Tomb KV4 is a burial in the Valley of the Kings (Egypt). The tomb was initiated for the burial of Ramesses XI, but it is likely that its construction was abandoned and that it was never used for Ramesses’s interment. It also seems likely that Pinedjem I intended to usurp this tomb for his burial, but he also abandoned the plan. Tomb KV4 is notable for being the last royal tomb quarried in the Valley and because it has been interpreted as a workshop used during the official dismantling of the royal cemetery in the early Third Intermediate Period.
Exploration and excavation
Although KV4 has been open since antiquity and graffiti from various ages attest to its popularity as an early tourist attraction, it received little scholarly attention until John Romer’s clearance in 1978–1980.
Location, layout and contents
KV4 is located on one of the Valley’s side wadis, next to KV46. Running over 100 metres into the mountainside, three gently sloping corridors lead towards the tomb’s well-chamber (although no shaft is cut in its floor) and two unfinished, pillared sections. The latter of these chambers, the burial chamber, features a deep shaft carved into the centre of its floor; foundation deposits of Ramesses XI might indicate that its cutting was contemporary with the original plan of the tomb.
The decoration was only on the lintel and jambs of the outer doorway and in the first corridor, with preliminary sketches in red ink on the plastered walls. Part of the decoration in the corridor was already damaged in antiquity and was later restored by Pinedjem I, who replaced the king’s name with his own in these restored scenes.
Romer’s excavation of KV4 brought five groups of objects to light.
- Items originating from KV62 (tomb of Tutankhamun): fragmentary items discovered amongst the rubble fill in the corridor of KV62 and sections of the blockings from that corridor’s inner and outer doorways. These include the Head of Nefertem—the presence of these items in KV4 dates from the time of Howard Carter’s clearance of KV62.
- Evidence of Coptic activities in the tomb: the remains (in the corridors and well chamber) of a beaten mud floor and a rough stone wall, with shards of decorated pottery and a Byzantine copper mint.
- The remains of an intrusive 22nd Dynasty burial were found in the shaft of the burial chamber and consisted of bones, fragments of cartonnage, and a partial coffin. This material showed signs of burning, and this burial was likely desecrated during the time of the Coptic presence in the tomb.
- Fragmentary remains of several New Kingdom royal burials were found in the burial chamber and the lower shaft levels, which seem to have been undisturbed since the late New Kingdom. These include fragments of gilded gesso (some coming from a royal coffin), pieces of wooden panels that are linked stylistically with objects found in KV20 (tomb of Thutmose I and Hatshepsut) and KV35 (tomb of Amenhotep II), fragments of at least one anthropoid coffin from a mid-18th Dynasty female ruler (probably Hatshepsut), a faience vessel bearing the Horus name shared by Thutmose I and Ramesses II, wooden statue bases (some bearing the prenomen of Thutmose III), fragments of a foot which matches with a wooden goose found in KV34 (tomb of Thutmose III) and shabtis belonging to Ramesses IV.
- Foundation deposits of Ramesses XI: these were associated with the shaft in the burial chamber
History of Tomb KV4
That KV4 was initially quarried for the burial of Ramesses XI is evident from the decoration in the corridor and the foundation deposits associated with the shaft. It appears, however, that this plan was abandoned in favour of a burial elsewhere (perhaps in Lower Egypt). The most likely explanation for Pinudjem’s later restoration and the insertion of his cartouche would be that he intended to usurp the tomb at the beginning of his kingship. Still, this plan was abandoned for interment elsewhere, perhaps in the burial of Inhapi (tomb WNA or possibly DB320).
This tomb was used to rebury royal mummies from the Seventeenth Dynasty and the New Kingdom. These abandoned burial plans may be associated with the apparent general abandonment of the Valley as a royal necropolis and the start of the restoration and reburial of earlier pharaohs during the Wehem Mesut period.
After Pinudjem’s abandoned usurpation of KV4, it appears the tomb was used as a workshop to process funerary equipment from other royal tombs, most notably the burials of Thutmose I, Thutmose III and Hatshepsut. In this context, a link is made between the gilded gesso fragments found in KV4 and the coffin of Thutmose III found in the DB320 cache. This coffin had been carefully stripped of the significant portions of its gilded surface in antiquity, and it has been suggested that this stripping was done in KV4.
The fact that the individuals involved in these activities went through the time-consuming procedure of scraping the coffin’s surface without impairing its primary function as a container for the king’s mummy suggests this was not the work of common tomb robbers. Therefore, the material recovered from KV4 has been interpreted as evidence of a changed official policy towards the burials in the Valley. They were stripped of valuable commodities to safeguard them from tomb robbers by making them less attractive. At the same time, the recovered valuables were used to refill the depleted treasuries of the period.
During the Byzantine period, the open tomb was used by Copts as a residence and stable, while during the clearance of KV62 by Howard Carter in the 1920s, it was used as a dining area and a storeroom, the latter during the early stages of that clearance before KV15 was made available for that purpose.
