Contrary to popular belief, Tutankhamun's tomb
was not intact when Carter found it: only the burial was
undisturbed. The tomb had been robbed twice in antiquity, quite
soon after it. was sealed. The first robbery was for the gold and
precious jewellery, most of which the robbers got away with
except for a notable group of seven solid gold rings found still
wrapped in the robber's kerchief and stuffed into a box in the
Annexe. The jewellery now displayed in the Cairo Museum was
mainly recovered from the body of the king, on which there were
over 170 items.
After the priests and guards had resealed the tomb, it was broken
into again, this time to steal the precious oils and unguents
(largely stored in tall rather ungainly alabaster jars) which the
thieves had left behind the first time. On this occasion they
came equipped with empty goatskins. The tomb was resealed once
again, this time for good: the entrance disappeared from view,
hidden in the floor of the Valley. Debris from the construction
of Ramesses Vl's tomb buried the entrance deeper still, and there
it lay for over 3000 years, until Carter rediscovered the tomb in
1922.