Tomb KV44 is an ancient burial in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. It was discovered and excavated by Howard Carter in 1901 and was re-examined in 1991 by Donald P. Ryan—the original cutting of the tomb dates to the Eighteenth Dynasty. The single chamber accessed by a shaft contained three intact Twenty-second Dynasty burials; the remains of seven mummies from the original interment were found within the fill.
Location, discovery and layout
Tomb KV44 is located on the small side of Wadi that runs east of the central valley. It is situated near KV28 and next to KV45. The tomb’s location was already known in Western Thebes sometime before late January 1901 and was opened by Howard Carter on 26 January 1901 after two days of excavation. The tomb consists of a shaft 5.5 metres (18 ft) deep, ending in a single chamber. The doorway to the room was secure if roughly, sealed.
Contents of Tomb KV44
The chamber of Tomb KV44 was partly filled with water-washed earth. On top of this fill sat three wooden coffins beside each other against one wall and draped in floral wreaths. Nearest to the wall was a black-painted wooden coffin with yellow decoration and red text; this coffin contained the well-wrapped mummy of Iuf’a. Beside this was another coffin, painted black with yellow designs but with inlaid eyes housing a cartonnage coffin covered in resin; inside was a mummy identifiable only as a chantress by the legible portion of the inscription. However, Porter and Moss identify her as Keramama.
The third coffin was of rough wood but contained a beautifully decorated cartonnage coffin; inside was the well-wrapped mummy of Tentkeresherit, fitted with red leather mummy braces stamped at the ends with the cartouche of Osorkon I. Percy Newberry identified the floral wreaths as being composed of Mimusops, Mimosa nilotica, Centaurea depressa, and Nymphaea cerulea.
However, these three burials were not the original occupants. Carter noted that the room was a fifth full of debris “amongst which were remains of earlier mummies without either coffins or funeral furniture”. The tomb had stood open for some time, and several bee nests were seen on the ceiling.
Re-investigation
In 1991, the Pacific Lutheran University Valley of the Kings Project, headed by Donald P. Ryan, re-investigated the tomb. Besides removing the three coffins to Cairo, Carter had undertaken little work in the tomb. Careful excavation of the fill recovered the remains of seven individuals; two were young women, and three were children, including one two-year-old. Small finds included pottery fragments and a blue cylinder bead. The footboard of a child’s coffin was also found, along with an uninscribed piece of a canopic jar.
The project resumed in 2005 and found that water had penetrated several of the tombs under study, likely during the 1994 flood. All artefacts from KV44 and KV45, barring pottery and human remains, were moved to KV21 for protection from further flooding.
Intended occupants
The intended occupants of KV44 are not known. Elizabeth Thomas proposed that this was a tomb for Anen, the brother of Tiye, the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III. This theory was proposed based on the clustering of late Eighteenth Dynasty tombs in this area and that Anen was not buried in his known intended tomb TT120. However, Ryan’s excavations found no material in the tomb until the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty. As such, there is no archaeological evidence for the burial of Anen within KV44.
