Tomb WV23, also known as KV23, is located in the Western Valley of the Kings near modern-day Luxor and was the final resting place of Pharaoh Ay of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Giovanni Battista Belzoni discovered the tomb in the winter of 1816. its structure is similar to that of the tomb of Akhenaten, with a straight descending corridor leading to a “well chamber” with no shaft. This leads to the burial chamber, which currently contains the reconstructed sarcophagus, which has been smashed in antiquity. The tomb had also been desecrated, with many instances of Ay’s image or name erased from the wall paintings. Its decoration is similar in content and colour to Tutankhamun’s (KV62), with a few differences. On the eastern wall is a depiction of a fishing and fowling scene, which is not shown elsewhere in other royal tombs, typically appearing in burials of nobility.
Discovery of Tomb WV23
WV23 was discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, quite by chance, in 1816. After visiting the tomb of Amenhotep III, WV22, he moved further into the valley “to examine the various places where water descends from the desert into the valleys after rain”. Belzoni found an isolated pile of stones, probing the depth with his cane. Finding a deep void under the rocks, he hired workers and returned the following day. The tomb was just below the surface, and the entrance had been cleared within two hours. Belzoni considered the tomb a modest find:
I cannot boast of having made an extraordinary discovery in this tomb. However, it contains several curious and singular painted figures on the walls. From its extent and part of a sarcophagus remaining in the centre of a large chamber, we have reason to suppose that it was the burial place of some person of distinction.
Later visitors
The tomb was visited by John Gardiner Wilkinson, who noted in his 1835 publication that the burial” contains a broken sarcophagus and some bad fresco painting of peculiarly short and graceless proportions.” Karl Richard Lepsius visited the tomb in 1845, noted the destroyed sarcophagus, and commented that Ay‘s name was “everywhere studiously erased, except a few traces on the walls, as well as upon the sarcophagus.” He also copied some wall paintings and made notes on the sarcophagus box. The coffin, which had been damaged in antiquity not long after the burial of Ay, was again deliberately damaged in the late nineteenth century and was subsequently moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The layout of Tomb WV23
The tomb consists of an entrance stair, two sloping corridors separated by a set of stairs, and three chambers. The plan of the tomb is more similar to the tomb of Akhenaten at Amarna than any earlier royal tomb; it has a straight axis, a well-chamber with no well, and a pillared hall used as the burial chamber. The burial chamber is also offset to one side of the axis. Beyond the burial chamber is a small, undecorated canopic chamber. The tomb is constructed on a large scale, as corridors are broader than those of the earlier WV22. Slots for beams that lower the sarcophagus in the corridor reappear for the first time since KV20.
Decoration
Only the burial chamber is decorated, as was standard for the time. The decorative scheme is very similar to that seen in KV62, the tomb of Tutankhamun; several scenes are identical. The same artists possibly decorated both burials. Figures of the four Sons of Horus appear in a royal tomb above the doorway to the small canopic chamber for the first time. The west wall is decorated with a scene depicting Ay hunting in the marshes accompanied by his wife Tey; this is a unique occurrence for a New Kingdom royal tomb. All images of Ay were thoroughly defaced, and the cartouches of both Ay and Tey were removed. Only a figure of the king’s ka escaped erasure, possibly due to the figure bearing a slightly different title.
Excavation
The tomb was fully excavated and cleared by the University of Minnesota Egyptian Expedition (UMEE) in the summer of 1972. Excavation began immediately outside the tomb to locate foundation deposits in the hope that such a find would shed light on the theory proposed by Englebach that this tomb was commenced for Tutankhamun; despite an extensive search, none were discovered. It was found that the drystone wall on the northern side of the entrance, thought to be a later addition, proved to be contemporary with the tomb’s construction as it served the true purpose of retaining quarried limestone chippings. Its removal prompted “a mass of limestone dust and chips flow down the stairs towards the door of the tomb.”
Contents
Excavation then proceeded inside the tomb. Finds in the first corridor were a mix of ancient and modern; the ancient finds consisted of a small shrine or box cornice, a trim wooden beard, pieces of gold foil, and a fragmentary hieratic ostracon. The second set of stairs proved relatively free of debris. Still, it was in such poor condition that they were partially rebuilt with cement for safety. Darkened fill layers at the far end of the second corridor indicated periods of flooding. However, some thin smudges may suggest the presence of decayed wood.
The second corridor contained a wooden hand from a figurine and five discs of gilded copper embossed with rosette and star patterns crumpled into a ball. The doorway between the second corridor and the well-chamber was sealed in antiquity, as parts of the blocking were found there. The well-chamber contained fill 119 centimetres (47 in) deep by the doorway and yielded another gilded copper rosette, half of a human pelvis, another ushabti beard, a wooden leg from a figurine, and some pottery of Roman or Coptic date.
No trace of blocking remained between the well-chamber and the burial chamber. Inside the burial chamber, the fill was uneven, with a gradual slope away from the door and a depression in the centre from removing the sarcophagus; debris was piled against the walls. Hoping the area close to the walls remained undisturbed, the chamber’s centre was cleared before excavating along the walls. Many fragments of the sarcophagus box were encountered, but none of the lid; the lid was instead found intact, lying upside down against the east wall. Made of red granite, it is vaulted with flat sides; the decoration is incised and infilled with green pigment.
The top of the lid features two pairs of wedjat-eyes flanking a central column of text. The lid was in the expected orientation, with the head end aligned to the north. However, the coffin fragments on the floor indicate that the box was oriented in the opposite direction, with the head to the south. The cartouches on the lid are entirely intact, and the lid has no significant damage, suggesting that it was not toppled from atop the box. Schaden indicates that the top was never placed and was left resting against the wall. One section of alabaster teeth for a couch or bed, presumably Taweret-shaped, were found, indicating that Ay was interred with at least one funerary couch.
Other finds included a piece of a coffin, part of a coffin-shaped lid, and the hand of a statuette, all of wood; more components of a human skeleton were also encountered, along with an inscribed meat jar fragment. The final chamber contained more pieces of the sarcophagus, other human bones, and the missing part of the meat jar inscription. The meat jar records that it had “pressed meat for The Bull which was made [or prepared] as cargo for the nšmt-boat” and once formed part of the provisions for Ay‘s burial.
It appears that Ay’s burial was relatively modest, as no trace was found of the canopic box or shrine, nor were any trace of faience or stone ushabti; also absent was any sign of the gilded burial shrines that presumably surrounded the coffin. Schaden suggests they may have been entirely taken or never placed in the tomb. The sarcophagus lid may never have been placed on the box, and it may have been covered with a pall to which the gilded copper rosettes were attached, as found in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Dismantling of Tomb WV23
Ay’s burial was likely vandalised in a sanctioned attack in the reigns of Horemheb or the early Ramesside pharaohs. However, Horemheb’s treatment of Ay‘s monuments makes him the most likely culprit. At this time, the coffin was smashed, the names and images of Ay and Tey were removed, and all the valuables were thoroughly looted. The contents of KV58 likely originated from WV23, as Ay’s name occurs more frequently than Tutankhamun‘s and were either deposited there by robbers or purposefully during the dismantling of the royal burials. Reeves and Wilkinson see this as support of the theory that the body of Ay was cached in KV57, the tomb of Horemheb, at this time. Schaden considers that Ay’s body may be the rewrapped “yellow skeleton” interred with later mummies in WV25.
