KV - 60 , Tomb of Hatshepsut's wet-nurse - Sitre In

Did the tomb hold the mummy of Hatshepsut herself?

Tomb description

This is a small tomb, the corridor - 5 metres long - leads into the burial chamber 4 X 5 metres. All rooms are uninscribed, the tomb was found two female mummies and some mummified geese. Each of the niches along the side of the corridor held a wedjat-eye inscribed onto the wall, one looked towards the burial chamber the other two looked towards the tomb entrance.

Tomb Discovery and contents

Howard Carter (while working for Theodore Davis) discovered this tomb in 1903, on entering the tomb he found that it had been robbed in antiquity and the contents pretty much destroyed. Carter then reclosed the tomb as he continued his search in the Valley of the Kings for a royal burial.

In 1906 the tomb was re-entered by Edward Ayrton who removed one of the mummies - that of Hatshepsut's wet nurse, Sitre In - to the Cairo Museum. The second mummy was left in the tomb.

The tomb was not to be entered again until the 1980's, Donald Ryan then entered the tomb and removed the second mummy - it was found to have been quite fat in life, her original hair, which had fallen off over time, was found underneath where her head lay. The most interesting point about this mummy is the positioning of the arms - the right arm was crossed over the breast which suggests royalty, Elizabeth Thomas has used this arm positioning (and the fact of the mummy being found in the tomb of Sitre In) as evidence that the mummy is that of Hatshepsut herself (her mummy could have been hidden here after her death to escape the vengenance of Tuthmosis III). This mummy was placed inside a purpose built coffin by Ryan and remains still in the tomb.

Could this be the mummy of Hatshepsut?

(Picture by kind permission of Donald Ryan - Click Here for his website)