DISCOVERY 



89 



as colonisers of bare ground which has ever been 

 recorded. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



The Eruption of Krakatoa and Subsequent Phenomena. Report 

 of the Royal Society Committee. London, 1888. 



The Xew Flora of the Volcanic Island of Krakatau, by Prof. 

 Ernst ; translated by A. C. Seward, Cambridge, 1908. 



The Flora and the Fauna of the Islands of the Krakatau- 

 group, b)' Dr. van Leeuwen. Ann. hot. jard. Buitenzorg. 

 vol. xxxi, 1921, p. 103. 



The Vegetation of the Island of Sebesi, situated in the 

 Sunda Strait, near the Islands of the Krakatau-group : in the 

 Year 1921. Ann. bot. jard. Buitenzorg, vol. xx.xii, p. 135. 



Is Tutankhamon Buried 



in the Newly Discovered 



Tomb? 



By T. E. Peet, M.A. 



Professor of Egyptology in tlie Uniuersity 0/ Liverpool 



The closing down of Tutankhamon 's tomb for the 

 summer postpones for the time being the solution of 

 the question whether this king himself is actually 

 buried within the nest of shrines. In the meantime 

 a French scholar has made the disturbing suggestion 

 that this is not the tomb of Tutankhamon at all, 

 that having already been found elsewhere in the great 

 valley. It may not be without interest to readers of 

 Discovery to be made acquainted with the facts 

 on which this last statement is based. 



In the winter of 1906 an .\merican millionaire, Mr. 

 Theodore Davies, who, with the late Mr. Edward 

 Ayrton as his archaeological expert, was searching for 

 tombs in the Valley of the Kings, was attracted by a 

 large rock tilted to one side, and on turning over the 

 stones beneath and around it, found a small but 

 beautiful cup of blue fayence bearing the name of 

 Tutankhamon. This suggested that the king's tomb 

 might be somewhere in the vicinity. It was not, 

 however, until the following season that a tomb was 

 found, a short distance to the north of that of Horem- 

 heb, which appeared to be that sought for. At a 

 depth of 25 ft. below the surface a chamber appeared 

 in the rock face, almost completely filled with dried 

 mud deposited by the flood-water of centuries. In 

 this were a magnificent statuette, perhaps a ushabti, 

 of alabaster, and the remains of a wooden box contain- 

 ing several pieces of gold foil bearing in relief scenes 

 of peace and of war, with the cartouches of Tutankh- 

 amon and his wife .'\nkhesenamon, and the names 



of the priest Ay and his wife Ty, these last without 

 any royal titles. Ay was Tutankhamon's successor 

 on the throne, only to be supplanted after a short 

 reign by Horemheb, the founder of the XlXth Dj'nasty. 

 At a short distance from this tomb a pit was found 

 filled with large pottery jars which appeared to con- 

 tain the debris from a tomb, and in particular the 

 remains of funerary wreaths and garlands. The cover 

 of one of these jars was broken and had been replaced 

 by a wrapping of cloth bearing the name of Tutankh- 

 amon. 



Such are the facts about the supposed tomb of 

 Tutankhamon. They lend themselves to more than 

 one conjecture. Mr. Davies believed that the tomb 

 was that in which Tutankhamon was originally buried, 

 that it had been plundered, and that when this was 

 discovered the body and furniture were removed else- 

 where for safety, such remains as were not considered 

 worth moving to the new tomb being buried in a pit 

 hard by. In view, however, of what may be dis- 

 covered next winter, it would be foolish to indulge in 

 further speculations now. The funerary furniture 

 found by Lord Carnarvon appears to be that of Tutankh- 

 amon. The great wooden shrine is marked with 

 his name, but we have as yet no information with 

 regard to the inner shrines and the coffin which they 

 may be reasonably supposed to conceal. We cannot 

 be certain that the tomb was originally intended for 

 him until we are assured that the inscriptions on its 

 walls are in his name, and that the cartouches contain 

 no alterations. This is not scepticism, but merely 

 reasonable caution. Tyi's tomb contained not Tyi 

 but Akhenaten, and that of Amenhotep II contained 

 eight other royal mummies in addition to that of the 

 true owner. Who can tell what incongruous changes 

 may have been made b}- priests anxious to preserve 

 royal bodies from plundering and desecration, or by 

 religious enthusiasts eager to purge the country of the 

 taint of heresy brought upon it by Akhenaten and his 

 immediate successors ? 



If, then, the Carnarvon tomb is truly that of Tut- 

 ankhamon, to whom are we to attribute that found by 

 Mr. Davies ? Certainly not to the priest Ay, for his 

 tomb has been found elsewhere, in the Western Valley 

 as it is called. There his great sarcophagus is still to 

 be seen, and near it on the walls the portraits of the 

 king himself and his wife, whose names have been 

 carefully erased wherever they occur. Were they, then, 

 followers of Akhenaten 's heresy, or was it merely as 

 usurpers that they earned the obloquy and persecu- 

 tion of later days ? Probably the latter. It is clear, 

 from the great stela which Tutankhamon set up at 

 Karnak after his return from Tell el-Amarna to Thebes, 

 that his reversion to Amon worship was complete and 

 genuine. After a reign of probably little more than 



