159b: Double Death

King Ay suffered badly in the afterlife. His funeral, in 1331 BCE, was poor; and a few decades/centuries later, vandals broke into his tomb. They ransacked the monument, attacked the King's images, and erased his names. The attack was brutal but methodical. Why did this happen?

Episode Details

• Date c.1331 BCE and a few decades / centuries later.
• Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.
• Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast.
• Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments.
• Logo image: Erasures on the wrists of Nut, Lady of the Sky, as she offers nyny (welcome) to King Ay. Photo by Dominic Perry, 2022.
• Photos: See photos of the tomb of Ay (KV23) by Dominic Perry, available on Google Drive.
• Music: “The Mummy’s Tomb,” by Tabletop Audio. Used with permission.
• Music: Sistrum sound effect by Hathor Systrum www.hathorsystrum.com. Used with permission.
• Music: Interludes by Luke Chaos https://twitter.com/Luke_Chaos.

Select Bibliography:

• B. G. Davies, Egyptian Historical Records of the Later Eighteenth Dynasty, VI (Warminster, 1995).
• A. Dodson, Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation (2nd edn, Cairo, 2017). AUC Press.
• M. Gabolde, Toutankhamon (Paris, 2015). PYGMALION Press.
• N. Kawai, ‘Studies in the Reign of Tutankhamun’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Johns Hopkins University (2005).
• W. J. Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt (Atlanta, 1995).
• O. Schaden, ‘The God’s Father Ay’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Minnesota (1977).
• O. J. Schaden, ‘Clearance of the Tomb of King Ay (WV-23)’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 21 (1984), 39–64. JSTOR online.
• R. H. Wilkinson, ‘Controlled Damage: The Mechanics and Micro-History of the Damnatio Memoriae Carried Out in KV-23, the Tomb of Ay’, Journal of Egyptian History 4 (2011), 129–47. BRILL online.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices