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 Sunday,
November 26.
Open second
doorway about 2pm.
Advised Engelbach.
After clearing
9 metres of the descending passage, in about the middle of the afternoon,
we came upon a second sealed doorway, which was almost the exact
replica of the first. It bore similar seal impressions and had similar
traces of successive reopenings and reclosings in the plastering.
The seal impressions were of Tut.ankh.Amen and of the Royal Necropolis,
but not in any way so clear as those on the first doorway. The entrance
and passage both in plan and in style resembled almost to measurement
the tomb containing the cache of Akhenaten discovered by Davis in
the very near vicinity; which seemed to substantiate our first conjecture
that we had found a cache.
Feverishly
we cleared away the remaining last scraps of rubbish on the floor
of the passage before the doorway, until we had only the clean sealed
doorway before us. In which, after making preliminary notes, we
made a tiny breach in the top left hand corner to see what was beyond.
Darkness and the iron testing rod told us that there was empty space.
Perhaps another descending staircase, in accordance to the ordinary
royal Theban tomb plan? Or may be a chamber? Candles were procured
- the all important tell-tale for foul gases when opening an ancient
subterranean excavation - I widened the breach and by means of the
candle looked in, while Ld. C., Lady E, and Callender with the Reises
waited in anxious expectation.
It was sometime
before one could see, the hot air escaping caused the candle to
flicker, but as soon as one's eyes became accustomed to the glimmer
of light the interior of the chamber gradually loomed before one,
with its strange and wonderful medley of extraordinary and beautiful
objects heaped upon one another.
There was
naturally short suspense for those present who could not see, when
Lord Carnarvon said to me `Can you see anything'. I replied to him
Yes, it is wonderful. I then with precaution made the hole sufficiently
large for both of us to see. With the light of an electric torch
as well as an additional candle we looked in. Our sensations and
astonishment are difficult to describe as the better light revealed
to us the marvellous collection of treasures: two strange ebony-black
effigies of a King, gold sandalled, bearing staff and mace, loomed
out from the cloak of darkness; gilded couches in strange forms,
lion-headed, Hathor-headed, and beast infernal; exquisitely painted,
inlaid, and ornamental caskets; flowers; alabaster vases, some beautifully
executed of lotus and papyrus device; strange black shrines with
a gilded monster snake appearing from within; quite ordinary looking
white chests; finely carved chairs; a golden inlaid throne; a heap
of large curious white oviform boxes; beneath our very eyes, on
the threshold, a lovely lotiform wishing-cup in translucent alabaster;
stools of all shapes and design, of both common and rare materials;
and, lastly a confusion of overturned parts of chariots glinting
with gold, peering from amongst which was a mannikin. The first
impression of which suggested the property-room of an opera of a
vanished civilization. Our sensations were bewildering and full
of strange emotion. We questioned one another as to the meaning
of it all. Was it a tomb or merely a cache? A sealed doorway between
the two sentinel statues proved there was more beyond, and with
the numerous cartouches bearing the name of Tut.ankh.Amen on most
of the objects before us, there was little doubt that there behind
was the grave of that Pharaoh.
We closed
the hole, locked the wooden-grill which had been placed upon the
first doorway, we mounted our donkeys and return home contemplating
what we had seen.
Advised the
Chief Inspector of the Antiquities Department, who was with us at
the commencement of the opening of the first doorway, and asked
him to come as soon as possible, preferably the following afternoon
to enable us to prepare an electrical installation for careful inspection
of this extraordinary and pleasing discovery.
Monday, November
27.
Inspected
tomb with electric light.
Ibrahim Effendi came
Callender
prepared the electrical installation for lighting the tomb. This
was ready by noon, when Lord C., Lady E., Callender and self entered
and made a careful inspection of this first chamber (afterwards
called the Ante-chamber).
In the course
of the afternoon the local Inspector Ibrahim Effendi, of the Department
of Antiquities at Luxor, came in the place of the Chief Inspector
- he being absent on a visit to Kena.
It soon became
obvious that we were but on the threshold of the discovery. The
sight that met us was beyond anything one could conceive. The heterogeneous
mass of material crowded into the chamber without particular order,
so crowded that you were obliged to move with anxious caution, for
time had wrought certain havoc with many of the objects, was very
bewildering. Everywhere we found traces of disorder caused by some
early intruder, objects over-turned, broken fragments lying upon
the floor, all added to the confusion, and the unfamiliar plan of
tomb repeatedly caused us to ask ourselves in our perplexity whether
it was really a tomb or a Royal Cache? As the better light fell
upon the objects we endeavoured to take them in. It was impossible.
They were so many. Beneath one of the couches, the Thoueris couch
in the S.W. corner, we perceived an aperture in the rock-wall which
proved to be nothing less than another sealed-doorway broken open
as by some predatory hand. With care Ld. C. and I crept under this
strange gilded couch, and we peered into the opening. There we saw
that it led into yet another chamber (afterwards called the Annexe)
of smaller dimensions than the Ante-chamber and of a lower level.
Even greater confusion prevailed here, the very stones that blocked
the entrance, forced in when the breach was made, were lying helter-skelter
upon the objects on the floor crushed by their weight. It was full
of one mass of furniture. An utter confusion of beds, chairs, boxes,
alabaster and faience vases, statuettes, cases of peculiar form,
and every sort of thing overturned and searched for valuables. The
remaining portions of the plaster covering the blocking of this
doorway bore similar seal-impressions as on the other doorways.
In neither
of these two chambers could we see any traces of a mummy or mummies
- the one pious reason for making a cache. With such evidence, as
well as the sealed doorway between the two guardian statues of the
King, the mystery gradually dawned upon us. We were but in the anterior
portion of a tomb. Behind that closed doorway was the tomb-chamber,
and that Tut.ankh.Amen probably lay there in all his magnificent
panoply of death - we had found that monarch's burial place intact
save certain metal-robbing, and not his cache.
We then examined
the plaster and seal-impressions upon the closed doorway. They were
of many types of seals, all bearing the insignia of the King. We
also discovered that in the bottom part of the blocking a small
breach had once been made, large enough to allow of a small man
to pass through, but it had been carefully reclosed, plastered and
sealed. Evidently the tomb beyond had been entered - by thieves!
Who knows? But sufficient evidence to tell that someone had made
ingress.
The results
of our investigations were, (1) it was clear the place was Pharaoh's
tomb and not a mere cache; (2) that we had only entered the anterior
chambers of the tomb, filled with magnificent equipment equal only
to the wealth and splendour of the New Empire; (3) that we had found
a royal burial little disturbed save hurried plundering at the hands
of ancient tomb robbers.
It was a sight
surpassing all precedent, and one we never dreamed of seeing. We
were astonished by the beauty and refinement of the art displayed
by the objects surpassing all we could have imagined - the impression
was overwhelming.
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