Stunning Discovery: Thyia Mummy Revealed as Mother of Queen Tiye, Grandmother of Akhenaten, and Great-Grandmother of Tutankhamun!

Thyia is thought to be a descendant of Queen Ahmose-Nefertari and played a prominent role in the intricate blend of religion and governance in ancient Egypt. She was deeply involved in numerous religious cults, holding esteemed titles such as ‘Singer of Hathor’ and ‘Chief of the Entertainers’ for both Amun and Min. Thyia also occupied influential positions, including Superintendent of the Harem of the god Min of Akhmim and of Amun of Thebes. She married Yuya, a powerful courtier of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Thyia is believed to have passed away around 1375 BC, in her early to mid-50s.

Thyia’s imposing sarcophagus, adorned with gilded and black-painted wood, was placed against the south wall of the tomb. Rectangular in shape, it features a lid designed like the sloping roof of a per-wer shrine from Upper Egypt and rests on ornamental sledge runners, whose decorative purpose is emphasized by three battens attached below. Ancient tomb robbers had partially dismantled the sarcophagus to access her coffins and mummy, leaving its lid and one long side placed on a bed on the opposite side of the tomb, while the other long side was propped against the south wall.

Her outer gilded anthropoid coffin had been removed, with its lid placed atop the beds and the trough set into the far corner of the tomb. The lid of her second, inner coffin—also gilded—had been removed and set aside, though the trough and her mummy remained inside the sarcophagus. Quibell posits that this could be due to the robbers encountering difficulty in removing the lid of the inner coffin.