TAA i.2.4.46
The whole text is fully struck through on this page but is not indicated in the transcription. On this page, strikethrough formatting is reserved for the author’s edits and deletions within the main body of the text, which would otherwise be difficult to distinguish.
Draft, Carter, Howard 1933. The tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen vol. 3. London: Cassell, 99, 102.
© Griffith Institute,
University of Oxford
I shall now venture to make a more detailed survey of the state of affairs
in the Annexe, remaining faithful to the principles which guided us, to
with the end sum of giving/<obtain> clearer reality.
To exaggerate the chaos would be difficult. The chamber was and illustration
of both drama & tragedy: In an imperfect light/<one felt that one could picture> the Robber's scramble
for loot - gold being their natural quarry - Everything/<anything> else <being> treated in
most drastic fashion. <Hence> Our first impression was that the position of the
objects were meaningless, the result of wanton callousness without limit
Yet/<However>, as we proceeded in our investigation we saw that, by putting facts on
record, with pertinent reflection and deduction, Some <datums or> data <though very little> might
eventually be gathered. The confusion has certainly/<unfortunately> rendered everything
vague and what little datum there was everything both vag evidence both
vague and obscure the confusion had unfortunately rendered any[?] that[?]/then any
chances/<e> from which inferences might be drawn both <very> vague and obscure, and
it became very disconcerting to realize that our impressions, however true
they might have been might be, could not be easily verified.
The Room seems to have been intended for storing oil, wine & food
in the form of bread and fruits, but an overflow of every kind of chattel
and funerary paraphanaliasic {paraphernalia} were had also been put there.
The system we had to adopt in/<to> removing/<e> the two hundred & eighty
oodsic {odd} <scattered> objects it contained was: - Firstly sufficient floor-space had
to be freed for our feet. This had to be done the best we could, head
downwards, from the sill of the doorway which was rather more than a
metre above the floor-level of the chamber. During this and the whole of the
operation every precaution had to be taken, as the hasty removal
of an object/<antiquity> might cause an avalanche of a number of others
heaped high up beyond our reach.