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A project of the American Research Center in Egypt
About the image
Tomb entrance of KV 49.
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Gate B

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There are two hieratic graffiti over the lintel.

Condition

Partly excavated
Cutting finished
Undecorated

Dimensions

  • Height:

    1.73 m
  • Width:

    1.07 m
  • Length:

    1 m
  • Area:

    1.06 m2
  • Volume:

    1.83 m3
  • Orientation:

    0° from entryway A

Graffiti

  • Hieratic text:

    two graffiti explaining who provided the tomb with funerary material Lintel

Corridor B

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The only corridor in the tomb slopes down to chamber C. It is undecorated, but there are red dots along the center line of the ceiling used to layout the corridor.

Condition

Cutting finished
Partly excavated
Undecorated

Dimensions

  • Height:

    1.85 m
  • Width:

    1.42 m
  • Length:

    8.73 m
  • Area:

    12.44 m2
  • Volume:

    23.01 m3
  • Orientation:

    0° from entryway A

Graffiti

  • Mason's marks:

    Ceiling

Gate C

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Gritty fragments of a plaster and stone wall still line part of the gate, showing that at one point access into the chamber was blocked.

Condition

Excavated
Cutting finished
Undecorated

Dimensions

  • Height:

    1.8 m
  • Width:

    1.01 m
  • Length:

    1.06 m
  • Area:

    1.08 m2
  • Volume:

    1.94 m3
  • Orientation:

    0° from corridor B

Chamber C

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The chamber is rectangular in form and extends toward the southwest along the tomb axis. In the floor of this chamber is a descent. The chamber may have served as a burial chamber.

Condition

Cutting unfinished
Excavated
Undecorated

Dimensions

  • Height:

    1.99 m
  • Width:

    3.51 m
  • Length:

    6.26 m
  • Area:

    21.58 m2
  • Volume:

    42.94 m3
  • Orientation:

    0° from corridor B

Descent C

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In the floor of chamber C, a staircase was begun that leads down and ends with an unfinished cutting of a small pit. Red marks were left near the left end of the staircase by the tomb cutters along with a pounding tool. The staircase was unfinished.

Architectural Features

Steps

Condition

Cutting unfinished
Undecorated
Excavated

Dimensions

  • Height:

    2.24 m
  • Width:

    1.55 m
  • Length:

    3.69 m
  • Area:

    5.71 m2
  • Orientation:

    0° from corridor B

Graffiti

  • Mason's marks:

    left (Southeast) wall

About

About

KV 49 is located in the west branch off the southwest Wadi. An entrance stairway (A) leads down to a gate (B) leading into a long, sloping corridor (B). This opens into a large, rectangular chamber (C). An unfinished descent (C) in this chamber indicates that the cutting of the tomb was never completed. The tomb was left undecorated.

Site History

Gate C shows evidence of having been blocked, perhaps indicating that the tomb was used as a burial place. Two graffitti written over gate B show that the tomb was accessible in the late New Kingdom. The texts deal with the provisioning of a burial and indicate that the tomb was used in the later New Kingdom to store rags.

Dating

This site was used during the following period(s):

New Kingdom
Dynasty 18

Exploration

1906: Discovery
Ayrton, Edward Russell
1906: Excavation
Ayrton, Edward Russell

Conservation

Conservation History

A rubble and cement wall has been constructed around the entrance by the Supreme Council of Antiquities to divert flood water.

Bibliography

Cerny, Jaroslav.  A Community of Workmen at Thebes in the Ramesside Period.  Cairo: IFAO, 1973.  P. 15.

Graue, Birte, Violeta Maria Pereyra, Susanne Brinkmann and Christine Verbeek.  Laser Cleaning Tomb Paintings at Luxor.  KMT 21, 3 (2010): 18-33.

Helck, Wolfgang.  Königsgräbertal.  Wolfgang Helck, Eberhart Otto and Wolfhart Westendorf (eds.).  Lexikon der Ägyptologie.  7 vols. Wiesbaden, 1972-1992.  3: 522.

Reeves, Carl Nicholas.  Excavations in the Valley of the Kings, 1905/6: A Photographic Record. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts: Abteilung Kairo, 40 (1984): 225-235.

Reeves, Carl Nicholas.  Valley of the Kings: The Decline of a Royal Necropolis (= Studies in Egyptology).  London:  KPI, 1990. Pp. 169.

Weeks, Kent R. (ed.).  Atlas of the Valley of the Kings (=Publications of the Theban Mapping Project.  Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1).  Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2000.  Map sheet 62. 

Wilkinson, Richard H. and Carl Nicholas Reeves.  The Complete Valley of the Kings.  London:  Thames and Hudson, 1996.  P. 185.