TAA i.3.9.13

                                   –           9            –    

and to see what lay beneath these workmen’s huts at the foot of

the Rameses tomb. This last season was last winter, and beneath

those huts they found a step and then another, until sixteen steps

were laid bare and they came to the door of a tomb, sealed with

the seal of Tutankhamen. By their perseverance and systematic

working, Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter reaped the richest

reward that has ever fallen to an Egyptian archeologist^sic. Never

before has such a wealth of beautiful and unique objects been

unearthed, and never before has the world been so suddenly n/<e>nriched

by the acquisition of such perfect specimens of art that one

feels amazed that they could fashion such things 3000 years ago.

It is, I think, very gratifying that the greatest arch<a>eological

find ever made in Egypt was the work of two Englishmen. But we

must all feel a pang of regret that lord Carnarvon did not live

to reap the full reward of his share of the labour.

          You are doubtless all acquainted with the actual details

of the discovery and I will not deal with them here. I will

proceed to the general arrangement of the tomb and the condition

in which it was found.

          H/<E>ven when the first doorway was reached, it was evident

that the tomb was not intact, but had been visited by thieves.

When the king was placed in the tomb, the doorway of the sepulchral

chamber was filled and covered with clay on which were stamped 

the the king’s seal. Then the inner doorway of the passage would

be bricked up and similarly sealed, and finally the outer door-

way would be filled in, and sealed, and then the steps covered

over and the whole^sic concealed as well as possible.

          When the tomb was discovered last yea,/<r>, the seals of