TAA i.12.03

                                                                                          (4)

<Workmens Huts>

We had almost given up in dispair^sic, and would have done,

were it not for the fact that in nearing the tomb of Ramses VI,

we found a very int<r>iguing burial heap of flint boulders which

suggested the possibility of the proximity of a tomb. Why

had they been placed there? They were in a stratum pre-

Ramesside – i.e. in an older level. They were of a kind

usually selected by the a/<A>ncient Egyptians for filling in the

entrance of a tomb, but there was nothing of the kind under-

neath them. Immediately above was the beginning of a group

of workmen’s huts built of rough stonework.

          Now these huts evidently belonged to the workers employed

for the construction of the tomb of Ramses VI, but it was an

open question if, even at that date, workmen would have been

allowed to builu/<d>, no matter how temporary, their dwellings

over the tomb of an overlord. But to carry out our system,

leave nothing un-explored, we had no alternatv/<i>ve but to continue

our explorations beneath those huts. We therefore decided upon

one more seasons/<’>s work – first to uncover and record those

rough stone dwellings and then examine the bed-rock below/<beneath>.

          In o/<O>ctober, 1922, I returned to Luxor to make this final

effort. It was on November 1st., I set my Egyptian staff
to work, about 120 men and boys in all. First to clear those

huts, record them, and them^sic examine the rock below,^sic When in

four days we made the discovery which surpassed our wildest

hopes.

          How well I remember to this very day, how on that fourth day

<when> I arrived early in the morning on the scene of action. For

the moment I was takien aback by a solemn silence caused by

a stoo/<p>page of work.  At first I was afraid that some ac- 

cident had happened, but I was soon reassue/<r>ed when by the chief