Criminal Intent.
In 1331 BCE (maybe later), King Ay went to his rest. The burial was poor, by the standards of ancient Egyptian pharaohs: a few trinkets, a sarcophagus, and not much else. Apparently, the funeral was perfunctory. The King did not have a glamorous end. Then, years later, something worse happened. A team of vandals broke into the tomb and violated the burial. These agents were organised and methodical. They hacked away at hieroglyphs, removing Ay’s names. They damaged his body, and images of the King. They even attacked some of the gods, carefully removing some ritual and symbolic images. Clearly, someone had a problem with King Ay, and the crime left its clues…
- Date: c.1331 / 1330 BCE.
- Kings: Kheper-kheperu-Ra, the God’s Father Ay.
- Banner image: Erasures on the wrists of Nut, Lady of the Sky, as she offers nyny (welcome) to King Ay. Photo by R. Wilkinson (2011). Image upscaled, cropped, and edited for clarity.
- Photos: To see high-quality photos of Ay’s tomb, visit Kairoinfo4u on Flickr.com.
- Music: Ambient, “The Mummy’s Tomb,” by Tabletop Audio. Used with permission.
- Sistrum sound effect by Hathor Systrum.Used with permission.
- Music interludes by Luke Chaos.
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Priests
Steven Feurer
Nidden
John Hutt
Kyla
Evan A
Kendra Jones
Jason
Andy & Chelsea Lientz
Jolle Kirpensteijn
TJ Kahn
Terri Jones
Linda Yancey
Hereditary Nobles
Ronald Hall
Pat Remler
Rodney Shuff
Dr. A.J. Zwagerman
Karen
Colin Sullivan
William Tracy
Andrew Flaherty
Martin Skugge
Anders Hegvik
Rabia Altaf
Shawn Knight
WILLIAM RUSSELL
David Pepper
Mark Sexton
Louise East
Mandy Boody
Alexander Smygegård
Connor Leech
Karin W.
James Waters
Stephen King
Jan Dodoo
Kate Potter
Peter Culicover
Katherine Lewis
Logan Hennlich
Pernille Engberg
Meicost Ettal
Conner Rice
Simone
RA EGYPTIAN
Sarah Musi
Elna Nilsson
Christopher Ward
Skip Howard
Shann
Eric J Holmes
Sandi & Stuart
Simon Oliphant
Chrissi Ross
Bibliography
- B. G. Davies, Egyptian Historical Records of the Later Eighteenth Dynasty, VI (Warminster, 1995).
- A. Dodson, Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation (2nd edn, Cairo, 2017). AUC Press.
- M. Gabolde, Toutankhamon (Paris, 2015). PYGMALION Press.
- N. Kawai, ‘Studies in the Reign of Tutankhamun’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Johns Hopkins University (2005).
- W. J. Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt (Atlanta, 1995).
- O. Schaden, ‘The God’s Father Ay’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Minnesota (1977).
- O. J. Schaden, ‘Clearance of the Tomb of King Ay (WV-23)’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 21 (1984), 39–64. JSTOR online.
- R. H. Wilkinson, ‘Controlled Damage: The Mechanics and Micro-History of the Damnatio Memoriae Carried Out in KV-23, the Tomb of Ay’, Journal of Egyptian History 4 (2011), 129–47. BRILL online.
