Fixing Carters Mistake

Removing numerous large, delicate artifacts from a tomb thousands of years old seems like an impossible task. We are required to extract all of the artifacts in the burial chamber as well as the treasury of the tomb of the great King Tutankhamen. In figure one, you can see the sealed doorways that we would have to get through, and fit the artifacts through. We had to remove the artifacts without making the same mistakes Howard Carter did in the twenties. When he made his way into the burial chamber, he completely disregarded salvaging the south wall. He destroyed a major portion of the wall, and the mural on it. When given this task of removing artifacts without destroying the wall Carter did, my group originally thought to dig. After we did some research, the logistics just did not seem to fit. Our group could not think of a logical way to fit all of the artifacts including, the sarcophagus, through a hole in the floor. Instead we devised a plan to cut a door like hole in the south wall. We would use very sharp masonry bit tools to make the least amount of damage to the mural on the other side. Had my group found the tomb in this day and age, the mural would still exist. 

The easiest way around the wall without destroying it seemed to be to dig beneath it. However, digging a channel or tunnel large enough to fit the sarcophagus, the largest item, seems impossible. The outer coffin measures almost five feet tall by five feet wide and almost nine feet long (Alchin). It also weighs 1.36 metric tons (Dunn).  A seven and a half foot stone box weighing more than 2500 pounds is not going to be able to be put through a tunnel for a significant distance. Even if a tunnel large enough to fit the coffin under the wall, many risks to the tomb itself arise. The first problem I could think of is attempting to re-enter the tomb. If the tunnel were just big enough to fit the coffin through, the hole would be at minimum five feet deep. After making it into the burial chamber, you would be standing in a five-foot hole looking up at the murals another ten feet above you. The next problem I think may be an issue is the stability of the south wall. The weight of solid limestone is 2611 kg/m3 (Fogt). The wall, which is built on the ground, would need to be supported. This massive weight would not be able to support itself when almost a meter and a half wide is gone. A collapse would be my biggest fear, and if that happens, the mural on the wall would be destroyed anyway.

My group and I are not about to fall into the trap and make the same mistake that Howard Carter made way back in the twenties. Upon further discussion, my group decided to take a similar, but much less destructive approach. We thought to use ultra precise cutting tools to cut away a door way like structure in the south wall. As you can see in figure two at the right, a door way could easily be made. With this plan we would be able to have access to the burial chamber without completely wrecking the mural in on the wall. We plan on cutting the wall in such a way that it could be put back in place. What ever we remove and move out of the way could be easily put back in place with only minor slivers missing from the mural. This method would also allow re-entry into both the burial room as well as the treasure room.  

The walls surrounding the burial chamber are made out of limestone. The walls are almost two feet and coated on the inside with plaster ("Entering King Tut’s Tomb", 1923). It is on this plaster that all of the murals are painted. The plaster, after thousands of years of aging, would be fairly fragile and brittle. To make it though these walls, someone would have to use something very hard and heavy, or something very sharp. Unfortunately for the mural, Carter used the first method. Instead of trying to save the wall, he simply threw caution to the wind, and ended up destroying part of the magnificent mural. To save this piece of history and art, we decided to cut a precise shape in the wall. As seen in figure three, we would not break apart the sealed door. To see through to the other side, to insure a logical place to begin cutting, my team would drill a pilot hole at the base of the wall. I figure that anything that is on the other side all the way at the bottom would not be very important. Many other tombs with painted walls have elaborate borders around anything important. Murals in other burial chambers show how Egyptians used borders around their paintings ("Underworld"). After my team and I are able to look around the room, we would figure a logical place to cut the slab. We would look for seams within the work as to cause as little damage as possible to the other side. We would make cuts in the wall so that it would be able to be put back in place. The natural seams in the mural, or just the stone itself will cause the damage as minimal as possible. To make a precise enough cuts in the limestone wall, we will need to use masonry blades in circular saws. Diamond tipped saw blades are the most widely used for cutting through concrete and ceramic (Choosing Circular Saw Blades). Since limestone is very hard like concrete and plaster is like ceramic, this is the most logical choice. A wet saw would also be most effective. These kinds of saws use water jets to keep both the blades as well as the stone being cut cool. If either gets too hot, they could shatter (Cutting Tile on a Wet Saw). If the blade shatters, it would hurt my team, and if the mural breaks, we will have failed our primary task. 

The ‘easy’ solution of digging seemed to create more problems that results. When forced to think outside the box, my group and I rose to the challenge. Carter was too careless when first excavating the tomb, and because of his carelessness, a portion of the mural is gone. Cutting out a part of the door seems like the least destructive method to enter the chamber. It also allows easy re-entry. I wish that my team could have been at the site in the twenties to attempt to save what Carter destroyed.

Works Cited

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