TAA i.2.1.25

Diary Season 1922-1923.

Oct. 28.

Arrived Luxor on Saturday morning and took the 10 am

train to Erement^sic {Ermant; Armant} to see Callender, living in his small

house of on the E. bank, near the River. Stayed the

night with him and on the 29^th   =

Oct. 29.

Returned by small sailing boat to Gurna (3 ½ hrs).

Nov. 1.

Commenced operations in the Valley of the Kings. I began

by continuing the former excavation where it had stopped at

the N. E. Corner of the Entrance to the tomb of Ramses VI,

trenching Southwards. At this point there were ancient

stone huts of the Necropolis workmen, built rather less

than a metre above the bed-rock, which had partly been

exposed in our former work^X (see plan L. M. 15 and 16). As

we uncovered them they were found to continue under the

and in front of the Entrance of Ramses VI tomb in a Southerly

direction and connected up with other similar huts on the

opposite side of the Valley bed discovered by Davis during

Burtons work. These ancient huts were soon cleared of

the rubbish covering them. I planned them, and removed

them for investigation below, which undertaking <took> until

the fourth of Nov.

Note ^X

These huts were

built upon the

natural detritus,

and were covered by

an average of three

metres of debris

accumulated since

their construction.

Nov. 4.

At about 10 am I discovered beneath almost the first hut

attacked the first traces of the Entrance of the tomb (Tût-Ankh-

Amen). This comprised the first step at/<of> the N. E. Corner

(of the Sunken-Staircase). Quite a short time sufficed

to show that it was the beginning of a steep excavation cut

in the bed rock, about four metres below the Entrance of Ramses

VI's Tomb, and a similar depth below the natural present

leve level of the Valley. And, that it was of the nature of a

Sunken-Staircase Entrance to a tomb of the type of the XVIII^th

Dyn., but further than that nothing could be told until

the heavy rubbish at the foot above was cleared away.

Nov. 5.

It took the whole of the preceding day and most of this day

to free this excavation before the upper margins of the

staircase could be demarcated on its four sides. As first

conjectured it proved to be an opening (about 4 MS x 1.60 ms)

excavated in the bed-rock, with its w. side end abutting against

the rock slope of the small hillock in which Ramses VI

had excavated his tomb. As the work pre/<o>ceded^sic {proceeded} we found that

the western end of the cutting receded under the slope of the

rock, and thus was partly roofed over by the overhanging rock.

Towards sunset we had cleaned <down> to the level of the 12^th

step, which was sufficient to expose a large part of the upper

portion of a plastered and sealed doorway. Here before us

was sufficient evidence to show that it really was an entrance

to a tomb, and by the seals, to all outward appearances that

it was intact.