KV - 42 , Tomb of Tuthmosis II ?

In the later part of 1900, Howard Carter (at this time the Inspector General of the Monuments for Upper Egypt) sent workmen to the Valley of the Kings - near to the tomb of Tuthmosis III, after a short while a doorway to a tomb had been uncovered (originally two local residents of Luxor applied to Carter for permission to dig after declaring that they knew where an undiscovered tomb lay - Carter granted permission but sent the Head guardian of the tombs to supervise).

The tomb had been robbed and flooded in antiquity, the burial chamber itself appeared never to have received its intended burial - the sarcophagus was unpolished,+ undecorated and seemingly had not been placed in its proper resting place in the tomb:

The tomb itself was undecorated apart from a starred ceiling and the 'heker' painted on the walls (the 'heker' was a representation of knots with plant stems - they were used not only for decoration but also had religious significance, they referred back to the primeval home of the god - the national shrine, and symbolise the 'first time' when the gods ruled Egypt). The tomb had not received any other decoration, the text of the Amduat was missing.

The owner of the tomb was unknown - one possibility was that it was prepared for Tuthmosis II, a king whose tomb had yet to be found (the size of the burial chamber in the shape of a cartouche, the walls ready to receive the texts of the Amduat would suggest that it was built for a king) - the perhaps sudden death of Tuthmosis II would explain the unfinished aspects to the tomb.

However, when the tomb was cleared of the debris that the flood waters had brought into the tomb, funerary objects from the burials of three people were found - Sennefer (mayor of Thebes during the reign of Amenhotep II), the wife of Sennefer - Sentnay, and a second woman - Beketre (of no relantion to Sennefer). Carter then believed that the tomb must therefore be a tomb of a commoner dating to the period of Tuthmosis III to Amenhotep II.

A further 20 years later, Carter found evidence outside the tomb that would give a third possibility as to the owner of the tomb - foundation deposits of Merytre Hatshepsut, wife of Tuthmosis III - it could have been made for a favoured prince or queen dating to the reign of Tuthmosis III.

debris washed in by flood waters