| Theban: | yes |
| TT8 | |
| Owner: | Kha and Merit |
| Image Alt: | Plain-walled room densely packed with neatly arranged furniture and offerings |
| Coordinates: | 25.7289°N 32.6009°W |
| Location: | Deir el-Medina |
| Date: | Before 1818 (chapel) 15 February 1906 (tomb) |
| Excavated: | Ernesto Schiaparelli (1906) Bernard Bruyère (1924) |
| Decoration: | Offering and feasting scenes (chapel) Undecorated (tomb) |
| Prev: | TT7 |
| Next: | TT9 |
The tomb of Kha and Merit, also known by its tomb number TT8, is the funerary chapel and burial place of the ancient Egyptian foreman Kha and his wife Merit, in the northern cemetery of the workmen's village of Deir el-Medina. Kha supervised the workforce who constructed royal tombs in the reigns of the pharaohs Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III during the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty. Of unknown background, he probably rose to this position through skill and was rewarded by at least one king. He and his wife Merit had three known children. Kha died in his 50s or 60s, while Merit died before him, seemingly unexpectedly, in her 30s.
The couple's pyramid-shaped chapel was known since at least 1818 when one of their funerary stele was purchased by the antiquarian Bernardino Drovetti. Scenes from the chapel were first copied in the 19th century by early Egyptologists including John Gardiner Wilkinson and Karl Lepsius. The paintings show Kha and Merit receiving offerings from their children and appearing before Osiris, god of the dead. The texts of the chapel were defaced during the reign of Akhenaten and later restored, indicating it was one of the oldest chapels in the village cemetery.
Kha and Merit's tomb was cut into the base of the cliffs opposite their chapel. This position allowed the entrance to be quickly buried by debris deposited by landslides and later tomb construction, hiding its location from ancient robbers. The undisturbed tomb was discovered in February 1906 in excavations led by the Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli on behalf of the Italian Archaeological Mission. The burial chamber contained over 400 items including carefully arranged stools and beds, neatly stacked storage chests of personal belongings, clothing and tools, tables piled with foods such as bread, meats and fruit, and the couple's two large wooden sarcophagi housing their coffined mummies. Merit's body was fitted with a funerary mask; Kha was provided with one of the earliest known copies of the Book of the Dead. Their mummies were never unwrapped. X-rays, CT scanning and chemical analyses have revealed neither were embalmed in the typical fashion but are well preserved. Both wear metal jewellery beneath their bandages, although only Kha has funerary amulets.
Almost the entire contents of the tomb was awarded to the excavators and was shipped to Italy soon after the discovery. It has been displayed in the Museo Egizio in Turin since its arrival and the exhibition has been reworked several times, most recently in 2015, where an entire gallery is dedicated to the tomb of Kha and Merit.
Kha (also rendered KhaꜤ or Khai) was an official in the workmen's village of Deir el-Medina during the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom. Often referred to as an architect or foreman in modern publications, he directed the workmen that cut and decorated royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings ("the Great Place") in the reigns of three successive pharaohs: Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV, and Amenhotep III . Kha's origins are unknown. His only attested parent is his father, Iuy, who bears no titles and about whom nothing is known. Therefore, Kha is assumed to have attained his position through skill. Kha had a close relationship with an official named Neferhebef, suggested to be his mentor or tutor, who directed the construction of the tomb of Amenhotep II. Neferhebef is depicted with his wife in a place of honour in Kha's funerary chapel, and his name appears on items in Kha's tomb.
Kha likely began his career in the reign of Amenhotep II, possibly working on the royal tomb under the supervision of Neferhebef. Ernesto Schiaparelli considered Kha to have been active in the reign of the preceding king, Thutmose III, based on the presence of seals bearing his throne name within the tomb. Given Kha's estimated age at death, it is unlikely that he was a mature professional over 50 years earlier during the rule of Thutmose III. It may instead reflect the use of this king's name long after his reign. The Egyptologist Barbara Russo proposes that Kha attained the role of "chief of the Great Place" during the reign of Thutmose IV and reached the peak of his career during the reign of Amenhotep III, when he was given the title of "overseer of works in the Great Place" . He also bore the titles "overseer of the works of the central administration" and "royal scribe" .
Kha received several royal gifts over his career. The first was a gilded cubit rod given by Amenhotep II, and he later received a bronze bowl from Amenhotep III. His most significant award was a "gold of honour" or "gold of favour", a reward given by the king to officials in recognition of their service, although which ruler it was given by is debated. Thutmose IV or Amenhotep III are considered the most likely candidates based on the style of the jewellery worn by the mummies of Kha and Merit. Preparations for his tomb likely began in the reign of Thutmose IV whose name occurs most frequently as a seal on vessels. Based on the style of his coffins and the juvenilising art style seen on painted funerary chests in the tomb, Kha probably died in the third decade of Amenhotep III's reign.
Merit (also transcribed as Meryt) was Kha's wife. She was titled "lady of the house", a common title given to married women. She seems to have unexpectedly predeceased Kha, as she was buried in a coffin intended for him. They had three known children: two sons named Amenemopet and Nakhteftaneb, and a daughter named Merit. Amenemopet also worked in Deir el-Medina and was titled "servant in the royal necropolis". No title is known for Nakhteftaneb; he seems to have been in charge of the funerary cult of his parents. Merit became a priestess of Amun. All the children outlived their mother but Amenemopet may have died before his father.
The funerary chapel of Kha and Merit, numbered TT8, stands on a terrace at the northern end of the Deir el-Medina necropolis. The chapel is at the back of a rectangular walled enclosure, the rear of which is cut back into the rocky hillside. The square courtyard in front of the chapel measures approximately 8mx8mm (26feetx26feetm) and was probably entered through a small pylon-shaped gateway.
The chapel is a small pyramid measuring 4.66mx4.72mm (15.29feetx15.49feetm) with an incline of 75 degrees, giving the structure a projected total height of 9.32m (30.58feet). Constructed of mudbrick, the exterior was plastered and painted white. It is one of few surviving Eighteenth Dynasty chapels from Deir el-Medina and is an early example of the pyramid form, derived from the tombs of contemporary nobility. This shape became typical for chapels in the workmen's village in later dynasties. The chapel was in a ruined state by the 19th and 20th centuries; the exterior was partially restored by the Institut français d'archéologie orientale (IFAO). It is not open to tourists.
The chapel faces northeast and has a single doorway with large doorposts. Nothing remains of the lintel and cornice they supported. Like other pyramid-chapels in the necropolis, there was probably a niche in the face of the pyramid, above the door, which held a small stele. The interior of the chapel is a single room measuring 3mx1.6mm (10feetx05.2feetm) with a vaulted ceiling 2.15m (07.05feet) high. A niche in the back wall housed a stele now in the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy.
The chapel was topped by a pyramidion of whitewashed sandstone. It is decorated on all sides with sunk bas-reliefs of Kha worshipping the sun god Ra and inscribed with hymns to the god at the stages of his journey: the east and damaged north faces adore Ra at sunrise, the south face praises him as he crosses the sky, and the west face worships Ra as he sets. The pyramidion was reused in antiquity for a small, anonymous pyramid-chapel near the courtyard of TT290, a few metres south-east of TT8 and was rediscovered on 8 February 1923 by the Egyptologist Bernard Bruyère. It is now housed in the Louvre in Paris, France.
Atypically for Deir el-Medina, the tomb was not cut in the chapel courtyard but was instead cut into the base of the cliffs opposite. In 1924, Bernard Bruyère excavated the courtyard to see if an existing burial shaft close to the area was the reason for the separation. On the right side of the courtyard, 3m (10feet) from the entrance of the chapel, in the expected location of a shaft, he found a pit 0.75m (02.46feet) deep and 1m (03feet) wide lined with mudbrick. Schiaparelli suggested that this pit was where Kha's additional copy of the Book of the Dead and other funerary items, known before the discovery of the tomb, were originally deposited. Bruyère suggested the separation of chapel and tomb is instead because of the very poor quality rock beneath the courtyard.
The interior of the chapel was plastered and fully decorated. On stylistic grounds, it was completed in the reigns of Thutmose IV or Amenhotep III. As with the exterior, the decorative scheme mimics the types of scenes and layouts seen in the chapels of the elite. Kha presumably employed his own skilled workmen to execute the decoration. Unlike the tombs of nobles, the texts have errors such as unconventional hieroglyph groupings and omitted signs indicating the artists had limited literacy.
The ceiling is covered with two different geometric and floral patterns separated by a central inscription that runs the length of the room. The vault is bordered on each side by another band of text and an upper frieze of alternating lotus flowers, buds, and grapes separates the inscriptions from the wall scenes proper.
The left wall depicts a banquet scene. Kha and Merit are depicted on the far right, seated before an offering table; their daughter adjusts her father's collar and one of their sons presents them with offerings. Below this scene, a narrow register depicts an additional offering of four amphorae garlanded with flowers and fruit and attended by a servant. The rest of the wall depicts guests and musicians. In a lower register, offering bearers advance in the opposite direction, towards a seated couple who are now mostly obliterated by damage.
The right wall has the same layout as the left. The large scene depicts the god Osiris seated in a raised kiosk (canopy supported by columns); he receives offerings from Kha and Merit, who are accompanied by their children. In the two smaller registers, servants approach with offerings of a goat or gazelle and a white ox wearing a floral garland.
The back wall is divided into three registers around the central stele niche. A pair of Anubis-jackals lying on rectangular tomb-shrines face each other across a large bouquet in the uppermost, semi-circular register; unlike the rest of the decoration, which has a yellow background, this is executed on a light grey background. In the second register, Kha is depicted twice, once on the left and once on the right, kneeling and offering a bouquet. The left side of the lowest register shows Neferhebef and Taiunes seated with offerings before them and receiving ministrations from a man, on the right side of the register, dressed in the leopard skin of a sem-priest (one who conducted funerary rituals). He may be their son but his identity is unknown as the inscription is badly damaged.
The chapel was damaged only a decade or so after it went into use during the reign of Amenhotep III's successor, Akhenaten. The name of the god Amun was erased wherever it occurred as part of Akhenaten's iconoclasm against the deity. It was later restored but in a way that does not match the original text. Later, all the faces of the figures were hammered out, possibly by Copts. The decoration near the door deteriorated further after the partial collapse of the ceiling in this area. The chapel was also targeted by robbers. The back wall was damaged in the 19th century during the removal of the stele, and a graffito in hieratic, mentioned by Karl Lepsius in the 1840s, was destroyed sometime after his publication.
In the 19th century, the paintings were copied by several early Egyptologists including John Gardiner Wilkinson and Lepsius. Ernesto Schiaparelli briefly described the chapel in his 1927 publication of the burial chamber; a full study of the decoration was made in the 1930s by Jeanne Marie Thérèse Vandier d'Abbadie during the IFAO's excavations of the village.
A painted stone stele dedicated to Kha and Merit stood in the niche in the back wall of the chapel. Around 1818 it was removed from the chapel and purchased by agents of the Italian antiquarian Bernardino Drovetti. In 1824 it was donated to the Museo Egizio as part of the Drovetti collection. The first register depicts Kha adoring Osiris and Anubis, who sit back to back. In the second register, Kha and Merit, accompanied by a young child, sit before a table of offerings; their son Amenemopet stands on the far side officiating. The two lines of text at the bottom of the stele give offerings to the gods Amun, Ra, Ra-Horakhty, and Osiris, and ask for funerary offerings to be given.
A second stele is housed in the British Museum, London. The large upper register depicts Thutmose IV offering floral bouquets and incense to an enthroned Amun and the deified Ahmose-Nefertari, who stands behind him; Kha kneels in adoration below them in the second register. This stele was likely originally made for the Kha of TT8 and was later restored and adapted by another Deir el-Medina foreman, Inherkau (whose name can be abbreviated to Kha), owner of TT299. The image of Amun, hacked out during Akhenaten's reign, was restored, and the name and titles of Inherkau's wife Henutdjuu were added in ink instead of being cut into the stone.
The tomb was discovered on 15 February 1906 during excavations by the Italian Archaeological Mission headed by the Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli. The Mission began investigating the village of Deir el-Medina in 1905 and their 1906 excavation season focused on the village necropolis. Knowing that Kha and Merit's chapel in the northern cemetery was older than the visible Twentieth Dynasty tombs in the area, Schiaparelli reasoned that Eighteenth Dynasty tombs were likely present at the base of the nearby cliffs, buried by debris from their own and later tomb construction.
He began excavations at the mouth of the valley and proceeded towards the end. More than 250 workers, divided into several gangs, excavated for four weeks, uncovering only opened and robbed tombs. In February 1906, after clearing two thirds of the valley, they encountered an area of clean white limestone chip 25m (82feet) north of Kha and Merit's chapel. Two further days of digging uncovered an irregular opening with a set of roughly-cut descending stairs. The doorway at the base of the staircase was sealed by a plastered wall of stacked stones. The excavators suspected the burial was unrobbed as the blocking showed no evidence of resealing; a hole was made to admit the foreman Khalifa who confirmed the tomb beyond was unviolated. Two members of Schiaparelli's team, the supervisor Benvenuto Savina and Alessandro Casati, guarded the entrance overnight.
The following morning, with the Inspector of Antiquities of Upper Egypt, Arthur Weigall, in attendance, the first wall was demolished, revealing the first of two horizontal corridors separated by a blocking wall. The second corridor contained overflow from the burial chamber, including Kha's bed with bundles of persea branches underneath, a large lamp stand, baskets, jars, baskets of fruit, a wooden stool, and a whip with Kha's name written on it. At the end of passage was a locked wooden door which Weigall recalled "seemed so modern that Professor Schiaparelli called to his servant for the key, who quite seriously replied 'I don't know where it is, sir.'" A thin saw was inserted between the two planks of wood to cut the crossbars on the back of the door, allowing entry into the burial chamber and preserving the lock.
Weigall entered the burial chamber first, followed by Schiaparelli and members of his team. The room was packed with objects, carefully ordered and arranged by members of the funeral party over 3000 years earlier. The excavators were struck by how fresh and undecayed the contents looked after three millennia; Weigall in particular commented that, from the state of the items, the tomb seemed to have been closed only months before.
The tomb and its contents were recorded, photographed, and cleared in only three days, possibly due to fear of theft. A single plan drawing was made which noted the locations of 18 key objects, and few photos of the interior were taken. On 18 February 1906 the contents were transferred to the tomb of Amun-her-khepeshef (QV55) in the Valley of the Queens before being shipped to Cairo and ultimately to Italy.
Schiaparelli published an account of the discovery of the tomb and a description of its contents over 20 years later, in 1927, a year before his death. The large volume includes many photographs of the artefacts but provides little relevant detail. In her 2010 book on the tomb, then-director of Museo Egizio Eleni Vassilika calls Schiaparelli's treatment "uneven" and criticises the narrative's many tangents and mistakes. Among its omissions and mistakes are neglecting to mention the date of the discovery or give the dimensions of the tomb, stating that many of Kha's possessions were in a box too small for them, and that Merit's toilet box was unsealed. The publication used a blank floor plan and only three photos of the burial chamber, leading to ongoing confusion regarding the positioning of objects which are not included in the unpublished plan or seen in photographs, such as the slatted table and senet game board.
Kha and Merit's tomb was not dug in the forecourt of their funerary chapel but cut into the base of the cliffs 25m (82feet) away. It is one of only a few tombs in Deir el-Medina to exhibit this separation. It likely contributed to the tomb escaping the attention of robbers, as did its position at the base of the cliffs, which allowed the entrance to be covered by debris from landslides and later tombs cut above.
The tomb is entered via a deep shaft and a staircase that descends to a depth of, followed by two straight corridors with a total length of . Walls of stacked stones divided the corridor from the stairs and the corridors from each other. The first corridor is long, low and roughly cut. The second is shorter but higher and wider; this part is sometimes referred to as the antechamber because it stored objects that did not fit in the burial chamber. At the end is a single burial chamber set at a right angle to the axis. The room measures with a high barrel-vaulted ceiling. The walls were smoothed, plastered, and painted yellow but otherwise undecorated.
The tomb of Kha and Merit was discovered entirely unrobbed, containing over 440 items. It is a rare example of an intact middle class burial from the height of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and is the best provisioned of any similar tomb known from Egypt. The majority of the objects were used by Kha and Merit in life, such as clothing and furniture. Clothing was laundered and neatly folded in baskets or chests, and some furniture was given a fresh coat of paint. Other pieces were made to be placed in the tomb, having painted decoration in imitation of expensive inlay work and hieroglyphic texts that are often full of grammatical errors. The various boxes and chests were labelled for the use of either Kha or Merit with brief inscriptions in ink. Different kinds of breads, meats, vegetables, fruits and wine were provided for the deceased to eat in the afterlife. Despite the large number of items within the tomb, they were carefully laid out in an orderly fashion. The quality and quantity of objects is assumed to be typical of an upper-middle class burial. Although less richly outfitted than noble or royal burials, it provides a more complete picture of the variety of food, clothing, and personal objects expected in burials during the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty. Since 2017, the tomb's contents have been the subject of the "TT8 Project", a multidisciplinary and non-invasive study of all the objects, the full publication of which is planned for 2024.
The personal items belonging to the couple were found neatly stored in various boxes, chests, and baskets. Kha's personal possessions make up the bulk of the objects, with some 196 items inscribed for him. These included work tools such as a rare folding wooden cubit rod (in its own leather pouch), scribal palettes, a drill, chisel, an adze, and a possible level. Among his cosmetics were bronze razors in a leather bag, a comb, and tubes of kohl. Also present were items for preparing and serving drinks, including a funnel, two metal strainers, a silver jar, and faience bowls. His clothing, marked with his monogram, was stored in several boxes and a bag. All were made of linen and consisted of 59 loincloths and 19 tunics, and further rectangular pieces of fabric, identified by Schiaparelli as four shawls and 26 sashes or kilts; seven of these were knotted together with loincloths to form sets of clothing. Other objects belonging to Kha were distributed around the tomb, such as four sticks (two with decorative bark inlay), and a traveling mat, folded on a net of doum palm nuts.
Several items within the tomb were gifts to Kha from others. A cubit rod covered entirely in gold leaf and bearing the cartouches of Amenhotep II was an award from that king, although Kha's name does not appear on it. Another royal gift was a large dish with the throne name of Amenhotep III inscribed on the handle. Likely produced in the royal workshops, it was given to Kha as part of a royal award. A large metal situla bears the name and titles of Userhat, a priest of the funerary cults of Mutnofret, the wife of Thutmose I, and Sitamun, the daughter of Ahmose I. He worked on the western bank of Thebes, presumably the Deir el-Medina area, and the gift was in recognition of Kha's high status at the height of his career. One of Kha's two scribal palettes belonged to Amenmes, a high official of the reign of Thutmose IV who was buried in TT118. He was "overseer of all of the construction works of the king", meaning he possibly worked with Kha. One stick was a gift from Neferhebef, with a dedicatory inscription recording that it was made by him, presumably for Kha, but the space where Kha's name would be inserted was left blank. Another stick belonged to Khaemwaset, who probably worked alongside Kha as he too bears the title "chief of the Great Place". Kha's senet board belonged to Benermeret, a member of the cult of Amun at Karnak temple, who had it inscribed and decorated for his parents Neferhebef and Taiunes.
Merit's personal possessions were much fewer than Kha's, and were placed beside her bed, near the door. Egyptologist Lynn Meskell considers this difference in the quantity of items to be a reflection of the inequality between the sexes at the elite level of ancient Egyptian society. A large wooden cabinet, 1.1m (03.6feet) tall, contained her wig which Schiaparelli said "still shines with the perfumed oils that were applied to it". It is one of the best surviving examples from ancient Egypt and represents the "enveloping" style of wig common during the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Dynasties. It is made of locks of human hair styled into tight waves ending in tiny ringlets. At the back, the wig forms three large plaits. It would not have been thick enough to entirely cover Merit's own hair when worn and would have been an addition to her own styled hair. Investigation using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry indicated the presence of plant oils and "balsam". As no fixative such as resin is present on the wig, it is suggested it was styled by braiding when wet, and that the oils mentioned by Schiaparelli were meant to keep the hair soft. Two smaller baskets contained personal effects such as needles, a razor, bone hairpins, combs, spare braids of hair, a tool possibly used to curl hair or wigs, and dried raisins. Schiaparelli considered a large sheet, stained with oil but carefully stored, to be Merit's dressing gown. Merit's cosmetics were stored inside a box with funerary inscriptions and decorated in imitation of inlay, likely painted especially for the funeral. They consisted of a wooden comb and vessels of alabaster and faience holding ointments and oils; two objects, a small jar for oils and a kohl tube, were made of multi-coloured glass, a relatively rare material at the time.
The tomb contained many items of everyday furniture including stools, footrests, tables, and beds, sourced from the couple's house in Deir el-Medina. The most obvious funerary piece was a single high-backed chair, on which was placed a statuette of Kha. Like the other pieces, it has a funerary inscription but uses paint instead of costly inlay, and lacks wear on the strung seat. Fourteen stools of various forms were placed in the tomb; these were all items used by Kha and Merit in life. The most unusual example is a folding stool with a leather seat and legs ending in duck heads inlaid with ivory. The tables found in the tomb were simple, either of wood, or constructed of papyrus stems. A single small table had more elaborate construction, being made of wooden slats; it held Kha's senet box when found, which may have been its usual purpose. The largest pieces of furniture belonging to Kha and Merit were their beds, each with a strung cord mattress. Kha's bed was placed in the corridor outside the burial chamber owing to lack of space within the room. Merit's was made up with sheets, blankets, and two headrests, one of which was entirely wrapped in fabric. Thirteen chests of varying sizes and styles made up the rest of the furniture placed within the tomb. All were of wood, plain or white-washed but five were painted in imitation of inlay and of these, three bore scenes of Kha and Merit receiving offerings from their sons.
The two wooden lamp stands are the only examples of their kind from ancient Egypt. They are made in the shape of papyrus stalks with open umbels and approximately 1.5m (04.9feet) tall. Only the example found inside the burial chamber had a bronze lamp, variously identified as having the shape of a leaf, bird, or bulti-fish; it was left half-full of fat with the wick burning when the tomb was closed.
The tomb was stocked with numerous foodstuffs which were piled on tables and in bowls, packed in amphorae, and stored in baskets. The most numerous category was bread which Schiaparelli said was of "a more varied and plentiful assortment than has been discovered in any other tomb or exists in any museum". The bulk of the loaves were arranged on the low tables or packed within a large ceramic vessel. Most were of the standard round flat form but others were made into various shapes such as triangles, jars or trussed animals, or have grooves or holes that may suggest fertility. Wine was also well represented, the containers for which were labelled with their year and place of origin. Most were sealed but those that were open evaporated over the millennia, leaving only a residue. Chunks of meat and roasted birds were stored salted in amphorae while salted fish were placed in bowls among the bread. Vegetable dishes consisted of minced and seasoned greens in bowls and jars accompanied by bundles of garlic and onions, and baskets of cumin seeds. Fruits included grapes, dates, figs, and nets of doum palm nuts. Imported species were represented by a box of almonds (mixed with domestically-grown tiger nuts) and a basket of juniper berries. Thirteen sealed alabaster vessels contained oils, seven of which Schiaparelli identified as the "seven sacred oils" used in funerary ritual. Also included was oil and salt for cooking and the fuel needed for the kitchen fire, in the form of dried cow dung. Few of the sealed vessels were opened by Schiaparelli so the contents of sealed (and unsealed) containers have been investigated using non-invasive techniques such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and types of mass spectrometry (MS), which has identified the presence of oils, fats, beeswax, and other organic compounds.
The largest items within the tomb were the two outer coffins or sarcophagi containing the coffins and mummies of Kha and Merit. Kha's was placed against the far wall, with Merit's positioned at a right angle to it against the long wall. Both were covered by large linen sheets, with the fabric covering Kha's being approximately 15m (49feet) long and 2m (07feet) wide. The two sarcophagi are nearly identical, being shaped like the shrine of Lower Egypt, with cavetto cornices and vaulted lids with uprights at each end. They differ in size, with Kha's being larger at 300cm (100inches) long, to Merit's 228.5cm (90inches), and base style as Kha's has sledge runners and Merit's does not. Both are made of black-painted sycamore wood without any additional decoration. Referred to as "bitumen" in Schiaparelli's publication, the black coating is made mainly of Pistacia resin and small amounts of other plant-derived products. Similar sarcophagi with gilded or painted text and figures were used by contemporary nobles and royalty, as evidenced from the tombs of nobles in the Valley of the Kings and Schiaparelli's excavations in the Valley of the Queens. Given their large size, they were brought into the tomb in sections and reassembled; marks made on the edges of each piece assisted in this task.
Kha's sarcophagus contained a further set of two nested coffins. Both are mummiform, depicting the deceased as a wrapped mummy wearing a long wig and broad collar with the arms crossed on the chest and the hands in fists. Below the collar and hands, a vulture goddess (identified as Nekhbet or Nut) spreads her wings over the torso above horizontal and vertical bands of text imitate the fabric bindings seen on mummy wrappings. The outer coffin has a black-based design, with the striped wig, face and hands, collar, bands of text and figures of gods picked out in gilding; the eyes are inlaid in coloured glass. The goddess Nephthys is depicted on top of the head of the coffin and Isis is depicted under the feet. A small mound of wax, possibly beeswax, was placed on the crown of the head. When revealed, the coffin was covered almost entirely by Kha's copy of the Book of the Dead. Underneath, the neck of the coffin was draped with two garlands made of melilot leaves, cornflowers, and lotus petals.
The innermost coffin has a similar design to the outer but is entirely gilded. Both the eyes and eyebrows are inlaid with stone or glass, with blue glass for the eyebrows and cosmetic lines, set in bronze or copper sockets. The interior is painted black. Another floral garland was placed across the chest of this coffin. The red-dyed flax ropes used to lower the inner coffin into the outer were still in place around the ankles and neck. Additionally, the inner coffin sat on a layer of natron inside the outer coffin. The lids of the coffins were closed with small wooden dowels. Egyptologist Arielle Kozloff considers Kha's coffins to be "superb examples" of the wealth and craftsmanship seen during the reign of Amenhotep III. Their style and workmanship suggests they were made in a royal workshop.
Merit's sarcophagus contained only a single coffin wrapped in a linen shroud. The coffin was not made for her; it is much too large for her mummy and the inscriptions only name Kha. Merit's coffin combines features of Kha's outer and inner coffins, with the lid being entirely gilded and the trough having a black-based design. The discrepancy in design represents a merging of the typical two-coffin set into one. Her coffin is of lesser quality than Kha's and is less costly; the sculpting of the face is rougher, the figures of deities are roughly rendered, and the text is incised instead of being modelled in plaster. The difference in quality may be due to this coffin being commissioned by Kha earlier in his career, before he could afford a more expensive two-coffin set. A large figure of the goddess Nut is painted on the interior of the coffin trough. Merit probably died unexpectedly, resulting in a coffin made for her husband being used for her burial.
The wrapped mummies of Kha and Merit were found undisturbed within their coffins. Schiaparelli decided against unwrapping them, so the pair have been investigated with non-invasive methods. They were X-rayed in 1966 and 2014, and CT scanned in 2002 at the Institute of Radiology in Turin and again in 2016. Neither had undergone a mummification procedure typical for the Eighteenth Dynasty; their internal organs were not removed, explaining the absence of canopic jars. The lack of organ removal has led to suggestions that the bodies were treated using a shorter procedure, with little care, or that they were not embalmed at all despite their status. However, their organs, including their eyes and optic nerves, are excellently preserved. Chemical analysis of textile samples from their mummies indicate that they were both treated with an embalming recipe. Kha's consists of a mix of animal fat or plant oil and plant-derived extracts, gums, and conifer resin. Merit's is different, consisting of fish oil mixed with plant extracts, gums, resin, and beeswax; similar results, with the addition of Pistacia resin, were obtained from a sample of the red shroud that covered her mummy within the coffin. Both of these embalming recipes were made of costly ingredients that were hard to obtain, some of which were imported into Egypt, and would have had effective anti-bacterial and insecticidal properties. Natron, the main desiccating agent used in mummification, was also utilised within Kha's coffin and appears as white spots on the surface of Merit's wrappings. This study indicates that, contrary to previous opinions, their bodies were indeed embalmed, at significant effort and cost. That the methods used for them differ from the royal mummification method is not surprising, given the difference in status and the economics of Deir el-Medina; Bianucci and co-authors suggest that few in Deir el-Medina would have been mummified in the typical (royal) fashion.
The mummy of Kha is wrapped in many layers of linen and covered with a linen shroud. The shroud is secured by a double layer of linen bandages running down the centre of the body. This is crossed by four narrow bands at the shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles. Restoration work carried out in the 2000s used a nylon net to consolidate the outer layers of linen, weakened by a previous fungal attack. Kha's mummy is not fitted with a funerary mask. It is thought he donated his mask for his wife's burial but the reason that he did not have another made for his own burial is unknown. His wrapped mummy is 168cm (66inches) tall. He lies on his back with his arms extended; his hands are placed over the pubic area.
Kha died in his 60s, with an estimated height in life of 1.71 or 1.72m (05.64feet) and a robust build. He was reasonably healthy for his age at the time of his death. His teeth were in poor condition, having lost all the premolars and molars in the upper jaw and several molars in the bottom jaw. He had arthritis in his knees and lower back, and many arteries show signs of calcification. His gallbladder contained fourteen gallstones, judged to most likely be pigment stones. His right elbow joint had a calcified inflammation (enthesopathy), which may have been caused by repetitive chopping motions. The 2005 CT examination identified that Kha fractured his first lumbar vertebra, an injury which left it flattened. 2014 X-ray analysis considers this injury to have occurred after his death. His cause of death is unknown. No attempt was made to remove his organs, which are still in place and well preserved. There is a large air-filled gap between Kha's torso and the bandage layers, suggesting his body was not fully dried before wrapping. Despite his sarcophagus being placed in the furthest corner of the tomb, Kha is thought to have died after his wife, as some of his objects were placed in the corridor because of the lack of space.
Kha's body is equipped with metal jewellery, likely of gold. Around his neck is a necklace of large gold disc beads known as a shebyu collar. This item of jewellery was given by the king as part of the "gold of honour", a reward for service. These necklaces are well known from the Eighteenth Dynasty, being depicted in many statues and tombs of nobility including those of Sennefer, Ay and Horemheb. Kha's collar has only a single strand of beads instead of the usual minimum of two, leading to the suggestion that this may be the longest, outermost strand of a multi-stranded shebyu collar. He wears a pair of large earrings, one of the earliest known ancient Egyptian men to do so. These may also have been part of his royal reward, as similar earrings are depicted, albeit more rarely, in "gold of honour" reward scenes. Kha wears six finger rings; three have fixed oval bezels, one has a fixed rectangular bezel, and two have swivelling bezels of faience or stone. Further jewellery is purely funerary in nature. These consist of a stone heart scarab on a gold wire or chain, a stone or faience tyet amulet, and a gold foil bracelet around each upper arm. On his forehead is a stone snake head amulet, typically made of carnelian or jasper. The usual location of this amulet is around the neck, where it assists in the deceased's ability to breathe in the afterlife. Its placement on his forehead is possibly in imitation of the royal uraeus (rearing cobra) worn by kings.
Merit's coffin, intended for Kha, is much too large for her and the space around her body was packed with fabric bearing her husband's monogram. A sheet of linen was folded into a pad placed under the mummy and the space under her feet and around her body was filled with eight rolls of bandages. When found, her body lay slanted to her left within the coffin, possibly having moved during transport to or from the tomb. The mummy was wrapped in a further sheet of linen over the top of the shroud, the end of which was tucked under her gilded mummy mask. Her white shroud is stitched up the back with a whip stitch using a thick cord. In 2002 her mummy was sewed into a custom-dyed nylon net to consolidate the fabric.
Merit's mummy is fitted with a mask made of cartonnage, a papier-mâché-like material made from linen and plaster. It has inlaid eyes, of which only one original remains, made of alabaster and obsidian with cosmetic lines and eyebrows of blue paste. The surface is covered in gold leaf, now tarnished to a reddish colour, and the striped wig is coloured with Egyptian blue. The broad collar is composed of alternating bands of carnelian, dark blue paste imitating lapis lazuli, and turquoise. The pectoral below the collar is decorated with a blue and red vulture painted on a yellow background. The mask was probably intended for Kha and was donated for his wife's burial. By the time of discovery the mask had sustained some damage, particularly to the back and sides, and one of the inlaid eyes was missing. This may be a result of the mask being much too big for Merit's head, leading to collapse once placed in the coffin. Alternatively, the damage and the missing eye have been attributed to rough handling by Schiaparelli's workmen. The mask was restored in 1967 but degraded quickly and further restoration was carried out in 2002. It was placed on a new padded mount in 2004. The back of the mask could not be restored as it was found detached underneath the mummy, soaked in oils and resins and flattened by weight; it is now stored separately.
The wrapped mummy of Merit is 147cm (58inches) tall. She is positioned on her back with her arms extended and hands nearly crossed over the pubis. Her age at death is estimated to be between 25 and 35 years. Estimates for her height in life vary between 1.48m (04.86feet) and 1.6m (05.2feet). She wears a long, crimped wig on her head, which is turned slightly to the right. This twist is suggested to be the result of the method of wrapping her head, in which a right-handed embalmer pulled on the left side of the bandages to tighten them as he wrapped. Her teeth have little wear but some molars, premolars and a canine have been lost and others have cavities. She is less well-preserved than her husband, with many of her ribs and vertebrae broken and displaced by postmortem damage to the torso. No attempt was made to remove her brain or other internal organs. Given that she was buried in a coffin intended for Kha, her death was probably unexpected but her cause of death is unknown.
Like Kha, her body wears metal jewellery. Around her neck is a triple-strand necklace of fine gold beads; the strings have broken and the beads have scattered, with some being seen by her ankles. Across her chest and shoulders is a gold and stone broad collar similar in design to one from the burial of three foreign wives of Thutmose III and the collars seen on the coffins and mask of Thuya, the mother-in-law of Amenhotep III. Her ears are double pierced and she wears two pairs of ribbed hoop earrings. She wears four gold rings on her left hand; a further ring is seen behind her shoulder in X-ray and CT images. This ring was either displaced from her finger by postmortem damage or was intended for her right hand and forgotten during the wrapping process, being slipped into the shroud before burial. A second gold ring was found during conservation work, stuck to the back of her mask in the embalming resins. The bezel is incised with an image of the goddess Hathor as a cow, wearing a menat-necklace, standing on a boat under a palm tree. This design is similar to a ring found on the body of Nefertity in tomb DM1159a. Around her waist is a beaded girdle of metal cowrie shell-shaped beads interspersed with strings of small non-metal beads. Similar girdles are known from the burials of the Middle Kingdom princess Sithathoriunet and three of Thutmose III's foreign wives. On each wrist are ten-stranded bracelets of metal and non-metal beads with a sliding catch. They appear to have the same design as the necklace and girdle and probably formed part of a set. Merit was not equipped with any funerary amulets, possibly because of her unexpected death.
Kha's copy of the Book of the Dead was found laid out atop his outer mummiform coffin. Schiaparelli noted that at the time of its discovery the papyrus was "perfectly conserved and as supple as if recently made". It is 13.8m (45.3feet) long and contains 33 chapters. It is one of the earliest-known copies of the Book of the Dead and is similar to the copies of the near-contemporary nobles Maiherpri and Yuya. The text is written in cursive hieroglyphs like Maiherpri's but the sequence of chapters is more similar to Yuya's copy. Additionally, like Yuya, Kha is depicted wearing a heart amulet. The colourful vignettes depict Kha generically, showing less customisation than either noble's books.
A second copy of the Book of the Dead naming the couple is now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. Its provenance is unknown. It may originally have come from the pit Bruyère found in front of their chapel. In 1862, it was among the antiquities donated to the Bibliothèque nationale by Honoré Théodoric d'Albert de Luynes. The papyrus is incomplete, being only 197cm (78inches) long with 13 chapters; it was probably cut up for easier sale on the antiquities market. This copy was likely intended for Merit as her name appears more often than Kha's, a unique instance in the Eighteenth Dynasty of a woman being provided with her own copy. Alternatively, it could be a separate copy that ultimately went unused and was put aside for reuse.
A wooden funerary statuette was placed in the tomb, standing on a chair. The tall figure depicts a youthful Kha wearing a kilt, striding forward. Around the shoulders was a garland of melilot leaves; another was folded at its feet. The eyes and wig are painted and the column of text down the front of his kilt is filled with yellow pigment but the surface is otherwise plain. The inscription asks that his ka (soul) may receive "all that appears on the table of offerings to Amun, king of the gods". The rectangular base is inscribed with an offering formula ensuring Kha received the standard bread, beer, ox and fowl with the additional alabaster, linen, wine, and milk. This item is not without parallel as there are occasional examples from other contemporary non-noble Theban tombs. However, given the number of similar wooden statuettes known, this practice was likely much more common. Such figures are generally absent from contemporary elite (robbed) burials, possibly indicating they were made of valuable metal and looted by ancient robbers.
Kha was provided with two ushabti figures for his use in the afterlife. One is made of stone and the other is wooden and was provided with its own miniature sarcophagus and agricultural tools. These were placed immediately behind and in front of the statuette. Merit was not given any ushabti. This inequality between the spouses may not have been unusual as a similar imbalance is seen in the burial of Amenhotep III's parents-in-law, Yuya and Thuya.
Following the discovery, Gaston Maspero, director of the Antiquities Service, awarded the majority of the contents of TT8 to the excavators. They are housed today in the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo retained few objects from the tomb, keeping one of the two lamp stands, loaves of bread, three blocks of salt, and nineteen pottery vases. This may be because Maspero considered the contents of TT8 to be duplicates or not unlike anything already in the museum's collection.
The contents of the tomb have been displayed since their arrival in Italy. Within months of arriving, the change in humidity affected the leather seats of the stools and the Book of the Dead, rendering them cracked and fragile. The objects were displayed within a single small room, refurbished in the 1960s, which then-museum director Silvio Curto said gave visitors "a good idea of the place at the moment of discovery". They were moved to a larger gallery in the 2000s, and redisplayed again in 2015 in an even more spacious gallery after the Museo Egizio underwent extensive renovations.