TAA i.2.4.5

[23^rd Oct. continued]

slightest noise tends to increase that nervous fear, unconscious

of the fact one becomes almost mute!

The doorway of this chamber, unlike the others/<those of the [other] chambers>, had not been

closed and sealed: from it a clear view of the contents could

be seen. b/<B>ut within a few days of its discovery, February 1923,

when we first penetrated the sealed door of the Burial Chamber,

and for the first time made a brief survey of its contents,

the doorway was closed with wooden planking, so that

while we were dealing with the material in the Burial Chamber

we should not be distracted nor tempted to disturb any of the

objects therein. That wooden planking is now pulled down,

and after nearly four years of patient waiting our gaze

is once again directed within.

It contains a number of most interesting things,

mostly of the nature of funerary emblems of <intense> religious

character.

Placed in the doorway, practically preventing ingress to the

chamber, lay a black figure of Anubis, swathed in linen,

couchant upon a gilt shrine-shaped palankeen^sic {palanquin}; within the

threshold, in front of Anubis' shrine, is a small reed torch

(see p. 13)

upon a clay brick bearing a magical text, in white hieroglyphic

characters and behind Anubis, in the centre of the room, the/<a strange>

X

head of a cow⁽¹⁾ of wood gesso-gilt - Emblems these of the underworld⁽²⁾.

<(1)

Head of the Meht-writ Cow, which in all probability is a

figurative form of the goddess Hathor as 'Mistress of Amentit',

of 'the Land of Sunset', <Mistress of Ta zesert (the Sacred Land)>, called "The Eye of Re', who receives in

her Mountain of the West the Setting Sun and the dead.

Erman Vol.

p. 69. [ 𓂀  ] Mḥt-wRt heavenly cow

p. 16. [ 𓂀  ], ỉRt Rʿ, name of Hathor (the Eye of Re)

cf. Erman, Eg. Religion, pp. 12, 18, and 31.

Pap. Ani. pl. 8,, Chap. 17. [ 𓂀  ] sic  Le page Renouf p. 12. the great cow "Meh-writ, the Eye of Ra"

with the flail and with the symbol Menat round the neck.>

<(2)

"Emblems of the dark world under the Earth, to which the Sun sinks in the West,

and where also the dead belong">

Oct. 24^th

Burton commenced making photographic records of the Store-Room.

By the very nature of his instrument the photographer can simply

capture a moment of his subject; therefore any cumulative effort,

such as may be rendered by the artist, is beyond the scope of the

camera. For that reason, I say, careful selection of the subject,

the full appreciation of light and shade and pose, and the avoidance

of any form of arrested action or distortion, are the real and all

important factors in the art of photography.

Lucas commenced repairing the bier (N^o 24/<5>3a {253a}) that supported the

First (outermost) Coffin, as it has to be sent to Cairo.