Tutankhamen (7 page)

It was highly unlikely that this self-proclaimed traditionalist would have been buried anywhere but the Valley of the Kings or the Western
Valley. The logical conclusion was that Tutankhamen had somehow evaded removal by the necropolis restorers, and was still resting in his Theban tomb. But where was his tomb?

There were plenty of Egyptologists eager to search for the missing king, but Antiquities Service regulations, devised to protect Egypt's heritage from naked plundering, stipulated that only one would be allowed to work in the Valley at a time. Theodore Monroe Davis, a retired and extremely wealthy American lawyer fuelled by a burning obsession to find an intact royal tomb, was the chosen one. He had been granted the coveted Valley concession in 1902, and was to retain it for twelve years. This rather curious choice of excavator makes perfect sense when the practicalities of the arrangement are considered. Davis, who had neither the skills nor the inclination to excavate alone, paid for Antiquities Service excavations conducted by three successive, highly competent Inspectors: first Carter, then James Quibell and finally Arthur Weigall.

Quibell was funded by Davis when, on 5 February 1905, he discovered the most intact Valley tomb yet. KV 46 housed the double burial of Yuya and Thuya, parents-in-law to Amenhotep III. Their tomb was cut into the south-east branch of the main Valley. A man-sized hole in the blocked doorway indicated that the burial had been disturbed in antiquity, but Yuya and Thuya still lay in their undecorated tomb, surrounded by a remarkable collection of grave goods. Davis could barely contain his excitement as he entered the burial chamber with the elderly Gaston Maspero, Director General of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, and Weigall, Quibell's successor as Inspector:

As Davis leaned forward to read the name of the tomb owner, ‘Iouiya' (or Yuya), triumph almost turned to disaster:

Weigall, a more fluent commentator, was equally struck by the enormity of the occasion:

Word of the spectacular discovery spread and, in a foretaste of things to come, Weigall's work – the official recording of the tomb contents – was interrupted that afternoon by a stream of titled visitors including the Duke of Connaught, the Duke of Devonshire and the Crown Prince of Norway. The next day the Empress Eugénie, widow of Napoleon III, arrived for a private tour. Despite these interruptions, the tomb was emptied in just ten days. Although Maspero offered Davis a share of the artefacts, Davis waived any claim, preferring to keep the assemblage intact. Today Yuya and Thuya and their grave goods are displayed in Cairo Museum. During the riots that ended the Mubarak regime in early 2011, several items from their
burial assemblage were damaged and some were reported stolen. As I write, the lost artefacts are gradually being recovered by the Museum authorities.

Yuya and Thuya came from the Middle Egyptian city of Akhmim. Although non-royal, they had the closest of links with the royal family. Among his string of impressive titles, Yuya was ‘God's Father': a title often translated as ‘king's father-in-law'.
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That he was indeed the father of Tiy, consort to Amenhotep III, is confirmed by ceremonial scarab, published during that king's regnal Year 1 or 2:

It is interesting that, while Thuya repeatedly uses the title ‘Royal Mother of the Chief Wife of the King' on her burial equipment, Yuya makes absolutely no reference to his daughter. If it was not for the ceremonial scarab, we might think, quite wrongly, that Tiy was the daughter of Thuya's (non-existent) first husband. The fact that Tiy's brother, Anen, also neglects to mention the far from trivial fact that his sister is queen of Egypt suggests that men did not consider it proper to boast of links through female family members to the king. This has wide-reaching implications for our understanding of Tutankhamen's family. We can never assume, just because an individual does not claim a relationship with the king, that such a relationship does not exist.

While he worked in close association with the Inspectors of the Antiquities Service Davis's fieldwork, although horribly hasty by modern standards, was acceptable. But in late 1905 the overworked Weigall
determined to stop excavating for Davis, and encouraged him to employ the freelance Egyptologist Edward Ayrton to dig on his behalf. Weigall would continue to inspect Davis's work, and would take charge of any major find, but in the meantime, as he did not to be on site every day, he was freed to attend to his many other duties.

Ayrton was probably a competent archaeologist: he had trained with the acknowledged fieldwork expert Flinders Petrie, and so should have known how to conduct an excavation correctly. But, as a twenty-two-year-old with no real authority, he found it impossible to resist his millionaire employer's demand for rapid results at the expense of scientific accuracy, conservation and recording. It is therefore very unfortunate that, on 6 January 1907, Davis's new team stumbled across a uniquely complex late 18th Dynasty cache in tomb KV 55.
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Today it is recognised that KV 55 may have provided the key to unlocking the complexities of the Amarna royal family. To Davis, however, it was simply another disappointing tomb to be cleared as part of his ongoing quest for an intact royal burial.

There was nothing that anyone could do to stop Davis dismantling, and essentially destroying, the burial. By 28 January KV 55 had been misidentified as the tomb of Queen Tiy, mother of Akhenaten. It had been (to a very limited extent) photographed and emptied, unplanned; the eclectic mix of grave goods packed into boxes – ‘everything that is to be moved is out of the tomb' – and sent on their way by steamer to the Cairo Museum. Not all the grave goods found their way to Cairo, however. KV 55 had been robbed immediately after its discovery, and the Luxor dealers were soon doing a brisk trade in small antiquities bearing Akhenaten's name. Howard Carter was able to help Davis trace and retrieve some of the stolen pieces but, as their provenance was now compromised, they were excluded from the official ‘catalogue of the objects discovered' compiled by Georges Daressy. These pieces went to the United States as part of Davis's private collection; this was eventually sold at auction, and
dispersed.
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Objects retained by Davis, or given away as gifts by him, were also excluded from the official catalogue, as were some objects which were noted by those present at the tomb opening, but which have not been seen since; presumably these too were stolen, and never recovered.

Ayrton drowned in a hunting accident in Ceylon in 1914, and so could not contribute to the developing debate over his most important find. His fuller archaeological report was never published, and is now lost. Davis's report, which was published in 1910, was universally agreed to be woefully inaccurate. As Weigall later explained, with an understandable touch of bitterness:

Philologist Sir Alan Gardiner was more direct in his criticism:

This sorry history makes it impossible to compile a complete inventory of the tomb contents, or to reconstruct an accurate and complete tomb plan. It is therefore fortunate that the artist and travel writer Walter Tyndale was present to witness events as they unfolded. His description of Ayrton's face on the day of the discovery, which ‘bore the expression of a gentle angler who, having landed a big fish, joins his companions who have done no more than lose their tackle' is inspired. As for the locals: