Once the excavators had
cleared the stone sarcophagus of the three coffins,
nested one within the other, and the bier that
supported them, they found some chips of wood, a
wooden lever, and the container illustrated here.
Like many of the calcite vessels in the tomb, it
originally held some type of unguent, judging from
the residue that still remained inside.
The double golden containers
rest on a silver platform around the border on which
the hieroglyphs for "life" (ankh) and
"dominion" (was) are incised. The embossing
on the sides of the boxes each depict the god
Heh,
kneeling on a basket and grasping the notched palm
brand. Both in front of and behind his head are
cartouches of the king, while directly over head his
throne name, Nebkheperura ("Ra is the Lord of
Manifestations"), is written without a cartouche,
and the traditional beetle, meaning "manifestations"
(or "images") is replaced by a winged beetle.
The larger inlays consist of
colored glass, while the smaller ones are stone.
Within the cartouches on each side is an image of
the king seated on a basket (heb). Above is a
solar disk from which project hooded cobras wearing
ankhs around their necks. On the side
illustrated here the king wears the side lock of
youth, which may be an indication of his age or his
status. On the other side, he wears the khepresh
crown commonly worn by kings of the Eighteenth
Dynasty. The face of one of these images is blacked
and, if intentional, may be an attempt to indicate
Tutankhamun's association with the god of the
Underworld,
Osiris, whose skin can be green,
symbolizing perennial vegetation, or black,
representing the fertile soil.
The hieroglyphs written in a
cartouche should spell the name of a king. Here,
however, they are written indirectly, in a
cryptogram. Each element has been disguised or
written in an alternate form. Instead of the simple
disk of the sun meaning the god Ra, there is an
elaborate solar emblem with serpents. In place of
the neb basket meaning "Lord," there is a
heb basket. Rather than write the traditional
beetle (note the "manifestations" or "images," the
artist depicted several images of the king. In
actuality, the double cartouches each have the
throne name of the king, "Ra is the Lord of
Manifestations."