KV30 | |
---|---|
Burial site of Unknown | |
Coordinates | 25°44′19.6″N32°36′01.0″E / 25.738778°N 32.600278°E |
Location | East Valley of the Kings |
Discovered | 1817? |
Excavated by | Giovanni Belzoni? (1817) University of Basel (2009-10) |
Decoration | Undecorated |
Tomb KV30 is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It likely dates to the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty and was used for the burial of an unknown individual. It may have been discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817, working on a commission from the 2nd Earl Belmore. It was excavated between 2009 and 2010 by the University of Basel's Kings' Valley Project.
KV30 is located in a side valley that leads to the tomb of Thutmose III (KV34) and other tombs of similar date including the tomb of Thutmose IV's mother Tiaa (KV32) and KV42. It is approximately opposite KV26. [1]
The layout consists of a vertical shaft 7 metres (23 ft) deep which opens onto a corridor that leads to one large chamber surrounded by four smaller rooms. It has a total length of 23 metres (75 ft). [1]
The modern history of this tomb is uncertain. In the 1960s Elizabeth Thomas suggested this tomb was one of the two excavated by Giovanni Belzoni for Lord Belmore, [1] and consequently may be the source of the sarcophagus that Lord Belmore donated to the British Museum. The early Egyptologist James Burton visited the tomb in the early 1800s and noted a red ink inscription, theorised to be a quarry mark. In the 1960s Thomas produced a map of the tomb and mentioned it contained a single Eighteenth Dynasty pot sherd. [2] The tomb was later mapped in the 1980s by the Theban Mapping Project. [1]
The tomb was excavated in 2009 by the University of Basel's Kings' Valley Project. The open shaft contained modern rubbish above older sandy fill. A large boulder filled almost the entire shaft; below it was a wooden docket for fat, and pottery, one sherd of which refit with a vessel from KV26. Two wooden beams and the remains of matting were sitting on top of the fill. The red ink inscription mentioned by Burton was located in the shaft, approximately 1.70 metres (5.6 ft) above the floor, and proved to be a graffito consisting of components of the name Menkheperre (throne name of Thutmose III) although its exact reading is unclear. [3]
The corridor was filled to within 50 centimetres (20 in) of the ceiling. The tomb was used for a burial, presumably in the Eighteenth Dynasty, as within the mixed fill was reed matting, fragments of painted wooden coffins, ostraca, faience, a piece of coloured glass, and cartonnage. The main chamber was only partly filled with debris that included pieces of wooden and stone vessels. The single piece of pottery, the base of a jar, mentioned by Thomas was still present. The far side of the chamber was filled with bat droppings but otherwise clear. The tomb did contain construction marks in the form of red ink outlines of the intended door widths for all the side chambers. The tomb was re-cleared and protective door was fitted to the entrance; [3] it was accurately mapped in 2010 [4] and comprehensively photographed in 2016. [5]
Tomb WV25 is an unfinished and undecorated tomb in the West Valley of the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. It is the beginning of a royal tomb, and is thought to be the start of Akhenaten's Theban tomb. It was discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni in 1817; he found eight Third Intermediate Period mummies inside. The tomb was excavated in 1972 by the University of Minnesota's Egyptian Expedition (UMEE) led by Otto Schaden. The project uncovered pieces of the eight mummies, along with artefacts from a late Eighteenth Dynasty royal burial.
KV20 is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings (Egypt). It was probably the first royal tomb to be constructed in the valley. KV20 was the original burial place of Thutmose I and later was adapted by his daughter Hatshepsut to accommodate her and her father. The tomb was known to Napoleon Bonaparte's expedition in 1799 and had been visited by several explorers between 1799 and 1903. A full clearance of the tomb was undertaken by Howard Carter in 1903–1904. KV20 is distinguishable from other tombs in the valley, both in its general layout and because of the atypical clockwise curvature of its corridors.
Tomb KV61 is an unused tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. It was discovered by Harold Jones, excavating on behalf of Theodore M. Davis, in January 1910. The tomb consists of an irregularly-cut room at the bottom of a shaft. It was apparently unused and undecorated, thus its intended owner is unknown.
Tomb KV48 is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It was discovered in 1906 by Edward R. Ayrton excavating on behalf of Theodore M. Davis, and contained the robbed burial of the Eighteenth Dynasty noble Amenemipet called Pairy. It was re-excavated in 2009 by a team from the Pacific Lutheran University.
KV4 is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings (Egypt). The tomb was initiated for the burial of Ramesses XI but it is likely that its construction was abandoned and it was not used for Ramesses's interment. It also seems likely that Pinedjem I intended to usurp this tomb for his own burial, but that he too abandoned the plan. KV4 is notable for being the last royal tomb that was quarried in the Valley and because it has been interpreted as being a workshop used during the official dismantling of the royal necropolis in the early Third Intermediate Period.
Tomb KV32, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, is the burial site of Tia'a, the wife of Amenhotep II and mother of Thutmose IV.
Tomb KV26 is an ancient Egyptian tomb of the Eighteenth Dynasty located in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. It is located in a side valley leading to the tomb of Thutmose III (KV34). It was visited by the early Egyptologist James Burton in the 1820s or 1830s, and by Victor Loret in 1898. It was mapped in the 1980s by the Theban Mapping Project. The first documented excavation of the tomb was carried out in 2009 by the University of Basel's Kings' Valley Project. The tomb contained evidence of at least one burial and fragmented pottery and stone vessels of mid-Eighteenth Dynasty date but nothing is known about its occupant(s).
Tomb KV28 is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings in the Theban Necropolis in Upper Egypt. It consists of a short shaft leading to a single rectangular chamber. It has been known since the 1830s as it is mentioned by John Gardiner Wilkinson. In 1889 Eugène Lefébure said it contained parts of mummies and their bandaging. The tomb was excavated in the 1990s by Donald P. Ryan who found the bones of three individuals, fragments of a limestone canopic jar, numerous wooden fragments, and early to mid Eighteenth Dynasty pottery. The occupants were possibly nobles, given the tomb's proximity to the tomb of Thutmose IV.
Tomb KV29 is an ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings, in the Theban Necropolis of Egypt. It is located near the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty tombs of Tiaa (KV32), Thutmose II or Merytre-Hatshepsut (KV42), and Thutmose III (KV34). The tomb was known since the 1830s and given the number KV29 in 1899 but no records of an earlier excavation exist. The entrance shaft was previously planned by the Theban Mapping Project in the 1990s. The tomb was first excavated by the University of Basel King's Valley Project in 2011. Excavation continued in 2016 but the rest of the tomb is filled with debris and its layout is unknown.
Tomb KV33 is an ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It is located close to the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34. The tomb dates to the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty and was used for the burial of an unknown individual. The layout is simple, consisting of descending steps and a main chamber with two adjoining rooms. KV33 was discovered by Victor Loret in 1898. The small tomb was open to visitors in the early 1900s when it was described in a tourist guidebook. In modern times, a bench was built over the entrance. In 2012 the tomb was excavated for the first time by the University of Basel's Kings' Valley Project.
Tomb KV37 is an ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt. Bone fragments and white-washed storage jars indicate that the tomb was used for a burial, probably in the Eighteenth Dynasty. However, its original occupants are unknown.
Tomb KV40 is located in the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt. Artifacts from the tomb attribute it to 18th Dynasty royal family members, though human remains from the later 22nd Dynasty were interred. Although the tomb was excavated by Victor Loret in 1899, no report was published.
Tomb KV21 is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It was discovered in 1817 by Giovanni Belzoni and later re-excavated by Donald P. Ryan in 1989. It contains the mummies of two women, thought to be Eighteenth Dynasty queens. In 2010, a team headed by Zahi Hawass used DNA evidence to tentatively identify one mummy, KV21A, as the biological mother of the two fetuses preserved in the tomb of King Tutankhamun.
KV31 is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt. Only the top of the shaft was known prior to excavation by the University of Basel Kings' Valley Project in 2010, and no earlier excavations are known, although it is suggested that the stone sarcophagus excavated by Giovanni Battista Belzoni in 1817 may have originated from this tomb. The tomb was found to be filled with mixed debris of pottery sherds and linen fragments, as well as the remains of five mummified elite individuals dating to the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Tomb KV59 is an unused tomb located in the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt. It is located in a side valley between KV37 and KV26 and opposite KV31. It is not known for certain when the tomb was discovered or by whom. It was excavated and mapped in 2010–2011 by the University of Basel. The tomb had filled with debris washed in from several floods and the rock was affected by moisture but otherwise it appeared to be unused.
The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings, is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and powerful nobles under the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt.
KV64 is the tomb of an unknown Eighteenth Dynasty individual in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt that was re-used in the Twenty-second Dynasty for the burial of the priestess Nehmes Bastet, who held the office of "chantress" at the temple of Karnak. The tomb is located on the pathway to KV34 in the main Valley of the Kings. KV64 was discovered in 2011 and excavated in 2012 by Susanne Bickel and Elina Paulin-Grothe of the University of Basel.
The majority of the 65 numbered tombs in the Valley of the Kings can be considered minor tombs, either because at present they have yielded little information or because the results of their investigation was only poorly recorded by their explorers, while some have received very little attention or were only cursorily noted. Most of these tombs are small, often only consisting of a single burial chamber accessed by means of a shaft or a staircase with a corridor or a series of corridors leading to the chamber, but some are larger, multiple chambered tombs. These minor tombs served various purposes, some were intended for burials of lesser royalty or for private burials, some contained animal burials and others apparently never received a primary burial. In many cases these tombs also served secondary functions and later intrusive material has been found related to these secondary activities. While some of these tombs have been open since antiquity, the majority were discovered in the 19th and early 20th centuries during the height of exploration in the valley.
Nehmes Bastet or Nehemes-Bastet was an Ancient Egyptian priestess who held the office of "chantress"; she was the daughter of the high priest of Amun. She lived during the Twenty-second Dynasty and was buried in tomb KV64 in the Valley of the Kings. It was excavated in 2012 and discovered to be a reuse of a tomb for the burial of a woman of an earlier dynasty, whose name, as yet, is unknown.