The majority of the 65 numbered tombs in the Valley of the Kings can be considered minor tombs, either because at present they have yielded little information or because the results of their investigation was only poorly recorded by their explorers, while some have received very little attention or were only cursorily noted. Most of these tombs are small, often only consisting of a single burial chamber accessed by means of a shaft or a staircase with a corridor or a series of corridors leading to the chamber, but some are larger, multiple chambered tombs. These minor tombs served various purposes, some were intended for burials of lesser royalty or for private burials, some contained animal burials and others apparently never received a primary burial. In many cases these tombs also served secondary functions and later intrusive material has been found related to these secondary activities. While some of these tombs have been open since antiquity, the majority were discovered in the 19th and early 20th centuries during the height of exploration in the valley.
Designation
Tombs in the Valley of the Kings are assigned a numerical KV (for Kings' Valley) or WV (for West Valley) designation in the order of their discovery. Besides these numbered tombs there is also a series of pits and possible tomb commencements, ordered in an alphabetical sequence from WVA (actually a small tomb) to KVT although the exact number of these pits, and in many cases their location, is not known. The assignment of this alphabetical sequence has been done by more recent researchers, often on the basis of cursory references in older reports or field notes.
List of minor tombs
Tombs in the East Valley
KV3
KV3 is located in a side wadi of the main valley, adjacent to KV46 and KV4. Although it has been open since antiquity and had been visited by several explorers earlier on, the tomb was first excavated by Harry Burton in 1912. Before him both Edward R. Ayrton and James E. Quibell excavated in the vicinity of the tomb's entrance during 1904–1906. The work of these three men in and around the tomb was conducted for Theodore M. Davis.
The layout of KV3 resembles that of other Twentieth Dynasty tombs intended for members of the royal family in the Valley of the Queens. It consists of a corridor with two side chambers (one of which is unfinished) leading into a pillared chamber, again with partially finished side chambers, which in its turn gives access to three consecutive smaller rooms the first two of which have vaulted ceilings. The tomb has decoration in its corridor, depicting Ramesses III followed by a prince, while Carl Richard Lepsius, who visited the tomb in the mid-19th century, also mentions decoration elsewhere in the tomb which is now lost. It has been suggested that KV3 is the tomb mentioned on an ostracon dating from year 28 of Ramesses III, a tomb which was to be quarried in the valley for one of Ramesses's sons. The identity of the intended princely occupant of this tomb remains unknown but it has been suggested that this might have been the later Ramesses IV.
Burton's clearance of the tomb yielded no material of New Kingdom date and therefore it has been supposed that the tomb was never used for a burial. Later intrusive material from Byzantine times suggest the tomb was adapted as a Christian chapel by Copts.
KV12
KV12 is located in the main valley and has been open since antiquity. It was cleared by Ernest Harold Jones in 1908–09 for Davis, while in 1920–21 Howard Carter unsuccessfully searched in the vicinity of the tombs entrance for foundation deposits.
The tomb has an unusual plan, with a staircase which leads directly into a room with one pillar from which a series of corridors lead down into multiple chambers. Markings for uncut doorways indicate that the tombs layout is unfinished. Differences in the quality of the quarrying and architectural style suggest the tomb was constructed over a period of time, starting in the Eighteenth Dynasty, continuing into the Nineteenth Dynasty, and possibly continuing afterwards. The tomb in its present layout was definitely in existence by the time of the construction of KV9 (tomb of Ramesses V and Ramesses VI) since the quarrying of that tomb collided with the rearmost chamber of KV12.