While researching my article on
KV64 & KV65,
I came across a report that Dr Hawass believes KV63 was originally the
tomb of Kiya but was later reused as an embalmers' workplace.
Kiya was the second wife of Akhenhaten (Nefertiti was of course the
Royal Wife) and many suspect her to be the mother of Tutankhamun.
According to one tradition she was a Mittanian princess sent to marry
the ageing Amenhotep III. As Amenhotep died before she arrived, she
was instead married to his son Amenhotep IV, who soon changed his name
to Akhenaten. Indeed Kiya's entire history is one of taking second
place. A temple, Matu
Aten, in her honour was established at Amarna but was later
re-dedicated to Meritaten, the favourite of Akhenaten's daughters by
Nefertiti. Similarly, much her funerary equipment, including her
coffin and canopic jars, was reused in the enigmatic tomb KV55, with
her name erased.
It is unclear whether she died in Egypt. She disappeared before the
end of Akhenaten's reign. It is possible she died (and was interred in
KV63?) but some people conjecture that she returned to Mitanni on the
death of her father, Tushratta. Personally I like to believe that was
the case and that her funerary equipment and tomb were redundant. The
alternative is that after her death her tomb was robbed by her family
to provide tomb goods for the occupant of KV55 and her tomb converted
into an embalmers' workshop. One further theory is that Kiya died
giving birth to Tutankhamun. As many believe that the occupant of KV55
is Akhenaten, it seems unlikely to me that Tutankhamun would desecrate
the grave of his mother to provide funeral goods for his (disgraced)
father. Moreover, Akhenaten's canopic jars remained in his royal tomb
in Amarna (where he was orginally interred) and it seems odd that
Kiya's would be brought from Amarna. Indeed, it seems unlikely that if
Kiya did die before Akhenaten, that he would have ordered her burial
in the Theban Valley of the Kings.
If Dr Hawass is correct, however, that Kiya was buried in KV63, it
suggests that one member of the Amarna royal family was buried in the
Valley of the Kings lending hope that further Amarna region burials
could be found in the region.
Kiya
Kiya was a wife of Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Little is known about her, and her actions and roles are poorly documented in the historical record in contrast to Akhenaten's first (and chief) royal wife, Nefertiti.
Name and titles
The name Kiya itself is cause for much debate. It has been suggested that it is a "pet" form, rather than a full name, and as such could well be a contraction of a foreign name, such as the Mitanni "Gilukhipa" or "Tadukhipa" daughter of Tushratta. However, no evidence currently exists to support the idea that she was not of native Egyptian origin. [1] In addition, Gilukhipa married Amenhotep III twenty-eight years before his death, thus she was at least a generation older than Akhenaten, which makes it unlikely that Gilukhipa and Akhenaten married.
In inscriptions, Kiya is given the titles of "The Favorite" and "The Greatly Beloved", but never of "Heiress" or "Great Royal Wife", which suggests that she was not of royal Egyptian blood. Her full titles read, "The wife and greatly beloved of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Living in Truth, Lord of the Two Lands, Neferkheperrure Waenre, the Goodly Child of the Living Aten, who shall be living for ever and ever, Kiya." The use of Aten in her name strongly suggests an association with Akhenaten, rather than any other pharaoh.
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Kiya in hieroglyphs |
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Discovery
Her existence was unknown until 1959, when her name and titles were noted on a small cosmetic container held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It had been bought almost thirty years previously, without provenance, from Egyptologist Howard Carter.[2]
Several items of Kiya's funerary artifacts have been discovered, such as the gilded coffin found in tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings, along with a set of (unfortunately, erased and recarved) canopic jars. However, Kiya's name may be discerned, faintly appearing on a jar at the Metropolitan Museum, as well as traces on a set of canopic jars depicting her likeness.
There is considerable evidence to indicate that a temple was built specifically for her in Amarna, the Maru-Aten, also known as the "sun shade temple" (although the temple was later usurped for one of Akhenaten's daughters, Meritaten, who replaced Kiya's name with her own).
The British Egyptologists Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton wrote that:
- "Kiya is named and depicted on various blocks originating at Amarna, on vases in London and New York, four fragmentary kohl-tubes in Berlin and London, and a wine-jar docket. She may also be depicted by three uninscribed sculptor's studies. Her coffin and canopic jars were taken over for the burial of a king (probably Smenkhkare), which was ultimately discovered in tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings. Almost all of Kiya's monuments were usurped for daughters of Akhenaten, making it fairly certain that she was disgraced some time after Year 11 [of Akhenaten]." [3]
Disgrace or death?
There is clear evidence that Kiya fell from grace at Akhenaten's court. The last datable occurrence of Kiya's name occurs on a wine docket from Amarna which mentions Akhenaten's Year 11. [1] The exact date of her disappearance is unknown, but must have occurred sometime after this date. As Jacobus van Dijk notes:
- One of the Amarna blocks from Hermopolis (438/VIIA) throws new light on this question: the original inscription which originally mention Kyia" had "been replaced with a text mentioning Ankhesenpaaten in conjunction with the prenomen of Akhenaten."
This text was compounded with an epithet associated with Akhenaten's Year 12 Nubian campaign which suggests that her presumed downfall and the subsequent erasure of her name occurred around this time.[1]
There is some evidence that Kiya was the mother of Pharaoh Tutankhamun and/or Smenkhkare, namely, her title 'Greatly Beloved Wife' and that in one depiction, next to her death bed is a fan-bearer and a wet nurse thought to be holding a baby boy. There is some evidence to suggest that the woman is indeed Kiya but her identification remains a mystery. If it is, it could mean a death resulting from childbirth as well.
Mummy
In recent research the mummy of Kiya has been identified as the Younger Lady in KV35. According to Joann Fletcher, who identified the mummy as nefertiti, a Nubian-style wig was found near the mummy, a style of wig associated with Kiya. [4]
Gallery of images
Unguent jar depicting the name of Kiya - on display at
the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Talatat with the picture of Kiya and a child, a ray of
Aten extends toward them
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Close-up of an Egyptian alabaster canopic Jar thought to
depict a likeness of Kiya, from tomb KV55 - on display at
the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An Amarna relief depicting a woman undergoing a
purification ritual, while the figure has been partially
re-carved, the large earrings and style of wig are thought
to be representative of Queen Kiya - on display at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
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References
- ^ a b c Jacobus Van Dijk, "The Noble Lady of Mitanni and Other Royal Favourites of the Eighteenth Dynasty" in Essays on Ancient Egypt in Honour of Herman te Velde," Groningen, 1997, pp.35-37.
- ^ Dennis Forbes, "The Lady Wearing Large Earings: Royal Wife Kiya, Nefertiti's Rival", KMT. volume 17, number 3 (Fall 2006), p. 28.
- ^ Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson, 2004, p. 155.
- ^ Nefertiti and the Lost Dynasty
- Aldred, Cyril Akhenaten, King of Egypt (1991) ISBN 0-500-27621-8
External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kiya |
- Egypt, 2000-1000 B.C. - Canopic Jar Lid, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, late reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1340–1336 B.C. Egyptian; From KV55, Valley of the Kings, western Thebes. Egyptian alabaster with glass and stone inlays; H. 20 1/2 in. (52.1 cm); Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915 (30.8.54) | Object P.
- Kiya The Favorite - Includes a few photos of reliefs which may depict her.