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Authors: Joyce Tyldesley
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they are female, and that they represent either Kiya or the eldest Amarna princess, Meritaten; others have suggested that they may be Tutankhamen or Tiy (Daressy) or Akhenaten (Maspero and Weigall). Three of these jars have been subjected to chemical analysis. Two contained a âhard, compact, black, pitch-like mass surrounding a well-defined centrally-situated zone of different material, which was of a brown colour and friable natureâ; this brown and friable material was almost certainly the remains of the viscera. The third jar yielded the same compact black mass, but the viscera had been removed some time after its discovery. 21
The elaborate inlaid rishi or feathered-style anthropoid coffin (the
earliest coffin of this type to be found in the Valley) lay on the ground with its lid displaced and its mummy partially revealed. The five bands of hieroglyphs that decorated the coffin exterior, and the twelve lines of text on the foot-end, showed obvious signs of mutilation, and the cartouche which would have named the coffinâs owner was empty. The coffinâs face had been torn away, and further, accidental, damage had been caused by a rock that had fallen from the ceiling, splitting the coffin lid. Davis assumed that the coffin had originally rested on a lion-legged bed, and that this had rotted and collapsed when water entered the tomb, causing the coffin to fall. There is good evidence to suggest that floodwater did indeed run along the ceiling and drip into the tomb, damaging much of what lay below. But no diagnostic pieces of the âbedâ survive; it may therefore be that the coffin, which always lay on the ground, was simply disturbed by the intruder (either a robber or necropolis official), who tore away its golden face and â perhaps â stole the golden mummy mask that lay beneath the coffin lid.
The fragile coffin disintegrated as it was removed from the tomb, leaving the excavators with a collection of glass and semi-precious stone inlays and gold. By 1915 conservators in the Cairo Museum had restored the coffin lid, but the base remained a collection of fragments stored in two boxes; by 1931 these boxes had vanished, and were presumed lost or stolen . 22 They eventually found their way, via Switzerland, into the collection of the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich, where the lower part of the coffin was restored and mounted on a Plexiglas shell. The coffin base, together with some gold foil from the inside and outside of the coffin, was returned to Cairo Museum in January 2002.
Ayrton tells us that the mummy within the coffin was âwrapped in flexible gold platesâ, Davis that it âwas covered with pure gold sheets, called gold foil, but nearly all so thick that, when taken in the hands, they would stand alone without bendingâ. 23 It seems likely that these
large, flat gold sheets were part of the coffin lining, rather than a separate mummy cover, and the fact that Daressy excluded them from his catalogue suggests that he, too, regarded them as integral to the coffin. These gold sheets are today housed in Cairo Museum; they are inscribed but, as they have been repeatedly folded and badly creased, are almost impossible to read. A further six uninscribed sheets of gold foil, which appear to have fallen off the underside of the lid (five pieces) and the exterior of the base (one decorated piece), were given to Davis by Maspero; today these are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Weigallâs description of the mummy adds another layer of complexity to an already confused situation:
â¦when we removed the lid of the coffin we found a band or ribbon of thin gold which had evidently passed round the body. When we had gathered up the bones and fragments and dust we found another similar band which had evidently passed down the back of the mummy. These bands, as I remember them, were about two inches wide and were inscribed with the titles of
The elaborate inlaid rishi or feathered-style anthropoid coffin (the
earliest coffin of this type to be found in the Valley) lay on the ground with its lid displaced and its mummy partially revealed. The five bands of hieroglyphs that decorated the coffin exterior, and the twelve lines of text on the foot-end, showed obvious signs of mutilation, and the cartouche which would have named the coffinâs owner was empty. The coffinâs face had been torn away, and further, accidental, damage had been caused by a rock that had fallen from the ceiling, splitting the coffin lid. Davis assumed that the coffin had originally rested on a lion-legged bed, and that this had rotted and collapsed when water entered the tomb, causing the coffin to fall. There is good evidence to suggest that floodwater did indeed run along the ceiling and drip into the tomb, damaging much of what lay below. But no diagnostic pieces of the âbedâ survive; it may therefore be that the coffin, which always lay on the ground, was simply disturbed by the intruder (either a robber or necropolis official), who tore away its golden face and â perhaps â stole the golden mummy mask that lay beneath the coffin lid.
The fragile coffin disintegrated as it was removed from the tomb, leaving the excavators with a collection of glass and semi-precious stone inlays and gold. By 1915 conservators in the Cairo Museum had restored the coffin lid, but the base remained a collection of fragments stored in two boxes; by 1931 these boxes had vanished, and were presumed lost or stolen . 22 They eventually found their way, via Switzerland, into the collection of the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich, where the lower part of the coffin was restored and mounted on a Plexiglas shell. The coffin base, together with some gold foil from the inside and outside of the coffin, was returned to Cairo Museum in January 2002.
Ayrton tells us that the mummy within the coffin was âwrapped in flexible gold platesâ, Davis that it âwas covered with pure gold sheets, called gold foil, but nearly all so thick that, when taken in the hands, they would stand alone without bendingâ. 23 It seems likely that these
large, flat gold sheets were part of the coffin lining, rather than a separate mummy cover, and the fact that Daressy excluded them from his catalogue suggests that he, too, regarded them as integral to the coffin. These gold sheets are today housed in Cairo Museum; they are inscribed but, as they have been repeatedly folded and badly creased, are almost impossible to read. A further six uninscribed sheets of gold foil, which appear to have fallen off the underside of the lid (five pieces) and the exterior of the base (one decorated piece), were given to Davis by Maspero; today these are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Weigallâs description of the mummy adds another layer of complexity to an already confused situation:
â¦when we removed the lid of the coffin we found a band or ribbon of thin gold which had evidently passed round the body. When we had gathered up the bones and fragments and dust we found another similar band which had evidently passed down the back of the mummy. These bands, as I remember them, were about two inches wide and were inscribed with the titles of
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