Tutankamun's Grandfather

[Kenemet]

Last year, Egyptologist Chris Naunton had the opportunity to enter KV22, and took some wonderful photos.  It's closed to the public and is accessible only by special permission... but it has been under concession to Japan's Waseda University since 1989.   Sakuji Yoshimura is the lead archaeologist, directing the excavation and the preservation.

The sarcophagus has gone missing but the lid is still there (currently supported by that weird wooden frame.)

This, sadly, was an early discovery in the Valley of the Kings (found in the 1700's), and early "excavations" were more along the order of outright tomb robbery.  You can see where Amenhotep's face was peeled off the walls (some are presently in various museums.)  Howard Carter got involved with this in the early 1900's, before he found Tutankamun.

Wikipedia has a nice overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WV22

The finds from the spoil heaps of the previous expeditions hint at just how much archaeology has changed.  Previously, pottery fragments and the occasional bead or broken ushabti were tossed into the spoil heaps or simply not seen.  Now they're retrieved and documented.

One interesting point that Naunton made is that this is what Tut's tomb SHOULD have looked like if he'd had a longer reign as an adult.  I don't think we'll ever have a complete catalog of what was there (and so much has been lost or swapped hands so often that it has lost its provenance) -- but here's a lovely little sphinx with his name, just for visual interest.  Carter's finds (discussed briefly on the Wikipedia page) hint at the wonderful things that might have been there before the tomb robbers got to it.

 

https://www.instagram.com/chrisnaunton/p/CylDUcOMX1C/?img_index=1  and https://www.instagram.com/chrisnaunton/p/CylEld7srTk/?img_index=1

https://www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=864305015140612&id=100046833652550&_rdr

(The better series of photos are on Facebook.  You should be able to see it by ignoring the "make an account" option and just scrolling)

[lion88]

It's incredible that Naunton got the chance to visit KV22 and take such amazing photos, even if it’s not open to the public. It’s a bit sad about the sarcophagus going missing, but the lid still being there is a cool piece of history to see. 

[The Puzzler]

What’s the point to the topic?

“Yuya, a powerful ancient Egyptian courtier during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt (circa 1390 BC) and his wife Thuya, an Egyptian noblewoman associated with the royal family, both belonged to the maternal haplogroup K, as did their descendants:

• Queen Tiye
• Pharaoh Akhenaten
• The Younger Lady (KV35YL)
• Pharoah Tutankhamun”
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_K_(mtDNA)

[Kenemet]

16 hours ago, The Puzzler said:

What’s the point to the topic?

“Yuya, a powerful ancient Egyptian courtier during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt (circa 1390 BC) and his wife Thuya, an Egyptian noblewoman associated with the royal family, both belonged to the maternal haplogroup K, as did their descendants:

• Queen Tiye
• Pharaoh Akhenaten
• The Younger Lady (KV35YL)
• Pharoah Tutankhamun”
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_K_(mtDNA)

That it gives a glimpse of what a royal tomb of Tutankamun's time looked like and what might have been found if he'd managed to have a longer reign as an adult.

Not sure what genetics has to do with what ends up deposited inside a tomb designed for the pharaoh's afterlife.

[The Puzzler]

7 hours ago, Kenemet said:

That it gives a glimpse of what a royal tomb of Tutankamun's time looked like and what might have been found if he'd managed to have a longer reign as an adult.

Not sure what genetics has to do with what ends up deposited inside a tomb designed for the pharaoh's afterlife.

Oh right, cool. 
In retrospect, we are probably lucky he died young and his elaborate tomb was found…otherwise, Egyptology would probably have never been picked up by the human psyche as so exciting. Imagine never knowing those beautiful blue and gold stripes….The displays of King Tut will never be repeated and gave rise to Egyptmania.

But yes, interesting to think about and thanks for your explanation.

Edited November 7 by The Puzzler

[Kenemet]

4 hours ago, The Puzzler said:

Oh right, cool. 
In retrospect, we are probably lucky he died young and his elaborate tomb was found…otherwise, Egyptology would probably have never been picked up by the human psyche as so exciting. Imagine never knowing those beautiful blue and gold stripes….The displays of King Tut will never be repeated and gave rise to Egyptmania.

But yes, interesting to think about and thanks for your explanation.

You're right that the treasure was what caught everyone's imagination... but remember, it wasn't his real tomb.  His death was unexpected and so they kind of shoved in what they had and repurposed some other things for him.  What's left of his grandfather's tomb ... well, just imagine Tut but a hundred times better!

[Aldebaran]

Tutankhamun's tomb was a marvel under any circumstances but, yes, very small for a kingly one.  It was preserved with its treasure by grace of his immediate successors, who managed to keep order in the necropolis and by a fortuitous storm and flooding that shifted the grounds around so that KV62 became completely hidden from sight in the future and no more robbery attempts were made.  On the other hand, the immediate successors usurped the monuments of Tutankhamun and the ensuing dynasties didn't include him in their king lists, as he was tainted by the Amarna heresy.  So it didn't take long for the boy king to become forgotten.  It's a great irony that now he's the most famous pharaoh of them all.

The tomb of the grandfather, WV22, was made in an out-of-the-way spot in the Valley of the Kings, probably in a vain attempt to avoid the robbers who had already demonstrated their work on the tombs of the predecessors.  Or who knows why, really.

Of course, I find the haplogroups of the family of Tutankhamun very interesting, both mitochondrial and y-DNA related.  My own research has shown that the autosomal DNA of Thuya is very like that of Ramesses III and his son, "Unknown Man E".  She does not fail to share an allele with one or both of them at eight microsatellite markers, meaning she was probably related to both Ramesses III and the wife who was the mother of his son.