been promised holy re as his reward. Reverentially, chanting deep and
slow, they bore Tanus's coffin away to its new resting place in the
maqdas of the monastery. ect,'
'At least the old hero will be treated with resP Royan said softly. Then
she looked around the tomb. 'We cannot leave the site like this, with
the coffins thrown Royan protested. 'it looks as about and the lids
discarded, though grave-robbers have been at work here.'
'Grave-robbers is exactly what we are.' Nicholas smiled at her.
tly, 'and we
'No, we are archaeologists,' she denied ho must try to act like it.' ing
coffins one within So they replaced the six remain the other, laid them
back in the great sarcophagus, and finally replaced the massive stone
lid. Only then did Royan allow them to begin selecting and packing the
treasures they would take with them.
The death'mask was without any doubt the premier item in the entire
tomb. it fitted neatly into one of the the wooden ushabd of Taita laid
alongside it, crates, with until it was firmly secured, Royan packed
with Styrofoarn waterproof wax crayon: 'Mask & scribbled on the lid in
Taita Ushabti'.
Their final selection was, perforce, hurried and superof the cedarwood
official. They could not rip open every one chests that were piled high
in the alcoves of the arcade.
The painted and gilded chests themselves were priceless artefacts, and
should be treated with respect. So they allowed themselves to be guided
by the illustrations on the lid of each. They discovered immediately
that these were indeed an accurate inventory and catalogue of the
contents. In the chest which showed Pharaoh decked in the blue war
crown, they found the actual crown laid on gilded leather pillows that
had been moulded to fit it exactly and to protect it.
Even in the short time left to them they became almost surfeited by the
magnificence of the items they uncovered as they selected and opened the
cedarwood chests. Not only the blue crown, but the red and white crown
of the kingdoms united was there, and the splendid Nemes crown, all
three in such a miraculous state of preservation that they might have
been lifted from Pharaoh's brow that morning.
From the very outset it had to be a prerequisite that any artefact must
be small enough to fit into one of the ammunition crates. If it were too
large, no matter what its value or historical significance, then it had
to be rejected and left in the tomb. Fortunately, many of the cedarwood
chests containing the royal jewellery fitted snugly into the metal
crates, so that not only the contents but also the chests themselves
could be saved. However, the larger items, the crowns and the huge
jewelled gold pectoral medallions, had to be repacked.
As the ammunition crates were filled, they carried them down and stacked
them on the landing outside the sealed doorway, ready to be carried out.
Including the.
crates that contained the eight statuettes of the gods from the long
gallery, they had packed and catalogued forty-eight crates when they
heard Sapper's unmistakable accents floating up the staircase.
