TAA i.3.23.14.recto
Page 2 of first draft on shrines, handwritten. Alfred Lucas is also mentioned on this page.
The whole text or part of the text is fully struck through on this page but is not indicated in the transcription. On this page, strikethrough formatting is reserved for the author’s edits and deletions within the main body of the text, which would otherwise be difficult to distinguish.
© Griffith Institute,
University of Oxford
The sarcophagus was shielded by a series of four
sepulchral shrines, nested one within the other, and between
the third and fourth outermost shrines a linen pall was spread
over a large wooden support.
The layout of these shrines and pall for the burial of a
Pharaoh is revealed in an ancient Egyptian papyrus –
A Project for the Tomb of Ramesses IVth. – now in the Turin
Museum. (1) Their arrangement in this tomb is shown in the
plan of the Sarcophagus Chamber (Plate …).
The four shrines are made of cedar, oak, and Christ’s thorn
wood (2). The planking varies from 9 to 25 cents. wide, and from 3 to 12
cents. in thickness; the panel boards from 20 to 25 cents. in width,
and from 5.5 to 7.5 cents. thick, in accordance with the size
of the shrine.
Their outer and inner surfaces <of these Shrinesic> are entirely coated with gesso,
and overlaid with a thin layer of gold laid on as gold leaf;
upon which surfaces religious representations and text
have been beautifully engraved in both incised and bas
relief. In addition to this decoration, the outermost shrine
has its external panels and doors inlaid with blue faience
(blue ( glazed pottery).
With reference to the prepaid surface of gesso, MR A. Lucas
says: “Beneath the gold when it occurs on wood, there is a rule