The Griffith Institute
University of Oxford

Excavation journals and diaries made by Howard Carter and Arthur Mace

Howard Carter's excavation and pocket diaries (transcripts and scans)

9th Season, September 24th to November 17th 1930

This is Howard Carter's journal for the 9th excavation season of the tomb of Tutankhamun which took place in the Autumn of 1930. The events covered by this journal are the removal of the sepulchral shrines from the tomb (October 22nd to 31st) and the opening of one of the sealed niches in the Burial Chamber (November 1st).

The journal is a bound buff-coloured volume with a printed "Egyptian Government" label on the front cover board, it measures 33.5 by 21.5 by 1.5 cm. and contains journal entries on 65 ruled pages. TAA Archive i.2.4, pages 59 to 65. All entries are in Howard Carter's hand.

This transcript follows the format of the original document, and any insertions, deletions or duplications are indicated accordingly. Scans of the original journal pages are provided and are positioned to the right of the transcript, these are magnified by positioning the pointer on the image.

Left London for Cairo

Arrived Alexandria and Cairo (accompanying H.R.H. the
Crown Prince of Sweden).

Left Cairo for Luxor.

Arrived Gurna.

Put house in order

Commenced reparations upon the faldstool No. 351

Arranged with for workmen to commence clearing the entrance
of the tomb on the morrow Wednesday.

Howard Carter's Journal for 1929, p. 59 (TAA i.2.4.59) Howard Carter's Journal for 1929, p. 59 (TAA i.2.4.59)
Howard Carter's Journal for 1929, p. 59 (© Griffith Institute, TAA i.2.4.59)

Opened Lab. No 15. Found everything in order.

Commenced reparations upon the faldstool No. 351

Arranged with for workmen to commence clearing the entrance
of the tomb on the morrow Wednesday.

Cleaned the entrance of the Tomb.

Continued work in Lab. Upon faldstool 351

Removed staircase from entrance of Tomb. Continued working up. 351.
Find work very trying when having an Inspector watching one and
asking questions as to ones actions the whole time!

Getting along very well with Tewfik Effendi and Edward Davran Effendi, not-
withstanding they kept us waiting this morning (they being late) and both
told me how to do my work - reparation of chair 351 and the removal
of the shrines from the Tomb!!!

Opened tomb this morning and ordered necessary wood, masons
for the work of removing the shrines.

These last two days have been terribly heavy & hot making work
somewhat tedious.

Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 61 (TAA i.2.4.61) Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 61 (TAA i.2.4.61)
Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 61 (© Griffith Institute, TAA i.2.4.61)

Continued work upon faldstool 351

Quantity of timber arrived, but not all that I ordered.

All woodwork and rails for visitors removed from the tomb today.

Lucas arrived.

Prepared material, Etc., ready to deal with the Shrines in the tomb on Wednesday
morning.

The whole of this last week was spent upon the reparation of
the Roof section (one piece) of the fourth (innermost) Shrine,
the two Roof sections of the Third Shrine, and the east end
Roof section of the Second Shrine, that were among those parts stored atin the North
South end of the Vestibul[e] Antechamber. Each of their sections
were in very bad condition, and owing to their size and weight
hard to deal with. By our removing the steel-gate and
pulling down the made up parts of the Entrance Staircase and
doorway - that had been originally cut away to allow the
larger sections of the Shrines to pass in - we were able
to take out the two Roof sections of the Third Shrine. The
other sections when packed are too large to pass out
until the passage and doorways have been enlarged.

Although it is a fortnight since I requested the Inspector,
Tewfik Effendi, to obtain skilful stone cutters to carry out
this enlarging of of the Entrance passage and doorways, there are
no signs of them yet! - Such a state of affairs makes things
all the more difficult, for we until the sections are removed we are now badly in want of space
to continue our reparation and packing work.

The Stone Cutters arrived on the 22nd and commenced
Cutting away the South side of the passage and entrance door-
ways to allow the larger sections of the shrines to pass out. This
was not completed until the 31st of the month, although five
masons were employed.

During this period we were able to replace the all the
roof sections that were store[d] in the Anteroom, as well as
one of the side sections (that of the innermost shrine) around
the Sarcophagus. Many of the Roof Sections were in a
very bad condition, and even though we waxed them &
filled in the weak parts, I doubt whether they will travel
without further injury to them.

Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 63 (TAA i.2.4.63) Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 63 (TAA i.2.4.63)
Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 63 (© Griffith Institute, TAA i.2.4.63)

Our work was temporarily stopped owing to the arrival
of the Crown Prince of Sweden, whom I was obliged to attend
for the during the during his three day visit to Luxor.

On Monday the third of Nov. at the request of the
Crown Prince I opened one of the niches containing the
magical figure in the burial chamber of the tomb. This
proved to be:-

An Osiris figure of unbaked clay, swathed in fine
linen, stood on a brick-like pedestal, also made of
unbaked clay, upon which a formula has been
graven. This figure upon its pedestal was placed, facing
South, in a small and roughly made rectangular niche
cut in the Southern part of the Eastern wall of the burial-
Chamber. The niche was closed with a rough limestone
slab which was plastered over flush with the surface of the
wall.

Although the cardinal points are more than often marked
upon these magical figures, their exact intended position
in the walls of the burial chambers is not at all clear -
the Chaps. referring to them in copies of the Book of the Dead
vary considerably.

However, the position of this Osiris figure according to some
of the vignettes in the B. of the D. is should be in the wall facing the
feet of the mummy where we found it. The Flame in the wall at the head
of the mummy. The Ded in the wall on the Right side and the figure of
Anubis in the wall on the left. Thus in this tomb we
should find the flame in the Western wall, the Ded somewhere
in the Southern wall, and the figure of the jackal-like-dog
of Anubis in the north wall.

Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 65 (TAA i.2.4.65) Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 65 (TAA i.2.4.65)
Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 65 (© Griffith Institute, TAA i.2.4.65)

Completed waxing, packing and removal of all the Roof
Sections of the Shrines that were stored in the Antechamber - these
have been temporarily placed in their cases in the tomb of
Ramses 9.

Also waxed and packed the South side panel of the fourth
innermost Shrine, and that of the Third Shrine and nearly
completed the South panel of the Second Shrine.

Note "Shrine"

These shrines have a slight batter - about 1 cent. Per metre.
The panels of the Third Second Shrine show traces of the King's Cartouches
having been changed - the gold covering these Cartouches is of
a slightly yellower quality and less tarnished than the rest
of the gilt surfaces. The style of work upon the panels of this
Shrine Shrine has is distinctly the character of the El Amarna
School. Thus it would appear that the cartouches, originally
containing the Aten name, had been changed to the Amen
name, and that the shrine was the work of the earlier part
of the King's Reign - or that an El Amarna artist had
been employed and had made the mistake of employing
the Aten name instead of that of Amen in the King's
nomen.

[dates only - nothing else entered]

W

E. 325
Cement 326
W. 327

3 [÷] 978
326

L. 160
L. 168
L. 165

493

Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 64 (TAA i.2.4.64) Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 64 (TAA i.2.4.64)
Howard Carter's Journal for 1930, p. 64 (© Griffith Institute, TAA i.2.4.64)