Tomb KV20 is a burial in the Valley of the Kings (Egypt). It was probably the first royal tomb to be constructed in the valley. KV20 was the original burial place of Thutmose I (who was later re-interred in KV38) and was later adapted by his daughter Hatshepsut to accommodate both her and her father. The tomb was known to the Napoleonic expedition in 1799 and had been visited by several explorers between 1799 and 1903. Still, total clearance of the burial was undertaken by Howard Carter in 1903–1904. KV20 is distinguishable from other tombs in the valley, both in its general layout and because of the atypical clockwise curvature of its corridors.
Location and Exploration of Tomb KV20
Tomb KV20 is located in the easternmost branch of the valley near the later tombs KV19, KV43, and KV60. It was known to the French expedition of 1799 and Belzoni, who worked in the area in 1817. James Burton undertook the first attempt to excavate the tomb in 1824 and cleared it as far as its first chamber. Although Lepsius explored it in 1844 and 1845, no further attempts to excavate the tomb were undertaken until Howard Carter started his clearance of the rock-hard fill in the corridor in the spring of 1903. Carter conducted this excavation as Inspector of the Antiquities Service, but the work was sponsored by Theodore M. Davis, who published a full report in 1906.
After Carter’s work in the tomb ended, no further activities were carried out. The ceiling of the burial chamber had suffered a further collapse when John Romer visited the burial in the late 1960s. Since 1994, the burial chamber has been inaccessible due to debris deposited by flooding.
The layout of Tomb KV20
Tomb KV20 has an unusual layout, consisting of five curvings, descending corridors interspersed with sections of steep stairs and passing through two chambers and an antechamber before ending in a pillared burial chamber with three small satellite storerooms. The corridors bend east-south-west clockwise, a unique feature amongst the tombs in the valley. The corridors have steps cut along one side, with the remaining portion forming a ramp. Shel sockets are beginning halfway down the first corridor, likely to take the timber supports used to lower the coffin. Another unusual feature of the tomb is its extreme length of 210 metres.
Excavation and contents
Carter found two items bearing Hatshepsut’s cartouches during his excavation of the tomb of Thutmose IV (KV43), leading him to suspect her burial must be nearby. A single foundation deposit was found on 2 February 1903 immediately in front of KV20. The foundation deposit was carefully placed between layers of sand and covered with limestone chips. It contained small alabaster vases and model items and tools, including brick moulds, adzes, axes, chisels, and a flail; other contents included linen samples, bread, and vase rests. Some elements of the foundation deposit had washed into the first corridor and were recovered there.
Carter’s excavation and clearance began in early Feb 1903 and proved difficult, only concluding in March the following year. He found the tomb to be filled with complex, cemented debris. The first passageway was cleared by the end of February; this corridor curves to the right (clockwise) and is 49.5 metres (162 ft) long by 2 metres (6.6 ft) wide and tall. The first rectangular chamber was full of cemented debris and was cleared by 15 April. A steep flight of steps cut into the centre of the floor leads to the second corridor. Midway down the second passage, the limestone layer ends, and the unstable tafle (marl) stratum below it begins; Carter characterised the latter as a “…stratum of rock so bad that there was fear of it falling at any moment.”
The second corridor was identical to the previous sections, ending in a chamber with another set of stairs cut into the floor leading to a further hallway. At this point, work stopped “because of the heat and the air exhaustion, owing to the great numbers of workmen required to carry out the excavation.” The excavation restarted in mid-October, but the conditions inside the tomb necessitated the installation of an exhaust fan. This third corridor was cleared by 26 January 1904; the curve to the right becomes a sharp bend at the end. Carter again found the chamber filled with debris, and his team used pickaxes as the fill was “so hard…one could hardly tell whether the men were cutting the rock or the rubbish.”
The final flight of steps was cleared by 11 February; it was short, at only 12 metres (39 ft) long. Carter began encountering the remains of funerary items in this corridor, mostly stone vases bearing Ahmose-Nefertari cartouches, Thutmose I, and Hatshepsut. The final burial chamber was found to be full of debris and had suffered a ceiling collapse. Additionally, the ceiling of this chamber had collapsed. The top of the rectangular room was supported by three columns aligned along the room’s length.
The burial chamber contained two sarcophagi and Hatshepsut’s canopic chest. Her sarcophagus was found at the far end of the section, with its lid on the floor at the head end; her canopic chest was in the centre of the room. The sarcophagus of Thutmose I was also in the middle of the room, tipped against the second pillar, likely to support that column. Its lid was found leaning against the wall. Carter noted that none of the items was in their original locations. One of the coffins likely sat in the depression cut immediately before the central doorway.
Also found in the burial chamber were fifteen limestone slabs bearing chapters of the Amduat in red and black ink and illustrated with ‘stick figures’ like those seen in the tomb of Thutmose III (KV34). Similar blocks, probably from the same series, were found in KV38. The soft rock in the burial chamber was unsuitable for decoration, and the slabs were intended to line the walls.
Smaller finds included fragments of vases, bowls, jars in stone and pottery, burnt coffins and boxes, the foot and face of the giant wooden statue (probably a guardian statue), faience vases and ushabti coffins, and small pieces of inlay.
Carter’s excavation was completed at the end of March 1904, and the sarcophagi and canopic box were removed to Cairo—however, the coffin of Thutmose I was given to Davis for the Boston Museum. The sarcophagus of Thutmose was originally inscribed for Hatshepsut but later altered for the former king.
Other items associated with KV20
A box inscribed for Hatshepsut as pharaoh, containing the remains of a mummified liver or spleen, was recovered from the DB320 royal cache. Other items associated with Hatshepsut, including the legs and footboard of a couch or bed and a fragmentary cartouche-shaped lid, are of uncertain origin but might come from either the Deir el Bahari cache or KV6 (tomb of Ramesses IX). Fragments of at least one anthropoid coffin belonging to a mid-Eighteenth dynasty female ruler (presumably Hatshepsut), fragmentary wooden panels with decoration that links them to objects found in KV20, and a faience vessel, possibly belonging to Thutmose I, were recovered from the shaft in the burial chamber of KV4, together with remains of royal funerary equipment belonging to several other New Kingdom rulers.
Intended ownership
Despite the foundation deposit of Hatshepsut and the existence of another tomb for Thutmose I (KV38), it is generally presumed that KV20 was quarried initially for the latter king. A re-evaluation of the architecture of KV38 and some of its content has shown that this tomb is unlikely to predate Thutmose III‘s reign. It also has been noted that the proportions of the KV20 burial chamber differ from those in the rest of the tomb. They display a design related to the architecture of Hatshepsut’s pharaonic mortuary temple.
Therefore, it has been suggested that KV20 originally extended only to its present penultimate chamber, in which Thutmose I first was interred, and that the tomb was re-cut and refurbished during the reign of Hatshepsut to accommodate the burial of both her and her father. Later, the burial of Thutmose I was moved again to KV38 by his grandson, Thutmose III. In contrast, the tomb of Hatshepsut probably remained in KV20, eventually suffering from a robbery and official dismantling.
An unidentified mummy, recovered from DB320 and found within coffins prepared by Thutmose III for Thutmose I, is usually identified as the later king. The body of Hatshepsut has not yet been identified with certainty, and the mummified liver or spleen found in DB320 might be all that remains of her, although it also has been suggested that one of the two female mummies found in KV60 is her. A molar found in the wooden box containing her liver was matched to one of these mummies in 2007, making it likely that the mummy belongs to Hatshepsut.
