494 



NA TURE 



[September 12, 1907 



ARCllMOhOGlCAL DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT. 



THE progress of archaeological discovery in the 

 Near East goes forward steadily without halt. 

 Every 3'ear more is added to our knowledge of the 

 ancient peoples of Greece, Egypt, and western Asia ; 

 with each year we have only to await the surprises 

 that the excavators have in store for us. Egypt 

 has contributed some very important results this 

 season, in two remarkable discoveries at Thebes. 

 One of these is a find of the highest interest 

 which will appeal to the minds of all, even 

 those entirely ignorant of archaeological science ; 

 this is the' discovery of the actual body of 

 Tii, one of " the most famous of Egyptian queens," 

 lying in her tomb, with her funeral pomp around 

 her. The other is a discovery which will appeal 

 more to the architect and the student of Egyptian 

 religion than to the layman — the uncovering of the 

 subterranean " tomb-shrine " of King Mentuhetep, 

 and the pillared halls above it, at the western end 

 of his funerary temple, the excavation of which has 

 been brought to a close by this final discovery. 



Both these discoveries were announced in the 

 Times some time ago, but readers of Nature may 

 like to hear further details. 



Thirty years ago nobody would have thought it 

 possible that we should eventually recover and place 

 in one central museum the actual bodies of all the 

 most powerful Pharaohs of Egypt, the actual 

 mummies of three whole dynasties of kings. But 

 this is now the case. With but few exceptions, the 

 mummies of all the monarchs of the eighteenth, 

 nineteenth, and twentieth dynasties, the most 

 imperial period of Egyptian history, now rest within 

 the walls of the Cairo Museum. Some have been 

 unrolled, others have not. It seems doubtful whether 

 the actual features of these dead princes should be ex- 

 posed to the gaze of every vulgar tourist, who very 

 often has no appreciation whatever of the wonder of 

 the sight which he is beholding ; and very probably 

 a more reverent taste will eventually withhold these 

 august bodies from the indignity of public exhibition 

 in glass cases. But at present those that have been 

 unrolled may be seen by all for a shilling. 



The chief discovery of royal mummies was the 

 well-known one of iSSi. In iSgS a further series 

 was discovered in the tomb of Amenhetep II. (the 

 only king who rests, as all should do, still in his 

 own sepulchre). Of late years the systematic ex- 

 ploration of the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings 

 has been undertaken by an American, Mr. Theodore 

 M. Davis, who has each year made some discovery 

 of importance. To him is due the opening of the 

 tombs of Thothmes IV., with its interesting funerary 

 furniture, of Hatshepsu, of Siptah, of luaa and 

 Tuaa, the parents of Queen Tii, and, lastly, of Queen 

 Tii herself. In the discovery of the first two tombs 

 mentioned above, Mr. Davis was assisted by Mr. 

 Howard Carter, then chief inspector of antiquities 

 at Thebes; the discovery of the tomb of luaa and 

 Tuaa was effected with the cooperation of Mr. J. E. 

 Ouibell, Mr. Carter's successor at Thebes ; while in 

 the discovery of the tombs of Siptah and Tii Mr. 

 Davis had the help of Mr. Edward R. Ayrton, who 

 had previously assisted Prof. Petrie at Abydos and 

 Ehnasya and Prof. Naville at Deir el-Bahari. 



Of all Mr. Davis's discoveries, that of the tomb 

 of luaa and Tuaa, the parents of the queen whose 

 grave was found this year, is the most important 

 from the scientific standpoint. Not only were the 

 mummies in absolutely perfect condition, but the 

 tomb was found full of an incredible treasure of 

 funerary furniture and other work in wood, ivorv, 

 and gold, which has become well known from 

 NO. 1976, VOL. 76] 



various popular publications during the last two 

 years, and has already provided many new models 

 to our cabinet-makers. But a greater personal 

 interest attaches to the tomb of their daughter, the 

 Queen Tii, and more general attention has been 

 directed to this discovery than to the former one, 

 although, alas! the body of the queen has decayed, 

 and nothing but the grinning .skull remains which 

 once was clothed with the most beautiful features 

 and contained the cleverest brain in Egypt about 

 1400 B.C. The furniture, too, of the tomb is not in 

 such good preservation, and, indeed, never was so 

 fine, as that in the tomb of luaa and Tuaa. But 

 personal interest is great nowadays, and Tii is more 

 interesting than her parents. 



Like the rest of the royal tombs, that of Tii was 

 found in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at 

 Thebes, " the Place of Eternity " as the Egyptians 

 called it, where, in his "August Habitation of the 

 West," a deceased king was laid to rest, "no man 

 seeing, no man knowing," that tomb-robbers might 

 not find the nnsiiitiii nf the grave and despoil it of 



its treasures (Fig', i ; photograph taken by moon- 

 light). 



But neither Tii nor, possibly, her parents had 

 originally been buried in the Theban valley. Tii 

 belonged, as is well known, to the heresy of the 

 Disk-worshippers, of which her son Khuenaten was 

 so vigorous an adherent. To her more than to any 

 other person was probably due the introduction of 

 this heresy as the fashionable religion of the royal 

 court, and she instilled the principles of her peculiar 

 belief into the mind of her son, who became a 

 fanatical persecutor of the national orthodox religion,, 

 so much so that he removed his court from Thebes, 

 the headquarters of the orthodox priests of Amon, 

 to a far distant spot, the modern Tell el-.\marna. 

 Here Tii lived and died, and was first buried. But 

 after the fall of the Disk-worship and the re-migra- 

 tion of the court to Thebes under King Tutankh- 

 amon, these royal bodies were taken from their 

 tombs and re-interred in the King's Valley at Thebc<. 

 Queen Tii, like her parents, w-as placed in a small 

 private tomb of older date, hardly consonant w-ith htr 

 royal state, and contrasting greatly with the magni- 

 ficent royal hypogaoa close by (Fig. 2). Here she was 

 hurriediv laid in some confusion, her funerary furni- 



