2/ Ay (pronounced 'eye')was a high official of Akhenaten related to the king by marriage. This relief shows Ay and his wife receiving gold collars from Pharaoh
3/ He was a Vizier under Tutankhamun. When the young king died, the aged Ay took the throne. Ay appears as king performing a ritual called "Opening the Mouth" in scene from burial chamber of Tutankhamun's small tomb.
4/ But this small tomb is unlike the grand tombs of most pharaohs of the New Kingdom in the Valley of the Kings. It was likely made for someone else...
5/ Tutankhamun ruled for a decade, so why doesn't he have a larger tomb? In fact, he might have built one but was not burried in it. Ay, who ruled for only 4 years, has a grand royal tomb in the western part of the King's Valley, WV 23
6/ It is likely this was originally meant for Tutankhamun. The other main tomb in the Western Valley are Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun's grandfather. Tutankhamun often associated himself in life with his grandfather.
7/ If Tutankhamun left WV 23 unfinished at his death, Ay may have decided to bury him in the smaller KV 62. By a twist of fate, this likely saved the tomb from robbery at the end of the New Kingdom when other royal tombs were plundered of their gold treasures.
8/ Only the burial chambers of WV 23 and KV 62 are decorated with wall paintings. The color scheme & style are quite similar. But after Ay's death, his successor Horemehb trashed the tomb & erased Ay's name and image from the wall paintings.
9/ High officials' tombs were often defaced in the 18th Dynasty as my graduate student Taylor Dean is researching for her disseration @the_badbird. This example is from tomb of Rekhmire. The figure on the right was erased along with names and titles over heads of the figures
10/ It was rare for a pharaoh's tomb to be defaced like this, but Horemheb considered all the Amarna kings to be politically illegitimate. He left Tutankhamun to rest in peace, but targeted Ay, even in his tomb.
11/ Ay's tomb was also unusual for showing his wife Queen Tey in the tomb. Other queens were absent. Here we see Tey's defaced image & her husband's erased cartouches
12/ Here are Tey's own cartouche (erased) and her queenly titles
13/ Unusually for a royal tomb, Ay & Tey are depicted hunting wild birds in the marshes. This was common in official's tombs but unique in a royal one. This fragmetn of a scene is from 18th Dynasty tomb of Nebamun, now in the British Museum #BritishMuseum
14/ Other scenes in Ay's tomb are more typical of a royal tomb & resemble scenes in Tutankhamun's tomb. Here Ay appears before the gods including Osiris at left
15/ This resembles scenes on Tutankhamun's burial chamber walls
16/ A scene from the "Book of Gates" in Ay's tomb with gods & divine baboons
17/ A similar scene from Tutankhamun's tomb
18/ Despite the similarities in style between paintings in both tombs and the fact that Ay "borrowed" Tutankhamun's royal tomb, the walls of WV 23 were not painted under Tutankhamun.
19/ Ay got a bigger tomb, but Tutankhamun's mummy & spectacular tomb survived. Follow me for daily posts on Tutankhamun's fabulous treasures #Tutankhamen #Toutankhamon #тутанхамон #图坦卡蒙 #圖坦卡蒙 #Tutanchamun #Tut #Tut100 #ツタンカーメン #투탕카 #توتعنخآمون #тутанхамон
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