Egyptian Mummy
On January 6, 1907, Edward R. Ayrton uncovered Tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings. Theodore M. Davis, Ayrton’s sponsor, released a report of the excavation (The Tomb of Queen Tiye) in 1910.
KV55 is a problematic archaeological site from the 18th dynasty since it appears to have been used for three burials: the first is attributed to Queen Tiye, based on the damaged wooden shrine dedicated to her (Tiye was taken here after the abandonment of Amarna and eventually brought to KV35).
The Egyptian mummy discovered here could be that of her son, Pharaoh Akhenaten; however, Smenkhkare (assuming he was a man) was also considered.
During Howard Carter’s excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1923, Harry Burton used it as a darkroom to process his photographs.
KV55 is a modest royal tomb, measuring only 27.61 meters in length. It is next to KV6, Ramses IX’s tomb, above KV7 (Ramses II’s tomb), and next to KV62, Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Its entrance is visible in the rock to the east. It leads to a set of stairs that lead to the burial room and a slightly sloped passageway.
There is a doorway to a small antechamber on the south side of this chamber, and red masonry markings on the east wall show the planning of another room, which, if erected, would have matched the layout of Tutankhamun’s tomb.
The walls of the tomb are plastered, which is rare for a royal burial, although they are not ornamented. A drawing on an ostracon discovered by Lyla Pinch Brock in 1993 has been interpreted as the tomb’s plan, implying that its original entrance had been extended, which is supported by marks found on the tomb’s walls.
The location was shifted throughout antiquity, making interpretation problematic. The evidence from the tomb complicates its identification.
The door seals bore Tutankhamun’s name, evidently from the time its tenant was reburied; the canopic jars discovered in the tomb are similar to those of Akhenaten’s secondary wife, Kiya; and the broken shrine, whose panels are distributed throughout the chamber, bears the name and representations of Akhenaten’s mother, Queen Tiye.
The names of Akhenaten, Amenhotep III, and his daughter and wife appear in a sequence of “magical bricks” discovered in the tomb.
All of these data are suggestive of the key figures of the Amarna period, hence the tomb’s widespread name: the Amarna cache.
It is thought that the tomb was originally intended for the burial of a nobleman or official but was eventually used for a royal burial, as was the case with Tutankhamun’s tomb.
One of four Egyptian alabaster canopic jars discovered in KV55, portraying what is assumed to be Queen Kiya’s image.
The solitary mummy discovered within the tomb when it was uncovered in 1907 was that of a male. Because of the existence of various burial objects (including magical bricks) and the damage to the sarcophagus (Akhenaten was afterwards reviled as a heretic), this mummy was supposed to be Akhenaten.
The cartouches with the Egyptian mummy’s name have been removed, as has the uraeus. Furthermore, the mummy resembles Tutankhamun in various ways.
This identification was not universally accepted since, despite the fact that KV55 makes no reference to Smenkhkare, others insisted on associating the mummy with him. In 2010, DNA tests proved that it was the remains of the renowned Akhenaten.
According to Nicholas Reeves, Akhenaten and his mother, Queen Tiy, were initially buried in Amarna, but their bodies were moved to KV55 during the reign of Akhenaten’s son Tutankhamun and his secondary wife, Kiya.
Tutankhamun’s name was inscribed on the door. The mummies stayed there for almost 200 years, until the tomb was found by workers excavating Ramses IX’s neighboring tomb.
The sarcophagus of Queen Tiye was quickly removed from Akhenaten’s desecrating presence, except for the gilded wooden shrine that covered it, which had to be destroyed in order to remove the tomb.
To doom Akhenaten to eternal obscurity, his portraits were destroyed with a chisel, his coffin’s gilded mask was torn, and the cartouche with his name was removed. As a final insult, a big boulder was thrown at the coffin, destroying the lion-shaped sarcophagus’s supports.
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