KV 62 Tomb of Tutankhamun
Tombs of Ancient Egypt
Funerary mask of Tutankhamun
Location	Valley of the Kings
Contact	25 26 'North 32 22 'East / 25.44, 32.36
Discovery	4 November 1922
Excavated by	Howard Carter
Dimensions
Maximum Height	3.68 m
Minimum width	0.66 m
Maximum width	7.86 m
Total length	30.79 m
Total area	109.83 m 2
Total Volume	277.01 m 3
Standings
Valley of the Kings	- KV62 +
change

The tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) is a tomb discovered the 4 November 1922 in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile opposite to Luxor by Howard Carter , Egyptologist English who had been appointed to conduct such searches by Lord Carnarvon.

Although the door of the tomb had been forced into the antiquity , the content remained almost intact. Several clues have convinced Carter that the tomb was given twice visited by thieves burial, the first funeral ceremonies completed soon. The tomb contained many objects of daily life and its discovery has helped to better understand the lives of ancient Egyptians. The treasure consisted of funerary objects of gold , of alabaster and ivory.

This is probably due to the will of the successors of Tutankhamun , Horemheb then Ramesside , dropping his reign into oblivion, his tomb escaped the grave robbers. Tutankhamun is believed to he the last pharaoh of the line resulting from the heretic pharaoh ( Amenhotep IV ) and with him disappeared the last vestiges of the Amarna period. The names of Tutankhamun and his predecessors to Amenhotep IV are delisted royal official.

The entrance to the vault was accidentally preserved by the rubble from KV9 , which includes the tombs of Ramses V and Ramses VI , protecting it from looters until discovered by Carter and Carnarvon. It took ten years for Howard Carter to overcome the excavation of the tomb and identify thousands of objects inside. He was helped in his task by many scientists, including the photographer Harry Burton.

Beyond the strictly archaeological interest of the tomb and its contents, Tutankhamun became famous also due to the curse of the pharaoh , who legend born shortly after the discovery of the tomb, at the mysterious death of Lord Carnarvon in April 1923.

Map of the grave

Map tomb: (1) House of Treasure (2) burial chamber, (3) third door, (4) Antechamber, (5) Appendix, (6) fourth door, (7) second door, (8) Corridor (9) first door (10) Stairs, (A) wall plaster, (B) Wall, (C) Niche

The entrance to the tomb

Sixteen steps lead down to the front door of the tomb.

The corridor

From here a corridor leads to a door where the entrance to the first piece, called "waiting room" by Carter.

The Antechamber

The antechamber, whose walls are bare and unornamented, contained more than 600 objects. On the right wall, traces of abandoned excavation indicate that this piece should be larger by about two meters to the north. On the back wall to the left a small door surmounted by black lines delimiting the opening it should have, lets go to another room.

The burial chamber

At the bottom of the right wall of the hall, a door which features define the projected opening also provides access to the burial chamber. Its soil is below about one meter. Niches of brick, covered with painted plaster walls are on each of the room. This room contained 300 items in addition to the tomb in the center of the room. Only this room is decorated; scenes, whose bottom is golden yellow, are not in the traditional style of the decoration of graves. They are the Book of the Dead , with:

• on the right wall, Anubis , Isis and Hathor ,
• on the wall opposite, Nut and Tutankhamun , followed by his ka , introduced into the underworld by Osiris ,
• on the left wall, ^the 1st hour
• on the wall to the left of the entry, A , a priest, performing the ritual of opening the mouth.

The treasure chamber

Another small room, called "treasure chamber" by Carter, contains about 500 objects.

Schedule

Wall hangings

Called "annex" with Carter, who notes that there are red lines on the walls and it is below 90 cm. It contained, in disorder, baskets, wine jars, dishes in calcite , ship models and shabtis.

Discovery

In 1902 , the American Theodore Davis Monroe obtained the concession to excavate in the Valley of the Kings. For a dozen years, he discovers a thirty kings of varying importance. But when he gives his concession to Lord Carnarvon at the beginning of 1915 , he was convinced that "Valley of the Tombs is now exhausted" . On several occasions, yet it is spent near the tomb of Tutankhamun. Especially in 1905-1906, especially in 1907 and in January 1909. From autumn 1917 , Howard Carter's excavation work resumed with the sole purpose of finally finding the tomb of Tutankhamun . However, results are very encouraging and after the disappointing 1921-1922 campaign, Lord Carnarvon is about to turn away. It is the obstinacy of Carter who only manages to convince him to undertake a final series of excavations in the autumn of 1922 .

Wednesday, ¹ November 1922 , the excavation work begins. November 4, workers discovered the first step of a staircase that goes into the ground. The next day, twelve steps were identified, revealing the top of a door which seals are faded and barely legible. November 6, Carter sent a telegram to Lord Carnarvon encrypted while in England: "Have finally made an extraordinary discovery in the valley, a magnificent tomb with seals intact; have closed until your arrival; congratulations . Carnarvon arrived in Luxor on 23 November 1922 , accompanied by his daughter Evelyn Herbert .

November 24, excavations began again: all of the stair railing is quickly released and seals appear very clearly on the bottom of the door: it is indeed the tomb of Tutankhamun. Unfortunately, traces of masonry on the upper left of the door suggests that the tomb was "seen" since ancient times .

Opening the doors of the sanctuary funeral in January 1924 by Carter

On 25, the first door is opened and the corridor on which it gives is the traces of a tunnel dug by looters. On Sunday, November 26, the corridor is clear and Carter is the first to take a look in the "waiting room" :

"Slowly the scene became clearer and we succeeded in distinguishing some objects. First, just in front of us - we knew but refuse to believe it - there were three impressive funerary beds, gilded carved alongside animal-shaped monster whose body was curiously stylized in a utilitarian purpose, but whose heads were shown a stunning realism. In any event, these figures would have seemed strange, but seen as we saw them, while our electric lamps such as the spotlight from the darkness their gold surface and their heads projected onto the wall behind the fantastical shadows, distorted, these creatures became almost terrifying. Then right, two statues attracted our attention, two statues of King, black, size, face-to-like two sentries, loincloths and sandals gold, armed with a club and a cane, his forehead decorated with the sacred cobra protector ... "

- Howard Carter .

28, a passageway is drilled in the door that closes the "burial chamber" and it is recapped: the official opening of the door was not held until 17 February 1923. Carter decided to officially reveal the discovery on Nov. 29, but the moment is badly chosen: since the unilateral declaration of independence in March 1922 by King Fuad ^I. The political situation is tense and the British authorities in Egypt are facing a wave of murders of their citizens. The ceremony takes place in small groups so , but Carter had the presence of mind to join the invitation of Arthur Merton, a representative of The Times , a small summary of Tutankhamun and the ^eighteenth dynasty : the November 30, the London newspaper devoted two full pages to the event . Even the famous Egyptologist Flinders Petrie , requested by The Times, splits a glowing review . In the days that follow, the agency Reuters and Egyptian journalists submit their own version of the discovery. The news spread around the world. Immediately, visitors more and more affluent and want to Luxor to visit the already famous tomb: from December 6, Carter enjoys a trip to Cairo to acquire the technical and photographic equipment and to order an iron gate to close grave. This popularity, however, will serve as the Egyptologist: many scientific institutions will spontaneously offer to help exploit the discovery, starting with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York .

Quickly, Carnarvon and Carter realize that they will fail to exploit only the discovery and he needs the support of a strengthened team, which accumulates over a number of researchers and specialists, who often spontaneously offer their assistance: the chemist Alfred Lucas , Egyptologist Arthur Cruttenden Mace , James Henry Breasted , architects Walter Hauser and Lindsay Hall , the British philologist Alan Gardiner , the photographer Harry Burton , Arthur Callender , the Egyptologist Percy Newberry ...

The total clearance of the tomb requires ten years, a period which infuriated the press, that of the hall begins on 27 December 1922. Carter is being very meticulous and systematic way: numbering of all objects discovered numerous photographs, drawings, statements, descriptions, etc.. The graves are nearby shelter, photographic studio or workshop of restoration. The parts identified are sent to Cairo by boat or train.

Treasure of Tutankhamun

Much of the second floor of the Egyptian Museum is devoted to the exhibition of objects found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. The death mask and sarcophagus occupy a prominent place. A box whose four sides decorated with goddesses Isis , Nephthys , Serket and Neit contained the canopic jars.

Four chapels nesting wood covered with gold are repeated at the top, covering a sarcophagus quartzite containing three coffins mummiform red, wood plated with gold leaf for the first two and solid gold for the third.

Inside lay the mummy of the young pharaoh , head and shoulders covered by the famous golden mask, which epitomizes the richness of the Pharaonic civilization.

Popularity of Tutankhamun

The tomb KV62

If the pharaoh was a wren unimportant and if his memory has remained virtually forgotten for over 3000 years, its discovery in 1922, the notorious curse of the pharaoh and the richness of its archaeological treasures have assured Tutankhamun universal fame. Visitors have flocked in late November 1922. Between ¹ January 1926 and 15 March 1926 , the tomb KV62 attracted no fewer than 12,000 visitors . Since ¹ December 2007 , the number of visitors of the tomb is limited to 400 per day , and in May 2008, the tomb was closed for restoration which should last five years .

Exhibitions

The Tutankhamun exhibition devoted to regularly experience considerable popular success.

In 1967 , an exhibition of Tutankhamun's funerary furniture at the Petit Palais in Paris attracted more than 1.24 million visitors. In 2004, the exhibition "Tutankhamun - The Golden Beyond" in Basel has attracted nearly 600,000 visitors, undermining the capacity of the museum where the exhibition was held . In 2007, for a similar exhibition in Los Angeles, has sold nearly 500,000 tickets in one month .

In 2008, a scale replica of the tomb of Tutankhamun was made at Toni Areal in Zurich .

Notes

Bibliography

• Carl Nicholas Reeves , Tutankhamun. Life, death and discovery of a pharaoh, Wandering Editions, Paris, 2003 (ISBN 2-8772-248-1)
• HVF Winstone, Howard Carter and The Discovery Of The Tomb of Tutankhamun, Barzan, 2008 ( ISBN 1-905521-05-7 )

See also

Related article

• Tombs of the Valley of the Kings

External Links

• (En) Description of 62 KV on Theban Mapping Project.
• (In) From the diary of Howard Carter for the period from October 28, 1922 December 31, 1922.
• (In) Photographs of the release of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Harry Burton.

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