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A project of the American Research Center in Egypt
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Entrance to QV51
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Entryway A

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A steep, undecorated Ramp with an Overhang. According to the 1981 TMP plan, the ramp was covered in rubble at the time of the survey.

Architectural Features

Overhang
Ramp

Condition

Cutting finished
Excavated
Undecorated

Gate B

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This gate provides access to the tomb. The lintel is decorated with a partly preserved representation of the goddess Nekhbet as a vulture. She is depicted hovering and clutching a fan in her claws. Remains of a Kheker frieze can be seen on the upper parts of the reveals.

Architectural Features

Door pivot holes

Condition

Cutting finished
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Deity

    Nekhbet as vulture with outspread wings and clutching the khu-fan. Lintel
  • Kheker frieze

    Remains of Kheker frieze (damaged) Reveals

Corridor B

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This long corridor lies on axis with the tomb's entrance. The ceiling was not finished and remains of red paint are visible at the beginning of the corridor. A Kheker frieze adorns the upper parts of the walls. In this corridor, the queen is shown offering to various deities (6 deities on the right and 6 deities on the left). The majority of the reliefs are only preserved in part and were severely damaged by flooding.

Porter and Moss designation:

Corridor

Condition

Cutting finished
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Queen offering to deity

    Queen offering papyrus stems to Ptah-Sokar. (East) wall (left part)
  • Queen offering to deity

    Queen offering to an unknown deity (damaged) (East) wall (left part)
  • Queen offering to deity

    Queen offering to an unknown deity (damaged) (East) wall (center-left part)
  • Queen offering to deity

    Queen offering braziers to Banebdjed. (East) wall (center-right part)
  • Queen offering to deity

    Queens offering to deity that is now completely deteriorated. (East) wall (right part)
  • Queen offering to deity

    Queen offering sistra to unidentified deity (damaged). (East) wall (right part)
  • Queen before deity

    Queen (damaged) worshipping before unidentified deity (damaged). (West) wall (right part)
  • Queen before deity

    Queen (damaged) before unidentified deity (damaged). (West) wall (right part)
  • Queen before deity

    Queen (damaged) before Nefertum (damaged). (West) wall (center-right part)
  • Queen before deity

    Queen before unidentified goddess (damaged - possibly Hathor). (West) wall (center-left part)
  • Queen before deity

    Queen adoring before Ptah-Sokar (partly damaged). (West) wall (left part)
  • Queen offering to deity

    Queen standing before Osiris with offering table. (West) wall (left part)
  • Kheker frieze

    upper part All walls
  • Unknown

    Red paint (Up) ceiling (front part)

Gate C

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This gate provides access to the burial chamber and lies on axis with the entrance. The lintel contains an evocation to Behdet, who is figured in the form of a winged sun disk. Nekhbet as a vulture is represented on the soffit and clutches two fans in her claws. The reveals contain texts relating to Rameses VI's dedication of the tomb to the queen. The thicknesses contain representations of Wadjet as a cobra (left) and Nekhbet as vulture (right). They are both sitting atop plant bundles, Nekhbet upon lotuses and Wadjet upon papyrus.

Porter and Moss designation:

3

Condition

Cutting finished
Decorated
Excavated

Decoration

  • Winged sun disk

    Evocation to Behdet in the form of a winged sun disk Lintel
  • Deity

    Nekhebt as a vulture with wings outspread and clutching khu-fans soffit
  • Text

    Dedication texts of tomb from Ramses VI to Isis Reveals
  • Deity

    Wadjet as cobra atop a papyrus bundle left thickness
  • Deity

    Nekhbet as vulture atop a lotus bundle right thickness

Burial chamber C

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The Burial chamber lies parallel to the tomb's axis and contains a pit in the center that now holds the Sarcophagus lid. The east and west walls are decorated with scenes of the queen offering to various deities, as well as a double scene of Osiris on the rear wall. This latter scene has been damaged by looters who thought the wall blocked another room. The upper parts of the walls contain remains of a unique frieze that alternates between kheker and Anubis as a jackal atop a chapel.

  • Chamber plan:

    Rectangular
  • Relationship to main tomb axis:

    Parallel
  • Chamber layout:

    Flat floor, no pillars
  • Floor:

    One level
  • Ceiling:

    Flat

Porter and Moss designation:

Hall

Architectural Features

Pit
Sarcophagus

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Frieze

    Frieze alternating between kheker and Anubis as a jackal atop a chapel (Up) All walls
  • Queen before deity

    Queen before Ptah. (East) wall (left part)
  • Queen before deity

    Queen before an unidentified lion-headed deity. (East) wall (center part)
  • Queen before deity

    Queen before Shu. (East) wall (right part)
  • Queen before deity

    Queen before unidentified deity (damaged) (West) wall (right part)
  • Queen before deity

    Queen before Neit (West) wall (left part)
  • Deity

    Damaged scene of Osiris figures seated back-to-back (damaged). Text lost. (South) wall

Sarcophagus

  • Extant remains:

    Lid
  • Material:

    Red granite

Gate Ca

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The wall into which the gate is cut is badly damaged. This is especially clear at the door jambs. The gate is undecorated.

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Excavated
Undecorated

Side chamber Ca

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The walls of this side room have suffered damage and the decoration is only partly preserved. Only the north and east wall reliefs have survived. The north wall has representations of four unidentifiable male deities and the east wall has two of the four sons of Horus. The other two sons were most probably also depicted, but the painting and plaster have been lost.

Porter and Moss designation:

East side-room

Condition

Cutting finished
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Deities

    Four unidentifiable male deities. (North) wall
  • Deities

    Two of the four sons of Horus, Imsety and Happy. (East) wall

Side chamber Cb

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The southern wall of the Burial Chamber (C) blocked this side chamber and was damaged when looters broke through. The side chamber is, however, unfinished and contains no decoration.

Condition

Cutting unfinished
Undecorated

Gate Cc

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The wall into which the gate is cut is badly damaged. This is especially clear at the door jambs. The gate is undecorated.

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Excavated
Undecorated

Side chamber Cc

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This side chamber has suffered severe damage and only the north wall still contains decoration. Four goddesses are represented, Neit, Serqet, Isis, and Nephthys, standing with their arms at their sides and wearing sheath dresses with wigs held by ribbons.

Porter and Moss designation:

West side-chamber

Condition

Cutting finished
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Deities

    Neit, Serqet, Isis and Nephthys (North) wall

About

About

QV 51 is situated along the south side of the northwest branch of the main Wadi. The orientation of the tomb is along a roughly north-south axis and is distinct from nearby QV 52, QV 53 and QV 55. QV 51 is accessed through entrance Ramp (A) leading into long corridor (B) that opens into burial chamber (C) with a sunken pit for the Sarcophagus. There is a rear unfinished side chamber (Cb) and two further side chambers off the east (Ca) and west (Cc) sides of the burial chamber. Side chamber (Ca) has a shallow excavated trench along its south wall. The walls were cut straight and flat in corridor B, indicating good quality rock substrate, and there is fine tooling of the stone visible in this area. The quality of the rock generally worsens toward the rear of the tomb, where sizable voids required infilling with quantities of rock shards and plaster. The ceiling also required plaster and rock infill. Hand marks in the ceiling plaster indicate the application method. In areas were the rock was able to be finely carved, only a thin skim of plaster was applied before painting - in some cases the surface of the rock substrate can be seen showing through. The tomb exhibits severe fire-related heat damage but little blackening.

QV 51 is attributed to Isis-ta-Hemdjeret, the wife of Rameses III and mother of Rameses IV and Rameses VI. Soon after her burial, the tomb was opened by robbers in the late 20th Dynasty. In modern history, the tomb has been accessible since the time of Robert Hay of Linplum (1826) and was recorded subsequently by other researchers. According to Hay, the tomb was "much destroyed and filled with rubbish" and the back wall broken in search of a chamber. Ernesto Schiaparelli cleared the tomb of debris during the Italian Archaeological Expedition's work in the Valley (1903-1905). He considered it to be the last tomb constructed in the Valley, as a Cartouche of Rameses VI was found in Gate C. Elizabeth Thomas (1959-60) notes that many sarcophagus fragments remained, as they do today, scattered throughout corridor (B) and burial chamber (C). Thomas also compared the quality of the decoration in corridor (B), Gate (C), and the rear of chamber (C) to that of QV 52, calling the rest poor in quality. She further suggests that the work, overseen by Rameses VI for his mother, was interrupted and hastily finished, based primarily on the crudeness of the decoration in the side chambers. The tomb was last cleared by the Franco-Egyptian Mission in 1986.

Currently the tomb is not open to visitation. It has, however, been heavily treated as if in preparation for opening. The doorway is blocked by a metal door and the entrance ramp has a modern masonry surround with cement capping.

Noteworthy features:

QV 51 is attributed to Isis-ta-Hemdjeret, the wife of Rameses III and mother of Rameses IV and Rameses VI.

Site History

The tomb was constructed in the 20th Dynasty, during the reign of Rameses VI, and shortly looted thereafter. 

Dating

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

New Kingdom
Dynasty 20
Rameses VI

Exploration

1826: Documentation
Hay, Robert
1828: Documentation
Wilkinson, John Gardner
1828-1829: Documentation
Franco-Tuscan Expedition
1844-1845: Documentation
Lepsius, Carl Richard
1854: Documentation
Brugsch, Heinrich Karl
1903-1905: Excavation
Italian Archaeological Expedition
1927: Documentation
Porter and Moss
1959-1960: Documentation
Thomas, Elizabeth
1968: Excavation
Supreme Council of Antiquities
1970s: Photography
Centre d'Etude et de Documentation sur l'Ancienne Egypte (CEDAE)
1981: Mapping/planning
Theban Mapping Project
1986: Excavation
Franco Egyptian Mission
1986: Photography
Centre d'Etude et de Documentation sur l'Ancienne Egypte (CEDAE)
1988: Survey and Documentation
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
1988-1989: Excavation
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
1988-1991: Conservation
Egyptian Antiquities Organization (EAO)
1992-1993: Epigraphy
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
2003: Study
McCarthy, Heather Lee
2006-2008: Survey and Documentation
Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA)
2007: Mapping/planning
Getty Conservation Institute
2008: Tomb clearance
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA)
2009: Photography
Centre d'Etude et de Documentation sur l'Ancienne Egypte (CEDAE)

Conservation

Conservation History

According to the GCI-SCA, the tomb has been extensively treated. The treatment was undertaken in 1988 by the Egyptian Antiquities Organization (EAO) and included reconstruction of missing parts of walls and doorways. Different repair approaches were used in different chambers - some areas left the original lower plaster exposed while in other areas it was covered. Cement was used in rear niche (Cb) on the door jambs as a base plaster. Bags of cement and other conservation materials were found in the western side chamber (Cc). It is possible that this cement plaster was also used elsewhere in the tomb, though evidence of this is now obscured by the upper pink-colored final plaster layer. Edging repairs are also present in the burial chamber and in side chambers, though their application is not comprehensive. There is also evidence of injection holes and drips in the corridor but not in the burial chamber. From 1988-1991, different treatment periods are recorded by SCA conservators to undertake "monitoring of old treatments". It is unclear what this means and if there were problems associated with earlier treatments. 

Site Condition

According to the GCI-SCA, the current condition of the rock is difficult to assess because of the large modern plaster repairs that cover most of the tomb today. A tilted open joint is visible on the exterior of the tomb on the west side of the entryway, but there is no evidence of recent movement or loss along it. The joint extends to a fracture in the west jamb of the entrance, but no further movement has occurred since the doorway was rebuilt. The ceiling of the burial chamber (C) is heavily fractured with substantial areas of loss, one of which may be recent and possibly ongoing. Losses most often occur along fissures in the rock and where substantial quantities of infill material were used. The burial chamber (C) walls have suffered the most loss of decoration. Surviving areas of decoration are fragile and detached, especially on the ceiling of burial chamber (C). There is also loss of decoration at the base of walls throughout the tomb.  

The tomb has suffered intense heat damage, but surfaces are not fire blackened except for small areas on the east wall of corridor (B). A horizontal line of heat alteration is also visible in corridor (B), particularly noticeable in the pigment alteration from yellow to red, at the lower parts of the west wall. The base of the wall was perhaps protected by sand or debris so that the fire only affected the upper parts of the tomb. The plaster has also become rigid and brittle, cracking and detaching from its substrate, and is lifting in areas. The burial chamber has suffered the most heat alteration, though the plasters in the rear side chambers are also heat damaged and fragile with severe cracking and detachment. Areas of painting in the corridor also show other forms of deterioration. The upper border Kheker frieze has an unusual pattern of loss where the red circles are almost entirely lost leaving only a ring of red. This suggests an application of a varnish in specific areas that has led to preferential loss. The blue paint appears to be almost completely lost in areas, sometimes with the upper plaster layer gone as well. The pigment was very thickly applied directly onto the plaster instead of over a layer of black, as was typical, so that its appearance is paler than normal. Black resinous-looking drips are also found on the walls in the corridor. Staining, probably due to bat activity, is evident in the rear of the tomb. Complete loss of decoration at the base of the walls indicates a strong possibility of flooding in this tomb. The regularity of the loss at the base of the wall in corridor (B) is particularly strange and gives the impression that these areas were possibly intentionally cut. Rock fissuring and loss of substantial infill material have also contributed to the fragmentary survival of the decoration that we see today. 

Hieroglyphs

Queen Isis-ta-Hemdjeret

Great Royal Mother, Lady of the Two Lands, Mistress of the North and South, Isis-ta-Hemdjeret
mwt-wrt-nswt nbt-tAwy Hnwt-Smaw-mHw Ast-tA-Hmsrt

Articles

Geography and Geology of the Valley of the Queens and Western Wadis

The Valley of the Queens and the Western Wadis are made up of numerous valleys spread out over a vast space of desert, each containing tombs for the New Kingdom queens and other royal family members. The poor quality rock has led to damage in several tombs after suffering from earthquakes and floods.

Decorating the Tombs

The artists and workmen responsible for decorating the tombs used a variety of implements in wood, metal and stone in different stages of the process.

Bibliography

Brugsch, Heinrich Karl. Recueil de monuments égyptiens dessinés sur lieux et publiés sous les auspices de Son Altesse le vice-roi d'Égypte Mohammed-Saïd-Pasha par le docteur Henri Brugsch. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1862-1885.

Černý, Jarosłav. Queen Ese of the Twentieth Dynasty and Her Mother. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 44 (1958): 31-37.

Champollion, Jean-François. Monuments de l'Egypte et de la Nubie. Vol. 1-2. Paris: Firmin-Didot Frères; Geneva: Editions de belles-lettres, 1845.

Demas, Martha and Neville Agnew (eds). Valley of the Queens. Assessment Report. Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute, 2012, 2016. Two vols.

Dodson, Aidan and Dyan Hilton. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames and Hudson, 2004.

Gosselin, Luc. Les divines épouses d'Amon dans l'Egypte de la XIXème à la XXIème dynastie. Etudes et mémoires d'égyptologie, no. 6. Paris: Cybèle, 2007.

Grajetzki, Wolfram. Ancient Egyptian Queens: A Hieroglyphic Dictionary. London: Golden House Publications, 2005.

Grist, Jehon. The Identity of the Ramesside Queen Tyti. Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1986.

Grist, Jehon.  The Identify of the Ramesside Queen Tyti.  Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 71 (1985): 71-81.