Qurna burial

The burial was discovered in the first valley to the north of the road to the Valley of the Kings.

A letter from Flinders Petrie dated 18 January 1909 to an unnamed correspondent gives an insight into the discovery of the burial:

"We have been about six weeks at Thebes. Our main purpose was to search the northern valleys, where it is was reported that there might be tombs. We settled therefore at a small hill north of the road up to the Kings Tombs where some rock-tombs served for our workmen and my wife and myself, while some brick huts were built for dining rooms and bedrooms.

"Though we have cut innumerable trenches about the valleys, and on one spot kept 24 men and boys for over a month, yet only one tomb has been found in the desert valleys. That is a perfect burial of about the XVII dynasty. There was no valuable article in it, but the whole was an unusual and good group.

"A coffin of the Aahmen style, ten pots in beautifully made string mats, most of which have more or less preserved with collodian. A blue marble dish with four apes. A horn with ivory bird-head spout. An obsidian and an alabaster khol pot of fine work. Two bead net pouches with handles. A head rest with inlaid stem of ivory and ebony. Two baskets, and sundry…"

Who was buried in the grave?

The coffin contained the mummy of a slender woman, around five feet tall, aged about 18-25. The mummy wore a magnificent collar of gold rings, a pair of gold earrings, two pairs of gold bracelets, and a girdle of fine electrum rings as well as a scarab and an electrum button.

With her was the white-painted rectangular coffin of a 2-3 year old child. The child’s mummy wore a necklace of gold rings, a pair of gold earrings, a girdle and pair of anklets made from blue-glazed rings, and three ivory bangles, two on the left arm and one on the right.

http://www.nms.ac.uk/explore/stories/world-cultures/ancient-egyptian-collection/ancient-egyptian-collection/qurna-burial/