The sepulchral of Hatshepsut

Map of the entrance

Map of the tomb

February 2nd 1903, at sixty meters north of Thutmosi’s V tomb, Cart found a stone with ring with Matshepsut’s name; in that moment he was sure of being before the eccentric queen’s burial. February 28th 1093, T. David writes down: “For the Museum in Cairo I supervise the excavations directed by the inspector for Antiques Mr. Carter to whom I’m very grateful”: the opening of the rocky sepulchral was, technically, one of the most complicated tasks in the archaeological research.
213 meters long and 97 meters below its entrance, the whole lenght was full of debpris. It’s impossible, of course, to state in advance the lenght of the corridor.
Napoleon who had visited the Valley of the kings in 1799, found the way to reach the queen’s eternal house and he fixed it on the map of the Valley made by him, with these words: Commencement de grotte taillee circulairement dans le roche (entrance to a cave cut in a circular shape in the stone). The corridor was characterized by a right-hand curve; Napoleon ordered to uncover 26 meters of it, then, seeing no result, abandoned the researches. Only R. Lepsius, in 1844, began the works where Napoleon had interrupted them, going ahead for other 20 meters. Then even this archaeologist surrended, as the costs were too high for such scarse results. The walls were plain, with no inscription, the debris that blocked the burial had been cemented by the pressure and rainwater; the picks were able to knock off only small quantities of it. It wasn’t even possible to destinguish the debris material, mixed with the actual stone; this hindered the esumers from knowing if they were on the right way. But it was exactly the bad condition of the rocky material that induced queen Hatshepsut to build there such an “impossible” entrance to the sepulchral. With no doubt the queen had ordered to excavate in the rock a 80-100 meter long passage. But at only 50, the rock was friable, tender, not suitable for relief and inscriptions.
Anyway, a work years long couldn’t be wasted. She so orders to excavate in a different direction, hoping the rocky material was better. The clearing work of of the first 50 m weren’t so difficult: Lepsius had made great preliminary operations. Carter found a chamber full of debris falling from the wall and the ceiling. From Davis’s diary: “We reached the conclusion that wasn’t the sarcophagus chamber, that it couldn’t be; we were sure there was a passage to continue the descent. To find it, it would have been necessary to clear the whole room of the debris,m which would have taken weeks of work, and our time was limited.
Carter and I used a coin: if it was “head we would excavate toward the right: it was “head”. As we opened a passage in the angle, we realized that the corridor actually continued in descent. “
April 15th 1903. Carter writes down:
“We find the first difficulties. The top rocky layer is in such a bad condition that we fear a collapse in any moment”. At 100 meters deep, the air is always more unbreathable, the head always more undearable. The candles, the only points of light to work with, begin to melt. During the summer pause an elettric system is put: through an air intake and a inspiring pump fresh air is sent in.
October 15th 1903. The works begin again. Carter discoveres a second chamber, with the previous experience, he continues to excavate: the alley, in fact, isn’t a dead end. The electric light renders the work less heavy, but the flow of fresh air isn’t enough: men, and mostly the children that carry the debris, throw up, they lose their balance. The excrements of bats, millenniums old, fall, at every smallest move, as a dark dust. The workers’ noses and mouths are sticky. Carter tries to excavate only 2 or 3 times a week.
Between the second and the third chamber there is a distance of 60 meters: it measures 10 meters for 9 and it’s 4 and 40 high.
Jenuary 26th 1904. Carter is sure that not even this chamber, although it’s bigger than the first two, has the sarcophagus.
He so makes a diagonal sounding excavation and finds stepes in the corner on the right: the passage continues to go down. But the tunnel was much more narrow than the previous corridors; the grave goods, fragments of stone vases with the names Ahmes-Nofretari, Thutmosi I and Hatshepsut indicate that the sarcophagus chamber, can’t be far, but they proove that the tomb has been already violated.
February 12th 1904. After going through a gap of a wall, there is the certainty: it’s actually the most important funeral chamber. The ceiling is supported by 3 columns. The vault is 3 meters gigh; the best part of is has collapsed, the mound of debris is so high that to pass you have to crowl, although the room is 11 meters for 5 and a half. The queen’s sarcophagus is in the middle. It’s empty. The lid is on the floor, beside another sarcophagus overturned and also empty; on it the name Thutmosi I.
Davis: “When, in 1899, we had also found Thutmosi’s I burial, we had also found his sarcophagus. In Hatshepsut’s eternal home, besides this queen’s coffin, we found the first Tuthmosi’s one, her father (as proved by an inscription). The eccentric queen had certainly ordered to transport his mortal remains in her own tomb, to let him sleep the eternal sleep in a new stone bed. Probably he remained there until 900 BC, when the priests – during the teban crisi – had moved many mummies of king from the originary sepulchrals in the valley to the hiding-place near the temple in Deir el-Bahari. Among the embalmed corpses found in 1881 there was also the first Thutmosi’s one; in that occasion were also found: a decorated wood coffin with the queen’s name, that held a mummified liver, and two female corpses with no wrappings, no coffins and no names.
Carter believed to the end that from the sarcophagus chamber another passage led even deeper down. To demonstrate it, he had to clear away all the debris, an unrewarding work that lasted the whole month of March. He so found 15 limestone tablets, written in red and black, with many chapters from the book of the dead. Clearly they were used by the artists fro the sketches in the main funeral chamber. But the decorations weren’t done, as the rocky walls were so friable that any attempt was useles. In the mound of debris only vases were found, cups and diorite, alabaster and crystal limestone jars, the head and, the feet of a big pitched wood statue, charred pieces wood of a sarcophagus and small cases and marquetry works.