Evening star., 1923-12-01
BEGIN TO REMOVE
PHARAOH'S SHR|NES
Excavators End Preparatory
Work-Jearing Down Par
tition Is First Step.

By Gable 10 The Star and the New York
Times. by arrangement with the Carnarvon
Estate. Copyright, 1923. by the New York
! Times.
LUXOR. Egypt. December 1.-The
second statue of King Tutankhamen
was transported yesterday TO the lab
oratory. The procedure described
Thursday in connection with the first
statue was again followed in preparing
and handling this figure. and the work
Of removal was carried out most salts
factorily.
The preparatory work inside the tomb
has now been completed. and every
thing is ready for the demolition of the
partition wall, which is the first de-
cistve step TO be taken toward the solu-
ton OF the mystery OF Tutankhamen's
Shrines. The demolition will start today
and how long this will take it is diff
cult TO say at present. Preliminary op-
erations have occupied a considera Bile
time, owing on the one hand to the
need of extensive recording and on the
other hand. as already explained, to
the confined space which makes it very
difficult to work quickly.
An excaVator is expected TO give par
ticular care to the removal of all OBJ
obligation that is laid on him is to note
all the data that can be derived from
a discovery. Not only must he make a
complete description of the chambers
and their contents. but he must also
carefully record the position OF each
object and its relation to its neighbors
Often little detail in this respect NAV
turn out to be important and bear on
the general information obtained from
the discovery.
Coordination of data can. however.
in most cases only be made some time
after the discovery has been dealt
with lin the field" and unless every
possible fact is annotated while the
OBJECT is in stu there is the risk that
IT may be found only when it is too
late that important data, which had
been available. are lacking TO COM
plete the story.
like that of Tutankhamen are. in q
somewhat fragile condition, and it
might easily happen that at touch a
valuable object might fall to pieces.
or, even worse. crumble 10 dust. This
Is another reason why before any
thing is moved the fullest possible
details must be noted and photo
graphs taken, giving complete
record of each object. Indeed. the
omission to make such records has
sometimes in the past been the cause
of the loss of valuable historical and
other data.
Recording Is Comprehensive.
1t should be mentioned here that in
view of the Importance of the dis
covery the work of recording in
Tutankhamen'S tomb is being carried
out on more comprehensive and
scientific lines than ever before had
been attempted, and no scrap of data
which might serve as evidence is
being omitted.
But a further reason why the pre-
liminary operations have occupied so
much time has been the problem of
the removal of the shrines. They are
tomb that no attempt could be made
to devise any plan of dealing with
them until complete measurements Of
the walls and passages and the shr;nes
themselves were available.
The experience gained last season
in bringing out the sides of the cere-
monial couches. particularly the
Hathor couch with its high horns and
long body, clearly showed the diff
Guilty of carrying large objects
through the passages and doorways
and as the sections Of the shrines
promised to be just as unwieldy to
handle a close comparison of the in
terror measurements became an es-
portions can be taken out whole and
how it is possible to manipulate them
and the others within the tomb.
The final examination was made on
Wednesday, and, as all the other es-
sential data have now been collected
after the demolition of the wall the
work of dismounting the two shrines
at present visible will go ahead as
quickly as conditions permit.
Meanwhile extensive preparations
have been made in the laboratory