Back to main page

             polska wersja jezykowa

 

   Some words about author
   Chronology table - Prehistory
   Timelines
   Sources and bibliography
   Tables of genealogy
   Tombs in Ancient Egypt
   List of all pyramids
   Map of Egypt
   Who is Who in Ancient Egypt
   Contents of website  

  search on website:
 

 

Valley of the Kings - KV13
tomb of chancellor Bay - XIXth Dynasty

The tomb of Bay, originally a royal scribe of Seti II and later chancellor under Siptah. Excavation by Hartwig Altenmuller, 1988-94 for the University of Hamburg. This tomb consists of three corridors followed by two chambers, two further corridors, two side chambers off the second and a burial chamber. The tomb has suffered structural damage from floods, and all the ceilings of the tomb have collapsed. The walls were probably decorated originally with painted plaster and relief. Severe floods have caused the loss of the plaster and now only traces of decoration remain in places where the artist was working on thin plaster and the chiseling cut into the bedrock. The decoration  of the outer areas likewise almost exactly mirrors that of the tomb of Tawosret. It consists of scenes of Bay before various deities in the first corridor, scenes and texts from the Book of the Dead in the second and third corridors, and divine scenes in the well room. Although Bay is depicted before the king (Siptah) in the first corridor, it is Bay and not the king who stands before the falcon-headed sun god and other deities, illustrating the adoption of royal prerogatives in the tomb's decoration as well as its design. In the later use of the tomb for Amenherkhepshef and Mentuherkhepshef the decoration of Bay was usurped, in some cases depictions of the chancellor being replaced by images of a queen who was probably the mother of one or other of the princes.
Two sarcophagi were found in the tomb: the first was that of Amenherkhepshef - taken over from its intended owner, and a second, in the corridor before the burial chamber, belonging to Mentuherkhopshef.
Funerary material of both individuals was recovered - canopic jar fragments, faience and calcite shabtis, inlays and stone and pottery vessels.
The tomb was partly accessible since antiquity, but no late graffiti are recorded.

 

Copyright © 2000-2023 Dariusz Sitek, Czestochowa - Chicago - Ann Arbor