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Authors: Joyce Tyldesley
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Akhenaten, but the cartouche was in each case cut out, so that there was simply an oval hole in the band, wherever it occurred. 24
These inscribed gold ribbons were obviously very different in appearance to the flat gold sheets, yet Weigall is apparently the only witness to have seen them. He tells us that they were sent to Cairo, where he again saw them in the Museum workshop. However, they were omitted from the Daressy catalogue, and Weigall rather sadly concludes: ââ¦I am now not sure whether they are still somewhere in the Cairo Museum, or whether they have disappeared.â Grafton Elliot Smith subsequently mentioned the ribbons in his report on the KV 55 human remains, but there is no indication that he actually saw them with his own eyes:
From the circumstances under which the coffin and the human remains were found, in association with many inscribed objects bearing the name of Khouniatonou [Akhenaten], which also appeared not only on the coffin itself but also on the gold band encircling the mummy, there can no longer be any doubt that the body found in this tomb was that of the heretic king or was believed to be his corpse by the embalmers. 25
It is probable that the gold which Weigall saw in Cairo was not in fact the remains of (non-existent) ribbon-like mummy bands, but the remains of the six gold foil bracelets which, everyone agrees, were found adhering to the mummyâs skeletal arms. These bracelets were sent to the museum in a box of bones, and were stolen from Smithâs desk on the day that they were unpacked. The gold âribbonsâ that Weigall saw in the tomb were probably a part of the coffin.
The quality of the coffin confirms that it was made for an elite, almost certainly royal, owner. Some experts have argued, on stylistic grounds, that it must have been made for (but not necessarily used by) Akhenaten, towards the beginning of his reign when he was still Amenhotep IV. Others, studying both the coffinâs style and its surviving inscriptions, have felt able to identify two distinct manufacturing stages, with the coffin originally built for a woman who could be described as the âbeloved of Waenre [Akhenaten]â, then modified, with alterations to the texts and the addition of a false beard and uraeus, for use by a royal man. This suggestion is supported by the mutilated hieroglyphs, which James Allen has reconstructed to read:
[Wife and greatly beloved of] the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, living in order, Lord of the Two Lands [Neferkheperure Waenre: Akhenaten], the perfect little one of the living disk, who shall be alive continuously forever, [Kiya]. 26
The text on the exterior foot-end is more intact, but again shows evidence of alteration:
⦠I shall breathe the sweet breath which comes forth from your mouth and shall behold thy beauty daily. [My] prayer is that [I] may hear thy sweet voices of the north wind, that [my] flesh may grow young with life through thy love, that thou mayest give me your hands bearing thy spirit and I receive it and live by it, and that thou mayest call upon my name eternally, and it shall not fail from thy mouth⦠27
Finally â and almost certainly while in use â the coffin was vandalised, its face and uraeus ripped away and its cartouches erased.
Ominously, the mummy was damp:
Presently, we cleared the mummy from the coffin, and found that it was a smallish person, with a delicate head and hands. The mouth was partly open, showing a perfect set of upper and lower teeth. The body was enclosed in mummy-cloth of fine texture, but all of the cloth covering the body was of a very dark colour. Naturally it ought to be a much brighter colour. Rather suspecting injury from the evident dampness, I gently touched one of the front teeth (3,000 years old) and alas! it fell into dust, thereby showing that the mummy could not be preserved. We then cleared the entire mummy ⦠28
No photographs were taken at the
These inscribed gold ribbons were obviously very different in appearance to the flat gold sheets, yet Weigall is apparently the only witness to have seen them. He tells us that they were sent to Cairo, where he again saw them in the Museum workshop. However, they were omitted from the Daressy catalogue, and Weigall rather sadly concludes: ââ¦I am now not sure whether they are still somewhere in the Cairo Museum, or whether they have disappeared.â Grafton Elliot Smith subsequently mentioned the ribbons in his report on the KV 55 human remains, but there is no indication that he actually saw them with his own eyes:
From the circumstances under which the coffin and the human remains were found, in association with many inscribed objects bearing the name of Khouniatonou [Akhenaten], which also appeared not only on the coffin itself but also on the gold band encircling the mummy, there can no longer be any doubt that the body found in this tomb was that of the heretic king or was believed to be his corpse by the embalmers. 25
It is probable that the gold which Weigall saw in Cairo was not in fact the remains of (non-existent) ribbon-like mummy bands, but the remains of the six gold foil bracelets which, everyone agrees, were found adhering to the mummyâs skeletal arms. These bracelets were sent to the museum in a box of bones, and were stolen from Smithâs desk on the day that they were unpacked. The gold âribbonsâ that Weigall saw in the tomb were probably a part of the coffin.
The quality of the coffin confirms that it was made for an elite, almost certainly royal, owner. Some experts have argued, on stylistic grounds, that it must have been made for (but not necessarily used by) Akhenaten, towards the beginning of his reign when he was still Amenhotep IV. Others, studying both the coffinâs style and its surviving inscriptions, have felt able to identify two distinct manufacturing stages, with the coffin originally built for a woman who could be described as the âbeloved of Waenre [Akhenaten]â, then modified, with alterations to the texts and the addition of a false beard and uraeus, for use by a royal man. This suggestion is supported by the mutilated hieroglyphs, which James Allen has reconstructed to read:
[Wife and greatly beloved of] the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, living in order, Lord of the Two Lands [Neferkheperure Waenre: Akhenaten], the perfect little one of the living disk, who shall be alive continuously forever, [Kiya]. 26
The text on the exterior foot-end is more intact, but again shows evidence of alteration:
⦠I shall breathe the sweet breath which comes forth from your mouth and shall behold thy beauty daily. [My] prayer is that [I] may hear thy sweet voices of the north wind, that [my] flesh may grow young with life through thy love, that thou mayest give me your hands bearing thy spirit and I receive it and live by it, and that thou mayest call upon my name eternally, and it shall not fail from thy mouth⦠27
Finally â and almost certainly while in use â the coffin was vandalised, its face and uraeus ripped away and its cartouches erased.
Ominously, the mummy was damp:
Presently, we cleared the mummy from the coffin, and found that it was a smallish person, with a delicate head and hands. The mouth was partly open, showing a perfect set of upper and lower teeth. The body was enclosed in mummy-cloth of fine texture, but all of the cloth covering the body was of a very dark colour. Naturally it ought to be a much brighter colour. Rather suspecting injury from the evident dampness, I gently touched one of the front teeth (3,000 years old) and alas! it fell into dust, thereby showing that the mummy could not be preserved. We then cleared the entire mummy ⦠28
No photographs were taken at the
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