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Home , KV21, KV55, Valley of the Kings

The Enigma of KV 55 By Theunis W. Eloff

The of The Kings is a dry Waddi, or water course, in the hills on the West bank of the at Thebes (Modern ). It is here that most of the kings of the 18th and 19th Dynasties were buried. (c. 1567 – 1200B.C.). The existence of the valley has been known since antiquity and indeed several of the tombs have been open since ancient times. Excavating, or perhaps rather “Treasure Hunting” became popular during the 19th Century and it was only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that more systematic began to be practised.

Concessions to dig in The Valley were granted by Antiquities Department, to only one excavator at a time. In the early 20th Century, this was to Theodore Davis, an elderly, cantankerous American Retired businessman with no knowledge of archaeology, but a desire for “Anticas”. At first, he was prepared to fund exploration but leave matters in the hands of more knowledgeable men like Edward Ayrton and others. Supervision of the excavations fell to the Director of Antiquities for that district, then J. B. Quibell. But, in 1905, the new Inspector of Antiquities, , offered Davis a new contract, advising him to employ his own archaeologist and to get involved himself with supervising the work. This proved to be disastrous. He interfered with the work of his excavators and regularly argued with and overruled them. Ayrton complained that he found it difficult to work with the man and when Davis was present work went more slowly, was very unpleasant and things often went wrong.

Between 1902 and 1914, there was a new tomb discovered almost every year. Prior to 1907, a number of finds were made, including the almost intact tomb of and Thuya, the parents of Queen and great-grandparents of Tutankhamen. There was also a pit containing a number of jars of embalming materials and refuse from the funeral of Tutankhamen. Davis declared that he had found all that remained of Tutankhamen’s tomb, but not all were convinced.

On 6th January 1907, Ayrton uncovered the entrance to a tomb (KV 55), not far from the entrance to the tomb of Ramesses IX. Davis was informed on 7th and on 9th he, Ayrton, J. L. Smith, and Weigall entered the tomb. Smith started making sketches of the interior, and on 11th, R. Paul arrived to take photographs before clearing began.

KV55 was arguably one of the most important, if not The most important site in the valley. It held valuable information on the closing years of the Amara Period and the end of the 18 Dynasty. Because of Davis ignorance, obstinacy and bullish attitude, much of this information was lost and even many of the artefacts were either destroyed of stolen.

At this point I should say something briefly about the Amara period and the major people involved. Amenhotep III came to the throne in BC 1417. He married as his , Tiye, a noble lady, who was the daughter of Yuya, the High Priest of Min at Akmin and his wife, Thuya. Towards the end of his long and glorious reign, Amenhotep III took his second, but oldest surviving son, Amenhotep, as a co-regent as Amenhotep IV. He was married to and they had six daughters but no sons. Early in his reign, the new king changed his name to and moved to the new capital at Aketaten, abandoning not only Thebes, but also ’s ancient religion with its many deities. Instead he fostered the worship of one god only, The . Temples of other gods, especially those of Amen Ra, were closed and their sources of income were withdrawn. As a result he was later referred to as The Heretic or The Criminal of Aketaten. His reign and the early years of Tutankhamen comprise the Amara Period , named for the modern village of Tell El Amara, which occupies the site of Aketaten. In the closing years of his reign, he appears to have taken a co-regent. A young man, who was a close family member, named Smenkhara. Smenkhara seems to have died shortly after Akhenaten and was succeeded by the 9 year old Tutankhaten. Tutankhaten and his Grand Vizier, , returned the court to Thebes and restored the old religion, with the young king changing his name to Tutankhamen. Ay was the brother of Queen Tiye and father of Nefertiti. After the Death of Tutankhamen, the throne was assumed by Ay, who married Tutankhamen’s widow, Ankhesenamen. She was a daughter of Akhenaten and therefore Ay’s granddaughter. After his death all reference to Akhenaten, Smenkara, Tutankhamen and Ay was destroyed and Aketaten was demolished.

Let us now return to 1907 and KV 55.

KV 55 is a small, unfinished tomb from the 18th Dynasty. The size of the entrance, which is cut deeply into the overhanging rock may indicate that this was originally planned as a Royal tomb. A flight of steps lead down to a blocked doorway, which also had a secondary blocking, then to a sloping passage and a burial chamber. To the side of this chamber, was a recess which had been used to hold canopic jars. This was certainly the beginnings of a second chamber. Masons marks on the entrance and other parts of the tomb show that the intention was to build a much larger tomb. The walls of the chamber had been plastered, but not decorated. This may suggest that it had been prepared for a Royal burial. At first glance, the tomb appeared to be in complete disarray. The door and side of a gilded funeral shrine lay abandoned in the corridor, while the burial chamber contained a variety of apparently broken objects scattered with total disregard for any logical order. Modern re -examinations of the contemporary photographs and drawings, as well as of the written record, seem to show a somewhat different picture.

The tomb had clearly been opened and desecrated in ancient times. This was first indicated by the secondary blocking. At the foot of the flight of steps was the remains of a blocked doorway, plastered over and stamped with the seal of the Necropolis Guards. This indicated an ancient entry that had been resealed at a later date. Weigall claimed to have seen the seal of King Tutankhamen on the doorway but as no photographs of this survive, it cannot be proved and is open to doubt. An opening in this plastered wall had subsequently been blocked with a rough limestone wall resting on the rubble filling of the passage beyond. The rubble in the passageway had also been disturbed and flowed into the chamber at its end. On top of the rubble filling lay the door and side of a large , but fragile gilded wooden shrine, which had been a funeral gift from Akhenaten to his mother Queen Tiye. Contemporary sketches show figures of The Heretic and his Mother making offerings to The Aten. Tiye’s name is intact but the name and figure of Akhenaten have been chiselled out and the name of Amenhotep III has been written in in ink. One of Paul’s photographs shows further pieces of this shrine in the southeast corner of the chamber. Little attempt was made to conserve these artefacts with the result that now very little remains. The presence of this shrine in KV55 suggests that Queen Tiye may have been deposited here at some stage. It would appear that it had been fully erected in the chamber, where it would have occupied about 2/3 of the available space. At a later stage, it was disassembled and was being removed, when it was abandoned, owing to the difficulty involved in removing it. On the floor, in the western portion of the chamber, lay a badly preserved -form coffin of heavily gilded wood, inlaid with semi-precious stones and glass in a rishi pattern, typical of the late 18th Dynasty. Although not originally intended for a king, its quality and workmanship are of a Royal standard. The head had been fitted with a gilded and inlaid uraeus, and a false gold beard of the gods, while the Crook and Flail of Kingship had been placed in the hands. The Head-dress is of a full, “Nubian” style wig, more commonly associated with female dress, which has led to the suggestion that it was made for a woman. The inscriptions had been altered to suit a king, but the Royal and been excised. The gold leaf covering the face had been ripped off, obliterating the features from below the eyes. The golden bier on which it had rested, had collapsed in antiquity, and the fall had caused the coffin lid to become dislodged. We will return to the coffin and its contents later.

Beside the coffin was a recess, clearly the start of another chamber. This had been pressed into service to hold the canopic jars, intended to hold the viscera of the deceased. The canopic jars are made of calcite and have well carved portrait head stoppers. Again, typical of the late 18th Dynasty, these took the form of a likeness of the intended owner. Once again they were intended for a woman, a princess or perhaps a Queen, wearing a “Nubian” wig. They had been adapted for the use of a king, by having glass uraeui attached to their foreheads. These had been snapped off in ancient times and the inscription, which contained the name of the owner, had been erased completely. While these were originally attributed to , a daughter and possible wife of Akhenaten, they have now been “Identified” as having been made for , a lesser wife of Akhenaten, but with little supporting evidence. One of them is now in Metropolitan Museum in New York, while the other 3 are in Cairo. When discovered, they were found to be empty.

The recess also contained one of a set of four “Magic bricks”, made of mud and forming the base for funeral amulets. These had all been placed roughly in their correct positions on the four cardinal points in the burial chamber. Two of them were inscribed in hieroglyphics, for Neferkheprura-waenra, the prenomen of Akhenaten. The other two appear to have been hastily made replacements inscribed in ink in script. The latter two have never been photographed and can no longer be found. The presence of these bricks, provide the strongest evidence that the occupant was Akhenaten. It was believed that the magic would only work for the person whose name was inscribed upon them. All other indications are flimsy.

The remainder of the tomb contents consisted of debris from destroyed, broken or badly decayed items. This included a gilded and inlayed bronze uraeus, which possibly came from a second coffin or from a Guardian statue and inscribed with the later form of the name of The Aten. There is a fleeting reference to such a figure in one of the contemporary accounts. There were also the remains of several badly decayed wooden boxes, with their contents spilled out onto the floor. A contemporary photograph shows the contents to have been a variety of funerary objects, some inscribed with the names of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye; a small faience figure of the god Bes; a cosmetic pot; model fruits and a model knife; throwing sticks; amulets; a few gilt copper rosettes, from a funeral pall; bits of broken jewellery and the decayed flail from the coffin. Much of this has also been lost. Let us now return to the coffin and its occupant. When the lid, which lay at an angle, was removed, it became clear that the lower portion of the coffin had disintegrated almost completely. Ayrton methodically collected the gold foil and the pieces of inlay and stored them in carefully labelled cigarette tins, but these were subsequently stolen. Some of them appeared several years ago in a private collection in Germany and have been returned to the Cairo Museum. Beneath the coffin was the remains of the decayed lion bier, while below that was a collection of small seals but Davis regarded this valuable material as rubbish and dismissed it. Ayrton appears to have taken some photographs of these items himself and these surfaced in London a few years ago. There were four different types of seal. One of them showed a version of the Prenomen of Amenhotep III (Nebmaatra); another showed Tutankhamen in the form of a sphinx, trampling his enemies; another, a king before a goddess and finally one with a lion before a crocodile with a captive between them. Examples of the last three were also found in Tutankhamen’s tomb.

The mummy itself was in a sorry state. Like much of the tomb’s contents, it had suffered badly from damp. was given the task of “unwrapping” the mummy. On top of the body were the fragmentary remains of the gold leaf lining of the lid. Some contemporary accounts refer to these Mummy Bands, but this is unlikely, especially as some of these have now been found in an unlabelled wooden box in the Cairo Museum. If there had been any mummy bands, these too have been stolen. When the linen wrappings were removed in chunks, the body appeared. The left arm was bent across the chest, with the right arm down the side of the body. This was typical of 18th Dynasty burial posture for a Queen. This, for Davis, confirmed that this was the body of Queen Tiye and he refused to change his mind thereafter. The arms were adorned with 3 gold foil bracelets, which have since disappeared. The head was separated from the body since ancient times. One theory is that it was hit by a rock in ancient times. Round the head was a sheet gold vulture pectoral, of the kind used on the chest and neck of kings, but bent round it, it looked like a crown. Little was left of the head, other than the scull. A beaded broad collar disintegrated when touched. There were also pieces of gold foil bearing the early form of the name of The Aten. Other items of jewellery were stolen by workmen, bought back by Davis on the antiques market for his own collection, but have now vanished. Smith also found part of the gold coffin lining, bearing the intact name of Akhenaten, but not identifying him as the occupant but simply as part of the titulary of its original owner. All the remaining bones were then put into a basket with the scull, sealed up and sent to Cairo.

When the remains reached Cairo, the mystery of whose they were deepened. Davis received a letter asking if he had sent the correct remains. “Instead of the remains of an old woman, you have sent me the bones of a young man.” Maspero at first identified the remains as being Akhenaten, on the basis of the gold foil found by Smith. When the bones were identified as those of a young man in his twenties, he changed his mind and said they must be Smenkhara. Smenkhara is an obscure figure, possibly a younger brother of Akhenaten, who may have been his Co-Regent and successor for a very short period, perhaps less than a year. Grafton Elliot Smith, an anatomist, suggested an age of about 25 or 26 at death. Theories concerning the identity of the remains proliferated. Some more bizarre than others.

Years later, the Anatomist, Douglas Derry pointed out the similarity of the sculls of Tutankhamen and the body from KV55. He estimated that the remains were those of a man of 23 years of age.

Alan Gardiner supported

view that this was Akhenaten. Gunther Roeder, a German expert, concluded in 1958 that this was Smenkhara and in 1961, W. H. Fairman agreed with him. Various theories of syndromes and conditions were put forward for retarding bone growth by many who favoured the Akhenaten theory. In 1966, R.G.Harrison re-examined the remains and reported an age of between 20 and 25 years at death. There were also other theories and arguments. More recent re-examination of the remains by Fawzier Hussein and James Harris suggested an age of 35 at death, which would fit with Akhenaten. and Dr Hawass are both convinced that the remains are those of Akhenaten. Their arguments are compelling, but……. Then there is the latest theory that Smenkhara was either, Nefertiti, Some other female member of the family or, a total fabrication. I lump all of these “Theories” together as belonging to La la Looney Land and not worthy of serious consideration, I believe them to be pure flights of fancy.

Who then was the king in KV55, for King, he most certainly was. In 2005 Dr Hawass and an international team of leading experts undertook a detailed examination of the Royal Family of the latter 18th dynasty, including CAT scans and DNA tests. Those tested included Tutankhamen, The KV55 remains, Queen Tiye, Amenhotep III and several others. Their conclusions were fascinating and very revealing. We already know that the King from KV55 and Tutankhamen shared a common blood type, but DNA revealed that the KV55 remains were of Tutankhamen’s father and that from KV35 was his mother. It also showed that these two were full brother and sister, both children of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. AH! Cried Hawass, Akhenaten and Kiya. But Kiya was NOT a daughter of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. She was foreign, probably the Daughter of Tadukhipa, King of the Mitanni. So KV35YL is NOT Kia, and as a result, Hawass cannot be correct.

Then we know from DNA, that the 2 female foetuses found in Tutankhamen’s tomb, were the stillborn children of Tutankhamen and the headless female mummy found in KV21 and named KV21A. This then is Tutankhamen’s only known wife, Ankhesenamen. The other body, KV21B, is probably one of her sisters. We know that Ankehesenaten/ Ankehesenamen was a daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Nefertiti has never been found. If KV55 Remains are those of Akhenaten then Tutankhamen and his wife would be half- brother and sister. DNA does not support this. KV21A is NOT the daughter of the KV55 king. This means that the remains in KV55 cannot be those of Akhenaten. Who then is he? The only logical answer in Smenkhara, who must have been a younger brother of Akhenaten. So in spite of the firm opinions of leading Egyptologists, we still don’t really know who was buried in KV55. All their statements are mere opinion and I am far from convinced that the identity of The King in KV55 has been solved. To my mind, he must be Smenkhara.

This leaves us with several unanswered questions. Why was this king buried with his arms in the position used for a queen? Why was the kingly vulture pectoral wrapped around the head in the form of a crown? Why was his identity destroyed, thus ensuring that he would remain dead for ever, with no chance of resurrection? Why were the canopic jars empty? Then, of course, there remains the mystery of what Queen Tiye’s shrine was doing there and whether it was on its way in or out when abandoned!

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Archaeology News Network KV55 mummy not Akhenaten says ASU bio-archaeologist. 2014-08-23 Davis, Theodore M The Tomb of Queen Tiyi: The Discovery of The Tomb, London, 1910 Edwards, I.E.S A General introductory Guide to the Egyptian Collection in The British Museum, London , 1971 Hawass, Z; Yehia, Z; Ruhli, F; et al Ancestry & Pathology in King Tutankhamen’s Family. JAMMA Network, 2010-02-17 Hawass, Zahi The Realm of The , Vercello, 2006 James, T.G.H : The Eternal Splendor of The Boy , Vercelli, 2000 Phizackerley, Kate DNA Shows that KV55 Mummy Probably Not Akhenaten. News from the Valley, 2010-03-02 Reeves, Nicholas & Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete , London 1996 Reeves, Nicholas The Enduring Mystery of KV55. Lecture delivered at the Bloomsbury Summer School University College London, 1997-05-17 Wikipedia, Smenkhare. 2014-08-24