The Forgotten Boy

Absolutely fascinating recap of the story of the boy mummy from KV 35.  By the way - a note to 'Sis - this article suggests some answers to the reasons why some other pharaohs' funerary furniture and belongings ended up in Tutenkhamun's tomb.  It's so sad, this little boy without a name.

From the "Egyptians" blog by Timothy Reid, on March 13, 2010:

In the recent two year study of eighteenth dynasty royal mummies it seems that this boy from a side chamber in valley of kings tomb KV 35 was not included.

There are artifacts from the tomb Kv 35 which belong to a son of Amenhotep II named Webensenu as a result of the mummies found in the tomb there are four candidates to be that prince including this boy or another mummy found attached to a funerary boat belonging to Amenhotep II or either of two skeletons.

Some have speculated that the mummy on the boat was the founder of the twentieth dynasty Sethnakht because of a reused coffin once manufactured for that king was present in the tomb at the time of discovery. Unfortunately the mummy was destroyed more than a hundred years ago when the boat was stolen.

Reports on that badly damaged mummy says that it was glued to the boat by resin used in the mummies mummification that would mean that the mummy was fairly fresh when unwrapped and thrown on Amenhotep's boat in ancient times.

The founder of the twentieth dynasty the pharaoh Sethnakht has been suggested as a candidate dying in approximately 1186 bc would have lain in his tomb or at least a tomb for one hundred years before the recycling of the valley of kings by Herihor and Pinudgem I and others. Is this enough time for the resins on Sethnakht's mummy to have set?

Tutankhamen's mummy was covered in buckets of resin if the same had been true for Sethnakht would a century be enough time to set? I suspect in the dry climate of the valley of kings that this may well be enough time.

Whatever happened the mummy was still gooey enough that when torn open in the tomb of Amenhotep II the mummy stuck to the boat. This seems unlikely scenario to me and I would prefer this mummy to be another person perhaps prince Webensenu already buried in Amenhotep II's tomb before the reburial committee of the twenty first dynasty priests arrived.

However that to me would mean that Kv 35 had probably been robbed by the end of the eighteenth dynasty perhaps during the Amarna period with the princes badly damaged mummy thrown on the boat then.

This may remove Sethnakht from ever having been in Kv 35 but he may be represented by one of the unidentified skeletons though I would expect that if Sethnakht was in the tomb that his mummy would have been found in the side chamber with the other new kingdom pharaohs.

So who's the boy found lying between two Amarna period mummies now identified as queen Tiye and the other woman being Tutankhamen's mother? The naked boy may have done some moving around in Kv 35 as one of his toes was found in another side chamber of the tomb.

Rest of article.