The burial of priestess Nehmes Bastet in tomb KV64

Deep in the Valley of the Kings, a small cutting in the rock was initially thought to be an embalming cache or an unfinished shaft. Located 1.8 metres north of the tomb of KV40, the feature was first detected in 2011. When the University of Basel resumed excavation in 2012, it became clear that the feature was a tomb, designated KV64. It consists of a narrow shaft 3.5 metres deep that opens into a single chamber measuring 4.1 by 2.35 metres.

The tomb contains the remains of two distinct burials. At the far end of the chamber, sitting atop a metre-deep layer of debris, is the intact burial of the Twenty-second Dynasty priestess Nehmes Bastet. She served as the Chantress of Amun and was the daughter of Nakhtef-Mut, a high-ranking priest at the temple of Karnak. Her wooden funerary stele shows her worshipping a composite deity with the attributes of both a sun-god and the god Osiris.

Beneath the debris lies the remnants of a much older Eighteenth Dynasty interment. This earlier burial was robbed, leaving behind fragmentary canopic jars, pieces of coffins, glass, leather, and furniture parts. A partial wooden label found in the debris bears the name of Princess Satiah, though it is unknown if the label originally belonged to the woman for whom the tomb was built. If the label and other fragments naming Amenhotep III are original, the original occupant may have been a princess of that reign.

The tomb shows signs of being open for some time before Nehmes Bastet was buried there. Archaeologists found several wasp nests and water-washed debris within the chamber. The doorway of the tomb had been blocked with stacked stone at some point, but this was not the original seal; a bowl of Nile mud used for the original Eighteenth Dynasty plastering was found at the base of the door.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons