TAA i.2.1.33

Nov. 25.

Noted seals. Made photographic records which were not,

as they afterwards proved, very successful. Opened the

first doorway; which comprised rough stones built up from the

threshold to the lintel, plastered over on the outside face, and

covered with numerous impressions from various seals of Tut-Ankh-

Amen and the Royal Necropolis seal. The removal of this

blocking exposed the commencement of a completely blocked

descending passage, the same width as the Entrance Staircase

and rather more than 2 metres high. It was filled with its

local stone and rubble, probably from its own excavation, but

like the doorway it showed distinct traces of more than one filling;

the mass of the filling being of clean white stone chips mingled with

dust, while in the upper left hand corner a large irregular

hole had been pierced through it which had been refilled with

dark flint and chert stones. This coincided with reopenings and

successive re-closings found on the sealed doorway.

As we cleared the passage we found mixed with the rubble

broken potsherds, Jar seals, and numerous fragments of small

objects; water skins lying on the floor together with alabaster jars,

whole and broken, and coloured pottery vases; all pertaining to some

disturbed burial, but telling us nothing to whom they belonged

further than by their type which was of the late XVIII^th Dyn.

These were disturbing elements as they pointed towards plundering.

Nov. 26.

After clearing 9 metres of the descending passage, in about

the middle of the afternoon, we came upon a second sealed

doorway, which was almost the exact replica of the first. It

bore similar seal impressions and had similar traces of

successive re-openings and re-closings in the plastering.

The seal impressions where^sic {were} of Tût-Ankh-Amen and of the Royal

Necropolis, but not in anyway so clear as those on the

first doorway. The Entrance and passage both in plan and in

style resembled almost to measurement the tomb containing

the cache of Akhenaten discovered by Davis in the very near

vicinity; which seemed to substantiate our first conjecture

that we had found a cache.

Feverishly we cleared away the remaining last scraps

of rubbish on the floor of the passage before the doorway, until

we had only the clean sealed doorway before us. In which,

after making preliminary notes, we made a tiny breach in the top

left hand corner to see what was beyond. Darkness and the iron testing

rod told us that there was empty space. Perhaps another descending

staircase, in accordance to the ordinary Royal Theban tomb plan?

OR may be a chamber? Candles were procured - the all

important Tell-Tale for foul gases when opening when opening

an ancient subterranean excavation - I widened the breach

and by means of the candle looked in, while Ld. C., Lady E,

and Callender with the Reises waited in anxious expectation.