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| Tomb of Kha | |
|---|---|
| Name | Tomb of Kha |
| Caption | Funerary objects from Kha and Merit |
| Location | Deir el-Medina, Theban Necropolis, Luxor |
| Period | New Kingdom of Egypt, Amarna Period |
| Discovered | 1906 |
| Archaeologist | Gustave Lefebvre, Bernard Bruyère |
| Owner | Kha and Merit |
Tomb of Kha The Tomb of Kha is an intact New Kingdom of Egypt burial complex from the reign of Amenhotep III and the reign of Akhenaten, located near Deir el-Medina in the Theban Necropolis on the west bank of Thebes. Excavated in 1906 by Gustave Lefebvre and Bernard Bruyère for the Egyptian Antiquities Service and the Museo Egizio, the tomb yielded a remarkably complete assemblage associated with the royal workmen community connected to Valley of the Kings, Amenhotep II, and the artisan village recorded in the Papyrus Harris I milieu.
In January 1906 Gustave Lefebvre and Bernard Bruyère uncovered the burial at Deir el-Medina during systematic fieldwork sponsored by the Museo Egizio of Turin and in coordination with the Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte. The discovery was reported alongside finds from nearby tombs and was contextualized within studies by Émile Brugsch, Flinders Petrie, and later fieldwork by Harold H. Nelson and James Henry Breasted. Excavation records were compared with documentary sources from the village such as ostraca and papyri mentioning craftsmen serving Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, linking the tomb to the occupational community recorded in the archive of Deir el-Medina.
The burial belonged to the master artisan Kha, whose titles include "Overseer of the Works" and service under Amenhotep III, and to his wife Merit (also spelled Meryt), attested in inscriptions and funerary texts. Documentary evidence from ostraca and funerary stelae in the area mentions contemporaries such as Ramose (scribe), Khaemwaset, and supervisory links to artisan rosters tied to the Valley of the Queens and work gangs recorded under the reigns overlapping Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III.
The tomb consists of a sealed vertical shaft leading to a rectangular rock-cut chamber characteristic of private tombs at Deir el-Medina and parallel to other burials such as that of Sennedjem. The chamber layout included burial furniture, inscribed coffins, and a wealth of grave goods. Inscriptions and funerary texts reference deities like Osiris, Anubis, and Amun, and use formulae comparable to those in the Book of the Dead papyri held by elites including Nefertiti and officials in the Amarna archives.
The assemblage comprised paired anthropoid coffins, nested inner coffins, a gold foil mask, shabti figures, and daily-use objects including furniture, linen, and foodstuffs, paralleling inventories from tombs of Yuya and Thuya and royal caches such as KV62 (the tomb of Tutankhamun). Notable artifacts include an inscribed funerary mask, a wealth of metalwork comparable to items catalogued in the British Museum and Louvre, ritual vessels akin to those from Saqqara, and examples of cosmetic implements and jewelry similar to finds associated with Ahmose-Nefertari and Hatshepsut.
Scientific studies on objects from the tomb involved specialists from institutions like the Museo Egizio, the National Archaeological Museum of Florence, and the British Museum; analyses included conservation of organic material, pigment study comparable to research on Tutankhamun's tomb, and X-radiography similar to techniques used on KV55 artifacts.
The tomb provides exceptional insight into artisan status, funerary practice, and material culture for non-royal elites during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Its intact state offered comparative evidence for funerary economy and workshop production linked to the administrative apparatus recorded in Deir el-Medina texts and archives curated by scholars such as Raymond O. Faulkner and Jaroslav Černý. Conservation efforts have involved interdisciplinary teams from the Museo Egizio, Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, and modern conservation programs influenced by protocols used in the preservation of Tutankhamun and Rameses II monuments.
After excavation the primary corpus of artifacts was allocated to the Museo Egizio in Turin, while additional objects entered collections such as the Museo Egizio (Florence), the British Museum, and regional museums in Egypt. Exhibitions of Kha and Merit’s objects have traveled to institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (Cairo), and the Louvre, contributing to public understanding of Deir el-Medina life and Theban Necropolis archaeology. Ongoing scholarship features publication projects by the Museo Egizio and comparative studies with archives from Deir el-Medina edited by Jaroslav Černý and catalogues by Gianluca Miniaci.
Category:Archaeological discoveries in Egypt Category:Ancient Egyptian tombs Category:Theban Necropolis