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Diary Transcription:

microfilm: begin page 298

Monday, March 30, 1925

work on:
(1) G 7214 F
(2) G 7510 J

(1) G 7214
G 7214 F: This burial was carefully examined this afternoon, the bones being collected in two baskets. No further objects were found on the body. The necklaces were carefully cleaned and the order of each separate group of beads was noted. The second consisted of square white discs [ILLUSTRATION] followed by small blue, large red, small blue beads, this scheme being repeated indefinitely; the size of the discs increased and decreased gradually.
The whole of the objects having been thus carefully removed the lower part of the dress (?), i.e. that under all the body, was dissected away from a rope mat which lay beneath and had stuck itself onto the linen. After this mat had been cleaned as far as possible it was left for two photographs, one of the whole, and one closer for details of manufacture. It consisted of a system of parallel ropes [ILLUSTRATION] at about 1 inch intervals running lengthwise, and joined together with a sort of straw basketwork. Mahmud says that the same work is still made in Quft.
The groups of beads will be made to save the mat. The shroud will also be unrolled.

(2) G 7510
G 7510 J: Chamber on west. This is filled with an appalling mess of late and broken up bodies sticking at all angles through a filthy debris of decayed flesh and bandages mingled with chips of limestone from the ceiling and walls.
All skulls and fragments of skulls are being collected in one corner of the chamber of G 7515 C (which communicates with this chamber) with a view to obtaining an idea of the minimum number of dead in this chamber and of the probable sexes of these.
At the southeast corner, protected by their depth in decayed bodies from the violation suffered by the others, are three undisturbed burials. Two lie side by side in wooden(??) coffins with head south. One sprawls, in mummy bandages only, over their feet with head to the northeast and face down, (probably a child or small woman). These three burials will be cleared of debris and then dealt with in the customary way.
Other chambers in this tomb are known to contain similar masses of dead bodies.

microfilm: end page 298

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
    03/30/1925; 03/30/1925; 03/31/1925
  • Mentioned on page
    Mahmud Said Ahmed [Diraz]
  • Author
    Thomas Richard Duncan Greenlees, British, 1899–

Tombs and Monuments 3

  • G 7214

    • Site Name Eastern Cemetery
  • G 7510

    • Site Name Eastern Cemetery
  • G 7515

    • Site Name Eastern Cemetery

People 2

Modern People

  • Mahmud Said Ahmed [Diraz]

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates
    • Remarks Diary translator. Son of Said Ahmed Said [Diraz] (Head Reis 1908-1926). Brother of Mohammed Said Ahmed (Head Reis 1936-1939). Family name, Diraz, was supplied by Said Ahmed Said's grandsons in 2006.
  • 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.