During the 1906-07 season, as chronicled in “The Ape Who Guards the Balance”, the Peabody-Emersons are excavating KV5 in the Valley of the Kings, with the permission of the American millionaireTheodore Davis, who holds the concession for the Valley. Close by, Edward Ayrton, working for Davis, finds and excavates KV55. Davis believes it to be the tomb of Aktenaten’s mother Queen Tiye, but modern scholars believe that while the coffin and tomb may have been intended for Tiye at some point, the mummy found there was in fact that of Akhenaten, relocated from Amarna. The Peabody-Emersons witness Davis’ hasty and sloppy emptying of the tomb, an opinion shared by later Egyptologists.
Indeed, Professor Emerson insults Davis so vociferously about the botched excavation of KV55 that the Peabody-Emersons are banished from the Valley of the Kings, and have to abandon the excavation of KV5. Little did they know it would prove to be one of the largest and most remarkable tombs ever found in Egypt, the burial site of the 100 sons of King Ramses II of the 19th Dynasty. In 1995 Kent Weeks began excavations there, revealing dozens of mummies in what appear to be 130 rooms.
While an initial survey of the tomb was carried out as early as 1825, the interior was filled with debris that had hardened like concrete. Heavy rains are rare in the area, but half a dozen over the past 3000 years had filled the chambers of KV5 “to their ceilings with stones, limestone chips, sand, and silts”. (Weeks, 2005) The Peabody-Emersons had only begun excavating Chamber 1 when they were forced to leave. Had they continued in Chamber 1, they would have found this shabti of Sety I (father of Ramses II and grandfather of those buried in the tomb).
Shabti of Sety I from KV5, Photo: Francis Dzikowski, Theban Mapping Project
Shabtis are small statues found in tombs representing servants who will work for the deceased in the afterlife.
Object name: Body fragment of shabti of Sety I, 19th dynasty, with inscription; body light blue-green.
Material: Faïence
Measurements: 7.2 x 4.5 x 2.7 cm.
Provenance: Found in KV5, Chamber 1, northwest quadrant, 2.2 m below ceiling, between 0.8 and 0.5 m above floor
Date: January 24, 1999.
Additional description: The inscription reads:
1. The illuminated one, the Osiris, Men-ma’ at-Ra, the Justified, he speaks: O,
2. this shabti, if one calls, if one reckons, the Osiris, Sety Mery-en-Ptah
3. [to do] all the work, which is to be done in Necropolis, to cultivate…
Current location with inventory numbers: Theban Mapping Expedition reference no. 14986, Object no. 1.21, Current location uncertain.
Acquisition history: Found in KV5
Bibliography:
Weeks, Kent, “KV5: A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of the Tomb of the Sons of Ramesses II in the Valley of the Kings (Publications of the Theban Mapping Project)”, Cairo, 2006. (This mentions Chamber 22 only briefly in the Update section, and makes no mention of objects found in the room. Most of the information above is from the Theban Mapping Project website.)
Much farther in, after years of excavation, the Theban Mapping Project found this fragment of a relief of Ramses II, in Chamber 22.
Fragment of a relief of Ramses II, Photo: Theban Mapping Project
Object at Theban Mapping Project
Object name: Fragment of a relief of Ramses II
Material: Stone
Measurements: “Life sized” (based on the measurement dashes, and with the help of Professor Troy, I have estimated the size at about 20 cm x 40 cm)
Provenance: Found in pillered chamber 22 in KV5.
Date: Probably 2003, when the photo was taken.
Additional description: I have written to the Theban Mapping Expedition to ask for more details about this object, which is pictured on their website, but have received no answer. (In their faq they do say they probably won’t respond to queries for homework assignments.)
Current location with inventory numbers: Theban Mapping Expedition reference no. 19567, Object no. 22.? Current location uncertain.
Acquisition history: Found in KV5
Bibliography:
Weeks, Kent, “KV5: A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of the Tomb of the Sons of Ramesses II in the Valley of the Kings (Publications of the Theban Mapping Project)”, Cairo, 2006. (This mentions Chamber 22 only briefly in the Update section, and makes no mention of objects found in the room. Most of the information above is from the Theban Mapping Project website.)