Investigating Kha’s grave goods by means of a transportable, custom-designed x-ray CT system

The tomb of the foreman Kha and his wife Merit is a significant historical site within the necropolis of Deir el-Medina, Egypt. Discovered in 1906 by Ernesto Schiaparelli, then director of the Museo Egizio of Turin, this tomb represents an extraordinary archaeological find. In fact, the burial chamber had never been desecrated and contained over 440 different artefacts, many of which were in an exceptional state of preservation. As part of a multi-disciplinary study project a tomographic measurements campaign was carried out on a selection of wooden caskets, terracotta amphorae and other small objects from the grave goods. The purpose of the tomographic campaign was to uncover the construction technique of the caskets, to reveal the hidden contents in the amphorae and to identify some tools enclosed in a fabric casing. The analyses were performed at the Museo Egizio of Turin, where the finds are exposed, using our transportable custom CT system. A description of the CT system and the scanning of the finds is given in the paper. The campaign produced a huge dataset output and following processing helped to carry out a detailed qualitative but also quantitative study, shedding light on the key features of these buried treasures.