TUTANKHAMEN'S TOMB.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume XCIV, Issue 5165, 19 February 1924, Page 3

TUTANKHAMEN'S TOMB.

BEAUTY OF THE INNER SHRINE. < VALLEY OF THE KINGS, Dec. 13. j' This morning M. . Pierre Lacau, I , Director-General of Antiquities, visit-1 : '- tomb of Tutankhamen. He ' rjwas accompanied, by Mr Garter and ' ;S., Harkness, chairman- of !•' Sf thot'ilßfinjmitt-ee ,, of Trustees of the j ; sSe^^rk,-;and;^' (Department of the same,' 1 lAuseum. ' I Afterwards a party, comprising": members of the families of Ismail Pasha Sirry, ex-Minister of Public. Works ; AbdeL Hamid Pasha Soliman,! Minister of Public Works; and Mah- : ' .mud Pasha ' 'Shukry, ex-Minister of : v Agriculture, were specially admitted.; They were visibly delighted with: what they saw. Trays with objects; removed from, between the two shrines had 'been left in the antechamber, and all were able to admire j the beautiful sculpture of the two ■priceless alabaster vases, the one. with exquisite. Hapi [God of the Nile] • figures and gold and silver mounting, , and the second with a pink-tongued . lion on top and Hathor [the Egyptian Venus] columns as part of the fastenings, both of which have been al- . ready described in these dispatches. , The Royal staves, bows, sceptres, . maces, and other objects attracted . much attention, particularly the , quaintly shaped Uas sceptres; the ( curious throwsticks similar to those r which the King is depicted as using , on a wonderful golden caskat which is now on. show in Cairo Museum,!, -'. the ibundle, still with its gossamer-|, like linen cover, containing finely j inlaid sticks, ornamental bark, and golden bows, the detailed work on which is indeed remarkable ; and - above all, the gold and silver sticks j with ' the charmingly modelled j statuettes of the King, which cause one, whenever one looks at them, to speculate as to the magnificence of •ths rest of the regalia to which they undoubtedly belong. A SUPERB MASTERPIECE. I All these lay to the left as the. ante-chamber was entered. But when ] the visitors turned to the right and \ their eyes fell on the sepulchral hall, j the beautiful vases, sticks and staves ( were forgotten, so fascinated were; they by -the wonderful sight thatj awaited them. Up to now all that had been visible to visitors through tha gap in the wall left by the sealed door had been a small section of the south side of the shrine and'of the cornice, while the front could only be seen by electric light, and then, owing to the confined space, in bad perspective. Even so, it aroused admiration. Now that the obstacle of the partition wall has been removed and the whole structure appears in relatively full light, complete before one, it is at last possible fully to realize its size and the extent to which it fills the sepulchral hall, and properly to appreciate its elegance, its lines of exquisite beauty, it's gold and faienco decoration and fine workmanship and ths figures; and the texts inscribed" upon it. It is, indeed, a casket fit to contain the :rnoi*tal remains of a p- King. The doors otthe outer shrine hav- . ing besn unhinged and removed —

completely covered with cottonwool, they recline against the walls r>f the ante-chamber —and the space between the two shrines having been J cleared, the inner doors are now i visible across the gilded wooden i frame which supported the pall and on which fragments of it still hang over from the top. Its beauty is !:<most striking. Although similar in ifoi'm to the outer shrine, the inner is differently decorated. It has no! , faience but, on -the j other hand, it is most finely gilded. The decoration of the doors in in- , cised relief is extremely beautiful, and the panels showing King Tutank- ; hamen in various attitudes , of worship i ! are evidently the work of a master I . artist. Judging from the superiority ■ of the inner over the outer shrine, . and bearing in mind the height to which the art of the Eighteenth ■ Dynasty rose, one wonders what .sur-, : prises in workmanship and design,' [apart from the treasures, the inner-! most shrines have in store for us. j DISMANTLING THE SHRINE. j December 16. The , first step in dismantling the '. •Great Shrine has now been taken,> and the work has been begun on the: removal of its curved roof. Yester- j day, in preparation for this, thej antechamber was cleared of all the i objects which have laid there since. they were removed from between i tha two shrines, and the folding; doors of the outer shrine were pack-1 ed up and taken to the laboratory, j These doors proved to be of great j weight, owing to the heaviness of I I the wood of which they were made, las well as that of ths faience and: ! gold ornamentation. j j Closely wrapped in cotton-wool, j which left none of their surface ex- J posed, they were each placed in aj case, into which they were fixed by! j fitting their pivot hinges into sock- \ jets cut in blocks nailed into the top and bottom corners of the case. This, while making them more secure during the transport, had the additional ,ndvantagea of facilitating, . their handling in the laboratory. I How to support such huge and heavy i ■ pieces while treating had been a 'great problem, but, thanks to the ' manner of packing above described, ■ jit will now be possible to stand the 1 ( cases up on their ends and swing; i the shrine doors backwards and for-1 j wards according to the require- '. i ments of the wrok. J The removal- from the ante- ! , chambsr proved to be a difficult task on account of their weight and size. There was very little margin as they came through the outer'. door and up the stairway, but the' men, who at times had staggered ■ under their load, accomplished their . task very satisfactorily. | As the time for actually dismant- - ling the shrines has approached, the problem of handling them has not J grown any easier. Indeed, the more 5 they have been examined and tested, i the more complicated has the task > appeared. As a matter of fact, in all work of this description, it" has - generally been found impossible definitely, to make plans ahead which l "Jcan be carried out in anything like - the original, form. So many unfor--1 seen combinations or obstacles are encountered that those doing the work have to preserve an entirely - open mind as to' procedure and be

prepared to adjust their ideas to circumstances as they supervene. To take as an example the most recent instance in this tomb, to wit, the roof of the Great Shrine. This, which consists of three sections, had every appearance of being comparatively light and easy to mov:. Closer examination now shows, however, 'that it is made of very heavy wood, quite 2in thick and that it is wedged down in an exceedingly fast manner, all of which increases the difficulty of dislodging it, let alone taking it down. These sections, 19 pieces in all, which are but a drop in the ocean compared with the rest, will take considerably longer to remove than was at first anticipated, and the remainder of the work will naturally be correspondingly protracted. Indeed, the plans previously conceived have had to modified completely, and, as things now stand, beyond a general- idea of the manner in which the work will be started, it is impossible to commit oneself to any definite statement in regard to the methods which will be adopted. The dismantling of these shrines, therefore, remains a problem which can only be solved by degrees and by the employment of much ingenuity in view of the confined space and the fragile nature of the sections, which must materially hamper their manipulation.

Dr Alan Gardiner has embarked on his philological work, and spent a long time to day in the tomb laboratory.

December 17. To-day the second Press view of Tutankhamen's tomb was held.! Seven journalists, representing British, American, and Belgian newspapers, and one representing an Egyptian newspaper, were admitted: on special permits issued by the Ministry of Public Works. The great shrine stood as described in "The Times" of December 14, ■ with the outer doors removed and the wonderful panels of the innerj shrine showing through the wooden j frame of the pall. The only differ- j ence was that the beautiful cornice had on its ledge boards covered with j cotton wool to protect the gilding from pressure during the operation ] of lifting off the curved roof. Under i the light of a powerful electric re- ' flector specially placed the visitors had an admirable opportunity of seeing ths great shrine in all its splendour, probably for the last.' time before it is actually taken to pieces. :