The Treasury of Ancient Egypt: Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and ArchaeologyWeigall, Arthur E. P. Brome (Arthur Edward Pearse Brome)
History
The Treasury of Ancient Egypt: Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology
Weigall, Arthur E. P. Brome (Arthur Edward Pearse Brome)
Archaeology; Egypt -- Antiquities
After a few weeks of digging, the mouth of a large shaft cut into the
limestone was cleared. This proved to lead into a small chamber
half-filled with rubbish, amongst which some fine jewellery, evidently
hidden here, was found. This is now well published by Mr Davis in
facsimile, and further mention of it here is unnecessary. Continuing the
work, it was not long before traces of another tomb became apparent, and
in a few days' time we were able to look down from the surrounding
mounds of rubbish upon the commencement of a rectangular cutting in the
rock. The size and style of the entrance left no doubt that the work was
to be dated to the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and the excavators were
confident that the tomb of either Tutankhamon or Horemheb lay before
them. Steps leading down to the entrance were presently uncovered, and
finally the doorway itself was freed from _debris_.
On one of the door-posts an inscription was now seen, written in black
ink by one of the Government inspectors of B.C. 1100. This stated, that
in the fourth year of an unknown king the tomb had been inspected, and
had been found to be that of Horemheb.
[Illustration: PL. XXII. The mouth of the tomb of Horemheb at the time
of its discovery. The author is seen emerging
from the tomb after the first entrance had
been effected. On the hillside the workmen
are grouped.]
[_Photo by Lady Glyn._
We had hoped now to pass into the tomb without further difficulty, but
in this we were disappointed, for the first corridor was quite choked
with the rubbish placed there by the inspectors. This corridor led down
at a steep angle through the limestone hillside, and, like all other
parts of the tomb, it was carefully worked. It was not until two days
later that enough clearing had been done to allow us to crawl in over
the rubbish, which was still piled up so nearly to the roof that there
was only just room to wriggle downwards over it with our backs pressing
against the stone above. At the lower end of the corridor there was a
flight of steps towards which the rubbish shelved, and, sliding down the
slope, we were here able to stand once more. It was obvious that the
tomb did not stop here, and work, therefore, had to be begun on the
rubbish which choked the stairway in order to expose the entrance to
further passages. A doorway soon became visible, and at last this was
sufficiently cleared to permit of our crawling into the next corridor,
though now we were even more closely squeezed between the roof and the
_debris_ than before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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