Discovery and
Excavation
Amanpreet Singh

1. What is the Valley of The Kings?
The Pyramids of Giza and the Nile
Delta were the tombs of choice for pharaohs of Egypt's Old
Kingdom. The New Kingdom pharaohs, who wanted to be closer to the source of their ancestral origins in the south, built their catacombs in the hills of the west of Luxor, now called the Valley of The Kings.

Inside King Tutankhamun’s Tomb

2. What was found in the tomb?
Tutankhamun’s tomb was filled with furniture, jewellery, weapons, games, preserved foods, which are all necessary provisions for a comfortable afterlife. Also more than four hundred shabti figures were found in the tomb, which all could be called upon by the pharaoh to perform menial tasks.

Other Items Inside King Tut’s Tomb
◾6 Chariots
◾Couches
◾Chairs
◾2 Thrones
◾Ritual beds and Headrests
◾Anthropoid (man-shaped) Gilded Coffins and the Solid Gold coffin
◾Shrines - Canopic shrine and Burial shrines
◾Funeral Equipment
◾Naos covered with gold lamina- a shrine in which statues were kept - this naos was empty but decorated with scenes of daily life and hunting
◾Gilded statues - Anubis and life size sentry statues and other statuettes
◾Chests
◾Daggers and other weapons and shields

◾Musical Instruments
◾Scribal Equipment
◾Lamps
◾Ornaments
◾Caskets, Vases and jars
◾139 ebony, ivory, silver, and gold walking sticks
◾Clothing made of the finest linen - 50 garments including tunics, kilts, gloves, scarves and headdresses
◾Ostrich fans and Golden Fans
◾Games - Ebony gaming boards including Senet

3. How was the tomb discovered?
• In 1907, after three hard years for Carter, Lord
Carnarvon employed him to supervise Carnarvon's
Egyptian excavations in the Valley of the Kings.
• The discovery of king tut’s tomb was brought to light by
Theodore M.Davis. He was the first person to find items that led to the discovery of Tut’s tomb.

• His first clue came from a famous cache (a group of

royal funerary objects from Tell el Amarna that were brought to Thebes to escape destruction). These items were hidden in a safe tomb, and