KV33

Last updated
KV33
Burial site of Unknown
Egypt adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
KV33
Coordinates 25°42′17.1″N32°36′02.7″E / 25.704750°N 32.600750°E / 25.704750; 32.600750
Location East Valley of the Kings
Discovered1898
Excavated by Victor Loret
University of Basel (2012)
DecorationUndecorated
 Previous
KV32
Next 
KV34

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.

Contents

Location and architecture

KV33 is located close to KV34, the tomb of Thutmose III, high in the cliffs at the end of a side valley. [1] Its layout has been known since the early 1900s when it was described in Baedeker's travel guidebook as being a "small tomb with two empty rooms, reached by a flight of steps." [2] [3] The tomb is neatly cut. [1]

Exploration and excavation

KV33 was discovered in 1898 by Victor Loret. [3] The tomb was open to tourists in the early 1900s as it is mentioned in a Baedeker's guidebook to Egypt. [2] In modern times, a bench was built over the entrance. [4]

KV33 was excavated in 2012 by the University of Basel's Kings' Valley Project. The modern bench covering the entrance was removed. The tomb is entered via 10 well-cut steps that descend into a central chamber, off which are two side rooms. The tomb was filled with debris to a height of 1.2 metres (3.9 ft), washed into the tomb in two separate layers. Clearance of the fill yielded large stones probably used to seal the entrance, pieces of pottery and alabaster jars, and fragmentary human remains. The tomb can be dated to the Eighteenth Dynasty on the basis of pottery style, most likely to the reign of Thutmose III. [1]

Citations

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV34</span> Tomb of Egyptian Pharoah Thutmose III

Tomb KV34 in the Valley of the Kings was the tomb of 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Thutmose III.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV39</span> Possible tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep I

Tomb KV39 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings is one of the possible locations of the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep I. It is located high in the cliffs, away from the main valley bottom and other royal burials. It is in a small wadi that runs from the east side of Al-Qurn, directly under the ridge where the workmen's village of Deir el-Medina lies. The layout of the tomb is unique. It has two axes, one east and one south. Its construction seems to have occurred in three phases. It began as a simple straight axis tomb that never continued past the first room. In the subsequent phase, a series of long descending corridors and steps were cut to the east and south. It was discovered around 1900 by either Victor Loret or Macarious and Andraos but was not fully examined. It was excavated between 1989 and 1994 by John Rose and was further examined in 2002 by Ian Buckley. Based on the tomb's architecture and pottery found, it was likely cut in the early Eighteenth Dynasty, possibly for a queen. Fragmentary remains of burials were recovered from parts of the tomb but who they belong to is unknown. KV39's location may fit the description of the tomb of Amenhotep I given in the Abbott Papyrus but this is the subject of debate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV61</span> Ancient Egyptian tomb, unfinished and unused

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV3</span> Ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings

Tomb KV3, located in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, was intended for the burial of an unidentified son of Pharaoh Ramesses III during the early part of the Twentieth Dynasty. It is similar in design to the "straight axis" tombs typical of this dynasty, and an ostracon written in hieratic script from the time of Ramesses III mentions the founding of a tomb for a royal prince, likely this tomb. The unfinished state of a couple of rooms in the tomb along with scant archeological evidence suggests that the tomb was never used. Some have suggested that it was originally intended for use by the prince regent who would succeed as Ramesses IV, and who started building his own tomb (KV2) soon after he came to the throne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV36</span> Tomb of the ancient Egyptian noble Maiherpri

Tomb KV36, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, was used for the burial of the noble Maiherpri from the Eighteenth Dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV32</span> Ancient Egyptian tomb of Tiaa, wife of Amenhotep II

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV26</span> Ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV30</span> Ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings

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 Second Earl Belmore. It was excavated in 2009-2010 by the University of Basel's Kings' Valley Project.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV37</span> Ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings

Tomb KV37 is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The presence of 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV40</span> Tomb of Egyptian 18th Dynasty royal family

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV27</span> Ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings

Tomb KV27 is located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. This tomb was visited by John Wilkinson, but was not fully explored until the 1990s, by Donald P. Ryan of Pacific Lutheran University. The tomb consists of four rooms and is undecorated; nothing is known about its occupant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV31</span> Ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valley of the Kings</span> Necropolis in ancient Egypt

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV64</span> Ancient Egyptian tomb discovered in 2011

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.

Susanne Bickel is a Swiss Egyptologist. She studied Egyptology in Geneva and then worked at the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo and the Swiss Institute of Egyptian Antiquity. She has worked as an archaeologist on multiple sites in Middle and Upper Egypt. Since 2000 she has been a lecturer at the University of Freiburg and since 2006, professor of Egyptology at the University of Basel where she is an expert on Ancient Egyptian deities and demons. Susanne Bickel's research focuses on religion and Egyptian archaeology, particularly the documentation of Egyptian temples. Bickel is director of the University of Basel Kings' Valley Project and was a member of the team that excavated the KV64 tomb, containing the burial of Nehmes Bastet, in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nehmes Bastet</span> Egyptian priestess (c. 945–712 BCE)

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.

References