Valley of the Kings in Egypt Secrets KV55 tomb

KV55 tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt

In 1907, a tomb was discovered in the Valley of the Kings during excavations by Edward Ayrton on behalf of the wealthy American lawyer Theodore M. Davis. This uninscribed tomb was subsequently numbered KV55 and is one of Egyptology’s biggest enigmas, as its contents and occupant have stimulated much debate and confusion over the last century. 

Given the style of the objects found inside, it seems that the tomb was a result of caching several different funerary items from the Amarna Period that were reused for the burial of a single individual, whose identity remains uncertain to this day. 

Official seal impressions from the tomb’s entrance bore the seal of the necropolis (a crouching jackal above nine captives) in addition to seal impressions with the name of Tutankhamun. This strongly suggests that the cache was created some time during his reign, likely on the orders of the king to transfer the remaining royal burial(s) at Amarna south to the Valley of the Kings for safekeeping.

The coffin found within KV55 was originally created for a female member of the royal family during the Amarna Period, but was subsequently altered for the burial of a royal male instead. This is obvious from the altered hieroglyphic inscriptions throughout the lid and trough, some that still have a feminine “t” ending or the female pronoun of a seated woman from the original inscriptions. 

There is much debate as to whom the coffin was originally intended for: earlier scholarship suggested Queen Tiye, Meryetaten, or (erroneously) Akhenaten himself; there is even the possibility that the coffin was created for Nefertiti when she was ruling as Akhenaten’s queen. Today, however, most Egyptologists would agree that the coffin was created for Kiya, a secondary wife of Akhenaten. 

Based on the spelling of the Aten’s name from this coffin, as well as Kiya’s canopic jars that were also found in KV55 (such as: Met 07.226.1), her funerary equipment was started sometime before Year 9 of Akhenaten’s reign. Yet, for unknown reasons Kiya disappears from official records sometime after Year 12, and her monuments were usurped by other women of the royal family and her funerary equipment was reused for the KV55 burial.

The entrance to KV55 was uncovered by Ayrton on 6 January 1907. Its discovery was brought to Davis's attention on the following day. The tomb was first entered on 9 January by Ayrton, Davis, Joseph Lindon Smith and (as the representative of the antiquities service) Arthur Weigall. On 11 January 1907, the finds were photographed.[6] Ayrton then began clearance of the tomb. On 25 January 1907, the coffin and mummy were investigated in situ.

According to a letter from Davis to Gaston Maspero, some of the objects found in KV55 were still in place in January 1908, and their study and attempts at conservation were still ongoing at that later date.

In 1921, while excavating south of the tomb, Howard Carter discovered several items that seem to have originated in KV55. These include a jasper burnisher and some fragments of copper rosettes from a funerary pall.

After its excavation, the tomb's entrance was initially fitted with a steel door, which was later removed and replaced by stone blocking. By 1944, this blocking had collapsed and filled the tomb's entrance with debris. In 1993, the tomb was cleared again by Lyla Pinch Brock. In 1996, she undertook conservation work on the stairs and the plastering inside the burial chamber through a grant from the American Research Centre in Egypt