KV14

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KV14 is an ancient Egyptian grave site from the time of the New Kingdom in the Valley of the Kings . It could be attributed to Tausret , the last queen of the 19th dynasty, and her successor, King ( Pharaoh ) Sethnacht , the founder of the 20th dynasty.

KV14
Tomb of Tausret and Sethnacht

place Valley of the Kings
Discovery date Accessible since ancient times
excavation Hartwig Altenmüller
Previous
KV13 		The following
KV15
Valley of the Kings
Valley of the Kings
(Eastern Valley)

Discovery and Exploration

Corridor to the tomb of the Tausret

One cannot speak of an actual discovery of the double grave KV14, because the grave has been accessible since ancient times . Investigations and excavation work took place several times in KV14, with longer intervals, by various Egyptologists and institutions:

The first excavations in KV14 seem to have been carried out, however limited, as for example in 1909 from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo a trunk button of Horemheb was registered to the stresses he was from KV14.

Eugène Lefébure documented the walls of the tomb in Les Hypogées royaux de Thébes II in 1889 . The last more detailed investigations in the double grave were carried out in the 1980s by Hartwig Altenmüller . His research results were published in Nicholas Reeves work after Tutankhamun published 1992nd

history

The carving and processing of KV14 points to the reign of Ramses III. an eventful history. From 1983 to 1987 Hartwig Altenmüller was able to determine various stages of the renovation work and construction phases for Tausret in the grave during his work in KV14:

  • Work on KV14 began in the 2nd year of the reign of Seti II , who granted his great royal wife the unique privilege of a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The grave of a Great Royal Wife would have been more likely in the Valley of the Queens .
  • King Siptah adheres to the basic conception of the tomb begun under Seti II and builds the tomb into a smaller copy of a royal tomb.
  • A further construction phase can be proven for the time of Tausret's co-reign with Siptah.
  • The fourth and final reworking phase of the tomb with reference to Queen Tausret dates back to the time of her own accession to the throne after Siptah's death. The tomb will be redesigned and expanded with royal elements according to her new status as pharaoh .

The period for the total construction period under Queen Tausret is assumed to be around ten years. KV14 already had a very active building history up to the death of Tausret, which also documents the rise of a great royal consort to a co-regency and even becoming a pharaoh.

Actually KV11 been provided as king Sethnachts grave. However, while excavating the third corridor, the workers came across the grave of Amenmesse , which led to the immediate cessation of all work on the grave. When Sethnacht died after a two-year reign, he was taken over by Ramses III. not buried in KV11, but in KV14, the grave of Tausret. This burial in an already existing royal tomb required it to be cleared and redecorated, which meant that the tomb was subjected to a final phase of reworking.

Altenmüller also assumes that Seti II was buried in the first burial chamber J1 during the last construction phase of the grave. However, this is not certain, as work on burial chamber J2 has already started.

architecture

Isometric representation, floor plan and sectional drawing of the tomb

With a total length of over 112 m, KV14 is one of the largest graves in the Valley of the Kings. It has two completely designed grave chambers (J1 and J2) and unfinished secondary chambers (Ka and Kb). As a result of the various modifications to the tomb, it has elements of both a royal and a queen's grave.

The corridors in the entrance area do not have the usual width of approx. 2.60 m, but are much narrower. The columns in the first burial chamber do not have the usual royal dimensions of 0.7 m, but only 0.6 m. As a result, only one figure could be depicted here and therefore no depictions of the king and deity can be found in one scene. However, as the grave progresses, these dimensions change.

Decorations

The different construction and development phases can also be seen in the decorations on the grave. In the first part of the grave several male deities are shown, whose names bear but feminine endings, for example, the inscription above the Osiris - Shrine . Here an attempt was made to merge the god with the person of Queen Tausret.

The decorations in the entrance area do not contain any elements of a royal tomb. However, the theme of the first burial chamber is the “ Book of the Caves ” and it can be assumed that the abandoned secondary chambers should also be equipped with royal elements.

The representations in the tomb of the Tausret have the following sequence: adoration of the setting sun, sacrifice of the Tausret to the deities and greeting of the gatekeepers of the underworld, protection by the gods of the hour guards for the queen, further greeting of the Tausret by gatekeepers of the underworld, completion of the mouth opening ceremony at a statue of the queen, the Tausret greeted by various gods, various texts from the underworld books. Burial chamber J1, known as the Tausret, contains scenes from the Book of the Portals and the Book of Caves, as well as an astronomical ceiling. In burial chamber J2, in which the Sethnacht sarcophagus is located, there are also scenes from the Book of Doors and an astronomical ceiling.

For Sethnacht's burial in KV14, the figure of the queen was replaced by that of the king and her name cartouches by his. All other decorations in the tomb remained unchanged and are those that were intended for the tomb of Queen Tausret.

Royal mummies

Sethnacht's sarcophagus in his burial chamber

A definitive burial of Queen Tausret in KV14 could not be proven. One assumption is that her mummy was removed from the grave by Sethnacht when he had Sethnacht reburied in KV15. Therefore, no reliable information can be given about the whereabouts of her mummy. Her mummy-shaped sarcophagus made of granite was found in KV13 , which had been used again for Amenherkhepeshef.

Sethnacht's sarcophagus was destroyed in antiquity, and neither his mummy nor the remains of his burial equipment were found in KV14. The sarcophagus lid shows the pharaoh in the form of a mummy and has similarities with the king Siptah. However, the coffin box itself seems to have been taken over by a previous user, presumably from Seti II. The restored sarcophagus is in the coffin chamber J2.

Finally, in KV35 , the so-called mummy depot in the grave of Amenhotep II , Victor Loret discovered a total of nine royal mummies in 1898, including probably those of King Sethnacht. However, the attribution of the mummy is uncertain. There was also a broken, human-shaped ( anthropomorphic ) coffin, which had been labeled for Sethnacht, but was of inferior quality. Nevertheless, it could have been part of his grave equipment.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : KV14  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Theban Mapping Project: KV14, History of Exploration ( Memento of the original from June 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thebanmappingproject.com
  2. ↑ a b Kent R. Weeks, Araldo da Luca: In the Valley of the Kings. P. 228.
  3. ↑ Erik Hornung: The Valley of the Kings. P. 51.
  4. ^ Theban Mapping Project. KV14.
  5. ^ A b Nicholas Reeves, Richard. H. Wilkinson: The Valley of the Kings. Mysterious realm of the dead of the pharaohs. P. 158.

Coordinates: 25 ° 44 ′ 21 ″  N , 32 ° 35 ′ 58 ″  E