TAA i.3.9.11

                                   –           7            –   

might to avoid discovery by heavy masonry, secret doors<,> false

sanctuaries, hidden tombs<,> etc., they all shared the same fate.

In all Egypt, not a single tomb has even been found intact.

Every one has been broken into, and in many cases the plundering

was done not long after the tomb had been closed. And this was

in spite of the c/<f>act that the digging of the tomb was done in

absolute secrecy, and under the supervision of the king’s most

trusted servants. But no one in Egypt ever kept a secret, and in

some cases the builders of the tomb were so thoughtful that they

actually built special secret entrances for their friends the

thieves. And how can secrecy be observed when a hundred or more

slaves were employed on the digging? – unless these were prisoners

of war who were slaughtered on the completion of their work, – and 

this is probably what happened. In the Valley of the Tombs of the

Kings, the Pharoahs^sic of the 18th., 19th., and 20th. Dynasty/<ies> were

buried, and in this last dynasty, the 20th., the robberies at the 

tombs had become really appalling. The valley was getting too well

known, the officials in charge were lax and corrupt and the kings

were weaklings. But plunderings^sic took place before this, and <in> the

case of Tutankhamen, his/<the> tomb was broken into within 10 years ox[?]/<r>

so of his death.

          For the last hundred years it has been the habit of arch-

-eologists^sic to work in the Valley for a time, make a find, and then

pronounce dogmatically that there is nothing more to be found in

the Valley, and that it had all been “worked out”. Still people

came and found things, and still they went away saying “There is

nothn/<i>nge <more>”. And there always was. Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Howard

Carter<,> after much previous experience elsewhere<,> eventually started

to dig in the valley in 1914, but the war hindered continuous