Archaeology

The Royal Cache TT 320 (Luxor)

General Information

The rocks of the mountain ridge near Deir el-Bahri are so old that in some places even a slight touch causes their collapse. Ancient builders managed to cut the tombs at a great height despite of the danger of crumbling of the rocks dehydrated by the sun. In some of these tombs mummies were cached. Some tombs in the Valley of the Kings: those of Horemheb (KV57), Seti I (KV17), Amenophis II (KV35) and others, served this purpose as well.

Entrance to The Royal Cache TT 320

However, the most famous of these caches is the so-called «Royal cache» (DB 320 and later TT 320). Its entrance is situated in one of the natural amphitheaters formed by the rocks of Deir el-Bahri to the northwest from the temple of Hatshepsut and occupies small square hidden by the stone ledges. Many centuries ago Egyptians hid here the mummies of powerful pharaohs: Tuthmosis III, Seti I, Ramesses II and others.

In 1870s unique ancient objects and papyri started to appear on the black market in Luxor. Local authorities became interested in the source of supply. Immediately suspicion fell on Abd el Rassul, local interpreter and tomb looter. Daud Pasha, «mudir» of Qena, forced Abd el Rassul to reveal the secret for some «baksheesh». However, real circumstances under which the cache was found, and the monuments extracted from the tomb are not known till now.

Emile Brugsch, acting Head of the Antiquities Organization, during the absence of Gaston Maspero, studied the cache in July of 1881. He was astonished by the things he saw when he descended to the shaft. Although the tomb served as a source of income for the family of Abd el Rassul for 10 years, many of coffins with the remains of kings and queens, rich sepulchral implements were still there. The discovery was announced at the end of July by the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, and also during the International Congress of Orientalists.

Although one can understand the ignorance of the tomb robbers, it is difficult to explain the motivation of Brugsch-bey, professional photographer who worked for the Antiquities Organization for many years. He extracted invaluable monuments in a terrible hurry and without a single photograph or sketch. No precise plan of the tomb, inventory of the finds and fixation of their location were completed. Certainly, it is impressive that 40 sarcophagi with the mummies of the pharaohs and the nobles and more than five thousand nine hundred objects were saved. But at the same time some monuments and notes were lost without a chance to reconstruct the history of this burial.

Brugsch's team was quite numerous (according to some evidences reached two hundred persons), so the explanation that Brugsch was afraid of the locals who heard about «the treasure» seems to be baseless.

In 1882 G. Maspero and M.E.L. Wilson demanded the report from Brugsch. «The report» didn't clear out the matter and in January of 1882 Maspero and Wilson accompanied by Brugsch descended to the shaft for further investigation. Maspero also wanted to find out if the tomb was connected with the Valley of the Kings by other galleries. He was especially interested in the possible connection with the tomb of Seti I because the corridor in it was not completely cleaned. It turned out that the shaft is the only way to get into the cache. As the result, Egyptologists were obliged to use Wilson's notes as the source for the history of the cache. Those notes were compiled according to Brugsch who recollected the locations of the mummies «from his memory». The expedition of Metropolitan Museum of New York tried to study the tomb in 1919. It has been noted that the site is dangerous because of the partially collapsed walls of the corridors. Probably this happened due to free access of dry air to the tomb. Only one year later A. Lansing could not enter the tomb which was blocked by fallen rocks. In 1938 French Institute in Cairo following the request of J. Cerny allocated money for the cleaning of the shaft. Obtaining copies of the wall inscriptions was the main purpose. Unfortunately, the inscription concerning the burial of Neshonsu and one of the two inscriptions where mentioned Pinodjem was mentioned were completely lost. Although the second and more detailed inscription also suffered the decay, it was possible to take a picture of it.

Therefore one can not call these investigations an archaeological survey.

Many researchers based their studies on the preserved inscriptions and the order of the location of the mummies while trying to reconstruct the history of the «royal cache». The latter issue causes great doubts as during ten years Abd el-Rassul and his relatives could change the position of the mummies and sarcophagi when they extracted the most precious things in a barbaric way. One should also take into account that coffins and mummies were thoroughly looted during «restorations» long before Abd el-Rassul found the tomb.

So the questions concerned the «royal cache» are: when was it built, who was its owner and what is the story of this tomb during XXI and XXII Dynasties. Some scholars thought that the times of the XVIII Dynasty is the most probable date of its construction. E. Brugsch was the first one who put forward this point of view. A. Lansing tried to prove that the fragments of the coffins found in the shaft date back to that time. According to him the tomb was later enlarged because «it can not be compared either in size or in form with any tomb of the Queen's rocks». Lansing's supposition became generally accepted. Only N. Reeves doubted the possibility to find the reason for increasing the size of the tomb in the late New Kingdom.

J. Romer was the first researcher who paid attention to characteristic traces of the adzes that preserved in the upper part of the northeastern corner of the shaft for the dating of the tomb. During the considered period small and smooth adzes were used in contrast to large and rough adzes that appeared later and left the traces of «rude peeling» on the walls of the shaft. A. Niwinski supposed that the tomb has been finished at the time of Pinodjem II burial, that is in the 10th year of Siamon's rule (XXI Dynasty). According to Niwinski, the similarity of the cache and the tomb in Bab el-Gasus, studied in 1969 by the Polish scholars, proves not only that the tombs were built at the same time but also by the same architect.

It is difficult to establish the first owner of the tomb because of the great number of the mummies stored in it and because the mummies were extracted from the archaeological context without proper recording. Maspero noticed that the mummies conserved can be divided into two groups: one of them consisted of the pharaohs and the nobles, initially buried in their own tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the other included the priests with their families who were responsible for the preservation of the mummies.

Many scientists shared the hypothesis of Winlock that originally the burial (TT 320) belonged to the queen Ahmose-Inhapi, the wife of the pharaoh of the XVII Dynasty Sekenenra Tao II. The mummy of the queen was found among the others. Her name was mentioned in the notes writing on the sarcophagi of Ramesses I, Seti I and Ramesses II. However, J. Breasted considered the royal cache the burial of Amenophis I. Shmitz came to the same conclusion on the basis of the similarity of the terms «House of Eternity» (tA Hwt nHH) of the late notes and «Horizon of Eternity» (tA Axt nHH) dating back to Amenophis I and mentioned in the Abbot Papyrus.

N. Reeves and others regarded the tomb as the family burial of the high priest Pinodjem II. Relatively intact sarcophagi of the family of Pinodjem were found at the end of the burial chamber while the sarcophagi which were brought later occupied its sides and passages. Reeves also noticed that the mummy of Inhapi was found near the entrance, in front of the bodies of Seti I, Ramesses II.

Graffiti made at the entrance by the ancient Egyptian officials who buried the family of the priest also prove that Neshonsu and Pinodjem were buried in this tomb. During their life the couple took care of the mummies stored in the cache. Personal stamps of the family members preserved on the shrouds of the mummy of Ramesses IX and others. Niwinski believes that the idea to create a special, well guarded cemetery of the priests in Deir el-Bahri appeared already at that time. The tomb was designed to be the family burial of the high priest Pinodjem and at the same time the cache of the royal mummies. It is difficult to accept this point of view because both the size of the tomb and its arrangement do not correspond to the number of the mummies it was to accommodate, to Niwinski's opinion.

In 1998 the Department of Egyptology of the Institute of Oriental Studies of RAS (now Centre for the Egyptological Studies of RAS), the Institute of Egyptology and Coptology of Münster University and the Gnosarch; Foundation organized the expedition for the cleaning of the royal cache. Research results clarify certain aspects of the history of the royal cache.

G. Belova

© G. Belova, 2001—2004
© Centre for Egyptological Studies of RAS, 2004