Royal Cache

The Royal Cache, technically known as TT320 (previously referred to as DB320), is an Ancient Egyptian tomb located next to Deir el-Bahari, in the Theban Necropolis, opposite the modern city of Luxor.

It contains an extraordinary collection of mummified remains and funeral equipment of more than 50 kings, queens, and other royal family members of the New Kingdom, as it was used as a cache for royal mummies during the Twenty-first Dynasty. The eleven pharaohs found there include one of the nine pharaohs from the 17th dynasty, five of the fifteen pharaohs from the 18th dynasty, three of the eight pharaohs from the 19th dynasty, and two of the ten pharaohs from the 20th dynasty. It is thought to be one of the first caches.The tomb was originally used as the last resting place of High Priest of Amun Pinedjem II, his wife Neskhons, and other close family members.

Its discovery by locals between 1860 and 1871, and by Egyptologists in 1881, caused a sensation. The mummies quickly became a highlight of the new Egyptian Museum (then in Giza). In 1969, the discovery was dramatized in The Night of Counting the Years, which became one of Egypt's most widely respected films. In 2021 the mummies were moved from the Egyptian Museum to their longstanding resting place to a modern display area in the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, following the high-profile Pharaohs' Golden Parade.

The tomb is thought to have initially been the last resting place of High Priest of Amun Pinedjem II, his wife Nesikhons, and other close family members. Pinedjem II died around 969 BCE, in a time of decline of the Egyptian kingdom, during which mummies from former dynasties were vulnerable to grave robbery. During Ramesses IX's reign, he had teams that went out and inspected the tombs of pharaohs. If it were discovered that repairs to the tomb or the mummy were needed, arrangements would be made to make the necessary repairs. The tombs that were inspected were found untouched at that time.

During Herihor's reign, however, some tombs and mummies were found to be in need of what they called "renewing the burial places". The tombs of Ramesses I, Seti I, and Ramesses II required "renewing" after pillaging, and this led to the royal mummies being moved to this tomb to protect them, with each coffin given dockets stating when they were moved and where they were reburied; some of the mummies had been moved multiple times before they were placed here. The mummies in need of "renewing" would be re-wrapped in linen and a linen docket would be added in order to keep accurate records of the mummies who were kept in the cache.

It was initially believed that this tomb originally belonged to an Eighteenth Dynasty queen who was found buried here. However, mummies were cached here in the Twenty-first Dynasty and the Eighteenth Dynasty queen was found at or near the entrance of the tomb, suggesting that she was placed in it last, which would indicate that this was not her tomb. If this was her tomb she would have been placed at the far, or back, end of the tomb. When the last of the mummies were placed in TT320, it seemed that the opening was naturally covered with sand and possibly other debris such as rocks, rendering it difficult to find. This aided in the purpose of moving the mummies into the TT320, the hidden aspect of the tomb was the reasoning behind choosing it as the resting place for many mummies in hopes to avoid additional grave robberies.

In 1881, the location of TT320 became publicly known. Later research, conducted by Gaston Maspero, stated that members of the local Abd el-Rassul family discovered TT320 as early as 1871, because items such as canopic jars and funeral papyri from this tomb showed up on the antiquities market in Luxor as early as 1874 (the reidentification and repatriation of the mummy of Ramesses I in 2003 shows that the Abd el-Rassul family may have actually discovered TT320 as early as 1860). For example, the Book of the Dead of Pinedjem II was purchased in 1876 for £400. The story that Ahmed Abd el-Rassul told was that one of his goats fell down a shaft and when he went down the shaft to retrieve the goat, he stumbled across this tomb. As he looked around, he discovered that this was no ordinary tomb. He saw that the mummies entombed in TT 320 were royal. This was indicated by the royal cobra head dress on some of the coffins. Local authorities were expecting to find several tombs belonging to the family of Herihor. When items started appearing on the antiquities market with their names on them, local authorities started to investigate the items and were able to trace them back to the Abd el-Rassul family. Authorities interrogated and tortured the two brothers until one of the brothers eventually gave up the location of the tomb where the items were plundered from. Authorities were sent out to TT320 immediately to secure it.

On July 6, 1881, authorities arrived at TT320 without the head of the Egyptian Service of Antiquities, because he was on vacation. Instead, the only other European member of the team, Émile Brugsch, was sent with one of the first Egyptian Egyptologists, Ahmed Kamal, to explore and examine TT320. Rather than just exploring, Brugsch had all of the contents, including the mummies, of this tomb removed within 48 hours of them entering this tomb. Neither Brugsch nor Kamal documented the tomb before having the contents removed, which made future study of this tomb difficult. Locations of the coffins were not documented and items were not catalogued. Brugsch later went back to document the tomb but was unable to remember considerable details. The removal of the items from TT320 so quickly presented problems that the removal team at the time did not take into account.