Discovery of the Tomb of Kha

After the discovery of the tomb of Kha by the Italian archaeologists, the Egyptian authorities insisted only on a small part of Kha’s finds so that a bronze lamp and its tall wooden support, breads, blocks of salt and 19 terracotta vases were retained by Egypt.

All the rest of more than 500 items was granted to Italy and now in the Egyptian Museum of Turin. The Theban Tomb (TT8) is considered to be the best surviving furnished, non royal tomb from ancient Egypt.

Once they arrived in Turin, the finds from the tomb of Kha and Merit were placed in a secondary room of the gallery on the first floor of the building.

A few photographs document this first display and show how the arrangement of the objects, in a small and narrow room, was probably not intended to reproduce the precise appearance of the burial chamber and the finds as they had been found, but rather to evoke in the visitors the emotions of the discoverer on entering this narrow space.

The grave goods of architect Kha and his wife Merit were found intact. Among the numerous objects discovered in the tomb, there are many different containers that have recently underwent several analysis that help us understand what’s their content.

Kha was architect of the King Amenhotep II of the 18th Dynasty and responsible for building projects not just in the reign of Amenhotep II, but also in the reign of 3 or 4 kings: Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III. The intact tomb was discovered by Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1906.