KV36

Book of the Dead papyrus of Maiherpri

Tomb KV36, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, was used for the burial of the noble Maiherpri from the Eighteenth Dynasty.

Rediscovered by Victor Loret in his second season in the Valley of the Kings, on 30 March 1899, the tomb was found to be substantially undisturbed, but as it has for a long time not properly published, it is not as well known as other burials in the valley.^[1] The objects found came all to the Egyptian Museum of Cairo where they were published in the Catalogue General (short: CG). The only source for the arrangement of the objects in the burial chamber was a short article by Georg Schweinfurth.^[2] He visited the tomb briefly before its contents was brought to Cairo. However, recently the notebooks of Loret were found and published, providing a detailed list and description of the objects found and their arrangement in the tomb chamber.^[3]

The tomb of Maherperi is a small shaft tomb with a chamber at the bottom on the west side.^[4] The burial chamber was undecorated, as with all burial chambers of non-royals in the Valley of the King. It is 3.90 m long and 4.10 m wide.^[5] Not much is known about Maiherpri. He does not appear in sources outside the tomb. Only two titles appear on the objects within the burial: child of the nursery and fan-bearer on the right side of the king. The mummy showed that he was a young man when he died.

Maiherpri was placed in a set of three coffins. The outer one is rectangular,^[6] painted black with gilded inscriptions and gilded decoration. It is more a shrine than a coffin. Inside it there were two anthropoid coffins^[7] also in black with gilded decoration. Strangely there is a third anthropoid coffin^[8] found next to this coffin ensemble with the lid discovered next to the box. This caused some confusion and discussion in Egyptology. It seems that the 'extra' coffin was intended as being the innermost one, but was actually too big to fit into the set of coffins and was therefore placed unused next to the coffin set. A similar situation was found in the burial of Tutankhamun, where the second coffins was also slightly too large for the outermost one. Here the coffin was shortened in the tomb chamber, while in the burial of Maherperi, the innermost coffin was simply left unused.^[9]

The mummy was adorned with a mummy mask.^[10] At the foot end of the rectangular coffin, on the east side was found the canopic box^[11] with the four canopic jars in it. Next to it there was the Book of the Dead of Maiherpri^[12] and there were found several boxes with mummified pieces of meat.^[13] At the head end of the coffins were found many pottery vessels. Other objects from this tomb are several stone vases, a senet game, a nicely painted faience bowl, a quiver, a glass vase and a funerary bed with the shape of Osiris laid out in wheat.^[14]

Isometric, plan and elevation images of KV36 taken from a 3d model

References

Literature

• Christian Orsenigo: La tomba di Maiherperi (KV 36). In: La Valle dei Re Riscoperta, I giornali di scavo Vitor Loret (1898-1899) e altri inediti. Mailand 2004, pp. 214–221, 271–281 (with English translation by Stephen Quirke)
• Reeves, N & Wilkinson, R.H. The Complete Valley of the Kings, 1996, Thames and Hudson, London.
• Siliotti, A. Guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples, 1996, A.A. Gaddis, Cairo.
• Rice, Michael (1999). Who's Who in Ancient Egypt. Routledge. 

External links

• Theban Mapping Project: KV36 - Includes detailed maps of most of the tombs.

Coordinates: 25°45′00″N 32°36′51″E / 25.75°N 32.6143°E / 25.75; 32.6143