Putnam patriot., 1923-12-14
TOME IS
 FULLY DESCRIBED (Continued from Page B-4)

where after two more months, of the ! discovery and of the photographing of the treasures, which was the first work. Describing his own share of the work, which was confined largely to the laboratories, he says;
 I s"Obviously, in dealing with this i enormous mass of material, it was im- possible to attempt anything in the shape of final restoration notes. We had neither the time nor the space, even had the necessary plant been available. and all we could hope to ! do was to make preliminary series 1 of notes and render such first-aid as was required to make the objects fit ] to travel.
 i Wears of work lie ahead of us and 1 t will need all our patience and the cooperation of a number of skilled workmen if the fullest possible use Is i to be made of the wonderful Opportu- nity that has presented itself. Res toration work of the most drastic ' character will be necessary owing to the condition to which some of the : objects have been reduced.
 i Take for example the chariots. i The woodwork is in good condition, and will need little in the way of re pairs except for the fixing of the gesso and gold foil to the surface and the restoration of few fallen pieces of inlay With the horse trappings it is quite another story, for the l leather parts have almost entirely perished, leaving nothing but the gold J .fskfah tha.sr covered. Here new harness will have to be made. to which the original gold can be affixed.
 Linen is Almost Powder
 "The elaborately decorated robes are another case in point. In many of them the linen body of the garment has been reduced almost Go powder, but by careful noting before anything was touched 1t was possible in many cases to work out the complete scheme of coration-beadwork gold se- quins. ete.-with which they were covered and the approximate size of the garment itself
 Tn this case garments of fresh cloth will have to be made and the old decoration applied to them. an appal- ling task to contemplate. for on one of the robes in question l calculated there were close to 50,000. Or take the sandals, whose entire surface was covered with gold decoration Here again that leather perished, but we have exact notes of the scheme of decoration. and shall have made new sandals to which the original gold | may be applied.
 "These restorations are not only ] legitimate but absolutely essential to ! a proper appreciation and study of the material By their means you acquire I complete objects, things of beauty in | themselves and of enormous arehaeo- logical value: without restorations I you would have gained nothing but n ] large boxful of beads, a few pieces l of ill-preserved cloth and a number of meaningless shells of gold decora- ton, things of but small archaeo- logical value and from an artistic i point of view of no value at all
 *The most exciting of the labora- tory tasks was the unpacking of the boxes and easkets. for owing to the confused nature of their contents, you could never be certain of any thing. and at any moment. tucked away in the fold of a garment, you might come across magnificent scarab or piece of jewelry. or a won derful statuette The tumble was am aging. the most incongruous things being packed together, and for some time We were completely in the dark as Go it's meaning. The explanation, as we worked it out later. is as fol lows:
 Outline Plunder Theory
 Some ten or fifteen years after the burial of the king plunderers ha contrived to tunnel their way into the tomb and had made a hurried and ruthless search for treasure that was portable, ransacking the boxes and l throwing their contents all over the floor. Then probably while the plum derers were still at work, the officials responsible for the safe-keeping of the royal metropolis got wind of the affair and came post-haste to investi- gate. Some of the thieves made good their eseape-the faience cup beneath the rock which we referred to above was probably hidden by one of them
 but others were evidently either
 caught on the spot or apprehended
 later with the loot still in their pos.
 session. Then came the question oi
 making good the damage. and hur.
 ried and perfunctory job the officials
 seem Co have made of it. No attempt was made to resort the material oi pack the objects back into the boxe,
 that were originally intended foi
 them. Instead they were gathered uI
 ia handfuls and bundles and hastily crammed into the nearest box. A. g result We get the most incongruou, mixtures. wlking-sticks and under linen. jewelry and faience vases
 head rests and robes of state
 From the point of view of ou
 laboratory work 1t would have beer far better fl the contents of the box
 es had been left lying as the thieve.
 had scattered them. As repacke
 they were extraordinarily difficult l.
 handle. and one had to exercise con.
 stant care lest in removing an obiee
 from an upper layer, one did some damage to g still more valuable ob-
 feet which lav beneath Nor was il