The Getty Conservation Institute has entered into a five-year partnership with Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) to collaborate on a project for the conservation and management of the tomb of Tutankhamen (KV62). The project follows a values-based conservation methodology where the historic and artistic values and significance of the tomb guide future conservation and management decisions. Its components include:

• background research and assessment
• implementation of the conservation plan
• development and implementation of monitoring and maintenance program, presentation and interpretation plans, and polices for uses of the tomb
• project evaluation and dissemination

View of the entrance to Tutankhamen's tomb (KV62) in the foreground, with the entrance to the tomb of Rameses VI (KV9) in the mound behind. Photo: Stephen Rickerby	Detail of painting on the north wall of Tutankhamen's burial chamber showing Osiris, lord of the underworld, embracing Tutankhamen, who is followed by his ka or spirit twin. Photo: Lori Wong

	East wall of the tomb's burial chamber. The wall painting depicts Tutankhamen's mummified body lying in a shrine, which is on a sledge being drawn by twelve mourners. Photo: Robert Jensen

Background
Located in the Valley of the Kings, within the World Heritage Site of Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis, the tomb of Tutankhamen is perhaps the most famous of Egypt's pharaonic tombs. In November 1922, when British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the treasure-filled tomb, the short-lived eighteenth-dynasty pharaoh attained instant and lasting fame. Though KV62 is the smallest of the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, it was found with its spectacular funerary contents virtually intact and was scientifically excavated over a ten-year period, thus it is of great historic and cultural value.

Typically, the walls and ceilings of Egyptian royal tombs are decorated with entire texts of the Book of the Dead. By comparison, Tutankhamen's tomb is relatively simple and only the four walls of its burial chamber are decorated. The paintings, as well as some of the tomb's other surfaces, are marred by disfiguring brown spots, the nature and origin of which have never been fully ascertained, though they were noted by the excavation team in 1923. KV62 is one of the most heavily visited sites in the Theban necropolis and the large numbers of visitors may be contributing to the tomb's physical deterioration. The Tutankhamen project will undertake detailed planning for the conservation and management of the tomb and its wall paintings, with the GCI and SCA working jointly to design and implement the plan.

Overview
The project is divided into three phases. During the first phase (background research and assessment) work will encompass the preparation of an accurate record of the condition of the tomb and its wall paintings, the analysis and diagnosis of the causes of deterioration of the tomb, and the design, testing, and evaluation of appropriate interventions. The work to be conducted during this phase will require a minimum of two years to complete, after which the SCA and the GCI will study the results of the research and consider options for interventions in relation to future plans for visitation to KV62, as determined by the SCA. An agreement between the two organizations regarding a proposed conservation plan will conclude this phase and establish the basis for the next phase.

	Conservators conducting a visual examination of the wall paintings on the north and west walls of the burial chamber. Photo: Robert Jensen

The second and third phases will be conducted simultaneously over a three-year period. The second phase will focus on the implementation of the conservation plan for the tomb and its wall paintings, and on documentation of treatment carried out. The program for long-term monitoring of the condition and maintenance of KV62, as well as policies for presentation and interpretation, visitation, and other uses of the tomb, will be put into practice during the third phase. In the final phase, the results of the project will be evaluated and disseminated. Throughout the course of the project, SCA conservators and staff will undergo training in conservation science and site management.

Ultimately, the Tutankhamen project will provide a model case study for the practice of conservation on the West Bank to enhance conservation practice and knowledge regionally. The Tomb of Tutankhamen Project is the GCI's most recent collaborative project with Egypt. Twenty years ago, institute staff worked with Egyptian colleagues and an international conservation team on the conservation of the wall paintings in the tomb of Queen Nefertari, the queen of the powerful ruler Ramses II. Other GCI collaborative work with Egyptian authorities has included the development of oxygen-free, anoxic display and storage cases for the Royal Mummies in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and an environmental monitoring study of the Great Sphinx at the Giza Plateau outside Cairo. Currently, the GCI is also collaborating with the SCA on the development and implementation of a conservation and management plan for the Valley of the Queens.

Last updated: November 2009