Monday, April 3, 2017

KV46 – Tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu .. Part ( 24 )

General view

This is another of the Mr. Theodore Monroe Davis finds, and was one of the most important of them, not because of any quality in the tomb itself, which is a comparatively rude and unpretentious piece of work, consisting merely of a flight of steps, a steeply sloping corridor, a second flight of steps, and the burial-chamber, but because of the historical importance of the persons who occupied it, and of the wealth and beauty of the funerary furniture found in it .




The tomb was that of Yuya and Tjuyu, the father and mother of Queen Tiy, the famous and well-beloved wife of Amenhotep III, and the mother by him of Akhenaten . It was discovered in 1905, and was found to contain a quantity of rich funerary furniture such as, up to that time, had never been met with in any Egyptian tomb, though it has since been eclipsed by the wonders of the tomb of Tutankhamun .



This priceless collection is now at Cairo Museum ( 3613-3705, U 13, various cases ) . The tomb is uninscribed, and of no interest apart from its occupants and their furniture .



Henry Copley Greene said : " Squeezing their way between the wall and the rock ceiling, M. Maspero and Mr. Davis were soon in the midst of such a medley of tomb furniture that, in the glare of their lighted candles, the first effect was one of bewilderment . Gradually, however, one object after another detached itself from the shimmering mass, shining through the cool air, dust-free and golden … " .



Discovery and excavation
James Quibell said : " … so remarkable was the preservation that the silver was still bright, but within three days, and before anything could be moved, it had become black " .



Before the discovery of Tutankhamun, the tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu was one of the most celebrated discoveries in Egyptian archaeology . And, naturally, the discovery was made by Theodore Davis .



The tomb itself is situated midway between the princely tomb KV3 and KV4, the tomb initiated but never actually employed by the pharaoh Ramses XI, and chippings from the quarrying of these later tombs wholly overlay the site to provide a useful terminus ante quem for ancient activity within the tomb .



The outer doorway " was closed within eighteen inches of the top with flat stones, about twelve inches by four, laid in Nile mud plaster … " . This wall, " plastered over with mud and stamped in many places " with the jackal-and-nine-captives seal, displayed an opening in the top right-hand corner, at chin height – so clearly it was not to be an intact tomb . Beyond lay a corridor, empty save for a few stray items, leading down to a second blocking, stamped with the seal of the necropolis administration but likewise broken through at the top . On the floor, at the base of the wall, were two pottery bowls containing dried mud – evidence, perhaps, of small-scale plastering work undertaken following the first period of theft – and the sticks used to apply it . As the excavators peered over the wall an eerie sight met their eyes :
" Imagine entering a town house which had been closed for the summer ; imagine the stuffy room, the stiff, silent appearance of the furniture, the feeling that some ghostly occupants of the vacant chairs have just been disturbed, the desire to throw open the windows to let life into the room once more . That was perhaps the first sensation as we stood, really dumbfounded, and stared around at the relics of the life of over three thousand years ago … " . By : Arthur Weigall .



Architecture
While not as fully developed as some of the largest private tombs, architecturally KV46 lies between KV55 and KV21, having one more corridor than the former and one fewer than the latter . The entrance stair with fifteen steps leads into a well-cut corridor (B) some 1.76 m ( 5 ft 9 in ) wide and 2.05 m ( 6 ft 9 in ) high – proportions which are respectable for a tomb of this nature ( compare 1.68 m [ 5 ft 6 in ] by 2 m [ 6 ft 7 in ] in the tomb of Tutankhamun ) .



A second corridor with stairs and niches is somewhat unusual in that the roof is roughly rounded rather than squared . This and the similar roughness of the irregularly shaped burial chamber have been blamed on the quality of the stone, but might also be explained as the result of the tomb's quarrying being brought to a hasty conclusion . Like KV62, the floor of the burial chamber is dropped approximately 1 m ( 3 ft 3 in ) from the level of the entrance doorway, though only at the left end . In the first two passages a number of black dots spaced about 40 cm ( 16 in ) apart divide the walls into squares ; these seem to be masons' marks, since the walls were not smoothed nor was plaster ever applied to them .



The mummies
" Again Maspero's voice was heard, this saying that Mrs. Smith should come down and join him in the tomb … He assisted her over the wall and said : ' Doubtless you are the first woman that's been in this tomb chamber alive – there's a dead one over there … ' " . By : Joseph Lindon Smith .



The two mummies were in an extraordinary state of preservation ; that of Yuya, in particular, is a fine example of the ancient embalmers' craft .



To judge from the differing embalming techniques that the two corpses display, Yuya and Tjuyu died at separate times, and were interred or buried in KV46 on two separate occasions . This view is strengthened by differences in the two sets of funerary equipment – in particular, the canopic jars . As the evidence stands, it is difficult to establish who died first . Maspero believed that it was Yuya basing his view upon the disposition of the man's large wooden coffin-canopy . The style of Yuya's cartonnage mask suggests the opposite .



Robberies
The excavators believed that the burial had been plundered on one occasion only . In fact, KV46 appears to have been entered at least twice and probably on three occasions .



Further-more, the burial was plundered far more efficiently than was originally thought . All the more portable valuables had gone – metalwork ( including all jewellery not wrapped in with the mummies ) and most of the linens not associated directly with the corpses . Perfumes and cosmetics had also been removed – usually evidence of a robbery soon after the original interment, since such commodities did not keep fresh for long . All that remained were three containers of rancid castor oil, natron and " a dark red substance " – which the thieves had evidently discarded as worthless .



The tomb was still in a state of disarray when entered by Davis in 1905 . The mummies had been disturbed within their coffins, while promising-looking boxes had had their lids ripped off . Several items found in the corridor – a heart scarab, chariot yoke and gilded wooden staff – were either in the process of being carried off by the thieves when they were apprehended, or else had been discarded by them when it was discovered that their value was slight . Following this intrusion, there seems to have been some attempt at restoring a superficial order to the burial : Tjuyu's mummy had been covered with a sheet, some boxes refilled with a jumble of items, and the hole made by the robbers to gain access to the burial chamber roughly blocked again with stones .



Finds from the Tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu
James Edward Quibell, Antiquities inspector, Describes the Contents ..

Yuya was laid in four coffins, one inside the other . The outer one can hardly be called a coffin ; it is a square box on runners, but has no bottom ; it forms a cover or tent over the rest … [ and ] is of wood covered with pitch, and ornamented with bands of inscription in relief on gilt plaster . The second coffin is of the shape of a mummy, covered like the last with glistening pitch and with gilt bands of text . In the third coffin the gilt bands are the same, but the background is of silver leaf . The fourth is gilt all over and has hieroglyphs of glass inlaid in the gold . This coffin was silvered inside and contained the mummy … [ which ] had been thoroughly searched ; evidently Yuya was known to have been buried with jewellery . His gilt cartonnage mask and the bands which encircled the body remained, but were broken . Now, all in Egyptian Museum at Cairo .



The mummy itself is in wonderful preservation, better perhaps than any other from Biban el-Moluk ; the features are not distorted ; the powerful and dignified face of the old man strikes one as something human, as a face that one would recognize in a portrait .



The canopic vases of Tjuyu are interesting ; they each contain, packed in sawdust, some are of the organs of the body wrapped up in cloths so as to form the model of a mummy, over the head of which is placed a small mask of gilt plaster . The vases of Yuya are much simpler .



One of the most striking objects is a chariot ; it bears no scenes in relief to compare with those on the chariot of Tuthmosis IV, but it is practically complete, and the decorations of spirals and rosettes in gilt plaster make it a very handsome object .



There are two of the Osiris beds, like that in Mahirpra, which means " The lion of the battlefield " ; there is a jewel box decorated with mosaic of ivory, ebony, and faience, with inscription in gold, several other boxes less elaborate in ornament, and besides, a lot of boxes of wood covered with pitch and containing different dried meats, geese, ducks and various joints of veal .



Lastly there are three beds and three chairs . The beds are like Nubian angaribs, but with head-boards ; one of these has panels adorned with bas reliefs in silvered plaster ; in another the scenes are gilt, they consist chiefly of figures of Bes .



The chairs are perhaps the most striking objects in the whole collection, and cannot be described in a few words . Two of the three had probably been used before being employed as funereal furniture ; they certainly show signs of wear . One, a small one, is gilt all over, and bears on the back a scene of a water excursion ; in another the arms are of open-work, representing an ibex ; the third and largest is made of veneered wood with designs and text in gilt ; above the front legs and serving as hand-rests are two female heads in the round .





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