Day 20,
6 December 1998
What's amazing about this expedition
is the way the atmosphere can, quite without warning, suddenly change within the space of
a few seconds. One minute everything's calm and controlled, the next all hell's broken
loose. It's like being a passenger in a car whose driver suddenly and for no apparent
reason slams his foot down on the accelerator and spins the wheel around, heading off at
high speed in a completely different direction. It's bewildering. And exhilarating too. At
the moment I'm producing adrenalin on an industrial scale.
Ancient foundations
Today, up until half an hour before we
were due to stop work, nothing remotely exciting had happened. Peter and Mohsen were down
in the excavation hole, poking around with their trowels beneath the large stone blocks
which we think are the foundations of ancient huts or storerooms.
Our workmen, meanwhile, were slowly
removing the dusty mound of loose rubble separating our site from Tomb 56-The Gold
Tomb-which is just to the west. All was calm and relaxed. Everyone was looking forward to
lunch (except Peter, who's got an upset tummy).
Then, suddenly, a cry went up. Shahhat
had spotted some more ancient graffiti on the rock face between our site and Tomb 56.
It was like a bolt of electricity had
gone through the team. From being tired and torpid everyone was suddenly buzzing with
energy. Nick, Geoffrey, Mohsen and Jiro hurried over to inspect the newly discovered
inscription, whilst Patrick and Steve, the BBC film guys, scrambled along behind them with
their camera and recording equipment. I ran to my bag to get my own camera and then belted
after them, tripping up in my hurry and slamming into the ground in a choking cloud of
dust.
I know a short ancient graffito,
barely discernible to the naked eye, might not sound the most exciting thing on earth, but
these discoveries can be immensely revealing. In this case the inscription more than lived
up to expectations, for it had been made by our old friend Wen-nefer. The latter seems to
have been a 21st Dynasty necropolis official who went through the Valley of the Kings
recording his name above some of the tombs there. Geoffrey found it above Tombs 58 and 56,
both of which are immediately to the west of our site. We have a similar-looking name
above our site. And now here it was again, between our site and Tomb 56.
This is intriguing, not to say
extraordinary, for if Wen-nefer was recording his name above tombs-and remember, at the
moment it's a gigantic if-then the implication is that there is not merely one burial in
the area we're studying, but two!! This is getting silly.
Unfortunately it was too close to
packing-up time to find out anything more-'Why do the exciting things always happen just
when we're about to stop!' grumbled Nick-but tomorrow should be an interesting day. Once
again the tension is building.
P.S. John Malkovich seems to have gone home. After
all the thrills and spills on site today, I don't really care.
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