Calaf (, ; 24 March 1935 – 27 August 2014), better known as Peret, was a Spanish Romani singer, guitar player and composer of Catalan rumba from Mataró (Barcelona). Known for his 1971 single, "Borriquito" ( Ariola Records), ...
25. Coming and bringing the royal linen, 20 loths? Assorted bedspreads 'ẖyrr', 5; shawls, 15: total, 20. The Scribe Butehamun, Pakhoir, Pennesttawy, son of Nesamenope, Hori, Takany, Amenhotep, Kaka, Nakhtamenwese, and Amen ebesttawynakte.
The second reads:
Finishing on the second occasion; bringing clothing, 3 Peret 5. The men who brought t Pait, the Scribe Butehamun, Iyamennuef, Pakhoir, Tjauemdi..., Hori, son of Kadjadja, Takairnayu, Nesamenope. Royal linen, shawls, 45; long shawls, 5: total, 50.
The tomb seems to have been employed as a storeroom for temple linen at the end of the New Kingdom; the game boards and ostraca likely date to this period of the tomb's use. Nicholas Reeves suggests that the tomb was used for the restoration and rewrapping of royal mummies in the late New Kingdom. The name Butehamun occurs once on the restoration dockets, that of
Ramesses III Usermaatre Meryamun Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt, Twentieth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt. Some scholars date his reign from 26 March 1186 to 15 April 1155 BC, and he is considered the last pharaoh of the New K ...
. Reeves therefore finds it likely that the tomb was provisioned with cloth for the rewrapping of the mummy of that king, whose tomb,
KV11 Tomb KV11 is the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses III. It is located in the main valley of the Valley of the Kings. The tomb was originally started by Setnakhte, but abandoned when it unintentionally broke into the earlier tomb of Amenmesse ( KV10). Setna ...
, is located relatively close by.


References


External links


Theban Mapping Project: KV49
includes detailed maps of most of the tombs. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kv49 1906 archaeological discoveries Valley of the Kings