KV63

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KV63
tomb of unknown

place Valley of the Kings
Discovery date March 10, 2005 (discovery of the shaft)
February 8, 2006 (official announcement)
excavation Otto damage
Previous
KV62 		The following
KV64
Valley of the Kings
Valley of the Kings
(Eastern Valley)

KV63 ( Kings' Valley no. 63 ) is the name of a tomb from the 18th dynasty uncovered in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings . The discovery is attributed by the Egyptian Antiquities Authority , the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), a US team of archaeologists from the University of Memphis under the direction of the Egyptologist Otto Schaden .

The facility serves as a depot for embalming and mummification material . The scientific evaluation of the grave is still ongoing. The complete assignment of the coffins found in the grave complex and the original purpose is still unclear overall, although some people could be partially identified.

Discovery and Assignment

The discovery of KV63 was related to the Amenmesse Tomb Project , as part of which Otto Schaden wanted to investigate the problem of succession to the throne to King Amenmesse , which remains unresolved in Egyptology, by tracking down foundations at the entrance ramp of KV10 . The team first came across 11 workers' huts from the 19th dynasty , two to the right and nine to the left of the access road to KV10, under the rubble piled up by occasional floods , and then on March 10, 2005, on the ledge of the access shaft to what was soon to be called the grave KV63. Since the shoulder of the shaft was found a few days before the end of the 2005 excavation season, Schaden decided to fill the depression by the beginning of the following season.

The discovery of the shaft was finally officially announced on February 8, 2006 by the former Chairman of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawass . On March 5th, Schaden opened the entrance blocked with stone blocks, five days later the complex was given the designation KV63, according to the grave numbering customary in Egyptian necropolises . The grave was then excavated between March and July 2006.

In the meantime, the start of construction of KV63 could most likely the reign of Amenhotep III. be assigned. In the coffin decoration program only the sun god ( Re ) is mentioned, while the traditional funerary sayings in connection with other deities are missing; for example, the naming of the most important dead deities Osiris and Anubis . It is therefore believed that the burial took place between the end of Akhenaten's reign and the beginning of Tutankhamun's reign . A fragment of an inscription shows that the "royal nurse Ini" was buried in a sarcophagus.

The excavation team found, among other things, three smaller coffins, including a children's coffin with a golden coffin under pillows. There is therefore a possibility that it was a child of the royal family. Further details cannot be given so far as no mummies have been found. Storage vessels that were opened after the coffin restoration began contained wood scraps from which a complete bed could be reconstructed. It had a length from the top (head of a lion) to the bottom of about 1.70 m. The footless bed was probably at ground level and carried either the mummy or a coffin. There are still no references to the ruling king at that time.

Location and architecture

The grave is located on the south side of the central crossroads of the necropolis in the immediate north-eastern vicinity of the entrance to grave KV10 (Amenmesse) and 14.5 meters from the opposite entrance to grave KV62 ( Tutankhamun ). According to current knowledge, KV63 has a very simple floor plan compared to the complex grave complexes in its vicinity . From a 4.40 meter deep, approximately 1.50 meter long and 1.20 meter wide vertical shaft branches off at its lower end in a north-westerly direction to KV62 to a single chamber. The approximately 1.50 meter high unsealed access to this chamber was closed off at the time of the discovery with stacked and roughly hewn stone blocks. The L-shaped room, measuring around 4 by 5 meters, has no wall decorations, pillars or other branching corridors and is only roughly carved into the rock. The ceiling of the room, which has been expanded in the far right corner, slopes slightly in a north-easterly direction.

Furnishing

The chamber leading horizontally from the shaft contained a total of seven anthropoid coffins ("Coffin A" - "Coffin G") in its rear left corner, including that of a child and a teenager. Four of them were covered with black resin , the other three had human faces painted in shades of yellow (the usual skin color of female figures). Coffin G also contained a 42 centimeter high and gold leaf covered miniature coffin. None of the coffins contained a human mummy , rather they were filled with various mummification materials and burial objects such as necklaces or pillows. The archaeologists also found 28 labeled clay jugs, some of which were made of both ceramic and alabaster . The jugs contained various materials, including baking soda , wood, grain seeds, charcoal, various pottery and small animal bones. On average, they measured about 75 centimeters in height and weighed between 40 and 43 kilograms.

Trivia

While uncovering the workers 'huts above KV63, the team from Schaden came across an edition of the New York Times from 1907, which the researchers traced back to Theodore M. Davis' excavation in the grave of Amenmesse ( KV10 ).

See also

literature

Web links