TAA i.2.3.35

{24^th October, continued}

interior of the Second Coffin without causing damage to
either. To this subject and that of the future cleaning
of the Coffin, Lucas is now giving his attention.

It is astounding when one thinks and realizes that in
the discovery of this unique and wonderful monument -
a Coffin of the finest art wrought in solid sheet gold - that there
one has found is <is>, something like without exaggeration, something
like 15<.>000 - 20.000 £ of pure bullion. What riches were
those autocratic pharaohs bespangled themsel buried with
those pharaohs! Think of what <riches> that Valley must have once
contained. Tut.ankh.Amen was perhaps <one of> the least important
buried of the 27 inter t/<b>uried in that Royal Cemetery.
One begins to realize the meaning & the cause of missed(?) early
tomb robberies recorded in the reign of Ramses IX.

25^th

I raised the Third Coffin as it rests in the shell of the
Second Coffin & moved them into the Antechamber.

I raised the two coffins -/<(> the Third in the shell of the Second -/<)>
and moved them into the Antechamber where they are
now far more accessible for examination.

It <The weight of the two> was as much as eight to men could lift.
Now if one allows for the gold Coffin only 100 lbs per man
that would make it some 800 lbs in weight. 20 troy lbs
of legal gold = 934 sovs. X 40 = 37,360 sovs. It is
almost unbelievable when one thinks and realizes that in
the discovery of this unique and wonderful monument -
a Coffin of the finest art wrought in solid gold - that the
above cannot be far wrong of the value of pure bullion of
which it is made.

P.W. {Percy White}