An Egyptologist describes the extraordinary discovery
of an exceptionally rich, untouched tomb
While excavating Deir el Medina (the workers'village linked to the two great royal necropolises of the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of the Kings) the Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli, founder of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Egypt, discovered the untouched tomb of the architect Kha, a high-ranking official of the 18th Dynasty, and his wife Merit in February 1906.
One of the few Egyptian tombs found intact, its exceptionally rich and perfectly conserved contents open a window on the life of a wealthy family of the 18th dynasty, 3400 years ago. Beside the sarcophagi, mummies and a papyrus of the Book of the Dead lay clothing, sheets, blankets, beds, tables, chairs, cupboards and chests, as well as linen, toiletries and ritual, work and food utensils and flower wreaths laid during the burial.
Despite its importance only one, magnificent, publication exists on the Tomb of Kha, written by the man who found it. More than 20 years after the discovery and a year before his death, Ernesto Schiaparelli published just a few hundred copies of La tomba intatta dell'architetto Cha, making it rare from the very first.
A monumental work produced with the patronage of the Royal family, which had also financed the excavations, it describes the extraordinary discovery of the remarkable contents, accompanied by more than 200 period photographs taken during the excavations. The contents were all transported to Turin, where they form one of the main attractions of its famous Museo Egizio.
This re-publication of Schiaparelli's report, very interesting and easy reading, will be welcomed by both scholars and a general public fascinated by archaeological «adventures».
AdArte is publishing the faithful reprint of Schiaparelli's original Italian book preceded by a chapter on the author and the importance of his discovery today, by Alessandro Roccati, professor of Egyptology at the University of Turin, and a book containing the text translated into English. It is the very first time ever this text will be available for an English-reading people.
