# KV44
KV 44 is a small, undecorated shaft tomb in the southeast branch of the main Wadi of the [Valley of the Kings](https://www.edgepedia.org/valley-of-the-kings) at Thebes (modern [Luxor](https://www.edgepedia.org/luxor), Egypt), close to KV 45.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) Cut in the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom, it was reused in the 22nd Dynasty of the Third Intermediate Period, under [Osorkon I](https://www.edgepedia.org/osorkon-i), for the burials of Tentkerer, a Lady of the House, Heiufaa, and a songstress of Amun.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) Howard Carter discovered and excavated it in 1901, and Donald P. Ryan of Pacific Lutheran University re-excavated it in 1990–1991.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Undecorated single-chamber shaft tomb[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) |
| Location | Southeast branch of the main Wadi, Valley of the Kings, near KV 45[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) |
| Dimensions | Total length 6.01 m; total area 22.59 m²; chamber 5.65 × 3.54 m[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) |
| Original date | Mid-18th Dynasty; pottery of the reigns of Tuthmosis IV to early Amenhotep III[2](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html) |
| Original owner | Unknown, probably non-royal[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) |
| 22nd Dynasty reuse | Under Osorkon I, for Tentkerer, Lady of the House, Heiufaa, and a songstress of Amun[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) |
| Excavation | Howard Carter, 26 January 1901; re-cleared by Donald P. Ryan, 1990–1991[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) • [2](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html) |
## Location and architecture
The tomb lies in the southeast branch of the main Wadi of the Valley of the Kings, close to KV 45, and consists of a shaft entryway (A) and a single chamber (B).[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) The entryway measures 1.11 m in width and 1.91 m in length (2.11 m²), cut low in the west side of the wadi.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) Chamber B is a well-cut trapezoidal chamber 5.65 m wide by 3.54 m long (20.06 m²), undecorated like the rest of the tomb.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) The tomb's total length is 6.01 m and its total area 22.59 m², with a maximum width of 5.65 m and a minimum width of 0.75 m.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown)
When Carter reached the chamber in 1901, a later blocking of chamber B was found intact.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown)
## Original construction and the 18th Dynasty owner
The pottery recovered from the tomb dates to the reigns of Tuthmosis IV and the early reign of [Amenhotep III](https://www.edgepedia.org/amenhotep-iii), and the tomb is dated to the mid-18th Dynasty like nearby KV 45.[2](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html) This fits a broader pattern: recent research suggests that the undecorated non-royal tombs of the Kings' Valley were built mainly during the mid-18th Dynasty, ca. 1480–1350 BCE, for members of the extended royal family.[3](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105253)
The funerary furniture of the original owner was robbed; Carter reported that only "rubbish" remained inside the tomb.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) The presence of several bees' nests indicates that the tomb lay open for some time in antiquity.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) Carter also noted remains of earlier mummies, without coffins or funerary furniture, among the rubbish behind a roughly closed dry-stone wall.[2](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html)
The identity of the original owner is unknown, and the occupant was probably non-royal.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) Elizabeth Thomas suggested that the tomb was cut for [Anen](https://www.edgepedia.org/anen), a son of Yuya and Thuyu, and possibly Anen's wife; the Theban Mapping Project states that there is no foundation for this, since Anen has his own tomb (TT 120) in Shaykh Abd al-Qurna.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) Carter's published account records the recovery from KV45 of fragments of canopic jars inscribed for Userhet, an 18th Dynasty overseer of the fields of Amun;[2](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html) the Theban Mapping Project, by contrast, records the owner's identity as unknown and reports that only rubbish remained of the original burial equipment.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) • [7](https://www.scribd.com/document/248617338/958-v2)
## The 22nd Dynasty burials
The tomb was reused during Dynasty 22, under Osorkon I, for secondary burials: Tentkerer, a Lady of the House, Heiufaa, and a songstress of Amun.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) Carter entered the chamber on 26 January 1901 and found three wooden coffins placed beside one another at one side of the chamber, covered with wreaths of flowers.[2](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html)
Ryan's re-clearance recovered what remained of the original interment: seven individuals, probably of the first burial, three of them children, and one as young as two years of age.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) • [2](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html) The finds included a child's coffin end piece, a blue cylindrical bead, and an uninscribed canopic jar fragment.[2](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html) Ryan's team also uncovered 88 clay ushabti fragments representing at least 44 figures, crudely made by pressing mud into a mold.[2](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html)
## Excavation history
[Howard Carter](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-carter), excavating for Theodore M. Davis, reached the chamber door after removing rubbish to a depth of 5.55 m and entered on 26 January 1901.[2](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html) Donald P. Ryan of Pacific Lutheran University re-cleared the tomb in 1990–1991.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown) After Ryan's re-clearance, a metal grid was placed over the entrance shaft and a low rubble wall was constructed around the opening to divert flood water.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown)
## Undecorated tombs and reuse in the Valley of the Kings
KV 44 belongs to a group of small, undecorated, non-royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Since 2009 the University of Basel Kings' Valley Project has explored a series of such tombs, including KV 40, KV 31, and KV 64.[3](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105253)
The closest parallel is neighboring KV 45. There too Carter found Dynasty 18 canopic jar fragments, belonging to a man named Userhat, and could not remove two mummies of Dynasty 22 because of flooding; Donald Ryan later re-cleared that tomb as well.[4](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-45-userhat) KV 64, discovered in 2012, is a small single-chamber tomb with a shaft about 3.5 m deep, measuring 1.20 by 0.95 m at the bottom, and a burial chamber of 4.10 by 2.35 m.[5](https://daw.philhist.unibas.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/daw/Fachbereiche/aegyptologie/Forschung/Projekte/King_s_Valley/Reports/Report_2012.pdf) Its chamber held an intact 22nd Dynasty burial of the chantress of Amun Nehmes-Bastet in a sycamore coffin 1.92 m long with a painted stela; underneath the debris on which this burial rested were the remains of a thoroughly looted original 18th Dynasty burial.[5](https://daw.philhist.unibas.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/daw/Fachbereiche/aegyptologie/Forschung/Projekte/King_s_Valley/Reports/Report_2012.pdf) This reuse pattern, one looted 18th Dynasty burial under an intact 22nd Dynasty burial, directly parallels KV 44's.[3](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105253)
[Radiocarbon dating](https://www.edgepedia.org/radiocarbon-dating) at KV 40 shows a similar two-phase history measured independently of typology: first use under [Thutmose IV](https://www.edgepedia.org/thutmose-iv) and Amenhotep III (calibrated ranges 1510–1362 to 1345–1300 BCE), and reuse from 869–795 to 767–645 BCE, at the end of the 22nd and in the 25th Dynasty.[3](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105253)
Scholarship on Theban tomb reuse in the transition from the New Kingdom to the Third Intermediate Period interprets post-mortem interventions in elite tombs as conducted with respect and intended to form connections with the dead.[6](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/making-plundered-spaces-sacred-again-fragmentation-reorganisation-and-respect-in-reused-theban-tombs/FB325501E3ED796EC0E2E80BDD512C4D) Reuse of tombs became widespread at Thebes in the Third Intermediate Period, and recognizing it opens space for seeing non-royal agency in the necropolis.[6](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/making-plundered-spaces-sacred-again-fragmentation-reorganisation-and-respect-in-reused-theban-tombs/FB325501E3ED796EC0E2E80BDD512C4D)
## References
1. [KV 44 (Unknown) | Theban Mapping Project](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-44-unknown)
2. [The Ancient Egypt: Tombs: KV37 – KV40 – KV41 – KV44 – KV45 – KV48](https://the-ancient-pharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/05/tombs-kv37-kv40-kv41-kv44-kv45-kv48.html)
3. [An insight over time into undecorated tombs of the Kings' Valley (Luxor, Egypt): the challenge of 14C dating | Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2025)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105253)
4. [KV 45 (Userhat) | Theban Mapping Project](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-45-userhat)
5. [University of Basel Kings' Valley Project, Report 2012 (KV64)](https://daw.philhist.unibas.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/daw/Fachbereiche/aegyptologie/Forschung/Projekte/King_s_Valley/Reports/Report_2012.pdf)
6. [Making plundered spaces sacred again: fragmentation, reorganisation and respect in reused Theban tombs | Antiquity](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/making-plundered-spaces-sacred-again-fragmentation-reorganisation-and-respect-in-reused-theban-tombs/FB325501E3ED796EC0E2E80BDD512C4D)
7. [Client Challenge](https://www.scribd.com/document/248617338/958-v2)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Ancient and historical places › Cities and sites of the ancient Near East, Egypt, and Nubia › Ancient Egypt › New Kingdom: cities, sites, and monuments › New Kingdom: royal and private tombs › Valley of the Kings tombs*
*Initially written Sep 19, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Sep 19, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license