KV21
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James Burton (mapped, 1825)
Donald P. Ryan (1989)
| KV21 | |
|---|---|
| Burial site of two female mummies | |
 KV21 schematic | |
  KV21 | |
| Coordinates | 25°44′22.5″N 32°36′10.8″E / 25.739583°N 32.603000°E |
| Location | East Valley of the Kings |
| Discovered | 9 October 1817 |
| Excavated by | Giovanni Belzoni (1817) James Burton (mapped, 1825) Donald P. Ryan (1989) |
| Layout | Straight axis |
Tomb KV21 is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It was discovered in 1817 by Giovanni Belzoni and later re-excavated by Donald P. Ryan in 1989. It contains the mummies of two women, thought to be Eighteenth Dynasty queens.[1] In 2010, a team headed by Zahi Hawass used DNA evidence to tentatively identify one mummy, KV21A, as the biological mother of the two infants buried in the tomb of King Tutankhamun.[2]
The tomb consists of a sloping descending passageway, a staircase, and another descending passage. The passage ends in a room with a single central column and a small chamber adjoining it.[3] The walls are well cut and ready to receive plaster[4] if plastering was intended.[1] The tomb is most similar in layout scale to KV32, the tomb of Tiaa, mother of Thutmose IV. Marc Gabolde considers that the more precise cutting and regular layout of this tomb date it to slightly later than KV32.[5]
Discovery and contents
The tomb was discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817. He found a brick wall at the end of the first section of passageway; it had been broken through in antiquity. In the larger room Belzoni found two naked female mummies with long hair; he notes how easily the hair of one of the mummies pulled out when he tugged at it. The smaller chamber contained pottery and alabaster sherds. A complete large ceramic jar was found at the top of the stairs.[3]
James Burton, who mapped it in 1825, called it a "clean new tomb – the water not having got into it."[6]
Re-investigation
The tomb was re-investigated in 1989 by Donald Ryan as part of the Pacific Lutheran University Valley of the Kings Project. He found the entrance buried under flood debris; water had penetrated the tomb as evidenced by the "tide-line" on the wall of the burial chamber which indicated it had been filled with several inches of water. The once well-preserved mummies were found in scattered pieces, the white-washed jars in the side chamber had been smashed with large rocks, and a large graffito on one of the tombs walls proclaimed "ME 1826." The presence of bat guano indicated that the tomb had been open for some time after Belzoni and Burton had visited.[4]
In 1993 a crack monitor was installed; no or minimal movement was detected. The small finds from the tomb were analysed by the Project in 2005 and were able to group them into three categories: those that dated to the Eighteenth Dynasty; those that suggested the tomb was reused in the Third Intermediate Period; and strays washed in, one of which was an ushabti for a Ramesside pharaoh. Though a small amount of water had penetrated the tomb during the 1994 floods, the packed contents were secure and dry; objects from KV44 and KV45 were moved to this tomb for flood protection.[7]
