| I have now unearthed some more information regarding KV20, the tomb of Thutmose I and Hatshepsut in a book by T.G. H. James, "Howard Carter: The Path to Tutankhamun". James, of course, had access to private correspondence of Carter, who was part of Theodore Davis' excavation of KV20. In the introduction to his book, "The Tomb of Hatshopsitu" (1906), Theodore Davis wrote that he was of the opinion that "Hotshopsitu's body was moved with that of Thoutmosis I from her tomb to the 'cachette', and that one of the two unidentified female bodies (in the Deir el Bahari cachette) is that of the great Queen Hatshopsitu. Sic transit gloria mundi." James also shows a letter from Carter which indicates that, in addition to her sarcophagus, he also discovered a canopic chest of Hatshepsut within KV20, which is not to be confused with the wooden box which bears her name that was found in the Deir el Bahari cache. Another intriguing aspect of James' narrative is that Howard Carter was supposed to collaborate with E. Naville on the publication of Davis' book. Evidently Carter had a theory about the royal mummies of KV20 and their fate, but Davis told him to cut it out of the manuscript because it might hurt the feelings of Maspero. One gleans from this that, even prior to 1906, Carter doubted the identification of "Thutmose I". Carter told Naville, in a letter, that, regardless, he planned to publish a short paper about his conclusions in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. However, the article never appeared and it is now impossible to know just what ideas Carter harbored in connection with the tomb. I suggest the possibility, now, that the mummy "Thutmose I" may be a son of Amenhotep I-- Prince Sipair. This last was reburied by Butehamun, a scribe in charge of dismantling the Theban necropolis, whose sovereign instructed him to strip the "ancestors" of their wealth for his own profit at the end of the 20th Dynasty. On Butehamun's coffin, in the Turin Museum, Prince Sipair is there among the royals depicted that Butehamun "restored" and he is shown as an adult, as he is on other artifacts. In a scene called "Lords of the West", Sipair is depicted with the royal insignia across his chest, even while not wearing a kingly crown. The pAbbot also refers to the burial of a "king" Sipair. The other royals depicted on Butehamun's coffin are Amenhotep I, Queen Ah-hotep, Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, Queen Sitamun and Queen Meryetamun--all of their mummies supposedly discovered in the Deir el Bahari cache. So we may suppose that Prince Sipair was there with the other members of his family. Queen Ah-hotep was a relative of Amenhotep I, (possibly even his chief wife) Ahmose-Nefertari was his mother, and Sitamun and Meryetamun apparently sister-wives of the pharaoh. On the other hand, if there is confusion within the DNA report, the mummy can be one of the sons of Thutmose I, as the features correspond closely to those of other persons within the Thutmosid dynasty. Marianne Luban |