Mummy of Maihirpre In March, 1899 (exactly one year after his discovery of the cache tomb of Amenhotep II) Victor Loret ordered his workmen to make a series of sondages in an area of the Valley of the Kings (Egypt) between the tombs of Tuthmosis I (KV 38) and Amenhotep II (KV 35.) He eventually uncovered a shaft, approximately twenty six feet deep, with a small chamber cut into one side. Loret descended the shaft, entered the chamber, and made another remarkable find:
the first essentially intact tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings. Inscriptional evidence indicated that the small tomb (KV 36) belonged to a man named
Maihirpre. His funerary equipment constituted the most complete assemblage of such objects found in the Valley up to that time, and would remain so until Theodore Davis discovered the tomb of Yuya and Tuyu in 1905.
Obviously of 18'th Dynasty derivation, the exact date of the burial is still disputed, and evidence from the tomb can lend support to several different dating schemes. A linen wrapping found on Maihirpre's mummy bears the cartouche of Hatshepsut. Influenced by the presence of this cartouche, Steindorff speculated that Maihirpre might have been a companion of Tuthmosis I, Hatshepsut's father. Quibell also based his conclusions on the Hatshepsut cartouche (as well as on pottery considerations) but argued that the tomb should be dated to the time of Tuthmosis III, and Daressy accepted Quibell's dating in his Fouilles. Today, some researchers believe that the linen wrapping with the Hatshepsut cartouche was a kind of antique, old in Maihirpre's lifetime, because other objects in KV 36 clearly point to periods later than that of the female Pharaoh. One of these, a beautiful glass vase, has been dated to the reign of Amenhotep II on stylistic grounds. In his 1908 Guide to the Cairo Museum, Gaston Maspero also dates Maihirpre's burial to the reign of Amenhotep II, a view which was shared by Hayes, G. E. Smith, and Cyril Aldred. However, Maspero changed his mind in the 1915 edition of his Guide, in which he dated KV 36 to the time of Amenhotep III, a date which was also accepted by Rex Engelbach. Maspero probably based his view on a consideration of the box and loincloths of Maihirpre found along with a fragmentary box of Amenhotep III in 1902 by Howard Carter. Maihirpre's coffins, sarcophagus and canopic equipment (see below) bear a close stylistic resemblance to the funerary ensemble of Yuya and Tuyu, and would also seem to derive from sometime during the reign of Amenhotep III. C. N. Reeves dates KV 36 to the time of Tuthmosis IV, a view also held by Alfred Lucas and his reviser, J. R. Harris.
Never properly published by Loret, the only account of the discovery written while the objects were still in situ within KV 36 was penned by Georg Schweinfurth, a botanist, and appeared in the popular German magazine Vossische Zeitung on May 25, 1899. Three years later, Georges Daressy published photographic plates of the mummy and the tomb's contents in his Catalogue General des Antiquites Egyptiennes du Musee du Caire: Fouilles de la Vallee des Rois ([Cairo, 1902,] pp. 281-298) and this long out of print book has remained the only extensive photographic record of the find ever published. Unless otherwise indicated, the photographs of Maihirpre and his funerary equipment used on this website are from Daressy's work. They provide a valuable visual record of an important Egyptological discovery that has been largely forgotten by the general public today.
The Mummy of MaihirpreMaihirpre's mummy (Pictures) was found resting in a nested set of two coffins contained within a large rectangular wooden sarcophagus. Schweinfurth reported that thieves had removed some of the bandages from the mummy, and his statement was confirmed by Daressy, who added the detail that large sections of bandages had been cut with a sharp instrument which had been applied with particular force to the bandages of the legs. Reeves dates this illicit activity in Maihirpre's tomb to the Ramesside period based on the evidence of 20'th Dynasty ostraca found in the vicinity of KV 36 by Howard Carter in 1902.
In spite of its ill-treatment by tomb robbers, Maihirpre's mummy retained its cartonnage mummy mask and still had about a dozen different articles of jewelry in place among the tattered bandages or lying loose in the coffin. Among these were bracelets, collars, plaques, and a scarab. The embalming incision was still covered with a plain gold plate which the thieves had also managed to miss.
The mummy itself, which was unwrapped on March 22, 1901, was very well preserved. According to Daressy, Maihirpre was a young man when he died, probably not much over 20 years of age. Dennis Forbes reminds us that Daressy was not a trained anatomist and that his estimate of Maihirpre's age at death is "certainly not expert opinion." However, it seems evident that Maihirpre was far from being elderly. The fact that his teeth are only mildly worn is a good indication of a young age at death. The ancient Egyptian practice of mixing grain with sand and grit in order to aid the grinding process produced a kind of bread that was dentally abrasive and able to wear down the teeth in relatively short order.
Maihirpre's mummy measures 5 feet, 4.75 inches and his skin is dark brown. Daressy believed that this skin color is not the result of chemical reactions with the embalming materials, and most writers contend the Maihirpre was at least part Nubian. The curly hair which is so visibly prominent on the mummy's head would initially seem to confirm Maihirpre's Nubian ancestry. Maihirpre's ears were pierced, and he was uncircumcised. No wounds or obvious signs of illness appear on his body that might help to indicate the cause of his death, but, as Dennis Forbes points out, Maihirpre has never been examined by an experienced anatomist. The skin was missing on the soles of his feet, but this probably occurred during the embalming process.
Maihirpre bore several important titles. He was referred to as a "child of the k3p," a title normally used to designate a foreign prince who had been raised from an early age in Egypt. This practice, which came into vogue during the New Kingdom, helped to cultivate a sense of loyalty toward Egypt in the children of vassal-state rulers. He also bore the important title "fanbearer to the king" and was one of the earliest people to hold this designation. Dennis Forbes points out that this title was often held by the Viceroy of Kush himself. Maspero speculated that Maihirpre may have been the son of Tuthmosis IV or Amenhotep III and a Nubian concubine, but no hard inscriptional evidence supports this. It is hard to imagine a son of the Pharaoh, even by a lesser concubine, who would not unambiguously proclaim his half-royal parentage in one of his personal titles.
Source-1:
http://www.geocities.com/royalmummies/Maihirpre/Maihirpre.htmSource-2:
http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~jhawkins/1999/Ancientmummies.htmlSource-3:
http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/maiherperi.html
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