KV12 – Unknown Tomb .. Part ( 29 )

This tomb, which has not been identified, unknown and unpublished, lies about midway between the tomb of Haremhab and that of Amenhotep II ( 57 and 35 ) . It was discovered before 1739 by Richard Pococke .

Though its presence was apparently observed by Pococke, the first record of exploration we have of this multi-chambered tomb is by James Burton between the 1820s and 1830, when it was still encumbered with debris ; precisely who swept it out during the past or present century is not recorded . Ernest Harold Jones in 1908-1909, Howard Carter in 1920-1921, and most recently Otto John Schaden in 1993-1994 have all searched at the entrance, without significant result .

Within the tomb itself, James Burton recorded the presence of mummy remains and a graffito on the east wall of the ultimate chamber's side storeroom . The Burton corpse may represent the remains of one of the tomb's occupants ; if so, it had probably been interred within the end chamber, which John Romer discovered to have been " anciently sealed with mud plaster " .

This end chamber had been broken into accidentally by workmen quarrying the later KV9, probably under Ramses VI, at which time any burial within would very likely have been plundered . At the latest, KV12 will have been robbed when KV9 itself was entered by thieves – if, indeed, the robbers of Ramses VI's burial did not find their way into KV9 via KV12, as a number of shabtis of Ramses VI discovered by Harold Jones at the entrance to KV12 might suggest .

The plan of this strange, undecorated tomb is unique in a number of ways . The entrance, slightly offset, opens immediately into a hall with a single pillar, a stairway and several unfinished offshoots-one of which actually doubles back parallel to the entrance ( compare KV39 ) . It is possible that this section of the structure was begun in the 18^th Dynasty, left unfinished, and later incorporated into the present design . While the outermost chambers are roughly hewn in a way reminiscent of earlier tombs, the innermost chambers are much more carefully finished, with a transition between the two areas being clearly visible in the passage beyond the first room . As in royal tombs, the subsequent passage consists of a staircase with side ledges .

Although the lower section of the tomb appears asymmetrical in plan, the outlines of uncut doors around the central main chamber indicate that a balanced arrangement of subsidiary rooms was intended . The irregular form of those subordinate rooms which were cut is due to the presence of veins of impenetrably harder rock .

Part ( 30 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....

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