KV35: Tomb of Amenhotep II

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Paula Terrey

17 March 2000 (morning, continued)

Amenhotep II, blessed by the goddess Hathor

Amenhotep II, assisted by the goddess Hathor

The trail from Deir el-Medina to the Valley of the Kings brings us out near KV35, the tomb of Amenhotep II. Bill would like us to see this one together and then we’ll explore on our own for a couple of hours before meeting up again to tour KV62, Tutankhamen’s tomb.

KV35 is important for a number of reasons, not the least because, like DB320, it housed a royal mummy cache. Discovered in 1898 by French Egyptologist Victor Loret, it had been heavily looted in antiquity, but was still knee-deep in broken funerary furnishings: a higgledy-piggledy puzzle of strange items whose complete form and function could only be guessed at until discovery of similar, unbroken items in Tutankhamen’s tomb over two decades later.

Plan of KV35, Tomb of Amenhotep II

We enter and walk down a very long and steep series of stairs and corridors. The tomb is an odd mix of finished and unfinished surfaces, with this first part being unfinished. When we finally arrive in the burial chamber, however, we’re rewarded with a magnificent “stick figure” illustration of the Amduat that explains, in 12-hour segments, what the deceased will encounter in the netherworld.

The 12th Hour of the Amduat. Public domain photo, Wikimedia Commons.

Winged cobra and cedarwood cow god from KV35. From “The Illustrated Guide to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,” American University in Cairo Press.

Loret was a careful excavator. He superimposed a series of grids over the chambers as he cleared them and tied his finds to those grids in his notes. He also made sketches and took photographs. Unfortunately, he never published more than a general article about the tomb and no one else took up the task. Still, a few items are always mentioned in the accounts I’ve read: a winged wooden snake sculpture, a painted cedar cow head, and a large model boat that sported a rather gruesome mummy tossed carelessly on top.

And then there was Amenhotep himself. He was in his lidless sarcophagus, encased in an off-the-rack cartonnage mummy case and wrapped in linen supplied for him by the 21st dynasty priests who were in charge of tidying up the Valley of the Kings after extensive looting. These same priests rescued nine of his compatriots and stashed them in a side chamber. With this bonanza, many of the pharaohs not included in the Deir el-Bahari cache (DB320) were now accounted for, leaving the world with an astonishingly complete set of New Kingdom kings.

The three side-room mummies of KV35. Engraving from a photograph.

The mummies didn’t stop there, however, with three more — two women and a boy — on the floor of a side chamber, unwrapped and without any helpful jottings. They’ve inspired speculation ever since, especially the “Elder Lady,” a haughty beauty with flowing hair who is, most likely, Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III.

Amenhotep, packed for shipment to Cairo before being ordered back to his tomb. Note the ancient wreath of flowers around his head.

Loret lovingly packed all the mummies for shipment to Cairo, but at the last-minute the Egyptian government ordered them returned to the tomb. In 1900 that decision was partly reversed, but the three unwrapped mummies stayed in the side chamber and Amenhotep was popped back into his sarcophagus and put on public display.

Then, as if the man hadn’t suffered enough, modern robbers broke into the tomb in late 1901 and ripped the bandages from around Amenhotep’s head and chest, presumably looking for jewelry and amulets and not realizing the wrappings were an ancient re-do and valuables were long gone. Luckily, the mummy was relatively undamaged and so he went back on display until 1931, when he finally made the trip to Cairo and joined the rest of the gang. The three side chamber mummies, however, stayed put.

As we gaze at the stone sarcophagus — it’s quite beautiful, made of red quartzite and with a rounded end like a cartouche — it’s hard to absorb that this space was once so mysterious and complex. Wooden planking covers the floor and the place is packed with people and shockingly hot and humid. These conditions cannot be good for the tomb and I’m seized with guilt for contributing my own sweat and respirations to the mix.

Red quartzite sarcophagus of Amenhotep II. Photo courtesy of Ignati, Wikimedia Commons.

Hike to Valley of the Kings

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Paula Terrey

17 March 2000 (morning)

After our tour of Deir el-Medina village, Bill and Nancy offer us an Egyptonerd’s dream: a chance to walk over the cliffs to the Valley of the Kings on the same trail used by the tomb builders.

Setting out on the trail from Deir el-Medina to Valley of the Kings

al-Gurn: the horn. A “pyramid” above the Valley of the Kings.

We start from the ruins on a steep ascent and it isn’t long before we’re high enough for breathtaking views, including al-Gurn — “the horn” — a pyramid-shaped mountain that dominates the skyline. Egyptologists have long speculated that the Valley of the Kings was selected because of its proximity to al-Gurn. I guess it’s possible, although since I’m an Old Kingdom kind of girl it doesn’t do much to increase my respect for New Kingdom royals. If you want a pyramid, be a man and go build one!

After the “Luxor Massacre” (slaying of 62 people at Deir el-Bahri) three years ago, the government stepped up security. They’re building new guard stations above us, endless white slashes of stairs leading up to them across the tawny slopes. It’s comforting, I suppose, to know eyes are watching from a safe distance. The Deir el-Bahri murderers killed four Egyptian guards before they could summon help, and it took 45 minutes for first responders to arrive on the scene.

I can hardly believe I’m walking in the footsteps of the ancients, although it shouldn’t be that difficult to imagine since we’re accompanied every step of the way by their descendants.

Bill introduces us to two young men who are great-grandsons of Ahmed el-Rassul, the infamous tomb robber who discovered the royal mummy cache, first revealed to the world in 1881. The fake scarabs, ushabtis, and whatnot that they’re selling are quite nice, and their family connection makes the items all the more intriguing, but it’s tricky to walk the edge of a sheer five hundred foot cliff and haggle at the same time, so I politely decline. Not that it stops them from continuing to try with others in our group. They persist to the point that Bill gets upset with them and puts a firm end to the whole business.

Probable entrance to a tomb

Then Bill tells us of a long-standing rumor that Ahmed el-Rassul had a private “stash,” but died before he could show the spot, so I spend the rest of the hike scouring the landscape with my eagle eyes, sure I’ll be the one to notice the hidden opening that thousands before me have missed. Even as I’m looking, Bill points out a “well” at the base of a cliff face that’s most likely the entrance to a tomb.

Above Hatshepsut’s temple

We pass above Deir el-Bahri and look down on Hatshepsut’s temple, which we’ll visit later today. The temple is in the midst of extensive reconstruction. We can see some behind-the-scenes staging, plus the huge storage areas off to the sides where the blocks are set out in neat rows, waiting to be restored to their proper place.

Then at last we approach the Valley of the Kings. From our high vantage point it looks exactly as it’s always described in books: stark and hot. There isn’t so much as a weed in evidence and the rock is blindingly white, tempered in only in a few places by a dusting of small black pebbles.

The descent into the valley is the hardest part of the trail. It’s extremely steep and there’s a lot of loose, slippery limestone debris underfoot, and no hand holds. We all make it safely, however, and then it sinks in: we are surrounded by royal tombs, and while the tidy retaining walls at their entrances and the paved paths connecting them counteract the romance to a certain degree, my brain is on fire with excitement as we make our way to Tomb 35, resting place of Amenhotep II.

Looking down into the Valley of the Kings

Dier el-Medina

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Paula Terrey

17 March 2000 (morning)

The rock and mud walls of Deir el-Medina

The rock and mud brick walls of Deir el-Medina

When we pull into the parking lot at the ancient village of Deir el Medina, we find we’re early enough to have the site mostly to ourselves.

Deir el-Medina dates to the beginning of the New Kingdom (18th Dynasty, roughly 1500 BC) and was a company town, home to the workers who cut and decorated the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It offers a rare three-dimensional view of Egyptian life, even if that life wasn’t exactly typical. Restoration work has focused on capping and conserving walls, and as we get out of the bus it feels like we’ve stumbled across the remains of an enormous rock-built honeycomb.

Looking down on the village of Deir el-Medina

The ancient Egyptians were apparently no different from the rest of us and liked to avoid a long commute. Unless they were off on assignment — building pyramids; collecting gold, incense, and exotic animals in the mysterious land of Punt; conquering the enemies of Egypt and returning with a lovely pile of chopped-off hands to prove the body count — they mostly stuck close to their farms and the Nile. Unfortunately, most of those homes were built of mud brick and, durable though it is, it just doesn’t hold up well when subjected to occasional flooding.

Deir el-Medina, however, was far enough from water to leave at least the foundations relatively intact, even after 3500 years of exposure. It was excavated starting in the early 1900s (by men who made hash of it), and then seriously studied from the 1920s until the 1950s by French Egyptologist Bernard Bruyere and Czech Egyptologist Jaroslav Cerny .

Looking up at Deir el-Medina tombs

The Deir el-Medina artisans were literate, skilled, and highly organized. They left behind reams of records jotted on everything from papyrus to ostraca (bits of broken pottery, the archaic equivalent of scrap paper).

So we have their documents, their homes, and their graves (situated on a rise above the village), and among our group we have enough knowledgable scholars to gossip about the workers like we’re discussing old friends.

Fun though it will be to examine the ruins, Deir el-Medina is perhaps best known for its gorgeous tombs, so we make a beeline for them first. Even the courtyard chapels of the tombs in this necropolis were charming; many of them featured small pyramids, including the one we’ll visit first (TT1), which belonged to Sennedjem, “Servant in the Place of Truth” (but more practically, a mason) during the 19th Dynasty.

Sennedjem and his wife enjoy a game of Sennet. Photo courtesy of Mamienfr, Wikimedia Commons.

Sennedjem and his wife enjoy a game of Senet. Photo courtesy of Mamienfr, Wikimedia Commons.

Sennedjem’s tomb is pure eye-candy, abundant color and decoration in a space as cozy and inviting as any home for eternity could hope to be, including an elegant vaulted ceiling in the burial chamber. It was intact when it was discovered in 1886 and stuffed with funerary furniture, coffins, and mummies. It turned out to be a family sepulcher, with at least three generations of Sennedjem’s kin in residence. It’s really too much to absorb without a chance for long contemplation, so looking around I mostly feel dazed, but can at least capture a feeling for his happy afterlife as he and his wife enjoy a game of Senet.

Happy farmers at work in the fields of Iaru. Public domain photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Cheerful farmers at work in the fields of Aaru. Public domain photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

On another wall, cheerful farmers are at work in the fields of Aaru, while yet other scenes depict such interesting things as a knife-wielding cat slaying an enormous snake.

Knife-wielding cat in the tomb of Sennedjem. With many thanks for this image to Jon Hirst. Please see link to Osiris.net in the blog roll.

Knife-wielding cat in the tomb of Sennedjem. With many thanks for this image to Jon Hirst at Osiris.net

After admiring Sennedjem’s tomb, we shift to the tomb of Inherkhau, who was “Foreman of Crew” sometime in the 20^th Dynasty. It’s suffered some damage, but still features many beautiful scenes from The Book of Gates.

That’s all we have time for today, so we return to the stone foundations and mud brick walls of the village. My head is still so full of expansive afterlife images that it’s hard to transition to these modest dwellings. The houses are small and closely packed. Main Street is so narrow, Chaz can span it with his arms.

Dr. Kent Weeks

If you’d like to learn more about the village of Deir el-Medina and surrounding area, then I recommend starting with The Theban Mapping Project. For more than three decades, Dr. Kent Weeks has been the heroic force behind this mind-bending effort to, “… map and database every archaeological, geological, and ethnographic feature in Thebes.”

And if you’d like to explore the gorgeous Deir el-Medina tombs in detail, then I recommend Osirisnet.net, a website loaded with great information and photos.

Luxor: To the West Bank

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Paula Terrey

17 March 2000 (early morning)

Winter Palace garden, Luxor. Photo courtesy of Bonnie Ann Cain-Wood, Wikimedia Commons

The local Luxor muezzin issues his call to prayer at four this morning. Lovely to lie in bed and listen to it although, thanks to the miracle of modern amplification methods, the volume is ear-splitting. It doesn’t end with the muster — perhaps due to the Eid al-Aida festival? — and I’m able to enjoy it for nearly an hour. When it finally stops, a rooster crows in the distance. Then a crow caws, loudly, outside our window and, as the sun peeks over the horizon, hundreds of sparrows in the hotel garden burst out chirping. Chaz sleeps soundly through it all.

Today we’ll go to the worker’s village at Deir el-Medina, home to the men who built and decorated the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, then walk their ancient trail over the cliffs and explore royal resting places for two hours before having a catered lunch in the cafeteria. After that we’ll stop at Deir el-Bahari and Hatshepsut’s temple, return to the hotel for a couple of hours, visit the Luxor Museum when it opens at 5:00 pm, and top things off with an after-dark tour of Luxor temple.

Luxor waterfront. Photo courtesy of Marek Kocjan, Wikimedia Commons.

After breakfast, we leave the hotel and jay-walk across the Corniche — the traffic artery that runs parallel to the Nile — then go down a long ramp to water level (the Nile is many feet below the street) and board a boat called Rameses. The Rameses is white with a painted decoration of lotus blossoms in blue, green and red. We perch around the sides on bench seats, a striped canvas canopy over our heads, as the two-stroke outboard motor propels us toward the West Bank.

Sugar Cane train, Luxor Egypt. Photo courtesy of Marc Ryckaert, Wikimedia Commons.

Once on the West Bank, we board a bus and head for Deir el-Medina.

We’re surrounded by fields of sugarcane, rail tracks snaking through them. Farmers load the cane onto flatbed rail cars that have tall metal posts on the sides to hold the stalks in place.

Luxor West Bank: Qurna Village.

First stop is a checkpoint to buy our tickets. The Western cliffs are straight ahead and the village of Qurna is on a hill to our right. The houses are cream, umber, and blue, with shutters painted rust and bright green.

Qurna is famous because many of those innocent looking homes are built directly on top of ancient tombs. The mere sight of it is enough to send my mind down an exciting rabbit hole, chasing thoughts of DB320, the royal mummies cache, which was discovered and exploited by that infamous Qurna family, the el-Rassuls.

Maspero lounging at the entrance to DB320.

As the story goes, sometime in the 1860s — the exact date is unknown — Ahmed Abd el-Rassul stumbled upon a deep shaft hidden among the Theban cliffs. (Thebes was the ancient Greek name for Luxor.)

Items from DB320. With many thanks for this image to the Manchester Museum.

The tomb was stuffed with an eye-popping assortment of pharaohs, coffins, and burial equipment, all hidden (most likely) during the 22nd Dynasty, a good 350 years after the heyday of perhaps the tomb’s most famous denizen, Ramses II.

Most Egyptologists believe the tomb was originally intended for 21st Dynasty High Priest Pinedjem II and his family, and that earlier royals like Ramses II were crammed in after Pinedjem, when political instability and looting prompted Valley of the Kings caretakers to perform an overall tidying up/rescue mission.

Once found by the el-Rassuls, the tomb became their bank account as they carefully parceled artifacts onto the antiquities market. The authorities knew something was up, but it wasn’t until the mid 1870s that an official investigation was launched.

Ahmed Abd el-Rassul and a younger brother were arrested and tortured, to no avail. Ahmed was released but then apparently had a change of heart and, in 1881, confessed to Emile Brugsch, assistant to Antiquities Chief Gaston Maspero. (Maspero was unfortunately in Paris.) On July 6th, Brugsch was shown the tomb and stunned by what he saw in the light of his torch:

…and there, standing against the walls or lying on the floor, I found an even greater number of mummy cases of stupendous size and weight. Their gold coverings and their polished surfaces so plainly reflected my own excited visage that it seemed as though I was looking into the faces of my own ancestors.

Fearful of attack by the locals, Brugsch put a crew in motion around the clock to clear the tomb as quickly as possible and send it all packing to Cairo. The good news is that he recovered at least 40 mummies and their coffins, plus several thousand smaller objects. The bad news is that it was done with such haste that the chance to tease out a detailed history of the tomb was lost. As a result, the tomb and its contents have been a nice Egyptological chew-toy ever since.

If you’d like to know more about the Royal Mummy Cache (who wouldn’t?!) then you can do no better than to start with Al-Mummia (The Night of Counting the Years), an acclaimed 1969 Egyptian film that reenacts the entire thrilling discovery. Look for it on Youtube.

Update

Razed village of Qurna, July 2009. Photo courtesy of Remih, Wikimedia Commons.

The historic village of Qurna no longer exists. In 2005, the Egyptian government evicted the residents and moved them to new houses. The old buildings were bulldozed and the debris left in place.

Then in 2011, the disastrous drop in tourism that followed the Egyptian revolution threw most of the locals out of work. The American Research Center in Egypt stepped forward with a plan to provide employment through a detailed survey and clean-up. The Qurna Site Improvement Project, lead by Dr. John Shearman and Dr. Andrew Bednarski, employed more than six-hundred workmen for two years, including conservation training and a first-ever recording of ethnographic information about the inhabitants.

If you wish to support such caring efforts, then I urge you to join the American Research Center in Egypt and affiliate with the Northern California Chapter. It costs nothing extra and will give you access to The Cartouche newsletter.