TT320

The tomb is thought to have been first the burial place of Pinedjem II, his wife Nesikhons and other close family members. Pinedjem II died around 969 BCE, in a time of decline of the Egyptian kingdom, when mummies of former dynasties were vulnerable to grave robbery. In the reign of Herihor some tombs and mummies were found to need what was called "renewing the burial places". The tombs of Ramesses I, Seti I and Ramesses II required renewing after pillaging, and the royal mummies were moved to this tomb to protect them. Each coffin was given dockets stating when it was moved and where it was reburied, and some of the mummies had been moved multiple times before they were placed here. Mummies in need of renewal were re-wrapped in linen and a linen docket was added to keep accurate records.

It was initially believed that the tomb had originally belonged to an Eighteenth Dynasty queen found buried there. She was found at or near the entrance, however, which suggests that she was placed in it last and that it was not her tomb. When the last mummies were placed in TT320, the opening seems to have been naturally covered with sand and possibly other debris, making it difficult to find, and the hidden character of the tomb is thought to have been the reason for choosing it.

In 1881 the location of TT320 became publicly known. Research by Gaston Maspero concluded that members of the local Abd el-Rassul family had discovered it as early as 1871, because items such as canopic jars and funeral papyri from the tomb appeared on the antiquities market in Luxor as early as 1874. The reidentification and repatriation of the mummy of Ramesses I in 2003 shows that the family may have discovered it as early as 1860. The Book of the Dead of Pinedjem II was purchased in 1876 for £400. According to the story told by Ahmed Abd el-Rassul, one of his goats fell down a shaft, and when he went down to retrieve it he found the tomb and recognised the mummies as royal from the royal cobra head dress on some of the coffins. Local authorities traced the items on the market back to the family, and in 1881, after a family quarrel, one of the brothers gave up the location of the tomb.

On July 6, 1881, authorities arrived at TT320 without the head of the Egyptian Service of Antiquities, who was on vacation. Émile Brugsch and Ahmed Kamal, one of the first Egyptian Egyptologists, were sent to examine it. Brugsch had all of the contents, including the mummies, removed within 48 hours of their entering the tomb. Neither documented the tomb beforehand, so the locations of the coffins were not recorded and the items were not catalogued, which made later study difficult. Upon arrival in Cairo several coffins were found damaged, probably during the initial extraction, and some mummies were found in the wrong coffins and in different stages of preservation. Approximately ten coffins were found with their foot ends missing; this is believed to have happened before they were placed in TT320, as Brugsch did not mention foot ends and a research team that entered in 1998 found no evidence of them either.