TAA i.3.23.32

deep dents from blows of a heavy implement are visible 

to the present day on their gilded surfaces, and even 

parts of the decoration were knocked off; moreover, the 

workmen’s refuse, such as chips of wood, rags, etc., 

has never been cleared away.

          Dismantling those four sepulchral shrines took us 

close upon three months heavy manual labour. They 

comprised in all fifty-one sections and members; each 

had to be dealt with separately, and each section 

needed temporary treatment to allow of handling with the 

least risk of damage. It may give some idea of the 

difficulties of that operation when it is known that the 

sections, taking the most conservative estimate, weighed 

from one cwt. to half a ton. Their wood planking 

although quite sound had shrunk during the period it 

was in the tomb; this shrinkage had caused the gesso 

and the gold overlay to buckle and come away from 

the basic wood; the ornamented surfaces were thus in

too delicate a condition to admit of any but the 

most careful handling for, when touched, they tended 

to crush and fall away. All such interstices had 

eventually to be filled in with a high temperature 

<x?> paraffin wax to consolidate them fit for transport. They 

absorbed over a half a ton of wax, and the task of