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133-418: They may also have been the parents of Ay , an Egyptian courtier active during the reign of Akhenaten , who eventually became pharaoh as Kheperkheprure Ay . There is no conclusive evidence, however, regarding the kinship of Yuya and Ay, although certainly both men came from the town of Akhmim . The tomb of Yuya and Thuya was, until the discovery of Tutankhamun 's, one of the most spectacular ever found in

266-448: A curse on the tomb . Other deaths or strange events connected with the tomb came to be attributed to the curse as well. After Carnarvon's death, the tomb clearance continued under Carter's leadership. In the second season of the process, in late 1923 and early 1924, the antechamber was emptied of artefacts and work began on the burial chamber. The Egyptian government, which had become partially independent in 1922, fought with Carter over

399-477: A wooden bust of Tutankhamun , was apparently found in the corridor when it was excavated, but it was not recorded in Carter's initial excavation notes. The antechamber contained 600 to 700 objects. Its west side was taken up by a tangled pile of furniture among which miscellaneous small objects, such as baskets of fruit and boxes of meat, were placed. Several dismantled chariots took up the southeast corner, while

532-461: A campaign of damnatio memoriae against him and the other pharaohs associated with the unpopular Amarna Period . Ay is believed to have been from Akhmim . During his short reign, he built a rock-cut chapel in Akhmim and dedicated it to the local deity Min . He may have been the son of the courtier Yuya and his wife Thuya , making him a brother of Tiye and Anen . This connection is based on

665-461: A chariot harness bearing the names of Tutankhamun and Ay. Davis was convinced that KV58 was Tutankhamun's tomb. After Davis gave up work on the valley, the archaeologist Howard Carter and his patron George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon , made an effort to clear the valley of debris down to the bedrock. Davis's finds of artefacts bearing Tutankhamun's name gave them reason to hope they might find his tomb. The discovery began on 4 November 1922 with

798-433: A daughter who married the pharaoh Akhenaten, possibly being the father of Akhenaten's chief wife Nefertiti . Ultimately there is no evidence to definitively prove either hypothesis. The two theories are not mutually exclusive, but either relationship would explain the exalted status to which Ay rose during Akhenaten's Amarna interlude , when the royal family turned their backs on Egypt's traditional gods and experimented, for

931-507: A dozen years or so, with an early form of monotheism ; an experiment that, whether out of conviction or convenience, Ay appears to have followed under the reign of Akhenaten. The Great Hymn to the Aten is also found in his Amarna tomb which was built during his service under Akhenaten. His wife Tey was born a commoner but was given the title Nurse of the Pharaoh's Great Wife . If she were

1064-868: A feature of burials in the Old and Middle Kingdoms and fell out of favour in non-royal burials in the New, but several royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings contained them. Conversely, Tutankhamun's tomb contained no funerary texts on papyri, unlike private tombs from its era, but the existence of an excerpt of the Book of the Dead on a papyrus from KV35 , the tomb of Amenhotep II , suggests that their absence in Tutankhamun's tomb may have been unusual. No papyrus texts at all were among

1197-425: A few years of Tutankhamun's burial, his tomb was robbed twice. After the first robbery, officials responsible for its security repaired and repacked some of the damaged goods before filling the outer corridor with chips of limestone. Nevertheless, a second set of robbers burrowed through the corridor fill. This robbery too was detected, and after a second hasty restoration the tomb was once again sealed. The Valley of

1330-422: A final opinion on the subject of Yuaa's nationality." Quibell likewise addressed the "old suggestion" that Yuya was foreign, noting that the only piece of evidence in favour of this was the multiple spellings of his name. No trace of a foreign origin was found in the furniture from the tomb either, all being typically Egyptian. Taking into account his unusual name and features, some Egyptologists believe that Yuya

1463-429: A funerary text that is found nowhere else, although texts with similar themes are known from the tombs of Ramesses VI (KV9) and Ramesses IX ( KV6 ). Like them, it describes the sun god and the netherworld using a cryptic form of hieroglyphic writing that uses non-standard meanings for each hieroglyphic sign. These three texts are sometimes labeled "enigmatic books" or "books of the solar-Osirian unity". The sarcophagus

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1596-427: A group. The corridor may have contained miscellaneous materials, such as bags of natron, jars and flower garlands, that were moved to KV54 when the corridor was filled with limestone chips after the first robbery. Other objects and fragments were incorporated into the corridor fill, including some dropped by the thieves and others that were swept in from the outside along with the stone chips. One well-known artefact,

1729-586: A long-term project to assess the condition of the tomb and renovate it as needed. The replica was completed in 2012 and opened to the public in 2014; the renovation was completed in 2019. In 2015, the Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves argued, based on Factum Arte's scans, that the west and north walls of the burial chamber included previously unnoticed plaster partitions. That would suggest the tomb contained two previously unknown chambers, one behind each partition, which Reeves suggested were

1862-465: A military officer under Tutankhamun who was Ay's chosen successor—is dated to "Year 4, IV Akhet day 1" of Ay's reign. Manetho 's Epitome assigns a reign length of four years and one month to Horemheb, and this was usually assigned to him based on this Year 4 dated stela; however, it is now believed that figure should be raised by a decade to fourteen years and one month and attributed to Horemheb instead, as Manetho intended. Hence, Ay's precise reign length

1995-472: A result most of the wrappings, and even much of the tissues in the mummy, had been carbonised. Tutankhamun's condition contrasted with the much better-preserved mummies of other New Kingdom rulers. These mummies had been removed from their plundered tombs, placed in simpler coffins and buried in two caches during the Twenty-first Dynasty, a few centuries after they were originally entombed. It

2128-422: A royal set of burial goods in the Valley of the Kings, numbered at 5,398 objects. Some classes of object number in the hundreds: there are 413 shabtis (figurines intended to do work for the king in the afterlife) and more than 200 pieces of jewellery. Objects were present in all four chambers in the tomb as well as the corridor. The efforts of the robbers, followed by the hasty restoration effort, left much of

2261-531: A scathing review of Stranger in the Valley of the Kings for Biblical Archaeology Review . Similarly, Deborah Sweeney has expressed great doubt toward the proposed identification. Sweeney states that the title "God's father of the Lord of the Two Lands" is an extension of the title "God's Father", which is not exclusive to Yuya. The Bible claims that Joseph's mummified body was exhumed and transported to Canaan by

2394-482: A single block of alabaster carved into four compartments, each covered by a human-headed stopper and containing an inlaid gold coffinette that housed one of the king's organs. Between the Anubis shrine and the canopic shrine stood a wooden sculpture of a cow's head, representing the goddess Hathor. The treasury was the location of most of the tomb's wooden models, including more boats and a model granary, as well as many of

2527-399: A single step at the top of the entrance staircase. When the excavators reached the antechamber, on 26 November, it exceeded all expectations, providing unprecedented insight into what a New Kingdom royal burial was like. The condition of the burial goods varied greatly; many had been profoundly affected by moisture, which probably derived from both the damp state of the plaster when the tomb

2660-431: A tomb of suitably royal proportions ready when he himself died. Pharaohs in Tutankhamun's time also built mortuary temples where they would receive offerings to sustain their spirits in the afterlife . The Temple of Ay and Horemheb at Medinet Habu contained statues that were originally carved for Tutankhamun, suggesting either that Tutankhamun's temple stood nearby or that Ay usurped Tutankhamun's temple as his own. Ay

2793-462: A type of image that is common in private New Kingdom tombs but not found in any other royal tomb. The south wall portrayed the king with the deities Hathor , Anubis and Isis . Part of the decoration of this wall was painted on the partition dividing the burial chamber from the antechamber, and thus the figure of Isis was destroyed by Carter when the partition was demolished during the tomb clearance. The west wall bears an image of twelve baboons, which

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2926-408: A very fragile state. Every exposed surface was covered with an unidentified pink film; Lucas suggested it was some kind of dissolved iron compound that came from the rock or the plaster. In the process of cleaning, restoring and removing the damaged artefacts, the excavators labeled each object or group of objects with a number, from 1 to 620, appending letters to distinguish individual objects within

3059-487: A woman with the name Mutnodjimet. Ay's reign was preceded by that of Tutankhamun , who ascended to the throne at the age of eight or nine, at a time of great tension between the new monotheism and the old polytheism. He was assisted in his kingly duties by his predecessor's two closest advisors: Grand Vizier Ay and General of the Armies Horemheb . Tutankhamun's nine-year reign, largely under Ay's direction, saw

3192-538: Is an extract from the first section of the Amduat , a funerary text that describes the journey of the sun god Ra through the netherworld . On three walls the figures are given the unusual proportions found in the art style of the Amarna Period , although the south wall reverts to the conventional proportions found in art before and after Amarna. The contents of the tomb are by far the most complete example of

3325-512: Is believed to have died in his mid fifties, in around 1374 BC. Yuya served as a key adviser for Amenhotep III, and held posts such as "King’s Lieutenant" and "Master of the Horse"; his title "Father-of-the-god" possibly referred specifically to his being Amenhotep's father-in-law. In his native town of Akhmin, Yuya was a prophet of Min , the chief god of the area, and served as this deity's "Superintendent of Cattle". Yuya and his wife were buried in

3458-461: Is known of Mutemwiya's background. While Yuya lived in Upper Egypt, an area that was predominantly native Egyptian, he could have been an assimilated descendant of Asiatic immigrants or slaves who rose to become a member of the local nobility at Akhmin. On the other hand, if he was not a foreigner, then Yuya would have been the native Egyptian whose daughter was married to Amenhotep III. Yuya

3591-429: Is made of quartzite but with a red granite lid, painted yellow to match the quartzite. It is carved with the images of four protective goddesses ( Isis , Nephthys , Neith and Serqet ), and contained a golden lion-headed bier on which rested three nested coffins in human shape. The outer two coffins were made of gilded wood inlaid with glass and semiprecious stones, while the innermost coffin, though similarly inlaid,

3724-411: Is no other evidence for Nakhtmin as a Viceroy—with another man [Paser I] attested in office at this period as well—the latter suggestion seems the most likely. As Nakhtmin donated items to the burial of Tutankhamun without such a title, it follows that he only became a King's son subsequently, presumably under Ay. This theory is supported by the evidence of intentional damage to Nakhtmin's statue, since Ay

3857-505: Is often taken as a sign that longer-lived kings who had full-size tombs were buried with an even larger array of objects. Yet Tutankhamun's burial goods barely fit into his tomb, so the Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley argues that larger tombs in the valley may have contained assemblages of similar size that were arranged in a more orderly and spacious manner. The fragmentary remains of burial goods in other tombs in

3990-519: Is speculated that he was the power behind the throne during child ruler Tutankhamun 's reign. His prenomen Kheperkheperure means "Everlasting are the Manifestations of Ra", while his nomen Ay it-netjer reads as "Ay, Father of the God". Records and monuments that can be clearly attributed to Ay are rare, both because his reign was short and because his successor, Horemheb , instigated

4123-619: Is uncertain. For several decades after his tomb was cleared, the overwhelming majority of Tutankhamun's burial goods were stored at either the Egyptian Museum in Cairo or Luxor Museum . Only the most major pieces have been on display, while the rest have been in storage at one of the two sites. Selected pieces have also gone on museum exhibition tours, raising money for the Egyptian government and serving to improve its relations with

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4256-430: Is unknown and he could have ruled for as long as seven to nine years, since most of his monuments and his funerary temple at Medinet Habu were either destroyed or usurped by his successor, Horemheb . Prior to his death, Ay attempted to sideline Horemheb from the royal succession. Horemheb, who was the general in charge of Egypt's armies and previously held the title of jrj-pꜥt or "Hereditary Prince" under Tutankhamun,

4389-627: The Egyptian Museum in Cairo and are now in the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza , although Tutankhamun's mummy and sarcophagus are still on display in the tomb. Flooding and heavy tourist traffic have inflicted damage on the tomb since its discovery, and a replica of the burial chamber has been constructed nearby to reduce tourist pressure on the original tomb. Tutankhamun reigned as pharaoh between c.  1334 and 1325 BC, towards

4522-460: The Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza . Upon its opening, the museum is planned to display all the tomb's artefacts. When it was uncovered in November 1925, Tutankhamun's mummy was in poor condition. The unguents that were poured over the wrappings before burial had undergone a chemical reaction that Lucas called "some kind of slow spontaneous combustion", possibly caused by fungi in the tomb. As

4655-561: The Valley of the Kings at Thebes , where their private tomb, now numbered KV46, was discovered in 1905 by James Quibell , who was working on behalf of Theodore M. Davis. Although the tomb had been penetrated by tomb-robbers, perhaps they were disturbed as Quibell found most of the funerary goods and the two mummies virtually intact. As the Egyptologist Cyril Aldred noted: Though the tomb had been rifled in antiquity,

4788-416: The Valley of the Kings despite Yuya not being a pharaoh. Although the burial site was robbed in antiquity, many objects not considered worth plundering by the robbers remained. Both the mummies were largely intact and were in an amazing state of preservation. Their faces in particular were relatively undistorted by the process of mummification, and provide an extraordinary insight into the actual appearance of

4921-491: The Valley of the Kings . The tomb consists of four chambers and an entrance staircase and corridor. It is smaller and less extensively decorated than other Egyptian royal tombs of its time, and it probably originated as a tomb for a non-royal individual that was adapted for Tutankhamun's use after his premature death. Like other pharaohs, Tutankhamun was buried with a wide variety of funerary objects and personal possessions, such as coffins, furniture, clothing and jewelry, though in

5054-463: The East Valley of the Kings ( KV62 ). Depending on the chronology followed, Ay served as pharaoh between 1323 and 1319 BC, 1327–1323 BC, or 1310–1306 BC. Tutankhamun's death around the age of 18 or 19, together with the fact he had no living children, left a power vacuum that his Grand Vizier Ay was quick to fill: he is depicted conducting the funerary rites for the deceased monarch and assuming

5187-463: The Horses of His Majesty", the highest rank in the elite charioteering division of the army, which was just below the rank of General . Prior to this promotion he appears to have been first a Troop Commander and then a "regular" Overseer of Horses, titles which were found on a box thought to have been part of the original furnishings for his tomb. Other titles listed in this tomb include Fan-bearer on

5320-523: The Israelites, while Yuya's remained undisturbed in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, where his mummy was discovered in 1905. Ay (pharaoh) Ay was the penultimate pharaoh of ancient Egypt 's 18th Dynasty . He held the throne of Egypt for a brief four-year period in the late 14th century BC. Prior to his rule, he was a close advisor to two, and perhaps three, other pharaohs of the dynasty. It

5453-478: The Kings is subject to periodic flash floods that deposit alluvium . Much of the valley, including the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb, was covered by a layer of alluvium over which huts were later built for the tomb workers who cut KV57, in which Horemheb was buried. The geologist Stephen Cross has argued that a major flood deposited this layer after KV62 was last sealed and before the huts were built, which would mean Tutankhamun's tomb had been rendered inaccessible by

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5586-413: The Kings. Up to 1,000 people pass through it on its busiest days. Tutankhamun's tomb lies in the eastern branch of the Valley of the Kings, where most tombs in the valley are located. It is cut into the limestone bedrock in the valley floor, on the west side of the main path, and runs beneath a low foothill. Its design is similar to those of non-royal tombs from its time, but elaborated so as to resemble

5719-459: The New Kingdom, particularly for the early part of that period, when robberies were more opportunistic than the large-scale plundering that took place in the late Twentieth Dynasty. Many of the boxes in the tomb bear dockets in hieratic writing that list their original contents, making it possible to partially reconstruct what the tomb originally held and which items were lost. The dockets of

5852-522: The Right Side of the King , Acting Scribe of the King, beloved by him , and God's Father . The 'Fan-bearer on the Right Side of the King' was a very important position, and is viewed as showing that the bearer had the 'ear' of the ruler. The final God's Father title is the one most associated with Ay, and was later incorporated into his royal name when he became pharaoh. This title could mean that he

5985-544: The Royal Tombs of Egypt suggested the idea of creating a replica of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1988, so that tourists could see it without further damaging the original. In 2009, Factum Arte, a workshop that specialises in replicas of large-scale artworks, took detailed scans of the burial chamber on which to base a replica, while the Egyptian government and the Getty Conservation Institute launched

6118-528: The Valley of the Kings include many of the same objects found in Tutankhamun's, implying that there was a somewhat standard set of object types for royal burials in this era. The life-size statues of Tutankhamun and the statuettes of deities have parallels in several other tombs in the valley, while the statuettes of Tutankhamun himself are closely paralleled by wall paintings in KV15 , the tomb of Seti II . Funerary models, such as Tutankhamun's model boats, were mainly

6251-453: The Valley of the Kings lay open continuously from ancient times onward, but the entrances to many others remained hidden until after the emergence of Egyptology in the early nineteenth century. Many of the remaining tombs were found by a series of excavators working for Theodore M. Davis from 1902 to 1914. Under Davis most of the valley was explored, although he never found Tutankhamun's tomb because he thought no tomb would have been cut into

6384-517: The Valley of the Kings until the reign of Horemheb. KV62's burial chamber is painted with figures on a yellow background. The north wall shows Ay performing the Opening of the Mouth ritual upon Tutankhamun's mummy, thus legitimising himself as the king's heir, and then Tutankhamun greeting the goddess Nut and the god Osiris in the afterlife. The east wall portrays Tutankhamun's funeral procession,

6517-631: The Western Valley of the Kings...and removed all other [visible] inscriptions and images of Ay." The rivalry which began when Ay attempted to sideline Horemheb from the royal succession ended in Horemheb's victory. KV62 The tomb of Tutankhamun , also known by its tomb number , KV62 , is the burial place of Tutankhamun (reigned c.  1332–1323 BC ), a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt , in

6650-414: The [tomb's] opulent funerary furniture was largely intact, and there was no doubt as to the identity of the pair, who were found resting among their torn linen wrappings, within their nests of coffins. The tomb and the burials it contained were the most complete found in the Valley prior to the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun . Yuya was interred within a rectangular wooden sarcophagus placed against

6783-463: The act. The broken objects found in the fill of the corridor all came from the antechamber, implying that the first group of thieves only had access to that chamber and that it was the second group who reached as far as the treasury. A man named Djehutymose, apparently the official who carried out the restoration of the tomb, wrote his name on a jar stand in the annexe. The same man left a note in KV43 ,

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6916-453: The annexe were personal possessions that Tutankhamun seemingly used as a child, such as toys, a box of paints and a fire-lighting kit. Most of the space in the burial chamber was taken up by the gilded wooden outer shrine. This shrine enclosed a wooden frame covered with a blue linen pall spangled with bronze rosettes, followed by three nested inner shrines and then a stone sarcophagus containing three nested coffins. Burial goods were placed in

7049-407: The antechamber contained most of the clothing in the tomb, including tunics, shirts, kilts, gloves and sandals, as well as cosmetics such as unguents and kohl . Scattered in various places in the antechamber were pieces of gold and semiprecious stones from a corselet , a ceremonial version of the armor that Egyptian kings wore into battle. Reconstructing the corselet was one of the most complex tasks

7182-401: The antechamber, the builders of KV62 gave it a layout with an axis bent to the right rather than the left. The entrance stair descends steeply beneath an overhang. It originally consisted of sixteen steps. The lowest six were cut away during the burial to make room to maneuver the largest pieces of funerary furniture through the doorway, then rebuilt, then removed again 3,400 years later when

7315-400: The burial chamber (Ja), known as the treasury. The burial chamber and treasury may have been added to the original tomb when it was adapted for Tutankhamun's burial. Most Eighteenth Dynasty royal tombs used a layout with a bent axis, so that a person moving from the entrance to the burial chamber would take a sharp turn to the left along the way. By placing Tutankhamun's burial chamber north of

7448-415: The burial chamber. All were breached by robbers. Most were resealed by the restorers, but the robbers' hole in the annexe doorway was left open. There are several faults in the rock into which the tomb is cut, including a large one that runs south-southeast to north-northwest across the antechamber and burial chamber. Although the workmen who cut the tomb sealed the fault in the burial chamber with plaster,

7581-427: The burial goods—a disappointment to Egyptologists, who hoped to find documents that would clarify the history of the Amarna Period. Instead much of the value of the discovery was in the insight it provided into the material culture of ancient Egypt. Among the furniture was a foldable bed, the only intact example known from ancient Egypt. Some of the boxes could be latched with the turn of a knob, and Carter called them

7714-400: The burial place of Neferneferuaten. The Ministry of Antiquities commissioned a ground-penetrating radar examination later that year, which seemed to show voids behind the chamber walls, but follow-up radar examinations in 2016 and 2018 determined that there are no such voids and therefore no hidden chambers. Tutankhamun's tomb is in higher demand from tourists than any other in the Valley of

7847-428: The clothes depicted in art from his time, which consist largely of plain white kilts and tight sheaths. No crowns were found in the tomb, although crooks and flails , which also served as emblems of kingship, were stored there. Tyldesley suggests that crowns may have not been considered personal property of the king and were instead passed down from reign to reign. Some of the objects in the tomb shed limited light on

7980-421: The cluster of furniture against the west wall; an alabaster lotus chalice ; and a painted box depicting Tutankhamun in battle, which Carter regarded as one of the finest works of art in the tomb. Carter thought even more highly of a gilded and inlaid throne depicting Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun in the art style of the Amarna Period; he called it "the most beautiful thing that has yet been found in Egypt". Boxes in

8113-411: The conventional plan of a royal tomb. It consists of a westward-descending stairway (labeled A in the conventional Egyptological system for designating parts of royal tombs in the valley); an east–west descending corridor (B); an antechamber at the west end of the passage (I); an annexe adjoining the southwest corner of the antechamber (Ia); a burial chamber north of the antechamber (J); and a room east of

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8246-538: The deceased while alive (see photographs). Yuya came from the Upper Egyptian town of Akhmim , where he probably owned an estate and was a wealthy member of the town's local nobility. His origins remain unclear. In his study of Yuya's mummy the anatomist Grafton Elliot Smith noted that although his features are not classically Egyptian, he considers that there was much migration from neighbouring countries throughout Egyptian history and "it would be rash to offer

8379-585: The deceased. The decoration of the shrines, executed in relief, includes portions of several funerary texts. All four shrines bear extracts from the Book of the Dead, and further extracts from the Amduat are on the third shrine. The outermost shrine is inscribed with the earliest known copy of the Book of the Heavenly Cow , which describes how Ra reshaped the world into its current form. The second shrine bears

8512-550: The end of the Eighteenth Dynasty during the New Kingdom . He took the throne as a child after the death of Akhenaten (who was probably his father) and the subsequent brief reigns of Neferneferuaten and Smenkhkare . Akhenaten had radically reshaped ancient Egyptian religion by worshipping a single deity, Aten , and rejecting other deities , a shift that began the Amarna Period . One of Tutankhamun's major acts

8645-400: The end of the Amarna Period. A piece of a box found in the corridor bears the names of Akhenaten, Neferneferuaten and Akhenaten's daughter Meryetaten , while a calcite jar from the tomb bore two erased royal names that have been reconstructed as those of Akhenaten and Smenkhkare. These are key pieces of evidence in attempts to reconstruct the relationships between members of the royal family and

8778-415: The excavators faced. This room also contained a wooden dummy of Tutankhamun's head and torso. Its purpose is uncertain, although it bears marks that may indicate it once wore a corselet, and Carter suggested it was a mannequin for the king's clothes. The annexe contained more than 2,000 individual artefacts. Its original contents were jumbled together with objects that had been haphazardly replaced during

8911-417: The excavators removed that same furniture. The corridor is 8 metres (26 ft) long and 1.7 metres (5 ft 7 in) wide; the antechamber is 7.9 metres (26 ft) north–south by 3.6 metres (12 ft) east–west; the annexe is 4.4 metres (14 ft) north–south by 2.6 metres (8 ft 6 in) east–west; the burial chamber is 4 metres (13 ft) north–south by 6.4 metres (21 ft) east–west; and

9044-405: The fact that both Yuya and Ay came from Akhmim and held the titles 'God's Father' and 'Master of Horses'. A strong physical resemblance has been noted between the mummy of Yuya and surviving statuary depictions of Ay. The mummy of Ay has not been located, although fragmentary skeletal remains recovered from his tomb may represent it, so a more thorough comparison with Yuya cannot be made. Therefore,

9177-404: The faults are responsible for the water seepage that affects the tomb. The plaster partitions were marked with impressions from seals borne by various officials who oversaw Tutankhamun's burial and the restoration efforts. These seals consist of hieroglyphic text that celebrates Tutankhamun's services to the gods during his reign. Aside from these seal impressions, the only wall decoration in

9310-502: The fingers of the right are extended. A gold finger stall was found on the little finger of the right hand. There were linen embalming packs placed in front of the eyes, and the body cavity was stuffed with resin-treated linen packs. Smith guessed his age at death to be 60 based on outward appearance alone. Modern CT scanning has estimated his age at death to be 50–60 years, based on the level of joint degeneration and tooth wear. The scanning also revealed two separate levels of resin inside

9443-480: The foreign origin hypothesis: "It is conceivable that he had some Mitannian ancestry, since it is known that knowledge of horses and chariotry was introduced into Egypt from the northern lands and Yuya was the king's 'Master of the Horse'." It also discusses the possibility that Yuya was the brother of queen Mutemwiya , who was the mother of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and may have had Mitannian royal origins. However, this hypothesis can not be substantiated, since nothing

9576-473: The funerary garlands would have been available from mid-March to mid-April, indicating that Tutankhamun's funeral took place then. The royal annals of the Hittite Empire record a letter from an unnamed Egyptian queen, referred to as " Dakhamunzu ", recently widowed by the death of a pharaoh and offering to marry a Hittite prince. The dead king is most commonly thought to be Tutankhamun, and Ankhesenamun

9709-399: The gold plate (113 by 42 millimetres (4.4 in × 1.7 in)) covering the embalming incision. When the body of Yuya was removed from his innermost coffin, a partially strung necklace composed of large gold and lapis lazuli beads was found behind his neck, where it had presumably fallen after being snapped by looters. The intact wrappings covering his head were removed before the body

9842-444: The government and the dig's sponsors, as had been standard practice on previous Egyptological digs. Instead most of the tomb's contents went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The excavators opened and removed Tutankhamun's coffins and mummy in 1925, then spent the next few seasons working on the treasury and annexe. The clearance of the tomb itself was completed in November 1930, though Carter and Lucas continued to work on conserving

9975-417: The history of Tutankhamun's reign and the Amarna Period that preceded it, but it provided insight into the material culture of wealthy ancient Egyptians as well as patterns of ancient tomb robbery. Tutankhamun became one of the best-known pharaohs, and some artefacts from his tomb, such as his golden funerary mask , are among the best-known artworks from ancient Egypt. Most of the tomb's goods were sent to

10108-493: The host countries. There have been several exhibitions, visiting Europe, North America, Japan and Australia, in three major phases, one from 1961 to 1967, another from 1972 to 1981, and a third from 2004 to 2013. Many exhibitions of replicas have also taken place, beginning with a set made for the British Empire Exhibition in 1924. Beginning in 2011, the objects from the tomb were gradually transferred to

10241-449: The jewellery boxes in the treasury, for instance, indicate that about 60 percent of their contents is missing. Thieves would have prized what was valuable, portable and either untraceable or possible to disguise through dismantling or melting. Most of the metal vessels originally buried with Tutankhamun were stolen, as were those of glass, indicating that glass was a valuable commodity at the time. The robbers also took bedding and cosmetics;

10374-413: The last king of Egypt's 18th Dynasty instead of Nakhtmin. The fact that Nakhtmin was Ay's intended political heir is strongly implied by an inscription carved on a dyad funerary statue of Nakhtmin and his spouse which was presumably made during Ay's reign. Nakhtmin is clearly given the titles "Crown Prince" ( jrj-pꜥt ) and "King's Son" ( zꜣ-nswt ). The only conclusion which can be drawn here is that Nakhtmin

10507-428: The moisture seepage, no significant liquid water had entered before its discovery. In contrast, since the discovery water has periodically trickled in through the entrance, and on New Year's Day in 1991 a rainstorm flooded the tomb through a fault in the burial chamber ceiling. The flood stained the painted chamber wall and left about 7 centimetres (2.8 in) of standing water on the floor. Tombs are also threatened by

10640-460: The most iconic ancient Egyptian artefacts in the world. In the doorway of the treasury stood a shrine on carrying poles topped by a statue of the jackal god Anubis , in front of which lay a fifth magic brick. Against the east wall of the treasury was a tall gilded shrine containing the canopic chest , in which Tutankhamun's internal organs were placed after mummification. Whereas most canopic chests contain separate jars , Tutankhamun's consists of

10773-436: The mother of Nefertiti she would be expected to have the royal title Mother of the Pharaoh's Great Wife instead; had Ay been the father of Nefertiti, then Tey would have been her stepmother. In several Amarna tomb chapels there is a woman whose name begins with "Mut" who had the title Sister of the Pharaoh's Great Wife . This could also be a daughter of Ay's by his wife Tey, and it is known that his successor Horemheb married

10906-435: The narrow gaps between shrines and between the outer shrine and the chamber walls: lamps, jars, oars, fans, walking sticks and religious objects such as imiut fetishes. Each wall of the chamber bore a niche containing a brick, of a type that Egyptologists call "magic bricks", because they are inscribed with passages from Spell 151 from the funerary text known as the Book of the Dead , and are intended to ward off threats to

11039-411: The nested coffins had been removed with two placed atop each other supported by a chair, and one tipped on its side next to the sarcophagus; the troughs were left in place. His gilt cartonnage mask was still in place, although it was broken. The mummy of Yuya was found partially wrapped with only his torso being divested of wrappings by ancient robbers. Despite this disturbance, the thieves had missed

11172-415: The north wall; its lid was shaped like the vaulted per-nu shrine of Lower Egypt . Though appearing to sit on sledge runners, it had no base so the three nested gilded (and silvered) anthropoid coffins sat flat on the floor. The long south side of the sarcophagus had been broken in by ancient robbers, who had also moved the short eastern side and left the lid askew, balancing precariously. The lids of each of

11305-458: The northeast contained a collection of funerary bouquets and the north end of the chamber was dominated by two life-size statues of Tutankhamun that flanked the entrance to the burial chamber. These statues are thought to have either served as guardians of the burial chamber or as figures representing the king's ka , an aspect of his soul. Among the significant objects in the antechamber were several funerary beds with animal heads, which dominated

11438-478: The oldest known examples of such a mechanism. Other everyday items include musical instruments, such as a pair of trumpets ; a variety of weapons, including a dagger made of iron , a rare commodity in Tutankhamun's time; and about 130 staffs, including one bearing the label "a reed staff which His Majesty cut with his own hand." Tutankhamun's clothes—loose tunics, robes and sashes, often elaborately decorated with dye, embroidery or beadwork—exhibit more variety than

11571-407: The parents of Nefertiti. Nakhtmin , Ay's chosen successor, was likely his son or grandson. Nakhtmin's mother was Iuy, a priestess of Min and Isis in Akhmim. She may have been Ay's first wife. All that is known for certain was that by the time he was permitted to build a tomb for himself ( Southern Tomb 25 ) at Amarna during the reign of Akhenaten , he had achieved the title of "Overseer of All

11704-471: The publicity inspired a fad for ancient Egyptian-inspired design motifs. In Egypt it reinforced the ideology of pharaonism , which emphasized modern Egypt's connection to its ancient past and had risen to prominence during Egypt's struggle for independence from British rule from 1919 to 1922. The publicity increased when Carnarvon died of an infection in April 1923, inspiring rumours that he had been killed by

11837-467: The question of access to the tomb; the government felt that Egyptians, and especially the Egyptian press, were given too little access. In protest of the government's increasing restrictions, Carter and his associates stopped work in February 1924, beginning a legal dispute that lasted until January 1925. Under the agreement that resolved the dispute, the artefacts from the tomb would not be divided between

11970-492: The rays of the Aten, in the Amarna art style. The king and queen are labeled with the later forms of their names, referring to Amun rather than the Aten, but there are signs that these labels were altered after the throne was made, and the open-work arms and back of the throne bear the king's original name, Tutankhaten. A sceptre from the annexe bears an inscription mentioning both the Aten and Amun, implying an attempt to integrate

12103-412: The reign of Amenhotep III, meaning he may have outlived Thuya. His mummy has the inventory number CG 51190. Ahmed Osman , in his book Stranger in the Valley of the Kings , has suggested an identification between Joseph , the ancient Hebrew patriarch who led the tribe of Israel into Egypt during a famine, and Yuya. This theory has not been accepted in mainstream Egyptology. Donald B. Redford wrote

12236-526: The remaining burial goods until February 1932, when the last shipment was sent to Cairo. The tomb has been a popular tourist destination ever since the clearance process began. Sometime after the mummy was reinterred in 1926, someone broke into the sarcophagus, stealing objects Carter had left in place. A likely time for the event is the Second World War , when a shortage of security workers led to widespread looting of Egyptian antiquities. The body

12369-410: The restoration after the robberies, including beds, stools, and stone and pottery vessels containing wine and oils. The room housed most of the tomb's foodstuffs, most of the shabtis and many of its wooden funerary models , such as models of boats. Much of the weaponry in the tomb, such as bows , throwing sticks and khopesh -swords, as well as ceremonial shields, were found here. Other objects in

12502-570: The return of the old gods – and, with that, the restoration of the power of the Amun priesthood, who had lost their influence over Egypt under Akhenaten. Egyptologist Bob Brier suggested that Ay murdered Tutankhamun in order to usurp the throne, a claim which was based on X-ray examinations of the body done in 1968. He also alleged that Ankhesenamun and the Hittite prince she was about to marry were also murdered at his orders. This murder theory

12635-454: The role of heir. The grounds on which he based his successful claim to power are not entirely clear. The Commander of the Army, Horemheb , had actually been designated as the "idnw" or "Deputy of the Lord of the Two Lands" under Tutankhamun and was presumed to be the boy king's heir apparent and successor. It appears that Horemheb was outmaneuvered to the throne by Ay, who legitimized his claim to

12768-399: The sarcophagus through the room. The burial chamber contains four niches, one in each wall, in which were placed "magic bricks" inscribed with protective spells. Partitions constructed of limestone and plaster originally sealed the doorways between the stairway and the corridor; between the corridor and the antechamber; between the antechamber and the annexe; and between the antechamber and

12901-467: The sarcophagus, with its original lid replaced by a glass plate, and the outermost of the three coffins, in which Tutankhamun's mummy was placed. Carter also took a handful of small artefacts from the tomb, without permission; upon his death, his heir, Phyllis Walker, discovered them and had them returned to the Egyptian government. A few items are suspected of having illicitly made their way into other collections of Egyptian antiquities, but their provenance

13034-452: The sender of the letter, but the letter indicates the king in question died in August or September, meaning either that Tutankhamun was not the king in the Hittite annals or that he remained unburied far longer than the traditional 70-day period of mummification and mourning. The thefts make Tutankhamun's tomb one of the most important sources for understanding tomb robbery and restoration in

13167-504: The sequence in which they reigned, although scholars' interpretations have varied greatly. The faces of Tutankhamun's second coffin and his canopic coffinettes differ from the faces of most portrayals of him, so these items may originally have been made for another ruler, such as Smenkhkare or Neferneferuaten, and reused for Tutankhamun's burial. Some objects bear evidence of the shift in religious policy in Tutankhamun's reign. The golden throne portrays Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun beneath

13300-439: The shabtis. Boxes in the treasury contained miscellaneous items, including much of the tomb's jewellery. A nested set of small coffins in the treasury contained a lock of hair belonging to Tiye , the wife of Amenhotep III , who is thought to have been Tutankhamun's grandmother. One box contained two miniature coffins in which mummies of Tutankhamun's stillborn daughters were interred. The volume of goods in Tutankhamun's tomb

13433-408: The skull. Packing had been inserted into his mouth, as well as under the skin of his neck to produce a life-like appearance. His cause of death could not be identified. Maspero judged that, based on the position of the sarcophagi, Yuya was the first to die and be interred in the tomb. However, the large eyes and small nose and mouth seen on his funerary mask suggests it was made during the last decade of

13566-411: The state of Ay-Horemheb's mortuary temple: Wherever a cartouche has been preserved, the name of Eye [i.e., Ay] has been erased and replaced by that of his successor Harmhab. In all but a single instance had it been overlooked and no change made. Thus the temple, which Eye had begun and finished, at least in the rear rooms with their fine paintings, was usurped by his successor and was thenceforth known as

13699-466: The temple of Harmhab. Seals on stoppers of wine jars from the temple magazines read: "Wine from the temple of Harmhab". Nozomu Kawai describes Horemheb's actions as a damnatio memoriae since once he became king, Horemheb "started erasing all depictions of [king] Ay on the monuments of Tutankhamun, as well as those on Ay's royal monuments and those of his entourage. This action must be understood as damnatio memoriae. Horemheb desecrated Ay's tomb (KV 23) in

13832-506: The theft of the latter shows that the robberies took place soon after burial, as the Egyptians' fat-based unguents would have turned rancid within a few years. One of the boxes in the antechamber contained a set of gold rings wrapped in a scarf, which Carter believed had been dropped by the thieves and placed in the box by the restorers. The unlikelihood that robbers would forget something so valuable led him to suggest they had been caught in

13965-404: The theory that he was the son of Yuya rests entirely on circumstantial evidence. Ay's Great Royal Wife was Tey , who was known to be the wet-nurse to Nefertiti . It is often theorised that he was the father of Nefertiti as a way to explain his title 'God's Father' as it has been argued that the term designates a man whose daughter married the king. However, nowhere are Ay and Tey referred to as

14098-431: The throne by burying Tutankhamun, as well as possibly marrying Ankhesenamun , Tutankhamun's widow. Since Ay was already advanced in age upon his accession, he ruled Egypt in his own right for only four years. During this period, he consolidated the return to the old religious ways that he had initiated as senior advisor and constructed a mortuary temple at Medinet Habu for his own use. A stela of Nakhtmin (Berlin 2074),

14231-535: The time Ay's reign ended. However, the Egyptologist Andreas Dorn suggests that this layer already existed during Tutankhamun's reign, and workers dug through it to reach the bedrock into which they cut his tomb. More than 150 years after Tutankhamun's burial, KV9 , the tomb of Ramesses V and Ramesses VI , was cut into the rock to the west of his tomb. The entrance of his tomb was further buried by mounds of debris from KV9's excavation and by

14364-427: The tomb in disarray when it was last sealed. By the time of the discovery, many of the objects had been damaged by alternating periods of humidity and dryness. Nearly all leather in the tomb had dissolved into a pitch-like mass, and while the state of preservation of textiles was highly inconsistent, the worst-preserved had turned into a black powder. Wooden objects were warped and their glues dissolved, leaving them in

14497-468: The tomb is in the burial chamber. This limited decorative programme contrasts with other royal tombs of the late Eighteenth Dynasty, in which two chambers in addition to the burial chamber often received decoration, and with the practice in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties, in which all parts of the tomb were decorated. None of the decoration is executed in relief , a technique that was not used in

14630-569: The tomb of Thutmose IV , recording the restoration of that tomb in Year 8 of the reign of Horemheb. These two tombs were among several in the Valley of the Kings that were robbed at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, suggesting that political uncertainty following Tutankhamun's death caused a weakening of security there. After the completion of the clearance in 1932, the tomb was emptied of nearly all its contents. The main exceptions were

14763-403: The tourists who visit them, who may damage the wall decoration with their touch and with the moisture introduced by their breath. The mummy is also vulnerable to this kind of damage, so in 2007 it was moved to a climate-controlled glass display case that was placed in the antechamber, allowing it to be displayed to the public while protecting it from humidity and mould. The Society of Friends of

14896-411: The treasury is 4.8 metres (16 ft) north–south by 3.8 metres (12 ft) east–west. The chambers range from 2.3 metres (7 ft 7 in) to 3.6 metres (12 ft) high, and the floors of the annexe, burial chamber and treasury are about 0.9 metres (2 ft 11 in) below the floor of the antechamber. In the west wall of the antechamber is a small niche for a beam that was used for manoeuvring

15029-497: The two religious systems. Other information about the reign is provided by wine jars, which are labeled by the year in which they were produced. Jars that are explicitly labeled as coming from Tutankhamun's reign range from Year 5 to Year 9, while one jar from an unidentified reign is labeled Year 10 and another Year 31. The Year 31 wine probably comes from the reign of Amenhotep III, so the remaining jars suggest that Tutankhamun reigned for nine or ten years. The flowers and fruits in

15162-406: The unusually limited space these goods had to be densely packed. Robbers entered the tomb twice in the years immediately following the burial, but Tutankhamun's mummy and most of the burial goods remained intact. The tomb's low position, dug into the floor of the valley, allowed its entrance to be hidden by debris deposited by flooding and tomb construction. Thus, unlike other tombs in the valley, it

15295-498: The valley floor. Among his discoveries was KV54 , a pit containing objects bearing Tutankhamun's name; these objects are now thought to have been either burial goods that were originally stored in the corridor of Tutankhamun's tomb, which were removed and reburied in KV54 when the restorers filled the corridor, or objects related to Tutankhamun's funeral. Davis's excavators also discovered a small tomb called KV58 that contained pieces of

15428-561: The workers' huts atop that debris. In subsequent years the tombs in the valley suffered major waves of robbery: first during the late Twentieth Dynasty by local gangs of thieves, then during the Twenty-first Dynasty by officials working for the High Priests of Amun , who stripped the tombs of their valuables and removed the royal mummies. Tutankhamun's tomb, buried and forgotten, remained undisturbed. Several tombs in

15561-440: Was amongst the Amarna pharaohs whose memories were execrated under later rulers. It appears that one of Horemheb's undertakings as Pharaoh was to eliminate all references to the monotheistic experiment, a process that included expunging the name of his immediate predecessors, especially Ay, from the historical record. Horemheb desecrated Ay's burial and had most of Ay's royal cartouches in his WV23 tomb erased while his sarcophagus

15694-541: Was caused by sickle cell disease . Ay buried his young predecessor, as depicted on the wall of Tutankhamun's burial chamber. The explicit depiction of a succeeding king conducting the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony of another is unique; the depictions are usually more generic. Ay was buried in the tomb intended for Tutankhamun in the West Valley of the Kings ( WV23 ), and Tutankhamun was interred in Ay's intended tomb in

15827-450: Was either a son or an adopted son of Ay's, and that Ay was grooming Nakhtmin for the royal succession instead of Horemheb. The British Egyptologists Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton observe that the aforementioned statue: ... is broken after the signs for "King's Son of", and there has been considerable debate as to whether it continued to say "Kush", making Nakhtmin a Viceroy of Nubia, or "of his body", making him an actual royal son. Since there

15960-405: Was first sealed and from water seepage over the millennia until it was excavated. Recording the tomb's contents and conserving them so they could survive to be transported to Cairo proved to be an unprecedented task, lasting for ten digging seasons. Although many others participated, the only members of the excavation team who worked throughout the process were Carter, Alfred Lucas (a chemist who

16093-575: Was instrumental in the conservation effort), Harry Burton (who photographed the tomb and its artefacts) and four foremen: Ahmed Gerigar, Gad Hassan, Hussein Abu Awad and Hussein Ahmed Said. The spectacular nature of the tomb goods inspired a media frenzy , dubbed "Tutmania", that made Tutankhamun into one of the most famous pharaohs, often known by the nickname "King Tut". In the Western world

16226-587: Was not accepted by all scholars, and further analysis of the x-rays, along with CT scans taken in 2005, found no evidence to suggest that Tutankhamun died from a blow to the head as Brier had theorized. In 2010, a team led by Zahi Hawass reported that the young king had died from a combination of a broken leg, malaria and Köhler disease but another team from the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg believes his death

16359-491: Was not stripped of its valuables during the Third Intermediate Period ( c.  1070–664 BC ). Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered in 1922 by excavators led by Howard Carter . As a result of the quantity and spectacular appearance of the burial goods, the tomb attracted a media frenzy and became the most famous find in the history of Egyptology . The discovery produced only limited evidence about

16492-521: Was of foreign origin (usually Syrian), although this is far from certain. The name Yuya may be spelled in a number of different ways, as Gaston Maspero noted in Theodore Davis 's 1907 book— The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou . These include " iAy ", " ywiA ", yw [reed-leaf with walking feet] A, ywiw" and, in orthography—normally a sign of something foreign—"y [man with hand to mouth] iA". The Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt gives credence to

16625-450: Was primarily composed of 110.4 kilograms (243 lb) of solid gold. Within it lay Tutankhamun's mummified body. On the body, and contained within the layers of mummy wrappings, were 143 items, including articles of clothing such as sandals, a plethora of amulets and other jewellery and two daggers. Tutankhamun's head bore a beaded skullcap and a gold diadem, all of which was encased in the golden mask of Tutankhamun , which has become one of

16758-590: Was probably one of two tombs from the same era, WV23 or KV57 . KV62 is thought to have originally been a non-royal tomb, possibly intended for Ay , Tutankhamun's advisor. After Tutankhamun died prematurely, KV62 was enlarged to accommodate his burial. Ay became pharaoh on Tutankhamun's death and was buried in WV23. Ay was elderly when he came to the throne, and it is possible that he buried his predecessor in KV62 in order to usurp WV23 for himself and ensure that he would have

16891-501: Was replaced in the succession by General Nakhtmin under king Ay. In fact, two separate men were designated jrj-pꜥt or "Hereditary Prince" under Ay's short reign namely: Nay and Nakhtmin. Nozomu Kawai writes that Nay built his TT271 tomb at the hill of Qurnat Murai , facing Ay's mortuary temple at Medinet Habu where he holds the titles of: In contrast, the case of general Nakhtmin is quite different than that of Nay. As Kawai writes: Ay's succession plans went awry, as Horemheb became

17024-461: Was shipped to Cairo. Yuya's mummy was first examined by the Australian anatomist Grafton Elliot Smith. He found the body of Yuya is that of an old man, 1.651 metres (5.42 ft) tall, with white wavy hair discoloured by the embalming process; his eyebrows and eyelashes were dark brown. His ears are unpierced. The arms are bent with his hands placed under his chin. The left hand is fisted, while

17157-402: Was smashed into numerous fragments. However, the intact sarcophagus lid was discovered in 1972 by Otto Schaden . The lid had been buried under debris in this king's tomb and still preserved Ay's cartouche. Horemheb also usurped Ay's mortuary temple at Medinet Habu for his own use. Uvo Hölscher (1878–1963) who excavated the temple in the early 1930s provides these interesting details concerning

17290-410: Was subsequently rewrapped, suggesting local officials may have discovered the break-in and restored the mummy without reporting what had happened. The theft was not exposed until 1968, after the anatomist Ronald Harrison re-examined Tutankhamun's remains. Most tombs in the Valley of the Kings tombs are vulnerable to flash flooding. When analysing Tutankhamun's tomb in 1927, Lucas concluded that despite

17423-458: Was succeeded by Tutankhamun's general Horemheb , although the transfer of power may have been contested and created a brief period of political instability. As part of the continued reaction against Atenism, Horemheb tried to erase Akhenaten and his successors from the record, dismantling Akhenaten's monuments and usurping those erected by Tutankhamun. Future king-lists skipped straight from Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III , to Horemheb. Within

17556-550: Was the father-in-law of the pharaoh, suggesting that he was the son of Yuya and Thuya , thus being a brother or half-brother of Tiye , brother-in-law to Amenhotep III and the maternal uncle of Akhenaten. Instead, the title may indicate that Ay was the tutor of Tutankhamun. If Ay was the son of Yuya, who was a senior military officer during the reign of Amenhotep III, then he likely followed in his father's footsteps, finally inheriting his father's military functions upon his death. Alternatively, it could also mean that he may have had

17689-411: Was the restoration of traditional religious practice. His name was changed from Tutankhaten, referring to Akhenaten's deity, to Tutankhamun, honouring Amun , one of the foremost deities of the traditional pantheon. Similarly, his queen's name was changed from Ankhesenpaaten to Ankhesenamun . Shortly after Tutankhamun took power, he commissioned a full-size royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings , which

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