Tutankhamun KV 62 Egyptian Tomb

When on November 4 1922 Howard Carter discovered the tomb KV62, almost intact, of Pharaoh Tutankhamun-Nebkheperura, a major page in archaeology opened up. For the first time, the egyptologists and the public, spellbound, discovered the splendour by which the kings of Egypt surrounded themselves, with the thousands of objects present in the tomb, and the magnificent sarcophaguses of which the gold one would inflame the imagination for generations of archaeologists and tourists who hurry by the thousand every year to visit the tomb. The average number of visitors reaching 2000 per day, the service of the antiques has just fixed. in 2004, the quotas of visits to preserve the tomb.
The circumstances of the discovery having been detailed amply by Carter, we won't reiterate it here.
A recurrent theme is to regret the fact that only the tomb of a "minor" Pharaoh has been recovered intact, and to imagine what might have been buried with a prestigious Pharaoh after a long reign. Could it be more prudent to say that this tomb dates from the 18th Dynasty, one of the most prestigious and richest in the history of Egyptian, and that moreover it concerns a king situated in a transitional period of history. Why should the funerary material recovered here be in quantity so lower? We have no idea.
Perhaps in larger tombs we would have you recovered the equivalent quantities, but spread over a larger area.

THE KING TUT-ANKH-AMUN

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Many things still remain a mystery about this sovereign of whom the nearly intact tomb was found and whose mummy was also in place. Currently, it seems to be admitted that Tutankhamun was the son of the "heretical" Pharaoh Akhenaton (and not of Amenhotep III).
His maternal origin, as also his right of accession to the throne, remain extensively unknown. However, it seems clear that his legitimacy was not in question by his contemporaries.
He ascended the throne under the name of Tutankhaton "the living image of Aton". In year 2 of his reign he renounced the Amarnian heresy and re-establishes the cult of Amon, as he described it on what is called "the restoration stela" which he had erected in the temple of Karnak.
He then changed his name to Tutankhamun "the living image of Amun" and returned to Thebes, abandoning his father's ephemeral capital, Akhetaton. He was still a young child who would not know how to direct Egypt. This direction is entrusted to three main characters: the "divine father" (the significance of whose name still escapes us) Ay who plays the regent's central role, Maya who was in charge of the treasury, and general Horemheb who heads the army. Under this competent direction, Egypt restores its interior and external power, as testified by the magnificent tomb which general Horemheb has construct for himself in Saqqara.

Tutankhamun died young, at about 19 years old, around 1352 B.C., without having engendered a prince heir.
The circumstances of his brutal death always remain mysterious, but the publication in March 2005, the report of the scanning survey of the king's mummy permits the separation of hypothesis from murder, at least by a blunt instrument. The king presents a fracture of the leg which, if it was open, could have been the cause of death by infection. The king's skull shows no trace of a blow as was believed earlier.

His successor, who was already old when he ascended the throne, was the "divine father" Ay. It was he who organised his funerary ceremony in the Valley of the Kings, in accordance with tradition, and uniquely, his name appears in the tomb of his successor. On his swift death (only 4 years later), it is yet another character who didn't have a legitimate right to the throne either, the general Horemheb, who follows him. Only with this is the Amarnian episode finally considered as closed, and his years of reign will be counted from the last "legitimate" Pharaoh, Amenhotep III.
The following generations and especially the Ramessides will endeavour then to erase all trace of this period while erasing from official lists all kings between Amenhotep III and Horemheb.

THE TOMB KV62

Plan (H. Carter)

All precautions had to be taken to secure the burial. It didn't stop the tomb of Tutankhamun from receiving at least two visits by the tomb rapists, a very short time after the funeral. But the Theban necropolis was well guarded, and no other visit took place until the digging of the tomb of Ramesses VI of the 20th Dynasty. At this time, a collapse had amazingly hidden the king's tomb, and on which the workers built their cabins and thus prevented the great depredations of the end of the 21st Dynasty until its rediscovery in 1922.
It is certainly not for its size or for the wealth of its decoration that the tomb is famous.
One often understandably emphasise the small size of the tomb: it is indeed the smallest of the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings, of which it doesn't follow the general plan. It is thought that it was originally destined for a non royal character of high rank, could have been Ay, and that it had been decorated in a hurry at the time of the unexpected death of the king.
The tomb originally begun for Tutankhamun was probably the one that would finally be continued (but not finished) and used only 4 years later by Ay for his own funeral, the tomb KV23, situated in the east valley, and situated next to that of Amenhotep III, which is sure not by chance.

Although very small and of a style very different from the others, it was estimated however that it combined sufficient canonical criteria to permit a ritual burial and to constitute the king's tomb, with notably a change of axis. Whereas Akhenaton had construct for himself, in Amarna, a tomb according to a unique axis, so that nothing hindered the solar light.

It represents a rupestral tomb whose entry is carved directly into the limestone of the main Wadi of the valley.
A staircase of 16 steps lead to a short corridor of 7.60m. oriented to the east, which opens directly on to the antechamber. Six of the original steps, the lowest ones, were carved deeper when it was necessary to give access to the large sized funerary furniture into the tomb. They were rebuilt subsequently in stone and mortar to restore them to their original height.
The sides of the corridor are smoothed correctly but no sealer had been applied. At the time of the discovery, all this section had been filled with rubble in an attempt to protect the access of the tomb, in vain. Originally, the material recovered earlier by Carter in 1907, in a cache, would have been found there.
The corridor was also closed by plastered masonry. Behind this appeared the antechamber including the very important furniture.

ANTECHAMBER AND ANNEXE

The antechamber was named thus by Carter, this oblong room is arranged perpendicularly, with a south-north orientation. The walls had been plastered, but no decoration has been carried out.
On the west wall, on the left, opens up a room, named the annexe, whose floor is about 1m. below the level of the antechamber. It is not decorated either.

Photo H.Carter

These two rooms were discovered full of funerary material, essentially (but not exclusively) with the name of the young king. Their organisation had however been disrupted completely by the pillagers. The inspectors who intervened after the depredation put them back in a semblance of order, but without obviously taking their work to heart, stacking the objects untidily in the caskets and pushing the long objects against the walls without care. Carter even wondered why they had taken this effort, judging by the result.

The North wall of this room includes an opening toward the burial chamber. It was initially closed and plastered, with innumerable seals of the necropolis affixed to plaster. It had also been pierced by the pillagers then restored after the passage of the inspectors. On each side of the opening, while defending the entry as Anubis would have done, the famous statuaries of the king, in blackened wood.

THE SEPULCHRAL CHAMBER

This is the only decorated room of the tomb. At the time of discovery, the room was occupied entirely by the great chapels in wood surrounding the royal sarcophagus (5 x 3.30 x 2.73 m.), leaving only a very small free space by the walls (75 cm.). On the ground of this space were arranged objects with magic value, and notably 11 oars for guidance.

This chamber is lower in relation to the antechamber, and it is probable that the room had originally to be widened to contain the large golden chapels. It thus reproduced an appearance of a classic tomb where a hypostyle room existed heightened in relation to the sepulchral chamber.

Photo
H. Carter

The four walls of the room had been dressed with plaster and then decorated. The ceiling remained as is. All walls are surmounted by the sign of the sky "pet" (view 6), supported by narrow pillars at its two extremities, at the south end of the east wall and originally on the east end of the decorated area of the south wall (in the area damaged by Carter, view 25) next the doorway.

The decorative themes are simple, less numerous, and one can feel the haste which presided over the finished work. This would have been made more difficult due to the lack of space of which the painters had to work. Indeed, one is assured that the plastering and decoration had only been applied after the chapels for the coffin were put in place (view 4). One can imagine the conditions of work, in a space almost enclosed. It probably explains also one of the facts which becomes more obvious when one looks at the walls: the innumerable brown spots which more or less mutilate all the representations and which look like heaps of fungus. Carter thought that these mushrooms had been introduced by plaster or the painting, then that the humidity, which occurred following the evaporation from plaster, permitted their growth.
The characters are on a large scale, which much reduces the number of scenes. The king is represented in front of divinities and in front of vignettes of the Amduat (= the underground world), all applied on a base of yellow-ochre to imitate the colour of gold. The sarcophagus chamber was moreover called "Room of Gold" by the Ancient Egyptians.
In each of the 4 walls, under the plaster, a small niche had been dug to receive protective figurines (view 1, of Anubis covered with cloth).

The strokes of the painters is hasty but precise. The proportions of the characters appear us on the other hand exageratedly modified, this could have been a remnant of the Amarnian style among these craftsmen, who had probably worked previously for Akhenaton.
These motifs are a small reminder of those used in the tombs of the last two "legitimate" predecessors of the king: his grandfather Amenhotep III and his great-grandfather Thutmosis IV. The base colour of the walls were also yellow-gold for the latter, on the other hand, blue-grey for Amenhotep III.

North Wall

This is the one facing the visitor when looking at the funeral chamber from the antechamber (view 15).
Three scenes follow each other from right to left:

First scene :
It represents a unique representation in the royal tombs (view 18): the new Pharaoh Ay, expressly named, carries out the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony on his "father" Tutankhamun, although a lot younger than he. The new king is represented canonically youthful, in size a little lower than Tutankhamun. He is dressed of the panther skin of the sem-priest, he is wearing the blue crown (the Khepresh) with the uraeus and has white sandalled feet. He plays here, therefore, the role usually reserved for the eldest of the sons of the deceased king which, while accomplishing the rituals, affirms his legitimacy. And it is clearly here about the old courtier claiming his - very questionable - right to the throne.
The text says: "The good god, Lord of the Two-lands, Lord of rituals, (the) King of Upper and Lower Egypt Kheper-kheperu-ra, (the) son of Ra, Divine-Father Ay, endowed eternally with life and forever like Ra".
Tutankhamun is represented as Osiris. He wears the doubled Atef crown with the uraeus and carries in his hand the Nekhakha whip and the flagellum, signs of his power. His great beard with the hooked tip indicates his status of glorified deceased. He carries around his neck a large Usekh necklace from which hangs a Kheper scarab which pushes the solar disk in front of it, a sign of rebirth.
Between the two, the casket containing the necessary objects for the ceremony, as always represented above, so that they can more easily be seen. The small vases contain wads of incense. The text says: "The good god, Lord of the Two-lands, Lord of the Crowns, (the) King of Upper and Lower Egypt Neb-kheperu-ra, (the) son of Ra, Tutankhamun, Master of the Heliopolis of the South (= Thebes), endowed with life, eternally".

Second scene :

The "Lord of the Two-lands Neb-kheperu-ra, endowed with life eternally and forever" is represented in the costume of the living. He is clothed with a loincloth which sits high on his hips. He wears a short wig, and holds in one hand a cane and in the other a club and the ankh-sign of life. He is welcomed by the goddess of the sky, Nut. In her stretched out hands are presented two trickles of water, which it is necessary here to read "nyny", "welcome", as the text situated above specifies: "Nut, Mistress of the Sky, Lady of the Gods, she performs nyny (= welcome) (for) the one whom she gave birth, she gives health and life to your nostrils, which is life eternally". The rebounded stomach and the king's face is typically post-Amarnian, as testified even by the rounded skull, the very elongated eyes, the relatively long nose or the angle of the neck as it sits on the shoulders.

Third scene :

This represents three characters. Behind the king is located his Ka, his "duplicate vitallity" which wears a tripartite wig surmounted by the Ka hieroglyph surrounding two signs which read "powerful bull", an usual royal epithet. He wears a long hooked beard indicating that he belongs to the other world. In one hand he holds the sign of life, and with the other he encloses the young king in front of him.
The king (in front) is represented in costume of the living, wearing with the nemes headdress. He embraces "Osiris, Lord of the West, the great god", who welcomes him as shown by the two hands coming out of the shroud. The god wears the atef crown without an uraeus, and his flesh is green like the vegetation which is born again. Seen from the north-west corner: (view 11).

South Wall (view 28 and view 25)

view 25, reconstruction

Tutankhamun, wearing the klaft, this piece of cloth in vogue during the time of Amarna, stands with his arms down the side of his body, hands by his thighs, facing the goddess "Hathor, Mistress of the Sky, Governess of the Western Necropolis". Recognisable by the sign of the west which decorates her head, she stretches a sign of life in front of the king's nose. He is introduced as "Anubis who governs the west, the great god who is in the place of embalming, Master of the Sky". Anubis stands behind the king and with his hand he introduces him to the goddess (view 25). Behind this god was located Isis, crowned by the seat which characterises her, making the same gesture of welcome as Nut on the north wall. The legend in front of her specifies: "Mistress of the sky, who offers welcome to the one whom she brought into the world, giving all health, all life [...] to your nostrils eternally". Three bearded gods crouching down behind her were each qualified as "great god, Lord of the Douat". At the time of moving of the chapels which covered the royal sarcophagus, by Carter, this wall was damaged and the four divinities disappeared and are currently in the small closed rooms.

West Wall (view 26, reconstruction)

This carries the first hour of the Book of the Amduat (= the Book of that which is in the Underworld) presented in an unaccustomed form. The two scenes of the upper register (view 7) are extracted from the two halves of the middle register of the first hour. In the first scene, are five standing divinities. The goddess Ma'at is followed by four others which would have normally been represented in the solar barque: "the Mistress of the barque", "Horus", "the Ka of Shu" and "Nehes".
Above is a line of text whose words have been written in a disrupted order. While being based on the other royal tombs, it is necessary to restore: "The two Ma'ats who bind this god in the Mesektet (the nocturnal barque of the sun) which sails with the members of the assembly of this city".
The following scene represents a solar barque where the Khepri scarab is framed by two "Osiris", who are in fact two images of Tutankhamun in Osiris-form, who are knelt down and who, turned in his direction, show adoration to him (view 26). Above this second scene is a line of hieroglyphs whose order is disrupted like the previous, and that in is the continuation: "among whom this god enters in the form of a ram". In the bottom part of the wall are represented twelve baboons (view 27) representative of the 12 hours of the night.

East Wall

This shows in its upper register, which is the only one decorated, a scene which we find as a rule only in private tombs: the funeral procession. In fact, this is very much reduced here since no offering porters are found but only the image of the funeral barque surmounted on the king's catafalque on a sledge pulled by high dignitaries.
The twelve hauliers are distributed in five groups (view 24). The first five characters are followed by three groups of two characters (view 23), finally, one sole man closes the team. They are certainly classified according to their rank.
The costume of the first of the two characters with the shaven skull, which constitutes the fourth group (view 22), shows that it is certainly refers to two recognisable viziers by their dress which has shoulder straps. The last character, alone and the closer to the mummy could be Horemheb, second personage of kingdom, after Ay. All are shod with white sandals which allow them to walk on sacred ground. Above them: "Words to be spoken by the courtiers and high officials of the house of the king who are hauling the Osiris king, the Lord of the Two Lands, Neb-kheperu-ra, to the west. They say the words: "Oh Neb-kheperu-ra, come in peace, oh protector god of the land." ".
The high barque-catafalque (view 8) is decorated at its summit with a double frieze of protective cobras. The mummy of the deceased king is represented stretched out on a hardly sketched bed, with a Khepri scarab placed well in evidence. He is designated as "The good god, Lord of the Two Lands". At the mummy's feet is a small representation of Isis, while level with the head is her sister Nephthys (view 20), also in worship with raised arms. In front of Nephthys (though actually at her back, as she faces against the direction of the procession) can be found the king's representation as a sphinx, standing on top of a stand (view 21).

The Sarcophagus

At the time of the opening of the room, this included four golden coloured wooden chapels surrounding the central sarcophagus. This was constructed in red quartzite. Four protective goddesses are represented there in raised relief at the four corners: Isis, Nephthys (view 14), Selkis and Neith. They spread their protective wings on its four sides (view 13).
The king's mummy was placed in three sarcophaguses, the internal-most being the famous sarcophagus composed of 110.4Kg. of pure gold. The mummy itself was even dressed with the famous gold mask.

THE TREASURY

King Tut's shabti

The north end of the east wall is pierced with an opening which gives access to a small room with uninscribed walls. It is oriented north-south, measuring 4.75 x 3.80m. It was nicknamed the "Treasury" by Carter, because at the time of the discovery, the most important objects of the tomb were found in it. The ground was strewn with all sorts of boxes surmounted by models of boats. All of these were dominated by an image of a reclining Anubis on a portable chapel, followed by the famous gilded head of the Hathor cow, behind which was the chapel containing the canopic jars protected by the four goddesses, Isis, Nephthys, Selkis and Neith. This room had also received a visit by the pillagers, but the disorder which they left was put right by the inspectors more seriously than in the antechamber and the annexe.

THE OBJECTS OF THE TOMB

It was not necessary in this description of the tomb to mention in details the multiple objects which it contained.
An exhaustive list, with photos from the period, and complete reports of excavation are on the Ashmolean Museum site, under the category Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation.

Bibliography (summary, centred on the tomb)

Carter H. : La tombe de Toutankhamon, Pygmalion, 1978
James T.G.H. : Tutankhamon, White Star, 2000
Desroches-Noblecourt C. : Toutankhamon, Pygmalion, 1977
Collective work under the direction of Weeks K. : The Valley of the Kings, White Star, 2002
Reeves N. : The Complete Tutankhamun, Thames and Hudson, 1990
Reeves N ; Wilkinson R.H. : The Complete Valley of the Kings , Thames and Hudson, 1996
Jonhson G.B. : KV 62, its architecture and decoration, KMT, 4, 4, 1993
The site of Theban Mapping Project, KV62 page