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King Siptah
 Siptah (mer-en-ptah), who's name means "Son of Ptah,
Beloved of Ptah, was the son of Seti II and Queen Tiaa. This
throne name was Akh-en-re Setep-en-re, meaning Beautiful for
Re, Chosen by Re. Apparently he was not very chosen, for he
suffered the deformity of a club foot. His reign lasted from
about 1193 until 1187 BC.
Like his father we know precious little about Siptah,
though perhaps, there is little for us to know. He was
probably the seventh ruler of Egypt's 19th
Dynasty, though in
fact he may have never actually ruled at all. He was
questionably the second son of Seti II, by Tiaa, a relatively 
minor queen, and came to the throne because his older brother,
Seti-Merenptah, died prior to the death of Seti II. However,
he apparently inherited the throne while still a minor and it
was his stepmother, Tausret, along with her Chancellor ("kingmaker"
Bay) who actually controlled Egypt during the kings short
life. Siptah seems to have died in the 6th year of his reign,
after which his stepmother took full royal titles.
Like his father, or perhaps even because of his father, his
tomb was entered shortly after his death and his cartouches
were erased, though they were subsequently restored, possibly by
Chancellor Bay but that is by no means proven.
Siptah's deformed feet
Besides his tomb number KV47 in the Valley of the
Kings,
Siptah is also attested to by the Bilgar stele, the burial of
an Apis bull dated to the king, and an inscription at Buhen.
KV47, the Tomb of Siptah
KV47 was discovered by Edward Ayrton on December 18th, 1905
while working for Theodore Davis. However, he noted that the
debris in the entrance had been partially dug out, creating a
passage that subsequently filled back up. In addition, he
felt, because of the bad condition of the rock, that the
likelihood of finding anything of interest would be slim.
Therefore, he only excavated partially down to the
antechamber. Later, beginning in 1912, Harry Burton excavated
the tomb for Davis, mostly working between the four pillared
chamber and up to and including the the burial chamber.
Yet the tomb was never really completely  cleared until 1994.
In addition, Howard Carter cleared the area around the tomb in
1922, discovering a few objects belonging to this tomb.
In the summer of 1994, the local Antiquities Inspectorate
cleared what Burton left behind, as well as performing
restoration and repair work so that the tomb could be opened
for tourists. This work included cleaning and repairing
reliefs, filling in gaps with plaster, fixing damaged doorways
and the lintels in several chambers, as well as replacing
substantially damaged pillars with limestone blocks. They laid
down wood floors for walkways, and erected glass panels over
painted decorations, and also installed a lighting system.
 From these excavations it would appear that Siptah and
possibly his mother, Queen Tiaa, a minor wife of Seti II, were
both originally buried in the tomb. The evidence suggesting
his mother was also buried in this tomb mostly consists of
fragmentary calcite canopic equipment, along with a model
coffin inscribed with the name of Tiaa and several ostraca
found by Carter.
Right: The top of Siptah's Sarcophagus
The tomb is found on the north face of a hill that divides
the southeast and southwest branches of the central wadi
within the Valley of the Kings on the West
Bank at Luxor
(ancient Thebes). It is oriented north-south
running fairly straight for a distance of 114.04 meters into
the hill, reaching a depth of about 13.12 meters.
Though the first part of this tomb structure closely
follows that of his father, Seti II, the rear sections are
somewhat unusual. The initial opening corridor leading into the tomb is in
the open air, and consists of a central ramp with two
stairways of cut stone blocks imbedded into the  bedrock to
either side of the ramp. The first true corridor descends,
leading to a second level corridor. Here, we find a pair of
beam slots used for lowering the sarcophagus. This corridor
gives way to a third corridor that, like the first, descends
once more. At the rear of this corridor are a pair of
rectangular niches. Afterwards, we find the well room that
lacks a shaft, followed by a four pillared chamber The tomb
continues through the pillared chamber with a descending
passage that leads into the first of two more level corridors
before communicating with an antechamber. Normally, we might
expect to find a corridor followed by a stairway before the
antechamber. A final wider
corridor leads past two abandoned lateral corridors before
giving way into the unfinished, transverse burial chamber. Here, a granite
sarcophagus is set into an roughly finished rectangular niche
in the floor just behind a transverse row of four pillars. The
abandoned lateral corridors may have been meant to give into
a burial chamber or storage  annexes, but this work was stopped after the
a corridor
broke into the nearby tomb, KV32. The openings were then
sealed with limestone slabs.
Do to successive floods, no decorations remain beyond the
first four pillared chamber, and little exist beyond the
second, level corridor. In addition, this tomb also suffered
the fate of KV15, having the cartocuhes of the tomb owner
removed, and later re-carved. However, here, we have little
idea who originally destroyed the cartouches, or for that
matter, who later restored them, though the process probably
revolved around the rivalry of Ramesses
II's descendents and
their quest for the throne after the death of Merenptah.
On the lintel above the doorway to the first true corridor
we find the usual scene depicting a scarab and ram headed god
flanked by Isis and
Nephthys. On the outer thickness and
reveals of the door jambs are found the name of the deceased
king, along with inscribed prayers to the sun god and Osiris.
On the inner thickness of the door jambs is a depiction of the
goddess Ma'at, winged and kneeling on baskets supported by the
heraldic plants of Upper and Lower Egypt.
 Inside this corridor on the northeast wall is a fairly well
preserved depiction of Siptah addressing Re-Horakhty followed
by the opening lines of the Litany of
Re. Further text and
scenes from
these passages, including a scene of Anubis before the bier of
Osiris, fill the remainder of this wall, the opposite
wall, and then flow into the next corridor. On the ceiling of
this first corridor we also find representations of a series
of flying vultures.
Left: Siptah before Re-Horakhty from the
Litany of Re
Within the next (second), level corridor, along with the
text from the Litany of Re, are found the 74 forms of Re
giving way to two scenes from spell 151 of the Book of the
Dead. On the ceiling of this corridor is found the best
preserved depiction of Isis and Nephthys as kites to either
side of the soul of Re.
Anubis from the tomb of Siptah
 Beyond this, mostly only traces of decorations exist. For
example, on the inner thickness of the door jamb into the next
descending passage appears the winged figure of Ma'at, but few
details are visible. Only fragmentary painted plaster reveal
that the forth and fifth hours of the Amduat were once painted
upon this corridor's walls. After the well room on the back
wall of the four pillared chamber, we can just barely make out
a fragment of plaster that once portrayed the god Osiris in a
shrine. This was probably once a double scene of Siptah making
offerings to the god of the underworld, as found in other
tombs in the Valley. While no other decorations survive in
this tomb, there are a few red painted mason's guidelines
indicating a doorway that was never cut into the west wall of
the pillared chamber. It would have probably led to an
annex.
 In addition, we may also make out four pairs of vertical
red lines that would have marked the location for a second row
of pillars within the burial chamber.
Left: the Burial Chamber and Sarcophagus
The only material item of funerary equipment found within
KV47 was the red granite outer sarcophagus of Siptah. It is
shaped like a cartouche, with the image of the king carved
into the upper surface of the lid. He is flanked by figures of
Isis and Nephthys and surrounded by a crocodile, a snake and a
pair of cobras with human heads and arms. The sarcophagus box
is decorated with alternating triple khekher-ornaments and
recumbent jackals surmounting a register of underworld demons.
This was a new composition that subsequently was used by other
kings on their sarcophagi through the reign of Ramesses
VI.
Interestingly, there was no destruction of Siptah's name on
his sarcophagus.
Otherwise, only fragmentary funerary equipment was
discovered, including a calcite inner mummform sarcophagus
decorated with passages from the Book of Gates and the Amduat,
along with calcite canopic equipment for Siptah and his
mother, calcite shabtis figures for Siiptah, and possibly a
sarcophagus for queen Tiaa. All of these calcite fragments are
now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the US.
Burton discovered bones within Siptah's sarcophagus, but it
is now believed that this was an intrusive burial, probably of
the Third Intermediate Period. In fact, Siptah's mummy has
been identified as one of those moved to the cache in tomb
KV35 belonging to Amenhotep
II.
This tomb is currently open to the public.
General Site Information
- Structure: KV 47
- Location: Valley of the Kings, East Valley, Thebes West Bank, Thebes
- Owner: Siptah
- Other designations:
- Site type: Tomb
Orientation
- Axis in degrees: 172.04
- Axis orientation: South
Site Location
- Latitude: 25.44 N
- Longitude: 32.36 E
- Elevation: 185.16 msl
- North: 99,410.433
- East: 93,997.048
- JOG map reference: NG 36-10
- Modern governorate: Qena (Qina)
- Ancient nome: 4th Upper Egypt
- Surveyed by TMP: Yes
Measurements
- Maximum height: 5.3 m
- Minimum width: 1.79 m
- Maximum width: 13.72 m
- Total length: 124.93 m
- Total area: 501.42 m²
- Total volume: 1560.95 m³
Additional Tomb Information
- Entrance location: Base of sloping hill
- Owner type: King
- Entrance type: Ramp
- Interior layout: Corridors and chambers
- Axis type: Straight
Decoration
Categories of Objects Recovered
- Human remains
- Tomb equipment
- Vessels
- Writing equipment
Dating:
History of Exploration
- Ayrton, Edward Russell (1905): Excavation (conducted for Theodore M. Davis)
- Ayrton, Edward Russell (1905): Discovery (made for Theodore M. Davis)
- Davis, Theodore M. (1908): Epigraphy
- Burton, Harry (1912-1913): Excavation
- Carter, Howard (1922): Excavation (conducted around entryway A)
- Supreme Council of Antiquities (1994): Conservation
References:
Archives
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