Tomb KV42 (Kings Valley 42) is an ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It was constructed for Hatshepsut-Meryetre, the wife of Thutmose III, but she was not buried in the burial. It was reused by Sennefer, a mayor of Thebes during the reign of Amenhotep II, and by several members of his family. Like other early Eighteenth Dynasty tombs, the tomb has a cartouche-shaped burial chamber.
Discovery of Tomb KV42
The tomb KV42 was uncovered by two local Copts, Chinouda Macarios and Boutros Andraos, in late 1900; they obtained an excavation permit through their statement that they knew the tomb’s location. However, Howard Carter notes in his report that “I doubt the secret was their own, as the site was discovered by and known to Monsieur Loret some eighteen months previously, and probably their information was obtained from his workmen.” The excavation commenced on 27 November 1900, and the blocking in the doorway was officially taken down on 9 December. It was immediately apparent that the tomb had suffered from ancient robbing and had been inundated with water. Only the lower part of the door sealing was original; the rest was composed of fallen rock.
Layout and contents
On inspecting the interior, the former plundering of this tomb was only too evident, for the funereal furniture, vases, and Canopic jars were mashed and lying about the ground of the passages and chambers, evidently just as the former robbers had thrown them, some being partly buried in the fine yellow mud, now dry, which had covered the floors of the lower chambers.
The cartouche-shaped burial chamber contained an unfinished stone sarcophagus, the lid propped up with a piece of wood. The tomb contained a set of well-preserved canopic jars belonging to Sentnay, Sennefer’s wife. A collection of fragmentary jars and an alabaster offering table were located, inscribed for a woman named Baketra who bore the title ‘royal ornament’. Additionally, four canopic jar lids in the form of bearded heads, which Carter suggested belonged to Sennefer, were found. An unspecified number of model vessels inscribed for Sennefer and Sentnay were also found. The wood once present in the tomb had rotted, though there was evidence of sledge-style bases and wooden coffins, the ivory inlay of which “was impossible to preserve, as, on being touched, it instantly fell to pieces.”
Carter suggested that the tomb was robbed for its metal during the Twenty-second Dynasty, as the foreman found “some gold leaf and an exquisite gold inlay rosette, probably the bottom part of a menat wrenched off…” in the upper passageway. He also suggested that the tomb had been reentered “in comparatively late times,” as antiquities were found scattered on the dry mud. Many pottery vessels were encountered sitting on the steps outside the burial chamber. The small room off the burial chamber contained approximately twenty to thirty whole and broken earthenware jars, some of which were still sealed. Carter thought the space might have a burial shaft due to a dip in the floor, but excavation proved this was not the case.
Only the burial chamber of Tomb KV42 features decoration. Part of the ceiling is covered with yellow stars on a blue background; in the rest of the room, only the upper parts of the walls containing the dado and khekher-frieze were painted.
