It at once became obvious why the tomb had remained for so long
undiscovered, for just above it the last resting-place of Thothmes
III was cut into the rock, and all the debris from this later tomb
had been shot by the builders on top of the earlier tomb. This
rubbish had completely covered in the site of the tomb of Tutankhamen
and buried it for centuries.
Few men would think of looking immediately under one tomb for the
site of another. Such a place is so unexpected that Mr. Howard Carter
deserved every credit for selecting so unlikely a spot in which to
carry on his search.
Every man digging in Egypt has learned something from Professor
Flinders Petrie. He has a keen, analytical brain, and for years
before going to the Nile valley he brought his acute mind to the
study of the prehistoric remains to be found in Great Britain. Many
a day he might have been seen within the magic circle of Stonehenge,
pondering on the origin of the most massive ancient monument in
England. His work on the prehistoric remains in Great Britain was but
a preliminary to his greater work in the land of the Pharaohs.
With the coming of Flinders Petrie, all the old, haphazard methods
went by the board. What he sought was evidence, something that would
throw light on the past, that would help to fix dates. The actual
intrinsic value of an object was of no concern to him. A bead, in
his eyes, found in a certain place, would be of greater value than a
nugget of gold. The bead might prove that glass was made centuries
earlier than men thought, whereas the golden nugget might prove
nothing at all.
Many things slipped through the fingers of the earlier seekers.
Nothing slipped through his. He directed the attention of all to the
value of every trifling thing that could claim to have been fashioned
by the hand of man. He introduced scientific methods. He noted where
everything was found; how it was found; the depth at which it was
found; what was found with it.
He was not out for an easy life. He lived hard, pitched his tent on
the edge of the eternal desert, and at dusk washed the dust out of
his eyes and nostrils, took his meal by his camp fire, and wrote
up the notes of his day’s work. He snatched what sleep he could,
and was up early to get to work before the heat of the day became
insufferable. He wasted no time going to and from the site. He slept
near by, with the scene of his labours only a few yards from his tent
pegs.
[Illustration: THE RUINS OF THE TEMPLE WHICH AMENHOTEP BUILT AT
LUXOR ABOUT 1,450 B.C. THE COLUMNS IN THE DISTANCE ARE UNIQUE, BEING
FASHIONED IN THE SHAPE OF LOTUS BUDS. THEY INDICATE HOW THE ANCIENT
EGYPTIANS DERIVED MANY OF THEIR ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES FROM NATURAL
FORMS]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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