It was early spring. The Upper and Lower Niles would shortly have a new king, new rules and, in its own way in the order of things, a new way of life. The boy king was dead – murdered, some said – taken from his people prematurely after a reign of little more than early promise. Certainly it had been sudden – a terrible bleeding from the nose one night. He never awoke to cry out. And now there was much to be done and very little time.
As was the custom, the site for his tomb had been selected at the time of his coronation. The entrance had been cut at the base of the cliff face within the extreme upper reaches of The West Valley, closer to the sunset. But that had been only nine years ago. Excavation had been progressing without any sense of urgency. As the traditions of the period dictated, the design laid out lengthy corridors and intermittent processional staircases which would extend ever deeper inside the valley flank, joining one palatial chapel to the next and culminating in the burial chamber. Smaller, ancillary store rooms would supplement the larger chambers. But at the time of the king’s death the masons had barely started on the well room. Within the time remaining before the funeral there was no way now that this tomb could be completed as originally intended.
An almost finished but much smaller sepulchre, originally selected for a noble who was yet still living, lay in the bottom of The East Valley, close to its centre and almost opposite the similarly small tomb of his brother. This became requisitioned as the boy king’s final resting place. Ultimately it would consist of just four rooms clustered together and separated only by the thickness of their shared walls. As the king’s body was prepared for mummification the rooms of the tomb were hurriedly enlarged to hold the multitude of grave goods, the walls being dressed by as many masons as the cavity could effectively accommodate.
The artisans had a little over two months before the funerary ceremonies would begin.
An excerpt from Tutankhamun Uncovered, by Michael J. Marfleet.
Copyright 2009-2010 Michael J. Marfleet. All rights reserved.
Published by Apex Publishing Ltd.
