From whence all these burials came we have no evidence to show us at present, nor can we tell for certain the reason for their being concealed in this particular tomb. It is possible that, while clearing the ground for the great dromos of Dêr el Bahari, and during the preparation of its ‘Valley’-Temple, stray interments were disturbed, and that this tomb being so situated that it must necessarily be covered by the ‘Valley’-Temple, it was used by the pious officials of the Theban Necropolis as a place of concealment (see position of tomb in relation to the temple, [Pl. XXX]).
The seal impressions stamped upon the wall that closed chamber (A), we have just seen, give the Nebti name of Thothmes I, and thus we have a date for the time when some of the coffins were re-interred, and probably the date when the above monument must have been begun.
The scattered manner in which the coffins were placed in the different chambers and passages of the tomb, and the fact that one of the chambers (C) had been re-opened and re-closed, tends to show that they were not placed in the tomb at one time, which is in favour of the theory that they really were disturbed interments stored there from time to time during the course of some work.
The latest date found among the objects of the whole cache was Thothmes III, and that name occurred only on one object—a small scarab ([Pl. LXXII]. 53 from burial No. 53, p. 80).
The two chambers in the corridor (A, B) contained eight and four separate coffins respectively; the hall (C) at the end of the passage had fourteen; in the pit (D), piled from bottom to top, were eighteen cases; and in the bottom crypt (E) was another batch of eight sarcophagi. Thus, counting also those lying about the open corridor and passage which numbered twelve, we obtain a total of sixty-four coffins. Besides these there were also twenty-eight other objects pertaining to funeral equipments.
Among these sixty-four miscellaneous wooden sarcophagi, some containing as many as four mummies in each, there were seven distinct types, and with them a great number of children’s coffins.
The types of the coffins of adults were: (1) Decorated rectangular, (2) plain rectangular, (3) ‘dug-out’, (4) Rîshi, (5) plain anthropoid, (6) semi-decorated anthropoid, and (7) decorated anthropoid of the New Kingdom. Each of these groups I have treated below, followed by a separate detailed description of each burial and object found in the tomb (see p. 70).
Decorated rectangular coffins, Nos. 7, 35, 59, 63 (for examples see [Pl. LX]. 1). The coffins of this class are most probably contemporaneous with the Hyksos period. They are similar to the coffin in the Cairo Museum belonging to a certain Abdu, a contemporary of the last of the Hyksos kings.[43] Coffin No. 59 (p. 81) contained four mummies, two of which, and a basket containing a scarab, gave conflicting evidence to the above dating. The scarabs found on these two mummies bear the names of Thothmes I and II ([Pl. LXXII]. 59 A, D), and the one in the basket ([Pl. LXXII]. 59) according to Newberry is of a similar date. But the remaining antiquities, i.e. head-rest, biangular bowl, and black vase of foreign character ([Pl. LXVIII]. 59) may be of an earlier period, and perhaps belonged to one of the other two mummies found in this coffin, and to the original interment. Coffin No. 63 (p. 82), which contained two mummies, had somewhat similar objects ([Pl. LXVIII]. 63) to No. 59, but on one of the mummies, a woman, there were two cowroids ([Pl. LXXII]. 63 A) which could be referred to the Early XVIIIth Dynasty. No. 7 (p. 70) yielded nothing beyond the actual body, and gives no further help for or against dating this group to these Dynasties.
Plain rectangular coffins. Of these coffins there are three kinds, those with gable tops, those with flat tops, and those with open-grid bottoms (for examples see [Pl. LX]. 2). The gable-topped coffins, Nos. 53, 62, 64, 65, 69, 71, 77, 83, with lids sometimes nearly semicircular in section, have always on the lid a longitudinal beam in the centre. These are probably of the same epoch as the other two kinds, but I am treating them here separately; they are very similar to some described by M. Lacau as Sarcophages antérieurs au Nouvel Empire in his catalogue of that section of the Cairo Museum, more especially to No. 28030, which has exactly the same central beam and construction of lid. One is thus led to believe them to be of this period. Groups of objects found in some of them (for examples see [Pl. LXIX]. 64, 71, and 83) could be anterior to the New Kingdom. On the other hand, Nos. 53 and 62 (Pls. LXIX. 53 and LXXII. 62 A, B) contained antiquities of the Early XVIIIth Dynasty to as late as the time of Princess Neferu-ra (Hatshepsût’s daughter) and Thothmes III (see [Pl. LXXII]. 53). This last evidence is not absolutely contradictory, for we have examples of rectangular wooden coffins belonging to the New Kingdom. I am inclined, however, to assume that they have been re-used in these particular instances. No. 83 of the batch (p. 86) was covered intentionally with stone chippings and placed in a niche ([Pl. LV]. G) especially made for it. This gave us every reason to suppose it to be a burial made in the tomb when left open after destruction, and before it was used as a storehouse. The three pots ([Pl. LXXIV]. G) belonging to this coffin, and carefully placed behind it, give us a clue to the date of the stray pottery found mingled with the other coffins and lying on the floors of the passage and chambers of this great tomb, namely, the Intermediate Period.
The flat-topped coffins, Nos. 8, 15, 21, 22, 34, 36, 46, 48, 49, 55, 57, 75, 76, 78, 79, and 81 were often found to be made of scrap timber from other sarcophagi, and on the whole they perhaps incline to be later than the gable-topped coffins. The latest fixed date found on the objects in them was that of the Divine Wife, Hatshepsût, which occurred in that of No. 21, on a silver-mounted scarab ring ([Pl. LXXII]. 21). A head-rest found with it is certainly different in character to others found here, and it has engraved upon its stem the deities Bes and Taurt ([Pl. LXVIII]. 21). The head-rest found in coffin No. 57 ([Pl. LXVIII]. 57) has a short base, and it strikes one as being of a character between the earlier long-based types like No. 15 ([Pl. LXVIII]. 15) and that of No. 21. Burial No. 78 was furnished with the most complete group of objects ([Pl. LXVIII]. 78), and might be referred to the Early XVIIIth Dynasty. The last section of this group, the open-grid bottomed coffins, Nos. 50 and 52, are of smaller size (see [Pl. LX]. 52). They recall some of the older coffins of the Early Middle Kingdom found at Aswân that have false bottoms of lattice work.[44] But these coffins constructed out of wood from older sarcophagi are seemingly later than the rest, for in one of them, No. 50, a necklace of beads and amulets ([Pl. LXXIII]. 50) is certainly of the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty.