Beneath the Sands of Egypt Read Free Page B

virtually unchanged from what I had observed in years before, a handful of shafts filled with rubbish, a small breeze blowing an odd bit of paper over the mixed surface of silt, rock, and stone chips. These last were the result of the carving of tombs by ancient workmen, whose detritus had been redistributed by Western excavators in the last couple hundred years. Some of the earlier excavators used a technique perhaps best described as “the human bulldozer.” Large numbers of local workmen, sometimes in the hundreds, were employed to clear portions of the valley, or other archaeological sites, to the bedrock. As they went from one spot to the next, earth and stones were removed by hoe and hand, placed into baskets, passed elsewhere, and dumped as the clearers surged forward. Some unfortunate later excavators were met with the task of removing the piled debris of their predecessors in order to conduct new excavations. A mountainous pile of stone chips, the result of Carter’s digging, overlooked the area where we would be working. From its level top, we had a commanding view of the tombs below, and we nicknamed it “the Beach” for its flat and sunny demeanor.
    The entrance of Tomb 21 was completely buried, but a small dimple in the overlying flood debris suggested a likely place to investigate. The other tombs—minus 60, of course—were all identifiable by visible shafts, each of which was filled with a variety of natural and human debris. Our initial inspection didn’t take long, and on the way back toward Tomb 19 I brought up the matter of the lost Tomb 60. Carter’s notes sprang to mind: “immediately in the entrance of Tomb 19.” Looking to the left and right, I sawnothing that seemed even likely as a place for locating a tomb. The entranceway to Tomb 19 had been cut in ancient times through a rock spur, with a gently downward-sloping ramp and vertical sides approaching a square door that had three decorated jambs. In many ways it resembles a modern single-car garage, but with a high ceiling and pharaonically painted walls. The ramp was covered with several inches of windblown sediment, and when I spied a broom in our tool pile, an idea came to mind. Why should I doubt Carter? If he said immediately in front of Tomb 19, why shouldn’t I look?
    With the broom I began to sweep away several inches of loose sediment down to the bedrock starting just a few yards east from Tomb 19’s door. Hisham helped, and without much difficulty we were able to make progress, with a new swath cleared about every meter. The rock beneath glared white as it was exposed, and after less than a half hour’s work I noticed something unusual: a linear deformity in the bedrock. I continued to sweep along the break and found that this crack, of sorts, stretched horizontally nearly all the way across the entrance ramp of Tomb 19. One end disappeared underneath a rock wall to the south, while the northern end made a sharp turn to the west. At that point I removed my trowel and traced the edge of what appeared to be a pit or depression in the rock that was filled level with the white limestone chips and light brown sediment characteristic of the valley.
    None of us said much, but it soon became clear we were on to something. A few photos were taken from the hillside above, and afterward I hoed out a few centimeters in a small area in one of the corners. “Well, we’ll have to give this more attention, won’t we?” I concluded. Both Mark and Hisham were reserved yet hopeful, and although we optimistically discussed the possibility that maybe we had just stumbled across the long-lost Tomb 60, we dared not let ourselves get overexcited lest we become disappointed should ourprospect turn out to be nothing more than a shallow pit or a natural feature.
    The next couple of days were spent excavating the pit. A few odd artifacts were beginning to turn up—some mummy wrappings and a