The Griffith Institute
Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation
The Howard Carter Archives
Photographs by Harry Burton
Introduction
Previous card Object page Main list Next card
Carter No.: 260

Handlist description: Niche containing wooden djad emblem

Card/Transcription No.: 260


No. 260.

A NICHE cut in the w. corner of the south wall, facing beyond (right) the head end of the sarcophagus, 165 cents. above the floor of the Burial-chamber.

THE NICHE takes the form of a roughly cut shallow recess of rectangular shape, 26 cents. high, 16 cents. wide, and 10 cents. deep. It was closed by the means of a suitable but irregular splinter of limestone, which was plastered over flush with the surface of the wall and then painted over to match the colour decoration of the wall.

IT CONTAINED a wooden ded-emblem, 9.2 cents. high (= 5 digits), overlaid with thin gold-foil (largely fallen from decay) and inlaid with blue glazed pottery, stood upright, facing east, upon a brick (pedestal) of unbaked clay.

THE BRICK (pedestal), 9.3 cents. long, 4.2 cents. wide, and 1.4 cents. thick (= 5 x 2 ¼ x ¾ digits), has upon its upper surface, in front of the ded-emblem, the following incantation graven in hieroglyphic characters:

<> ? ?

Scratched on the brick, under the emblem, is the sign <>; a few minute globules of resinous matter exude from the clay; and there are traces of red paint on the under surface.

The rubric included in Ch. CLI of the Book of the Dead that refers to this emblem and its brick (pedestal) reads:

"This formula is to be spoken over a ded of glaze, the cross-bars of which are fine gold, which has been covered with royal linen, and oil allowed to fall on it. It is fastened on a brick of unbaked clay, [on which has been graven this formula], and a hole is made for it in the western wall, its face towards the east, and it is covered up with earth that has been under an caru-tree."

There was not a trace of linen, oil, nor of earth, visible on the above specimen!

Card no. 260 relating to Carter no. 260
© Copyright Griffith Institute, 2000-2004
None of this material may be reproduced in any form without permission from
Griffith Institute, Oxford, OX1 2LG
Contact us
Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation
Concept & Direction: Jaromir Malek
Web Page & Database Designs: Jonathan Moffett
Scanning & transcript: Sue Hutchison, Elizabeth Miles, Diana Magee, Kent Rawlinson