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A project of the American Research Center in Egypt
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Entrance to QV71. 
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Entryway A

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A steep Divided Stairway with narrow Ramp provides access to the tomb. The Steps are now eroded. A rock Overhang at the entrance extends approximately 1 m above Gate B and has large boulders jutting out precariously. There is a substantial amount of surviving plaster on the ramp walls, but this is unprotected and fragile in areas. 

Architectural Features

Divided stairway
Overhang
Ramp
Steps

Condition

Cutting finished
Decorated
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Gate B

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This gate provides access to the tomb and is now covered by a modern metal grilled door. There is no surviving decoration on this gate. 

Condition

Cutting finished
Excavated
Undecorated

Pillared chamber B

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The pillared chamber is rectangular and lies perpendicular to the tomb's axis. The constructed pillars were both lost post-fire, with only their bases remaining today. There are three side chambers off of this chamber, two to the west and one to the east. One of the western side chambers underlies the other and is accessed through a stairwell cut into the southwestern corner of the pillared chamber's floor. The central part of the ceiling collapsed during construction and was then plastered and painted. The ceiling over the front of chamber is now damaged. The loss and blackening of wall paintings are from re-use in the Third Intermediate and possibly Coptic periods. The only exception is for areas at the base of the walls where debris may have once protected the lower paintings.

The scenes in this chamber center on the queen being welcomed into the Netherworld and offering to various deities, including Shu, Hathor, Ptah, Khepri, Anubis.

Porter and Moss designation:

Hall

Architectural Features

Pillars

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Decorated
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Queen before Deities

    Queen in adoration before Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, Hathor, and a ram-headed Anubis in kiosk. (Southeast) wall (right part)
  • Queen before Deities

    Queen offering to Khepri and Anubis (Southeast) wall (left part)
  • Queen before Deities

    Queen led by Hathor to Shu (Southwest) wall (left part)
  • Amuletic Symbol

    Djed Pillar (Southwest) wall (right part)
  • Queen before Deities

    Queen led by Anubis to Osiris and Hathor (Northwest) wall (left part)
  • Queen before Deities

    Queen led by Thoth to Re-Horakhty and Isis (Northwest) wall (right part)
  • Queen before Deities

    Queen offering an image of Ma'at to Ptah who is protected by a winged Ma'at (Northeast) wall (right part)
  • Deity

    Horsiese (Northeast) wall (left part)

Stairwell Ba

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This stairwell is cut into the southwestern corner of the pillared chamber and provides access to a lower side chamber. The walls were not plastered or decorated.

Architectural Features

Steps

Condition

Cutting finished
Excavated

Side chamber Ba

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This side chamber lies to the southwest and below the pillared chamber and is accessed by a stairwell. It underlies the second western side chamber. The ceiling is vaulted and the walls were not plastered or decorated. The ceiling collapsed in antiquity, breaking through the floor of the second western side chamber.

Architectural Features

Vaulted ceiling

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Excavated
Undecorated

Gate Bb

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This gate is cut into the southwestern wall of the pillared chamber and provides access to a side room. It was constructed from stone rubble and covered with a thick application of plaster. There are some post-fire losses in the doorway of both the rock and the packing plaster.

The gate has remains of decoration, including a winged sun disk on the lintel, texts on the reveals, an image of Serqet on the left thickness, and an image of Neith on the right thickness.

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Decorated
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Winged sun disk

    Lintel
  • Text

    Reveals
  • Deity

    Serqet left thickness
  • Deity

    Neith right thickness

Side chamber Bb

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This side chamber lies to the west of the pillared chamber. The floor is roughly cut and has collapsed through to the second western side chamber underneath.

The scenes in this side chamber center on the protection and sustenance of the queen in the Netherworld. She is depicted before an offering table and adoring Anubis as a jackal. The Four Sons of Horus are also present, depicted as standing mummiform figures.  

Porter and Moss designation:

West Side-room

Condition

Cutting finished
Decorated
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Queen

    Queen seated before an offering table (Northeast) wall (right part)
  • Queen before Deity

    Queen in adoration before Anubis jackal (Southeast) wall
  • Queen before Deity

    Queen in adoration before Anubis jackal (Northwest) wall
  • Deities

    Four Sons of Horus as standing mummiform figures (Southwest) wall

Gate Bc

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This gate is cut into the northeastern wall of the pillared chamber and provides access to a side room. It was constructed from stone rubble and covered with a thick application of plaster.

The surviving decoration includes a winged sun disk on the lintel and texts on the reveals, and a unique scene of the Queen depicted as a sphinx above three Djed pillars on each thickness.

Condition

Cutting finished
Decorated
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Winged sun disk

    Lintel
  • Text

    Reveals
  • Queen and Amuletic Symbols

    Queen as sphinx above three Djed Pillars Thicknesses

Side chamber Bc

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This side chamber lies to the northeast of the pillared hall. The floor is roughly cut and fire in the chamber caused loss of the upper plaster layer. The latter left behind a 'negative' effect of the raised relief decoration where the figures are unblackened and the background is burnt.

The scenes in this side chamber are similar to the upper western side chamber. They center on the protection of the queen in the Netherworld. The Queen is depicted adoring Anubis, the Four Sons of Horus, as well as Isis and Nephthys.

Porter and Moss designation:

East side-room

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Decorated
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Queen before Deity

    Queen in adoration before Anubis (Southwest) wall
  • Deities

    Squatting Imsety, Duamutef, and Nephthys (damaged) (Northwest) wall
  • Queen before Deities

    Queen in adoration before squatting Hapy, Qebehsenuef, and Isis (Southeast) wall
  • Deity

    Remains of scene with kneeling Isis (damaged) (Northeast) wall

Stairwell C

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This stairwell lies on axis with the tomb's entrance and provides access to the lower burial chamber. It consists of a Divided Stairway with a narrow Ramp in the center and the gate has compound jambs. There are post holes on either side of the jambs, indicating that the doorway was closed by a wooden double-door. The gate was constructed using rock shards and a thick application of plaster.

The surviving decoration consists of a winged sun disk on the lintel, texts on the reveals, two images of Ma'at on the inner thicknesses, and Nekhbet and Wadjet on the outer thicknesses.

Architectural Features

Compound jambs
Divided stairway
Door pivot holes
Ramp
Steps

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Decorated
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Winged sun disk

    Lintel
  • Text

    Reveals
  • Deity

    Ma'at Inner thicknesses
  • Deity

    Nekhbet as cobra right outer thickness
  • Deity

    Wadjet (damaged) left outer thickness

Burial chamber C

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This chamber served as the burial place for the queen and contains a pit in the center that functioned as the Sarcophagus emplacement. The chamber is orientated on an east-west axis, perpendicular to the tomb's axis. There are rock cut benches on the western and eastern sides. The western Bench is irregular as a shallow pit was dug in the center, presumably from later reuse. There are four Magical brick niches at each of the walls, placed just above the floor level. The base of the walls appear to have been replastered in antiquity, possibly during the period of reuse, and the ceiling presents loss of rock along a fracture that runs along its length and through the lintel of Gate Ca. The red granite sarcophagus of the queen was discovered in this chamber and is now housed in the Cairo Museum (JE 47370).

The scenes in this chamber are severely damaged by fire. They center on the Queen and an anonymous princess, possibly her daughter, before various deities.

  • Chamber plan:

    Rectangular
  • Relationship to main tomb axis:

    Perpendicular
  • Chamber layout:

    Flat floor, no pillars
  • Floor:

    One level
  • Ceiling:

    Flat

Porter and Moss designation:

Inner room

Architectural Features

Benches
Magical brick niches
Sarcophagus emplacement

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Decorated
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Queen before Deities

    Queen in adoration before Nun and Serqet (Southeast) wall (center-right part)
  • Queen before Deity

    Queen received by Hathor (Southeast) wall (right part)
  • Queen before Deity

    Queen in adoration before Re-Horakhty as a falcon (Southeast) wall (center-left part)
  • Queen before Deity

    Queen in adoration before Geb (Southeast) wall (left part)
  • Queen before Deity

    Queen in adoration before Res-Oudja (a form of Osiris) (Southwest) wall (left part)
  • Princess before Deity

    Anonymous Princess in adoration before Nephthys (damaged) (Southwest) wall (center part)
  • Queen

    Remains of Queen adoring (damaged) (Northwest) wall (left part)
  • Queen and princess before Deity

    Queen and Princess in adoration before Anubis jackal (Northeast) wall

Sarcophagus

  • Extant remains:

    Box and lid
  • Sarcophagus form:

    Mummiform
  • Material:

    Red granite
  • Comments:

    Cairo Museum (JE 47370)

Gate Ca

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This gate lies on axis with the tomb's entrance and is cut into the northwestern wall of the burial chamber, providing access to a side chamber or niche (Ca). There are post holes on either side of the jambs, indicating that the doorway was closed by wooden double-doors. Large salt veins are visible in the lintel of this gate and there is loss of rock along these veins. The left jamb of the doorway has a large fracture.

The surviving decoration on the gate consists of a winged sun disk on the lintel and cartouches of the Queen flanked by Uraei on the leftt thickness. 

Porter and Moss designation:

15

Architectural Features

Door pivot holes

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Decorated
Decoration damaged
Excavated

Decoration

  • Winged sun disk

    Lintel
  • Text

    Cartouche of the Queen flanked by Uraei left thickness

Side chamber Ca

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This small side chamber or niche lies on axis with the tomb's entrance. The walls have been blackened by fire and there is no surviving plaster or decoration.

Condition

Cutting finished
Damaged structurally
Excavated

About

About

QV 71 is situated on the north side of the main Wadi, adjacent to QV 68 and QV 66. The tomb is entered through a steep, stepped Ramp (A) leading into a pillared chamber (B) with both pillars no longer extant. Two side chambers lie to the east (Bc) and west (Bb). Below side chamber (Bb) is a lower chamber (Ba), which had a barrel-vaulted ceiling that has now collapsed. Chamber (Ba) is accessible through a stepped ramp located in the southwest corner of chamber (B). A small stepped ramp on axis with entrance ramp (A) leads to burial chamber (C) with a large rear niche (Ca) to the north. A sunken pit in the center of the chamber (C) accommodated the Sarcophagus. Rock-cut benches line the north and south walls of the burial chamber (C), with the south Bench in two parts with a shallow pit dug in-between. There are also small Magical brick niches in each wall. The rock in this tomb is generally of good quality and did not require a substantial amount of packing of wall surfaces as seen in many other tombs. However, a notably thick plaster stratigraphy was still used, which included a lower, earth-based layer. This was followed by a thin lighter-colored upper plaster layer. An additional third plaster layer is visible, but only in some areas. Doorways were constructed from stone rubble and covered with a thick application of plaster. The ceiling of chamber (B), unlike the walls, was left irregular but was still plastered and painted with stars. The floor is roughly cut in side chambers (Bb, Bc). There is extensive surviving decoration on the walls and ceiling of the tomb, though the raised relief decoration exhibits severe fire-related blackening and heat damage. The tomb was reused in the Third Intermediate Period, the Roman Period as a terracotta sarcophagus is recorded in the tomb by Robert Hay of Linplum, and Coptic period. The base of the wall in the burial chamber appears to have been replastered in antiquity which may also indicate later reuse of the tomb.

QV 71 is attributed to Bentanat, who was the oldest daughter of Ramses II and Isis-Neferet. She has a foreign name meaning 'Daughter of Anat' (a Canaanite goddess with a warlike aspect). Anat is depicted in Rameses Il's temple with martial iconography, which may account for the name choice. She may have served as the great royal wife of Rameses Il after the death of her mother, an interpretation based on a depiction in Chamber C of her with a princess, possibly her daughter. Whether this princess/daughter was also interred in the tomb is unclear. Alternatively, she was possibly married to Merenptah after the death of Rameses II, as she is depicted on a statue of Merenptah from Luxor.

The tomb has been accessible at least since the time of Robert Hay of Linplum (1826), who noted that the access to chamber (Ba) could not be located as the Vaulted ceiling had collapsed. Most recently the tomb was cleared by the Franco-Egyptian team in 1971-72. The TMP noted that the central part of the ceiling of chamber (B) partly collapsed during original construction and was then plastered and painted. The entrance of the tomb has been reconstructed with fired brick and cement and a metal grill door with no mesh has been installed.

Site History

The tomb was constructed in the 19th Dynasty and reused in the Third Intermediate, Roman, and Coptic Periods.

Dating

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

New Kingdom
Dynasty 19
Rameses II
Third Intermediate Period
Graeco-Roman Era
Roman Period
Byzantine (Coptic) Period

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
1927 & 1964: Documentation
Porter and Moss
1966: Documentation
Thomas, Elizabeth
1971-1972: Excavation
Franco Egyptian Mission
Early 1970s: Tomb clearance
Egyptian Antiquities Organization (EAO)
1970s: Photography
Centre d'Etude et de Documentation sur l'Ancienne Egypte (CEDAE)
1981: Mapping/planning
Theban Mapping Project
1984: Photography
Centre d'Etude et de Documentation sur l'Ancienne Egypte (CEDAE)
2003: Study
McCarthy, Heather Lee
2006-2008: Survey and Documentation
Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA)
2007: Survey and Documentation
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)
2010: Tomb clearance
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA)

Conservation

Conservation History

According to the GCI-SCA, very few interventions have been undertaken in this tomb, which include only localized areas of edging repairs and a small cleaning attempt on the north wall of chamber (B). 

Site Condition

Ramp (A), once stepped with a narrow slope in the middle, is eroded. Original plaster survives on the ramp walls, which is unprotected and fragile in areas. The rock Overhang extends approximately 1m above the entrance doorway with some precarious large boulders in the debris fan located near the edge. The rock in this tomb is not as heavily jointed and fractured as in other adjacent tombs. According to the GCI-SCA, though there is evidence of historic collapse, the walls and ceilings still retain much of their original form and substantial amounts of decorated plaster. The large loss in the ceiling of chamber (B) is post-fire, but does not appear to be recent. Constructed pillars in chamber (B) were both lost post-fire with only their bases remaining. Some post-fire loss in Gate Bb of both rock and packing plaster is present. The ceiling in burial chamber (C) presents loss of rock along a fracture that runs through the lintel of Gate Ca into niche Ca. Large salt veins are visible throughout the tomb, in particular in the lintel of Gate Ca, with some loss of rock along the veins. The west jamb of Gate Ca has a large fracture, but it is pre-fire and no adjacent loss is present. Pre-fire losses of the decoration are apparent but there are substantial post-fire losses in both upper and lower plaster layers. Small fragments of painted plaster were noted by the GCI-SCA on the floor of chamber (B). The surviving areas of rock and decorated plaster are heavily blackened and severely fire damaged throughout the tomb, except for areas at the base of the wall in pillared chamber (B), where debris may have once protected the lower paintings.  In rare areas, where the paint layer is not blackened or lost, yellow (iron oxide) pigmented areas show alteration to red. Evidence of bat activity includes extensive droppings on the floor throughout the tomb, as well as white crystalline deposits. A bird nest was seen by the GCI-SCA on west jamb of Gate C. A substantial number of insect nests also exist. The substantial infill material used to construct doorways is also a potential cause of structural loss. 

Hieroglyphs

Queen Bentanat

King's Daughter, Great Royal Wife, Lady of the Two Lands, Mistress of the North and South, Bentanat
sAt-nswt Hmt-wrt-nswt nbt-tAwy Hnwt-Smaw-mHw bnt-ant

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

Aston, D.A. The Theban West Bank from the Twenty-fifth Dynasty to the Ptolemaic Period. In: Nigel Strudwick, and John H. Taylor (Eds.). The Theban Necropolis: Past, Present and Future. London: British Museum, 2003: 138- 63.

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.

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

Hay of Linplum, Robert. Hay MSS [Robert Hay of Linplum and his artists made the drawings etc. in Egypt and Nubia between 1824-1838]. British Library Add. MSS 29812-60, 31054.

Leblanc, Christian, and Alberto Siliotti. Nefertari e la valle delle regine. 2nd ed. Florence: Giunti, 2002.

Leblanc, Christian. Architecture et évolution chronologique des tombes de la Vallée des Reines. Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire  89 (1989): 227-247.

Leblanc, Christian. Ta set nefrou: une nécropole de Thèbes-ouest et son histoire, 1: géographie- toponymie: historique de l'exploration scientifique du site. Cairo: Nubar Printing House, 1989.

Lepsius, Richard. Lepsius MSS: [Diary of Richard Lepsius from Oct. 30 to Dec. 7 1844]. On loan to The Griffith Institute, Asmolean Museum, Oxford, 1844.