TAA i.3.16.6

No. 260.

     A NICHE cut in the w. corner of the south wall, facing beyond

(right) the head end of the sarcophagus, 165 cents. above the

floor of the Burial-chamber.

     THE NICHE takes the form of a roughly cut shallow recess of

rectangular shape, 26 cents. high, 16 cents. wide, and 10 cents.

deep. It was closed by the means of a suitable but irregular

splinter of limestone, which was plastered over flush with the

surface of the wall and then painted over to match the colour de-

coration of the wall.

     IT CONTAINED a wooden ded-emblem, 9.2 cents. high (= 5 digits),

overlaid with thin gold-foil (largely fallen from decay) and in-

laid with blue glazed pottery, stood upright, facing east, upon

a brick (pedestal) of unbaked clay.

     THE BRICK (pedestal), 9.3 cents. long, 4.2 cents. wide, and

1.4 cents. thick (= 5 x 2¼ x ¾ digits), has upon its upper sur-

face, in front of the ded emblem, the following incantation graven

in hieroglyphic characters:

<[ 𓂀 ]>

     Scratched on the brick, under the emblem, is the sign <[  ]>; a

few minute globules of resinous matter exude from the clay; and

there are traces of red paint on the under surface.

     The rubric included in Ch. CLI of the Book of the Dead that refers to this emblem and its brick (pedestal) reads:

     "This formula is to be spoken over a ded of glaze, the cross-

bars of which are fine gold, which has been covered with royal

linen, and oil allowed to fall on it. It is fastened on a brick

of unbaked clay, [on which has been graven this formula], and a

hole is made for it in the western wall, its face towards the

east, and it is covered up with earth that has been under an aru-

tree."

     There was not a trace of linen, oil, nor of earth<,> visible, onthe above specimen!