Gilded mummy mask of Thuya, made of cartonnage (linen and plaster) and then covered with gold leaf to give the impression of a golden mask.
Less well known than Tutankhamun’s burial but equally mostly intact was the tomb of his great-grandparents, Yuya and Thuya, the parents of Queen Tiye (and grandparents of Akhenaten).As the in-laws of Pharaoh Amenophis III they were given a burial in the Valley of the Kings, and though smaller than most royal tombs it nonetheless yielded a treasure-trove of artefacts when it was discovered in 1905.
The tomb had been entered by robbers in antiquity but they were presumably disturbed as the mummies were still intact within their coffins and the funerary goods including a large amount of furniture also remained.
It was the most complete ancient Egyptian tomb discovered until Tutankhamun’s seventeen years later.
