Vol.13.p.254

Diary Transcription:

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Sunday, February 22, 1925 (continued)

(2) G 7000 X (continued)

[ILLUSTRATION]

Course 5 having been removed stone by stone the cement [= plaster //GAR] over course 6 was found to be exceptionally fine and hard at the south. Five steps were then visible, and parts of the door appeared near the east and at the west corner south of the stairway. The door seems now to be blocked by large [stones not laid in plaster. // GAR].
Course 6 removed, the cement [= plaster // GAR] below was found very thin and brittle. It was nowhere intact and so the photograph was taken at once of the cleaned-up stones. Through the door could now be seen a sloping passage within blocked by large white stones. Six steps are now visible.
Course 7 being removed two stones showed traces of red cement [= plaster // GAR], dateable here to Dynasty 4. The top of the door is now clear.
Course 8 was now removed and eight steps became visible.
Course 9 was found to consist of fine rectangular blocks of limestone. It contained one stone with the red cement [= plaster // GAR] marks.
Course 10 had been laid in plaster but only traces of plaster remained (T.R.D.Greenlees per ABH). Two of its stones were found inscribed in black ink, one with four strokes.
Course 11, the last, consisted of two blocks only. Under this was found the floor (later seen to be another step but wider) with a little cement [= plaster // GAR] mixed with gray dust upon it. The tenth step ends almost below the entrance to the door. From the top of the rock surface to top of door is 165 cm and to bottom of door 277 cm.
At this point work ceased for the morning, every course having been photographed and drawn in the fullest possible detail.
In the afternoon work here started again at 2:45 p.m..
The stones in this passage at first seemed not to have been cemented together but they all have cement [= plaster // GAR] upon them. A number are inscribed with paint marks in black mostly [GLYPHS] or [GLYPHS] and more elaborate forms of these signs. One [GLYPHS]. These are probably the masons' gang-marks. At 90 cm in there was a brick wedged in to fill a small gap (13 1/2 x 8 x 22+ cm). At about one meter from the door the roof rises suddenly vertical. The entire space to above the level of the top of the door is packed closely with fine hard limestone blocks, all roughly rectangular. Measurement in position therefore became impossible and the idea of a section through the block in the passage had reluctantly to be abandoned. However the section of the actual doorblock shows well the character of the whole and photo-

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