Abstract The bed under study originates from the New Kingdom’s 18th Dynasty, attributed to King Tutankhamun’s reign (1336–1327 B.C.). Among the artifacts discovered in Tutankhamun’s tomb, six daily beds were unearthed, with two located in the antechamber and the remainder in the annex. This study presents the first analytical investigation of one of these beds since the discovery of the tomb in 1922, which was found in poor condition at the north end of the chamber. The foot panel had detached from the bedstead, and damage to the cord webbing was evident in several areas. Upon examination, it became apparent that significant previous conservation interventions had obscured the original surface. Additionally, sections of the cord webbing had been torn, and remnants of previous adhesive materials and insect remain were present. The flaking of the white-painted layer revealed a red layer beneath it in multiple places. In this study, we aim to illuminate the bed’s components and previous conservation interventions through a combination of visual assessment and various analytical techniques, including Keynece VHX digital microscopy, UV-induced luminescence (UVL), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and FTIR-Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR). Analysis revealed that the white-painted layer is composed of huntite CaMg 3 (CO 3 ) 4 . Furthermore, the missing part of the bedstead was rediscovered and reassembled in its original location for the first time since the tomb’s discovery.
Moustafa et al. (Thu,) studied this question.