Tomb KV48 is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It was discovered in 1906 by Edward R. Ayrton, excavating on behalf of Theodore M. Davis, and contained the robbed burial of the Eighteenth Dynasty noble Amenemipet, Pairy.
Location, discovery, and contents
Tomb KV48 is west of the animal tombs KV51 and KV52, on the southern side of the wadi that leads towards KV35, the tomb of Amenhotep II.
The tomb consists of a shaft approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) deep that opens to the south-west to a relatively large chamber measuring 16–17 by 10–11 feet (4.9 m–5.2 m × 3.0 m–3.4 m); the doorway had been roughly blocked with a wall of stacked stones. The walls were not plastered or smoothed. The floor was covered in 6 inches (15 cm) of debris and broken objects, including coffin fragments with yellow-on-black decoration, pieces of a wooden chair, sherds of white-washed pottery, and a mud seal bearing the inscription ‘Amun hears good praises.’
The unwrapped and broken mummy of the tomb’s owner was found thrown to one side; Ayrton describes him as “tall and well-built.” The presence of three inscribed mud bricks wrapped in resin-coated fabric and fragments of a fourth (so-called magical bricks), along with several wooden ushabtis, allowed him to be identified as the vizier and mayor of Thebes, Amenemipet.
Re-investigation of Tomb KV48
The tomb was part of the Pacific Lutheran University Valley of the Kings expedition’s work in 2009. Dr Don Ryan led the expedition. The burial was recorded and excavated. It is awaiting publication.
