© Griffith Institute, Oxford OX1 2LG
Concept and direction: Jaromir Malek
[Note: all dates have been standardized.]
Transcript: Sue Hutchison
Editing: Jaromir Malek and Ana I. Navajas Jimenez
The transcript presented here has been only very slightly edited, for example by correcting misspellings and eliminating duplication or omission of words. For easier reading, such cases are not marked but scans of the pages of these diaries will be available here soon and may be consulted for details.
Commenced reparations upon the faldstool No. 351.
Arranged for workmen to commence clearing the entrance of the tomb on the
morrow Wednesday.
Continued work in Lab. upon faldstool 351.
Opened tomb this morning and ordered necessary wood, masons for the work of
removing the shrines.
These last two days have been terribly heavy & hot making work somewhat
tedious.
Quantity of timber arrived, but not all that I ordered.
All woodwork and rails for visitors removed from the tomb today.
Prepared material, etc., ready to deal with the shrines in the tomb on
Wednesday morning.
Although it is a fortnight since I requested the inspector, Tewfik Effendi,
to obtain skilful stone cutters to carry out this enlarging of the entrance
passage and doorways, there are no signs of them yet! - Such a state of
affairs makes things all the more difficult, for until the sections are
removed we are in want of space to continue our reparation and packing work.
During this period we were able to replace all the roof sections that were
stored in the anteroom, as well as one of the side sections (that of the
innermost shrine) around the sarcophagus. Many of the roof sections were in
a very bad condition, and even though we waxed them & filled in the weak
parts, I doubt whether they will travel without further injury to them.
On Monday the third of Nov.
at the request of the Crown Prince I opened one
of the niches containing the magical figure in the burial chamber of the
tomb. This proved to be: -
An Osiris figure of unbaked clay, swathed in fine linen, stood on a
brick-like pedestal, also made of unbaked clay, upon which a formula has
been graven. This figure upon its pedestal was placed, facing south, in a
small and roughly made rectangular niche cut in the southern part of the
eastern wall of the burial chamber. The niche was closed with a rough
limestone slab which was plastered over flush with the surface of the wall.
Although the cardinal points are more than often marked upon these magical
figures, their exact position in the walls of the burial chambers is not at
all clear - the chaps. referring to them in copies of the Book of the
Dead vary considerably.
However, the position of this Osiris figure according to some of the
vignettes in the B. of the D. should be in the wall facing the feet of the
mummy, where we found it. The flame in the wall at the head of the mummy.
The
Ded in the wall on the right side and the figure of Anubis on the wall
on the left. Thus in this tomb we should find the flame in the western wall,
the
Ded somewhere in the southern wall, and the figure of the jackal-
like-dog of Anubis in the north wall.
Also waxed and packed the south side panel of the fourth innermost shrine,
and that of the third shrine and nearly completed the south panel of the
second shrine.
Note "Shrine"
(December 17, 2010)
September 24, 1930.
Left London for Cairo.
September 29, 1930.
Arrived Alexandria and Cairo (accompanying H.R.H. the Crown Prince of Sweden).
October 5, 1930.
Left Cairo for Luxor.
October 6, 1930.
Arrived Gurna.
October 7, 1930.
Put house in order.
October 8, 1930.
Opened Lab. No. 15. Found everything in order.October 9, 1930.
Cleaned the entrance of the tomb.October 10, 1930.
Removed staircase from entrance of tomb. Continued working up. 351. Find
work very trying when having an Inspector watching one and asking questions
as to one's actions the whole time!
October 11, 1930.
Getting along very well with Tewfik Effendi and Edward Davran Effendi,
notwithstanding they kept us waiting this morning (they being late) and both
told me how to do my work - reparation of chair 351 and the removal of the
shrines from the tomb!!!October 12, 1930.
Continued work upon faldstool 351.October 13, 1930.
Lucas arrived.October 21, 1930.
The whole of this last week was spent upon the reparation of the roof
section (one piece) of the fourth (innermost) shrine, the two roof sections
of the third shrine, and the east end roof section of the second shrine,
that were among those parts stored in the south end of the antechamber.
Each of their sections were in very bad condition, and owing to their size
and weight hard to deal with. By our removing the steel-gate and pulling
down the made up parts of the entrance staircase and doorway - that had been
originally cut away to allow the larger sections of the shrines to pass
in - we were able to take out the two roof sections of the third shrine. The
other sections when packed are too large to pass out until the passage and
doorways have been enlarged.October 22-31, 1930.
The stone cutters arrived on the 22nd and commenced cutting away the south
side of the passage and entrance doorways to allow the larger sections of
the shrines to pass out. This was not completed until the 31st of the month,
although five masons were employed.November 1, 1930.
Our work was temporarily stopped owing to the arrival of the Crown Prince of
Sweden, whom I was obliged to attend during his three day visit to Luxor.November 5-10, 1930.
Completed waxing, packing and removal of all the roof sections of the
shrines that were stored in the antechamber - these have been temporarily
placed in their cases in the tomb of Ramses 9.
These shrines have a slight batter - about 1 cent. per metre. The panels
of the second shrine show traces of the king's cartouches having been
changed - the gold covering these cartouches is of a slightly yellower
quality and less tarnished than the rest of the gilt surfaces. The style of
work upon the panels of this shrine has distinctly the character of the
El Amarna school. Thus it would appear that the cartouches, originally
containing the Aten name, had been changed to the Amen name, and that
the shrine was the work of the earlier part of the king's reign or that
an El Amarna artist had been employed and had made the mistake of employing
the Aten name instead of that of Amen in the king's nomen.