KV60

EgyptianRoyalTombDetail
Name = KV60
Location = East Valley of the Kings
Date = 1903
Owner = Sitre In and Hatshepsut
Excavated = Howard Carter
Edward R. Ayrton
Donald P. Ryan
Prev=KV59
Next=KV61

Tomb KV60 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings is one of the more perplexing tombs of the Theban Necropolis, due to the uncertainty over the identity of one female mummy found there (KV60A), thought by some, such as the noted Egyptologist Elizabeth Thomas, to be that of 18th dynasty Pharaoh Hatshepsut. [cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/06/27/scimum127.xml|title=How I found Queen Hatshepsut|work=Daily Telegraph|accessdate=2007-06-30] This identification has recently been advocated by Egyptologist Zahi Hawass. cite web|url=http://www.guardians.net/hawass/hatshepsut/search_for_hatshepsut.htm|title=Search for Hatshepsut]

When the tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1903, it was found to have been ransacked and desecrated in antiquity, but still held two mummies, along with some badly damaged grave goods; Carter apparently did little work in the tomb.

In 1906 Edward R. Ayrton reopened it, and removed one mummy, KV60B, together with the coffin it was in, to the Egyptian Museum. The coffin was inscribed with the name and title "royal nurse, In". This personage has been widely identified with "Sit-Ra", called "In", who was the royal nurse of Hatshepsut. Since neither Carter nor Ayrton drew plans or maps indicating the location of the tomb, the whereabouts of the tomb became forgotten.

Thomas later (in 1966) speculated that the second (unidentified) mummy was that of Hatshepsut, relocated there (to the tomb of her nurse) by Thutmose III, as part of his campaign of official hostility towards her.

In 1990 the tomb was rediscovered, reopened and properly excavated by a team led by Donald P. Ryan and Mark Papworth. This produced evidence both in favour of, and casting doubt on, Thomas's theory. On the supporting side, the mummy proved to be that of a relatively elderly lady, with her left arm flexed in the pose thought to mark a royal mummy. On the other hand, none of the pottery fragments recovered during the excavation could be dated to any time earlier than the 20th Dynasty. Most interestingly, a wooden face-piece from a coffin possibly destined for a male (it seemingly had a place to fit a false beard) was found – but the tomb contained only females, and Hatshepsut is known to have used the false beard. The mummy was placed in a new wooden coffin, and left in the tomb, which was resealed.

In early 2007, the tomb was reopened and the second mummy, KV60A, removed for testing. On 27 June 2007, Supreme Council of Antiquities director Zahi Hawass offered what he considered to be definitive proof that this "corpulent, elderly" body was indeed Hatshepsut.

References

Further reading

* Nicholas Reeves and Richard H. Wilkinson, "The Complete Valley of the Kings" (Thames & Hudson, 1996) pp. 186-187.
* Donald P. Ryan, "Who is buried in KV60", "KMT" 1:1, 1990.
* Siliotti, A. Guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples, 1996, A.A. Gaddis, Cairo.

External links

* [http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/sites/browse_tomb_874.html Theban Mapping Project: KV60] – Plans of the tomb and other details.
* [http://www.plu.edu/~ryandp/egypt.html Donald Ryan's site] – Contains photos of the mummy he found in KV60.
* [http://anubis4_2000.tripod.com/mummypages2/UnidentifiedB.htm Unidentified Mummies] – More pictures and information on the mummies.