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Diary Transcription:

microfilm: begin page 285

Tuesday, March 10, 1925 (continued)

The government kindly sent a special carpenter to arrange the strutting up of the walls of the pit in the place where they are most dangerous. A large wagon-load of wooden planks arrived for the purpose of this work during the afternoon.

The "Muqattam" tonight contained notices from London of the official statement issued yesterday.

Wednesday, March 11, 1925
118th day of work

Arrangements were made for the greater comfort of the police lent by the government to guard the area around G 7000 X.
A hut designed for work upon the objects of the tomb each day has now been constructed of the limestone blocks out of the pit. This is at the west, near the inscribed stone on the Khufu Causeway. Its interior dimensions are north to south 500 cm, east to west 358 cm.
His Excellency the High Commissioner and Lady Allenby visited the works this afternoon and Lord Allenby was shown the tomb chamber of G 7000 X.
The Arabic Press this morning continues to discuss the official statements at some length.
This morning it was noticed that the cartouche in the "mat" of gold upon the sarcophagus is between the components of "Nebti"; thus
[GLYPHS] [Snefru]
There seems to be a further inscription continuation towards the south. Lady Drummond Hay made repeated efforts to obtain a statement at various times today. She was unsuccessful, although she managed to secure a series of photographs when His Excellency was arriving and leaving.

Thursday, March 12, 1925
119th day of work

All railway lines were collected this morning in one dump near Line V. The whole inscription was secured from the gold "mat" this morning. It runs so:
[GLYPHS]
[read by Mr. Gunn using glasses, see Arabic Diary of March 12
[margin note]for titles c.f. Petrie, Meruphis I pl. III (lintel of Teta), of Sahure I, pl. 10, of Sahure II, page 84
For Catafulque c.f. Quibell Saqqara, 1911 - 12 - Hesy, pl. XVIII and description page 26]

A little work was done in clearing on east face of Great Pyramid but not by our own men. Several of our men have been lent to Dr. Junker and are working with him, and a few are also working with Mr. Cole and Landt on the Pyramid survey.
The Under Secretary of State for Public Works visited G 7000 X this morning.
A cable from Dr. Reisner said - close down tomb if M. Lacau thinks possible.

microfilm: end page 285

Details

  • Classification
    Documentation-Expedition diary pages
  • Department
    Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition
  • Credit Line
    Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition
  • Display Page Dates
    03/10/1925; 03/11/1925; 03/12/1925
  • Mentioned on page
    Battiscombe George Gunn, British, 1883–1950
    George Andrew Reisner, American, 1867–1942
    Hermann Junker, German, 1877–1962
    J. H. Cole
    James Edward Quibell, British, 1867–1935
    Lady Allenby
    Lady Drummond Hay
    Lord Edmund Allenby
    Mr. Landt
    Pierre Lucien Lacau, French, 1873–1963
    Sir William Flinders Petrie, British, 1853–1942
    Snefru
  • Author
    Thomas Richard Duncan Greenlees, British, 1899–

Tombs and Monuments 2

People 13

Ancient People

  • Snefru

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Remarks First king of Dynasty 4. Father of Khufu.

Modern People

  • Battiscombe George Gunn

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates British, 1883–1950
    • Remarks Egyptologist. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.
  • George Andrew Reisner

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates American, 1867–1942
    • Remarks Egyptologist, archaeologist; Referred to as "the doctor" and "mudir" (Arabic for "director") in the excavation records. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.
  • Hermann Junker

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates German, 1877–1962
    • Remarks Egyptologist, Director of German-Austrian expedition to Giza, 1911–1929. Published 12 volumes of final excavation reports from Giza expedition. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.
  • J. H. Cole

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates
    • Remarks American engineer who surveyed Khufu's pyramid and published the measurements in 1925 in his "Determination of the Exact Size and Orientation of the Great Pyramid."
  • James Edward Quibell

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates British, 1867–1935
    • Remarks Egyptologist; husband of Annie Abernethie. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.
  • Lady Allenby

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates
    • Remarks Wife of Lord Edmund Allenby, British High Commissioner of Egypt, 1919-1925.
  • Lady Drummond Hay

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates
  • Lord Edmund Allenby

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates
    • Remarks British High Commissioner of Egypt, 1919-1925.
  • Mr. Landt

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates
    • Remarks Worked with J.H. Cole on the 1925 survey of the Great Pyramid.
  • Pierre Lucien Lacau

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates French, 1873–1963
    • Remarks Egyptologist. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology. (1873-1963) French Egyptologist; born at Brie-Comte-Robert, 25 Nov. 1873, son of Louis Clément L., an architect, and Lucie AdéIe Belin; he at first entered the Ecole Normale intending to take up geology and studied Natural Science at the Sorbonne; he then turned to philosophy taking his degree in this sub- ject 1897, but studying oriental languages simultaneously; he learnt Hebrew and wrote an article on a text in this language in the Revue d'Assyriologie when he was only twenty-one; the influence of Maspero (q.v.) led him to study Coptic and Egyptian and he joined the lnstitut Français at his suggestion and began work for the Cairo general catalogue; he arrived in Egypt in 1899 and in 1901 published his first article on an Egyptian subject, Textes de I'Ancien Testament en copte sahidique, in the Rec Trav, his first volume for the Catalogue on the coffins in the museum in Cairo followed in1906;in this work he not only revealed his philological knowledge in transcribing the texts, but also noted most carefully all the constructional details and provided useful diagrams as illustration; this work led him to become interested in religious texts and he published a series of articles on the Coffin Texts in Rec Trav, 26-37, which was of great importance before the appearance of the comprehensive work of de Buck (q.v.); he also wrote a number of articles on Egyptian grammar at this period; in 1912 Lacau was appointed Director of the IFAO in Cairo and the following year was elected a member of the lnstitut Egyptien; on 7 Oct. 1914 he was appointed Director of the Antiquities Service but delayed his departure to Egypt for war service until sept. 1915 when he was sent back to Egypt so that he could arrange a proper administration for the Antiquities Service throughout the war period; this done he returned to France, 1916, after delegating his work to the Secretary-General G. Daressy (q.v.); he returned to Egypt in 1917 and resumed his duties; in 1919 he married Anne-Marie Bernard, daughter of the Geography Professor at the Sorbonne, and was made Director of the Institut Français; he was made a correspondant of the Acad. des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1923; in the period after the war Lacau issued directives for the partial uncovering of the funerary temples and their dependant buildings at Saqqara, and for the study of the Memphite tombs both architecturally and functionally, and for essential restoration and consolidation work to be carried out at Karnak; sondages were also to be made with a view to making possible the publication of all the completed parts; at the time of the discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun Lacau insisted on all the finds being retained in Egypt and secured the entire collection for Cairo Museum; he returned to France in 1936, and succeeded Moret (q.v.) in his chair in Paris 1938; in 1939 he became a Member of the Acad. des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres; after the war he paid three further visits to Egypt, 1950-4, and died in Paris, 27 March 1963; his principal works were, Sarcophages antérieurs au Nouvel Empire, 2 vols. 1904- 6; Fragments d'apocryphes coptes, 1904; Textes coptes en dialectes akhmimique et sahidique, 1908; Textes religieux égyptiens, I pt. 1910; Stéles du Nauvel Empire, 2 vols. 1909,1926, for Cairo Cat.; Une stéle juridique de Karnak, 1949-, Sur le systéme hiéroglyphique, 1954; Une chapelle, de Sésostris ler à Karnak, with H. Chevrier, 1956; La Pyramide ? degrés, tom. 4. Inscriptions gravées sur les vases, with J. P. Lauer, 2 pts., 1959, 1961; Une chapelle d'Hatshebsout à Kamak, with H. Chevrier, 2nds, 1977, 1979. ASAE 59 (1966), 33-52 (portr.) (J. P. Lauer); Annuaire du Collége de France 63 (1963), 39- 41 (M. Bataillon); AfO 21 (1966), 272-3 (J. Leclant); BIFA062 (1964), 231-5 (F. Daumas); Chron. D' Eg. 38 (1966), 244-6 (B. van de Walle); CRAIBL1963, 1964, 105-11 (P. Montet); Rev. Arch. 1963, ii, 55-8 (Ch. Picard); Rev. d'Eg. 15 (1963), 7-10 (portr.) (J. Sainte Fare Garnot); Rev. del'Histoire des Religions, cxliv, no. 444 (1963),128-31 (J. Sainte Fare Garnot).
  • Sir William Flinders Petrie

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates British, 1853–1942
    • Remarks Father of British Egyptology.
  • Thomas Richard Duncan Greenlees

    • Type Author
    • Nationality & Dates British, 1899–
    • Remarks Thomas Richard Duncan Greenlees, born South Africa, Sivaratri, March 10, 1899. British subject with a Scottish father and an English mother. For a brief period during 1925 he was a staff member of Harvard University--Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, who later joined the Theosophist movement in India. Greenlees received his MA degree in 1922 from Oxford, where he studied Egyptian, Coptic and Arabic. April 2,1925, Greenlees appointed Assistant Curator of Egyptian Art at MFA.