KV14

KV14 is an ancient Egyptian grave site from the time of the New Kingdom in the Valley of the Kings. It could Tausert, the last queen of the 19th dynasty, and are assigned to their successor, King ( Pharaoh) Sethnacht, the founder of the 20th dynasty.

KV14 Tomb of Tausert and Sethnacht

Discovery and Exploration

From an actual discovery of the double tomb KV14 can not be spoken, for the grave is accessible since antiquity. Investigations and excavations found in KV14 several times, with longer time intervals, rather than by various Egyptologists and institutions:

However, the first excavations in KV14 seem to have been carried out only limited, as the Egyptian Museum in Cairo chest button of Horemheb was, for example, in 1909 registered, it is emphasized to that he was from KV14.

The walls of the tomb documented Eugène Lefébure 1889 in Les Hypogées royaux de Thebes II The last exact investigations in the double grave were made in the 1980s by Hartwig Altenmüller. His research results were published in Nicholas Reeves work after Tutankhamun in 1992.

History

The cutting out and editing KV14 has until the reign of Ramses III. a checkered history. From 1983 to 1987 Hartwig Altenmüller has been able to find in the grave with his work in KV14 various stages of renovation work and construction phases for Tausert:

• The work on KV14 began in the second year of the reign of Seti II, who admitted his Great Royal Wife, the unique privilege of a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The grave of a great royal wife would have been more likely to expect in the Valley of the Queens.
• King Siptah adheres to the Seti II under commenced basic concept of the grave and the grave is built into a smaller copy of a royal tomb from.
• Another construction phase can be detected with Siptah for the period of co-regency Tausrets.
• The fourth and final Umarbeitungsphase the grave with respect to Queen Tausert dated to the time of her own accession to the throne after the death Siptah. The grave will be redesigned its new status as pharaoh in accordance with royal elements and expanded.

As for the overall construction time period under Queen Tausert about ten years will be accepted. Even to the death Tausrets has KV14 So a very active construction history on which thereby also documents the rise of a great royal wife of a co-regency up to your own Pharaohs dignity.

Actually, KV11 as King Sethnachts grave been provided. However, the workers encountered during excavation of the third corridor here on the grave of Amenmesse, which led to the grave for the immediate cessation of all work. As Sethnacht after two years of reign, died, he was of Ramses III. KV11 KV14 but not in, the grave of Tausert, buried. These burial in an existing grave king demanded its removal and Umdekorierungen, making the grave of the last phase of the makeover was subjected.

Altenmüller is further believed Seti II had been buried during the final stages of construction of the tomb in the first grave chamber J1. However, this is not safe, as the work of grave chamber J2 has already begun.

Architecture

KV14 counts with a total length of about 112 m of the largest tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It has two fully configured grave chambers ( J1 and J2 ) and unfinished secondary chambers ( Ka and Kb). The various revisions of the tomb, it has both elements of a king as well as a queens tomb.

The corridors in the entrance area do not have the common width of about 2.60 m, but are much narrower. Also, the columns in the first grave chamber does not have the usual royal dimensions of 0.7 m, but only 0.6 m. This meant that there is only one figure could be mapped and therefore there are no representations of king and deity in a scene. With the further course of the tomb, these dimensions will change, however.

Decorations

The different construction and development phases can be seen even on the decoration of the tomb. In the first part of the grave plant several male deities are represented, but their names wear female endings, such as the inscription over the Osiris Shrine. Here an attempt was made to merge the God with the person of the Queen Tausert.

The decorations in the entrance area do not contain elements of a royal tomb. However, the first grave chamber contains the theme "The Book of the Cave " and it can be assumed that the discontinued secondary chambers should also be equipped with royal elements.

The representations in the grave of Tausert have the following sequence: Adoration of the setting sun, victims of Tausert to the deities and welcome the keeper of the underworld, protection by the gods of the hours guards for the Queen, more welcoming of Tausert of goalkeepers in the underworld, enforcement of the mouth opening ceremony a statue of the Queen, welcoming the Tausert by different gods, different texts of the Books. Grave chamber J1, which is referred to as the the Tausert, contains scenes from the Book of Gates and the Book of caves and an astronomical scale ceiling. In grave chamber J2, in which the sarcophagus is Sethnachts, also see scenes from the Book of Gates and an astronomical ceiling.

At the funeral Sethnachts in KV14, the shape of the Queen was replaced by the King and their names cartridges through his. All other decorations in the grave remained unchanged and are those that were intended for the grave of Queen Tausert.

Royal mummies

A definitive burial of the Queen Tausert in KV14 could not be detected. An assumption is their mummy was removed from Sethnacht from the grave, as this Seti II had buried again in KV15. The whereabouts of her mummy therefore can make no reliable information. Your mummy- shaped sarcophagus of granite, however, was found in KV13, which had been used there for Amenherkhepeshef again.

Sethnachts sarcophagus was destroyed in antiquity and neither his mummy still remains of his grave goods were found in KV14. The sarcophagus lid shows the pharaoh in mummy shape and has similarities with the king Siptah on. However, the coffin box seems to have been even taken over by a previous user, presumably of Seti II The restored sarcophagus in the burial chamber J2.

In KV35 finally, the so-called mummy depot in the grave Amenhotep II, discovered Victor Loret in 1898 a total of nine royal mummies, presumably including those of King Sethnacht. The attribution of the mummy is uncertain. Furthermore, we found a battered, human -like ( anthropomorphic ) coffin, which had been labeled for Sethnacht, but was of inferior quality. Still, he could have been part of his grave goods.