Why was the mummy of a disgraced heretic left completely intact in its priceless coffin?
Why, when he was the chief Atenist, had Akhenaten not also been left behind?
Why were Kiya's coffin and Canopic jars modified for Akhenaten and then for Smenkhkare?
Why had the face been removed from the coffin but not from the jar stoppers?
Why had Akhenaten's name been removed from the burial equipment but not from the 'magic bricks'?
Why had the valuable shrine been abandoned and the tomb hurriedly evacuated?
Why was the male body mummified in the attitude of a woman?
We have already found answers to some of these mysteries by logical consideration of the known historical evidence. Indeed, the paradoxical nature of many aspects of the Tomb 55 enigma is beginning to make sense for the very first time. Why, therefore, has no one figured any of this out before? The answer is simple: Egyptologists don't like speculation – they need hard facts. Generally, this is a sound perspective – there is no point jumping to conclusions before sufficient archaeological evidence has come to light. However, the problem sometimes arising from such a restrained approach is to overlook the evidence which is already at hand. This would very much seem to have been the case with Tomb 55. It is very possible, therefore, that the orthodox theory of Tomb 55 is wrong about it having been used as a storage facility. Although the theory is probably correct about the tomb having been requisitioned – it was an unfinished tomb, the walls bare and the recess which contained the Canopic jars jagged and incomplete – it may have been used exclusively for the burial of Smenkhkare, who had died suddenly after recently returning to Thebes.
We know from the seals from treasure boxes and other broken artefacts found there, that Tomb 55 must once have contained many splendid burial goods, and because of Tutankhamun's name on the seals we know that they were removed during his reign. As the orthodox theory suggests, it seems likely that the spoils were divided among Ay, Tutankhamun and possibly other leading officials and used to supplement their own funerary trappings. Did they, however, include items from a number of royal persons or only one – Smenkhkare? As Ay's tomb, like most others of the period, was found to have been emptied in antiquity (see Chapter Six), we only have Tutankhamun's tomb from which to judge. If Akhenaten's, Tiye's and Smenkhkare's effects had all been stored in Tomb 55, as the orthodox theory propounds, we should expect to find an approximately equal cross-section of them represented in Tutankhamun's tomb.
Although some items belonging to Akhenaten were found in Tutankhamun's tomb, they were only minor artefacts such bracelets, boxes and a fan, which were not specifically burial effects and could have been heirlooms obtained from anywhere. In fact, some items in Tutankhamun's tomb had belonged to Tuthmosis III, such as a scarab and a number of calcite vessels, and he, having died over a century earlier, had certainly never been stored in Tomb 55. (Tuthmosis III's tomb was discovered in the Valley of the Kings by the French Egyptologist Victor Loret in 1898.) Although the objects belonging to Smenkhkare found in Tutankhamun's tomb also included similar trinkets, they also included much more important artefacts that could only have come from his tomb, as they were essential elements used in his burial. What, therefore, do we know of these?
Several finds made during the early years of the twentieth century led Howard Carter to believe that the tomb of Tutankhamun was still to be found in the Valley of the Kings. After many years of frustrating work, his venture at last succeeded on 4 November 1922, when a flight of stone steps was uncovered leading downwards to a blocked entrance, its seal intact. Beyond this there was a descending passageway, some 2 metres high, leading downwards for around 9 metres to a second doorway bearing the seal of Tutankhamun. On the evening of 28 November, his hand trembling, Carter made a small breach in the upper left-hand corner of the brickwork that blocked the entrance. In his three-volume book, The Tomb of Tutankhamun, he describes what he was the first to see in over three thousand years:
I inserted the candle and peered in, Lord Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn and Callender standing anxiously behind me to hear the verdict. At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold – everywhere the glint of gold.
When his patron Lord Carnavon asked him if he could see anything through the hole in the wall, all he could gasp was, 'Yes, wonderful things'. An apt description: there were literally hundreds of priceless historical treasures. Carter had made the archaeological discovery of the century.
Beyond the entrance to the tomb, and at right angles, was a large chamber, dubbed the Antechamber, and off it, to the back left, was a smaller room – the Annex. To the right was another blocked doorway guarded by two larger-than-life statues of the king, beyond which lay the burial chamber itself. The burial chamber was the only decorated room in the tomb. Its four walls were painted with scenes of Tutankhamun's funeral and his journey to the afterlife. Those on the east wall depicted the king's mummy being drawn on a sledge to the tomb; on the north wall Ay, dressed in a priest's panther skin, officiated at the last rites; the west wall represented the king's journey to the next world; and the south wall showed him being welcomed into the afterlife by the deities Hathor, Isis and Anubis. Within this chamber, filling it almost entirely, was a series of four shrines, one inside the other, the outermost measuring 5.08 metres long by 3.28 wide and 2.75 metres in height. Inside was a quartzite sarcophagus containing the nest of three coffins. The outer coffin, constructed of wood overlaid with gold, was made in the image of the dead king – a male in his late teens wearing Rishi (feathered-style) apparel. The inner coffin was made of solid gold, and the image of the king, although also decorated in Rishi style, was of a younger and thinner person – a boy of around ten. Carter concluded, as have subsequent scholars, that the inner coffin was made in the likeness of Tutankhamun while he was still a child, shortly after becoming king, and the outer coffin was made near to, or upon, his death.
The mummy itself was decorated in an astonishingly lavish way: gold bands and straps around the bandages, 170 separate pieces of exquisite jewellery adorning the body and, most incredible of all, a solid gold funerary mask weighing over ten kilograms placed over the face. Carter described it in its full glory:
The beaten golden mask, a beautiful and unique specimen of ancient portraiture . . . Upon its forehead, wrought in massive gold, were the royal insignia – the Nekhebet vulture and Buto serpent – emblems of the two kingdoms over which he had reigned. To the chin was attached the conventional Osiride beard, wrought in gold and lapislazuli-coloured glass; around the throat was a triple necklace of yellow and red gold and blue faience disk-shaped beads.
Despite its aesthetic appeal and its extraordinary value, it was not the death mask which preoccupied Carter's enquiring mind, but the middle coffin. Although the image it bore was that of a king – it wore the pharaonic appendages – it was clearly not Tutankhamun. The facial features were very different from those on the other two coffins or the death mask: the cheekbones were more pronounced, the jaw was firmer and broader, the lips were less full, and the nose was not so long. The style of headdress further revealed that this could not be Tutankhamun. The outer coffin showed Tutankhamun around the time of his death, which examination of the mummy has shown to have been around seventeen. Here he is shown in a Khat (bag-shaped) headdress, fashionable in the later years of his reign, whereas the middle coffin figure, like that figure on the inner coffin and the death mask, is shown in a Nemes (towel-like) headdress, fashionable in the early years of Tutankhamun's reign. This means that for the middle coffin figure to have been Tutankhamun it would have needed to represent a young boy, yet the face it depicted is someone of around twenty. It was clear, right from the beginning, that this piece of equipment had been appropriated from someone else.
The identity of
this mysterious individual was to be revealed in the next room. Beyond the painted burial chamber, through an open doorway guarded by a large recumbent wooden figure of the jackal-god Anubis, lay the Treasury. Here stood the great wooden Canopic shrine enclosing the calcite Canopic chest, inside which were jars containing the four golden coffinettes to accommodate the king's removed organs. These coffinettes were identical miniatures of the middle coffin and clearly belonged to the same set. On the coffinettes the interior gold linings had had the owner's cartouches altered from those of the original owner. Still possible to read, it bore the title Ankhkheperure – the throne name of Smenkhkare. (Tutankhamun's throne name, found elsewhere in the tomb, was Nebkheperure.)
Today, there can be little doubt that Smenkhkare was indeed the person represented on the middle coffin in Tutankhamun's tomb, as the analysis of the Tomb 55 mummy has shown him to have been around twenty when he died. The middle coffin shows a king of this age, depicted in the style associated with the time Tutankhamun came to the throne. He must therefore have been Tutankhamun's predecessor, Smenkhkare.
Although the middle coffin is of less material value than the burial mask, not being made of solid gold, it is its image that the world has come to recognize as Tutankhamun. We find it reproduced in photographs to promote all manner of Egypt-related material: posters to publicize books, brochures to advertise Egyptian holidays, and literature to support Egyptian exhibitions. The reason is that the image on the middle coffin is a far more lifelike and flattering likeness than the other coffins, and shows more of the king's body than the death mask. Carter himself describes it as 'a masterpiece of superior construction'. It is altogether a more marketable face – far more handsome and regal than the chubby youth depicted on the outer coffin, or the innocent child depicted on the inner coffin and the death mask. However, it is not Tutankhamun – but his predecessor Smenkhkare.
The reason why this is almost unknown outside academic circles is that for four decades the world lost interest in Tutankhamun. After the initial excitement surrounding the tomb's opening, the subsequent years of the great depression, global conflict and the birth of the atomic age smothered the appeal of Egypt's ancient past. Aside from his book, written for the casual reader, Carter never published a serious study on the treasures. Most of his notes, catalogue cards and drawings, although preserved in the Griffith Institute at Oxford University, were unpublished; and so was his journal of the excavation, which was left to gather dust in the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, along with most of the treasures. Until the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition travelled the world in the 1960s and 70s, even these lay in disorder in filthy glass cases, identified only with tattered labels, brown with age and virtually unreadable. Until the exhibition, not even a simple guide book existed for the collection.
When the exhibition visited countries all over the world, local promoters chose what they considered to be the most stunning image to publicize the event, which was often the face on the middle coffin. As there was nothing available in print, they had no way of knowing that the person they portrayed as Tutankhamun was in fact his predecessor Smenkhkare. The exhibition was a phenomenal success and Tutankhamun again became the focus of world attention. However, the erroneous image stuck in the public mind. Although much serious work has now been done on the treasures, and Egyptologists are aware that the image on the middle coffin is not that of Tutankhamun, it never seems to have occurred to anyone to draw attention to the fact.
As Carter continued to investigate Tutankhamun's tomb, more and more intimate and essential burial effects were found to have been appropriated from Smenkhkare. Some of the gold straps around the mummy had been inscribed with sacred burial texts from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, wherein Smenkhkare's names had been inserted in the appropriate .place for the deceased, and many of the 170 pieces of jewellery that intimately adorned the mummy were also found to have belonged to Smenkhkare.
We return now to the question of Tomb 55. All these appropriated funerary effects belonging to Smenkhkare would have been essential for his burial, and so must certainly have come from his tomb. We know for sure that Smenkhkare had been in Tomb 55 – after all, he was still there when the tomb was opened. Surely, therefore, if Akhenaten's effects had been stored there too and similarly appropriated, as the orthodox theory dictates, we should expect to find similar essential burial effects belonging to him in Tutankhamun's tomb. We do not, however – we only find smaller items which could have come from anywhere.
The only essential burial effect belonging to anyone other than Smenkhkare known to have been in Tomb 55 was the shrine of Queen Tiye, part of which was destined for Tutankhamun's tomb (see Chapter One). However, this may not mean that she was ever interred in Tomb 55. On the contrary, there is evidence to suggest that the shrine had previously been appropriated by Smenkhkare and had formed part of his equipment. This is found in alterations made to inscriptions on the shrine panels. As discussed, the original inscription included the name of Tiye's husband Amonhotep III, still employing the Amun element which was proscribed by the time of Smenkhkare's coregency. At some point, however, the Amun element had been scratched off the panels. As Tiye had apparently died and was buried somewhere at Amarna before the Amun element was proscribed, it must have been after her interment that this was done. As the Ay/Tutankhamun regime had reinstated Amun-Re by the time the tombs were officially evacuated, it must, though, have been before that time. Tiye's tomb, therefore, must have been opened at some point between the two dates – a period which coincides with Smenkhkare's reign, when he may have appropriated the shrine for himself. The fact that Akhenaten's name had additionally been excised from the panels also supports this conjecture (see Chapter One). The shrine must have been tampered with after Tiye's burial – as she died when Akhenaten was still alive – but before the Ay/Tutankhamun regime removed her from Amarna: because, as we have seen, they had absolutely no reason to excise Akhenaten's name. (His name being removed from the coffin and gold bands was not intended as a desecration, but so as to adapt them for Smenkhkare.)
With an alternative explanation for Queen Tiye's shrine being in Tomb 55, and no evidence that anything essential to Akhenaten's burial was ever there, apart from the 'magic bricks', which had evidently been imported for the bizarre interment of Smenkhkare, there is no reason to believe that anyone other than Smenkhkare was ever interred in Tomb 55.
We therefore come to the last act in the drama of Tomb 55: its final condition. When Smenkhkare dies, having recently returned to Thebes, there is no tomb prepared for him, so his followers requisition Tomb 55. Shortly afterwards the Ay/Tutankhamum regime ordered the tomb reopened and cleared, dividing the spoils between them. All decorations were removed and the walls re-plastered. While this was happening, Akhenaten's sacrilegious interment must have been discovered.
Interestingly, there is a final desecration in the Amarna royal tomb that must have occurred at this time, namely the excising of Meritaten's image. Halfway down the entrance passageway there is a series of six additional chambers that may have been intended for other members of the royal family. In one of these rooms, a limestone relief was found showing Akhenaten and Nefertiti making floral offerings at an altar. Immediately behind her mother, Princess Meritaten is in attendance shaking a sistrum. This relief, which is now on display at the Cairo Museum, was overlooked by the anti-Atenist desecrators, as the names and faces of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, together with the image of the Aten, remain intact. Meritaten's image, however, has been damaged, having had the face cut out. As her body and the accompanying text, immediately above her head, are completely intact, this is clearly selective destruction directed exclusively at her.
Finally, Akhenaten is removed from Kiya's burial effects and they are adapted for the reinterment of Smenkhkare in Tomb 55. Tomb 55 is obviously still in the last phase of being emptied, as something occurs which causes the perpetrators to leave hastily before Tiye's shrine has been fully removed. The place is th
en sealed with its strange double wall, and remains unopened for over three thousand years.
The key players and series of events of this ancient drama are now beginning to fit into place. However, the greatest secret of all remains elusive. What was the nature of the evil that the perpetrators of this strange and unique burial so feared? There are still one or two peculiar anomalies concerning the adaptation of the burial effects yet to be explained, which may give us some idea of how they regarded this menace.
We have seen that in ancient Egyptian belief, if someone's name was wiped from memory, so also was their influence on this world from the afterlife. Yet despite the ritual interment to contain Akhenaten's influence, Kiya's burial effects had deliberately been adapted to include his titles, and his name had been left intact on the 'magic bricks'. This implies that Meritaten and Smenkhkare had not actually considered Akhenaten personally responsible for whatever imagined evil necessitated the strange desecration of his body. Exactly the same reasoning seems to have prevailed for the Ay/Tutankhamun regime when they reinterred Smenkhkare. In Tutankhamun's tomb, Smenkhkare's name had only been removed from the equipment where it was necessary to reinsert Tutankhamun's name, and not from the smaller heirlooms (see Chapter Four). Moreover, Smenkhkare's likeness even remained on the coffin and coffinettes that intimately surrounded Tutankhamun's mummified body and organs. These would hardly have been used, unaltered, if Smenkhkare himself was considered malevolent. It is quite clear from the actions of both perpetrators that neither considered the kings themselves to have been the malevolence, rather something that had inhabited their bodies. This sits with the evidence examined earlier, namely the need for a transsexual burial, indicating a belief that the kings had been possessed by some evil god or demon.
Atlantis and the Ten Plagues of Egypt: The Secret History Hidden in the Valley of the Kings Page 11
