TAA i.2.3.23

{19^th October, continued}

as in the former case - the outer coffin, with metal pins around
its sides which cannot, as the coffin lies in the outer shell, be
extracted. Therefore the coffin must be lifted out in its entirety
from the outer shell before anything can be done. Thus the
problem is to discover a method of doing this with minimum
risk of damage.

Yesterday and today have been spent on that sole question
- how to remove that very closely fitting coffin from the outer
shell without injuring the very delicate inlaid surfaces, that
have already suffered from humidity? Humidity either
from the Royal Mummy or the wood imprisoned in all probability
at the time of the burial - a condition which becomes more
marked as each covering is removed.

<H.E. and Madam> Ahmed Bey Saddik, Mudir of Keneh, & his <with their> friends visited
the tomb this morning.

PW {Percy White}

20^th

Tuesday being market day there is no work.

Without some experience of handling heavy and yet fragile
antiquities under very difficult circumstances, few can realize
that nerve racking undertaking and responsibility. The raising
of a lid of a coffin or lifting the coffin itself seems a comparatively
simple job; but when one realizes that it is deep down in the
interior of a sarcophagus where it fits quite closely, that it is
in a very fragile condition, that it is immensely heavy, that
the overhead room in the chamber is very limited, and that one
does not even know whether its wood is sufficiently well
preserved to bear its own weight, the Reader will perhaps begin
to realize what an anxious work it really is.