A ROOM WITH A VIEW PT 2.
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 3:43 pm
In part one of this essay I dealt with K.V.55, now I need to move on to discuss tombs K.V. 23, 54, 63, and perhaps 57', and then back for the final twist, that may bring us back to K.V.55.
First we need to deal with K.V. 54, known as the Tutankhamoun cache, this was discovered by Theodore Davis in 1908, what he had found was a collection of items that were part of a banquet held by the immediate relatives of the dead pharaoh, also embalming fluid, bandages and a few items of little value that identified them with that pharaoh. Davis thought that he had found the remains of Tutankhamoun, and therefore his tomb. The bones were sent to Cairo to be analysed, they were found to chicken bones, this was the final straw for Davis, and gave up his concession in the King's Valley. Howard Carter knew from this information that this pharaoh was defiantly buried in the Valley, the question was, where.
We all know about Carter's glorious find and the moment of 'I see wonderful things', but I want to take you back three days before that event. At the bottom of those now famous steps, Carter was confronted by a sealed wall, that he quickly realised had not once but TWICE officially had been opened up. (This has often been associated with the two brake in by ancient robbers, though these small, and quite separate.) When he removed this wall he was faced by a nine foot square entrance some twenty foot long tunnel full of rubble, that took a further two days to clear. Carter was careful to study the removal of the rubble, and, although not much publicity was given, he found items from the reign of Tuthmosis III, and Amenhotep III.
Now at the end of the third day Carter was faced by another wall, that again had been dismantled and rebuilt and re-sealed by the authority the chief guardian of the royal necropolis, a man called Maya. He had also re-sealed the only two previous small break-ins and therefore although Carter at this point did not think for one moment that he had found the tomb of Tutankhamoun, he thought that whatever cache he was to find, he was certain it would be intact.
As we all well know the great story, I shall move on to a few things that are generally not known, or not accepted. When we come to the actual burial chamber itself, it was discovered that one of the shrine belonged to a burial for Smenkare. When we look at the sacophagus of Tutankhamoun, it is generally accepted these days that it has been re-cut. When we look at the three coffins, it is quite clear that the facial image is very different on the middle coffin in comparison to the other two.
Carter in the past has been highly criticised, because of the way he removed the body of Tutankhamoun from the solid, one inch thick gold coffee, however when it is realised that no other pharaoh has ever been en-tombed in a such manner, we can understand that the process of mummification will be quite different from the status-quo, especially when at least two bucket full of embalming fluid was thrown in the coffin before being sealed up in an air-light box.
When Carter finally started to clear the treasury of this tomb, he discovered that this room had been cut out very roughly, as though at great speed, evidently to give it a sense of royal proportions, rather than those required for a noble tomb. Also in this area Carter discovered two ushabti figure, and a further one, against a wall in the Antechamber. Carter's numbers for these figures are 326a, 330c and 458, each one of which is very different from the other. Also discovered in the Treasury was a piece of wood, that had once been part of a wooden box, engraved in the wood are the two cartouches of both Akenaton and Smenkhkare, which proves there was a period of co-regency, but really the main question should be,........What on earth were such items doing in K.V. 62 ?
It's now time to have a look at K.V. 23 in the Western Valley, but we will return to K.V. 62 for one short visit, but a revealing moment. The tomb of Ay is of a royal standard, although small, the proportions are correct. It was always thought that the tomb had not been used. Although first discovered back in the days of Belzoni, no real archeology had been carried out on this tomb until 1972 by a then quite young Ottoman Schaden, there in the debris was discovered the lid of a sacophagus, it was further found that the actual sacophagus was smashed to pieces in a very brutal action. Today as we now see this tomb we can easily observe that wherever we expect to see the cartouche of Ay it has been viciously attacked and removed in what can only be described as in a frenzied manner. It is interesting to note that neither a coffin or body has ever been found of the pharaoh Ay, therefore we can assume that this was desecrated if not shortly after his death, then certainly in antiquity.
It's perhaps interesting now as we leave this tomb, to pay a quick visit to Ay's successor Horemheb K.V. 57., why they place this king in the 18th Dynasty beggars belief, however as a general, we can easily see from his tomb that this man was quite uncomfortable, even after more than 20 years, as being pharaoh. He evidently fears his tomb and body may be destroyed, that perhaps befell his predecessor within Horemheb's own life time. The actual tomb itself, depicts 'the Book of Gates' upon one wall, this is the earliest representation, where even the pharaoh himself was subject to moral laws. In a small separate room, a wonderful depiction of Osiris, although a royal god, he was mostly associated with the 'common man'. Directly behind the sacophagus of Horemheb we see depicted on the wall, 'the Weighing of the Heart', which really was not required of a pharaoh. The most interesting thing about this tomb, is that, the moment it was realised this pharaoh was dead, work on it came to an abrupt end. It is possible to estimate quite accurately how many men were working at that moment, being 30. They say in Egypt, that generals who become kings, sooner or later become hated.
Finally, we now return to K.V.62, for almost one hundred years, tourist have been attracted to this tomb, many have read in detail about it long before they arrived in Egypt, they have looked in amazement at that box and the wall painting on the background, but one moment there is one thing here that is very interesting and most revealing. We see something that is rather unique in the Kings Valley, it is a scene depicting what is 'the opening of the mouth' ritual, a final act before the dead pharaoh is finally laid to rest. It is performed by a man dressed with a leopard skin wrapped around him, therefore the High Priest of Amoun, BUT, one moment, that's not all we learn about this man, he wears the Blue Crown, therefore is a royal pharaoh, above him is written ,......Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt, Son of Ra,.......Ay. He must therefore be already married to Tutankhamoun's widow Ankhesenamun, to gain access to the Royal harem. How could all this be so before his predecessor is even buried in this tomb, let alone allowing the paint to dry, informing 'us' of this future event.
We now need to return to the man Maya, remember he was chief guardian of the Royal Necropolis, it is his seal that we find throughout this era, we know that he was still alive at year 8 of Horemheb's reign, so how come we find K.V. 62 treasures almost intact, for this we have to understand the loyalty of Maya and the humbleness of Horemheb. We also have to understand that flash floods were frequent, and the fact that in many places in the Valley today,the paths to the tombs are some 10 feet high than in the days of Tutankhamoun.
As we now bring our little story full circle, it is interesting to note that the tomb K.V. 62 is just over 50 feet from K.V. 55. As we look at the death mask of that not so great pharaoh in Cairo Museum,..............are we really seeing the face of Tutankhamoun.
A - Four.
First we need to deal with K.V. 54, known as the Tutankhamoun cache, this was discovered by Theodore Davis in 1908, what he had found was a collection of items that were part of a banquet held by the immediate relatives of the dead pharaoh, also embalming fluid, bandages and a few items of little value that identified them with that pharaoh. Davis thought that he had found the remains of Tutankhamoun, and therefore his tomb. The bones were sent to Cairo to be analysed, they were found to chicken bones, this was the final straw for Davis, and gave up his concession in the King's Valley. Howard Carter knew from this information that this pharaoh was defiantly buried in the Valley, the question was, where.
We all know about Carter's glorious find and the moment of 'I see wonderful things', but I want to take you back three days before that event. At the bottom of those now famous steps, Carter was confronted by a sealed wall, that he quickly realised had not once but TWICE officially had been opened up. (This has often been associated with the two brake in by ancient robbers, though these small, and quite separate.) When he removed this wall he was faced by a nine foot square entrance some twenty foot long tunnel full of rubble, that took a further two days to clear. Carter was careful to study the removal of the rubble, and, although not much publicity was given, he found items from the reign of Tuthmosis III, and Amenhotep III.
Now at the end of the third day Carter was faced by another wall, that again had been dismantled and rebuilt and re-sealed by the authority the chief guardian of the royal necropolis, a man called Maya. He had also re-sealed the only two previous small break-ins and therefore although Carter at this point did not think for one moment that he had found the tomb of Tutankhamoun, he thought that whatever cache he was to find, he was certain it would be intact.
As we all well know the great story, I shall move on to a few things that are generally not known, or not accepted. When we come to the actual burial chamber itself, it was discovered that one of the shrine belonged to a burial for Smenkare. When we look at the sacophagus of Tutankhamoun, it is generally accepted these days that it has been re-cut. When we look at the three coffins, it is quite clear that the facial image is very different on the middle coffin in comparison to the other two.
Carter in the past has been highly criticised, because of the way he removed the body of Tutankhamoun from the solid, one inch thick gold coffee, however when it is realised that no other pharaoh has ever been en-tombed in a such manner, we can understand that the process of mummification will be quite different from the status-quo, especially when at least two bucket full of embalming fluid was thrown in the coffin before being sealed up in an air-light box.
When Carter finally started to clear the treasury of this tomb, he discovered that this room had been cut out very roughly, as though at great speed, evidently to give it a sense of royal proportions, rather than those required for a noble tomb. Also in this area Carter discovered two ushabti figure, and a further one, against a wall in the Antechamber. Carter's numbers for these figures are 326a, 330c and 458, each one of which is very different from the other. Also discovered in the Treasury was a piece of wood, that had once been part of a wooden box, engraved in the wood are the two cartouches of both Akenaton and Smenkhkare, which proves there was a period of co-regency, but really the main question should be,........What on earth were such items doing in K.V. 62 ?
It's now time to have a look at K.V. 23 in the Western Valley, but we will return to K.V. 62 for one short visit, but a revealing moment. The tomb of Ay is of a royal standard, although small, the proportions are correct. It was always thought that the tomb had not been used. Although first discovered back in the days of Belzoni, no real archeology had been carried out on this tomb until 1972 by a then quite young Ottoman Schaden, there in the debris was discovered the lid of a sacophagus, it was further found that the actual sacophagus was smashed to pieces in a very brutal action. Today as we now see this tomb we can easily observe that wherever we expect to see the cartouche of Ay it has been viciously attacked and removed in what can only be described as in a frenzied manner. It is interesting to note that neither a coffin or body has ever been found of the pharaoh Ay, therefore we can assume that this was desecrated if not shortly after his death, then certainly in antiquity.
It's perhaps interesting now as we leave this tomb, to pay a quick visit to Ay's successor Horemheb K.V. 57., why they place this king in the 18th Dynasty beggars belief, however as a general, we can easily see from his tomb that this man was quite uncomfortable, even after more than 20 years, as being pharaoh. He evidently fears his tomb and body may be destroyed, that perhaps befell his predecessor within Horemheb's own life time. The actual tomb itself, depicts 'the Book of Gates' upon one wall, this is the earliest representation, where even the pharaoh himself was subject to moral laws. In a small separate room, a wonderful depiction of Osiris, although a royal god, he was mostly associated with the 'common man'. Directly behind the sacophagus of Horemheb we see depicted on the wall, 'the Weighing of the Heart', which really was not required of a pharaoh. The most interesting thing about this tomb, is that, the moment it was realised this pharaoh was dead, work on it came to an abrupt end. It is possible to estimate quite accurately how many men were working at that moment, being 30. They say in Egypt, that generals who become kings, sooner or later become hated.
Finally, we now return to K.V.62, for almost one hundred years, tourist have been attracted to this tomb, many have read in detail about it long before they arrived in Egypt, they have looked in amazement at that box and the wall painting on the background, but one moment there is one thing here that is very interesting and most revealing. We see something that is rather unique in the Kings Valley, it is a scene depicting what is 'the opening of the mouth' ritual, a final act before the dead pharaoh is finally laid to rest. It is performed by a man dressed with a leopard skin wrapped around him, therefore the High Priest of Amoun, BUT, one moment, that's not all we learn about this man, he wears the Blue Crown, therefore is a royal pharaoh, above him is written ,......Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt, Son of Ra,.......Ay. He must therefore be already married to Tutankhamoun's widow Ankhesenamun, to gain access to the Royal harem. How could all this be so before his predecessor is even buried in this tomb, let alone allowing the paint to dry, informing 'us' of this future event.
We now need to return to the man Maya, remember he was chief guardian of the Royal Necropolis, it is his seal that we find throughout this era, we know that he was still alive at year 8 of Horemheb's reign, so how come we find K.V. 62 treasures almost intact, for this we have to understand the loyalty of Maya and the humbleness of Horemheb. We also have to understand that flash floods were frequent, and the fact that in many places in the Valley today,the paths to the tombs are some 10 feet high than in the days of Tutankhamoun.
As we now bring our little story full circle, it is interesting to note that the tomb K.V. 62 is just over 50 feet from K.V. 55. As we look at the death mask of that not so great pharaoh in Cairo Museum,..............are we really seeing the face of Tutankhamoun.
A - Four.
You were going to elucidate on the "Tut was buried in KV23" statement you made elsewhere.