Large Storage Jar from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache (KV 54) in the Valley of the Kings

In December 1907 Theodore M. Davis, a wealthy American funding excavations in the Valley of the Kings, discovered a small pit near the tomb of Ramesses X (KV 18). The pit (KV 54) contained approximately a dozen large sealed whitewashed storage jars. When opened, the jars were found to contain a motley assortment of objects carefully packed in chaff. These included broken pottery; papyrus lids and stoppers; small, crudely made mud dishes; linen bags of natron (a kind of salt used in mummification); animal bones; floral collars; linen kerchiefs; sharpened sticks; and small blocks of limestone. There were also pieces of linen with hieratic dockets dated to Years 6 and 8 of the a little-known king named Tutankhamun, and mud sealings stamped with the seal of the royal necropolis or with cartouches of the same king. The groups of objects were not fully understood at the time, and Davis declared that he had discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun.

In 1909, Davis gave six of the jars and their contents to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some years later, after making similar discoveries in other parts of the Theban necropolis, Herbert Winlock, field director of the Museum's Egyptian Expedition, realized that the natron and linen were probably left-over embalming materials from the mummification of Tutankhamun. He also suggested that the broken pottery, animal bones, and floral collars came from a funerary banquet held at the king's burial ceremony. A more recent interpretation suggests that these items were used in the offering and purification ceremonies performed at the funeral.

When the cache was discovered in 1907, British Egyptologist Howard Carter did not agree that Davis had found the burial of a king. Instead, he regarded the discovery as evidence that Tutankhamun was still buried somewhere in the royal cemetery. After Davis gave up his concession to excavate in the Valley of the Kings in 1914, Carter persuaded his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon to take up the concession. In November 1922, after five years of searching, they found the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb (KV 62).

Re-examination of Carter's excavation notes has led to a new interpretation of the embalming cache. When Carter cleared the entrance of KV 62, he realized that the rubble filling the first corridor had been introduced by necropolis officials in an attempt to secure the tomb, which had been entered by robbers soon after the king's death. At the foot of the stairs leading into the corridor and on the corridor floor, Carter found "remains of large white jars containing rubbish from burial." It now seems possible that the jars found by Davis in KV 54 had originally been deposited in the entrance corridor of Tutankhamun's tomb. After the tomb was robbed, the jars were transferred to an unfinished tomb shaft some distance away, allowing the entrance corridor of KV 62 to be filled with rubble.

Catharine H. Roehrig 2019

Further reading:

Allen, Susan J., "Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache Reconsidered," in Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century: Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists, Cairo, 2000, edited by Zahi Hawass and Lyla Pinch Brock, (Cairo, 2003), vol. 1, pp. 23-29.

Winlock, Herbert E. Materials Used in the Embalming of King Tut-'ankh-Amun, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Papers, no. 10 (New York, 1941).

Winlock, Herbert E. Tutankhmun's Funeral, with an introduction and appendix by Dorothea Arnold (New York, 2010).

Excavated by Theodore M. Davis in the Valley of the Kings (KV 54), 1907. Received by Davis in the division of finds. Given by Davis to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1909.

Metropolitan Museum of Art 1911. A Handbook of the Egyptian Rooms. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 113-114, fig. 48.

Metropolitan Museum of Art 1913. A Handbook of the Egyptian Rooms. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 113-114, fig. 48.

Metropolitan Museum of Art 1916. A Handbook of the Egyptian Rooms. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 113-114, fig. 48.

Winlock, Herbert E. 1941. Materials Used at the Embalming of King Tut-ankh-Amun, Metropolitan Museum of Art Papers, 10. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 5-6, 14-16 pls. IV-V, VIII A-X.

Hayes, William C. 1959. Scepter of Egypt II: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 302.

Desroches-Noblecourt, Christiane 1963. Tutankhamen: Life and Death of a Pharaoh. Paris.

Porter, Bertha and Rosalind L.B. Moss 1964. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings: The Theban Necropolis. Royal Tombs and Smaller Cemeteries, vol. 1, part 2b. Oxford, p. 586.

Reeves, Nicholas 1990. The Complete Tutankhamun: the King, the Tomb, the Royal Treasure. New York: Thames & Hudson.

Winlock, Herbert E. and Dorothea Arnold 2010. Tutankhamun's Funeral. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, fig. 17, p. 27.

2019. Toutankhamon: à la découverte du pharaon oublié. Exposition organisée à l'espace Europa expo à la gare TGV des Guillemins, Liège, 14 décembre 2019 - 31 mai 2020. p. 283 fig. 2.