Gardiner MSS 47.08.07
Letter from Sir Alan H. Gardiner to his wife including his account of the opening of the burial chamber of Tutankhamun on February 16, 1923, page 7. Also includes part of another entry dated 23 February 1923.
Pages 3 and 5 are photocopies, and there is no page 4 or 8.
© Griffith Institute,
University of Oxford
perfect preservation[.] Beside it ther/<stood> a beautiful box with
a pattern of golden ankhs all over it. There may be
twenty-five boxes in all, and only two or three have been
opened. The doors of a shrine-like box stood open, and
within we saw two statuettes, about 20 inches high, of
Tutankhamun standing upon a puma. The king’s face
at least was gold, and I am not sure that the puma
was not gold as well. Everywhere in this inner room
there are boats, model boats with elaborately painted cabins,
boats with sails up, boats with sails down, etc. In a
corner I espied a box with two strangely swatched
figures. Were they ushabtis or were they the mummies
of tiny babies? No one has been able to step across
to them, and that is one of twenty mysteries yet to
be solved.
Friday 23
This letter has been a whole week in the writing, for
I have been endlessly busy. I have a great deal
to tell, but I cantsic get it all into a letter. I
had two lovely letters from you today, Mummy, one from
Margos[?], one from John, and one from Grandpa. How
good all my people are to me! I felt so happy,
so satiated, with all these in my pocket. I x[?]/<too> am
troubled about Margaret’s eyes. Poor dear, I hate her to
be depressed. But unless her eyes grow[?] too bad, I
think she [is?] right to try her exam. She will then be