Before the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, the greatest find ever made in the Valley of the Kings was the 3000-year-old tomb of Yuya (Iouiya) and Tjuyu (Touiyou), parents-in-law of king Amenophis III of the 18th Dynasty. The tomb contained their wonderfully preserved mummies, lying within magnificent coffins and surrounded by a gorgeous array of palace furniture and funerary equipment. "The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou" and of "The Funeral Papyrus of Iouiya", the excavator's official reports on this important find, edited by Theodore M. Davis and with contributions from Gaston Maspero, Percy E. Newberry, and Edouard Naville, were first published in a limited edition in 1907 and 1908 and are reprinted here in one volume. The non-photographic illustrations are by Howard Carter.

Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb of Tuthmosis (Thoutmosis) IV, sponsored by Theodore M. Davis, initiated a decade of immensely fruitful work in the Valley of the Kings. The find was a rich and informative one. Undisturbed since the removal of the king's mummy around 1000 BC, the tomb's elegant chambers were literally strewn with antiquities - shabti-figures, model vessels, ritual equipment, textiles, throne panels, and a chariot. In the burial chamber itself stood the king's magnificent quartzite sarcophagus, its painted decoration as fresh as in antiquity. "The Tomb of Thoutmosis IV" was first published in 1904. Incorporating an historical essay on the king's reign by Gaston Maspero, a description of the work and illustrated catalogue of the finds by Carter and Percy E. Newberry, and a paper on the king's mummy by Grafton Elliot Smith, it represents Davis's full, official report on the discovery.

The Tomb of Hatshopsitu

by Theodore M Davis

Published 21 October 2004
In a rare gesture of feminine ambition, Queen Hatshepsut (Hatshopsitu) assumed the throne of Egypt shortly after the death of her husband, Tuthmosis II, holding on to power for two decades until 1458 BC. As pharaoh, she would prepare a burial for herself in the Valley of the Kings; and this extraordinary spiral of a tomb was first cleared by Howard Carter for Theodore M. Davis between 1903 and 1904. Though officially emptied in antiquity, the tomb contained still many fragments of the burial, and two superb sarcophagi prepared both for the queen herself and for her father, Tuthmosis I. "The Tomb of Hatshopsitu", first published in 1906, is Davis's official account of this important work, with contributions on the historical background from Edouard Naville, and on the tomb's excavation and finds by Carter himself, who was also responsible for the plates.