Card/Transcription No.: 260

No. 260.

A NICHE cut in the w. corner of the south wall, facing beyond
(right) the head end of the sarcophagus, 165 cents. above the
floor of the Burial-chamber.

THE NICHE takes the form of a roughly cut shallow recess of
rectangular shape, 26 cents. high, 16 cents. wide, and 10
cents. deep. It was closed by the means of a suitable but
irregular splinter of limestone, which was plastered over
flush with the surface of the wall and then painted over to
match the colour decoration of the wall.

IT CONTAINED a wooden ded-emblem, 9.2 cents. high (= 5
digits), overlaid with thin gold-foil (largely fallen from
decay) and inlaid with blue glazed pottery, stood upright,
facing east, upon a brick (pedestal) of unbaked clay.

THE BRICK (pedestal), 9.3 cents. long, 4.2 cents. wide, and
1.4 cents. thick (= 5 x 2 ¼ x ¾ digits), has upon its upper
surface, in front of the ded-emblem, the following incantation
graven in hieroglyphic characters:

<>
? ?

Scratched on the brick, under the emblem, is the sign <>; a
few minute globules of resinous matter exude from the clay;
and there are traces of red paint on the under surface.

The rubric included in Ch. CLI of the Book of the Dead that
refers to this emblem and its brick (pedestal) reads:

"This formula is to be spoken over a ded of glaze, the cross-bars of which are fine gold, which has been covered with royal
linen, and oil allowed to fall on it. It is fastened on a
brick of unbaked clay, [on which has been graven this
formula], and a hole is made for it in the western wall, its
face towards the east, and it is covered up with earth that
has been under an caru-tree."

There was not a trace of linen, oil, nor of earth, visible on
the above specimen!