Dr. Zahi Hawass on the Riddle of KV63

When I saw that shaft, I thought that what is underneath should be something that's completely destroyed and that it will not be intact.

Dr Zahi Hawass: “Dynasty 18 or not?”

Dr Otto Schaden: “Looks like, yes.”

Dr Zahi Hawass: “Looks like typical Dynasty 18.”

Dr Otto Schaden: “Yes.”

I think this is a storage for mummification, for embalming for the Valley of the Kings. Three months would be enough for the moving and actual preservation after conservation, and the work should be done in a lab. In this case three months, I think, would be enough for careful conservation.

They found that the coffins were completely deteriorated and the wood was in a very bad condition. Then I brought an Egyptian team under Nadia Lukma and they began to do good work in the conservation of the wood.

And after that they opened the coffins and they looked inside – no mummies. But they found something unique, they found – inside the coffins – embalming materials. Materials that the Egyptians used for mummification.

The great moment came when they opened the coffin number 6. It's a small coffin, and they found inside this coffin six pilllows.

Nadia Lukma: “It was used, this was used...”

Why did they have a pillow? Did they put it underneath the head of the deceased when they did the mummification? This could not be true. Maybe they used it somehow for the daily life and they already existed inside the tomb – the original tomb - for the original person that was buried before the tomb changed to be into an embalming cachet.

In my opinion, this tomb was robbed. After it was robbed, later on in Dynasty 19, this tomb was used as an embalming cachet, because you have to understand that the workshop for mummification should be in the mouth of the Valley. And therefore they need a storage rooms for embalming materials to be hidden inside the Valley.

This tomb, in my opinion – KV 63 – it's something that workmen of Deir el-Medina could make in a few days. Who can be buried here? My theory is that this tomb originally was the tomb of King Tut's mother, Kiya. Because we know that she died when she was delivering him. And also King Tut himself, when he died, he decided to be buried near his mother. It's a theory, but it can be wrong, it can be correct, but in archaeology you have to build theories based on some evidence.