Thus it will be seen that several fresh methods of observation have been introduced, in order to obtain greater accuracy and more information: in particular the methods of plumb-lines and optical theodolite-planes, with offsets from these, have yielded good results. A fresh feature in the discussion of observations is the introduction of “concentrated errors;” on the principle of showing all the divergences from regularity on their natural scale, while reducing the distances of the parts so that they may readily be compared together. This is the essential basis of the method of graphic reduction, described in the Appendix (shown in Traces of Observations, Pl. xvi); and it renders possible the use of graphic methods in work of any delicacy; it is also exemplified in the diagrams of the King’s Chamber walls (Pl. xiii), and of the relation of the casing and pavement (pl. x).
* Naked candles are good objects for observing on, where there is no wind; the spot of name, the white candle, or the thin wick, serving at different distances; offset measurements can also be taken accurately to the wick. Lanterns were only used for outside work.
CHAPTER IV.
EXCAVATIONS.
13. IN Egypt all excavations are forbidden, and a special permission is required for any such researches, the law of treasure-trove being the same as in England. Having in 1880–1 done all the triangulation of my station marks, it was requisite in 1881–2 to connect them with the ancient points of construction. For this, therefore, I needed permission to excavate, and applied to M. Maspero, the courteous and friendly director of the Department for the Conservation of Antiquities; Dr. Birch kindly favouring my request. In order to save delay and needless formalities, M. Maspero at once said that he would permit me to work under his firman, on all the points that I had indicated to him in writing; the Bulak Museum being formally represented by a reis, who would observe if anything of portable value should accidentally be discovered, though such was very unlikely and unsought for. Under this arrangement, then, I carried on excavations for about six weeks, having during most of the time about 20 men and boys engaged. The total expense was only about £18, or £22 including the reis of the Museum. He was a son of old Reis Atweh, who worked for Prof. Smyth; a very polite man, who quite understood that his presence was a formality.*
The first work that needed to be done (and that quickly, before the travellers’ season set in) was to open the entrance passage of the Great Pyramid again to the lower chamber. The rubbish that had accumulated from out of Mamun’s Hole was carried out of the Pyramid by a chain of five or six men in the passage. In all the work I left the men to use their familiar tools, baskets and hoes, as much as they liked, merely providing a couple of shovels, of picks, and of crow-bars for any who liked to use them. I much doubt whether more work could be done for the same expense and time, by trying to force them into using Western tools without a good training. Crowbars were general favourites, the chisel ends wedging up and loosening the compact rubbish very easily; but a shovel and pickaxe need a much wider hole to work them in than a basket and hoe require; hence the picks were fitted with short handles, and the shovels were only used for loose sand. In the passage we soon came down on the big granite stone which stopped Prof. Smyth when he was trying to clear the passage, and also sundry blocks of limestone appeared. The limestone was easily smashed then and there, and carried out piecemeal; and as it had no worked surfaces it was of no consequence. But the granite was not only tough, but interesting, and I would not let the skilful hammer-man cleave it up slice by slice as he longed to do; it was therefore blocked up in its place, with a stout board across the passage, to prevent it being started into a downward rush. It was a slab 20·6 thick, worked on both faces, and one end, but rough broken around the other three sides; and as it lay flat on the floor, it left us 27 inches of height to pass down the passage over it. Where it came from is a complete puzzle; no granite is known in the Pyramid, except the King’s Chamber, the Antechamber, and the plug blocks in the ascending passage. Of these sites the Antechamber seems to be the only place whence it could have come; and Maillet mentions having seen a large block (6 feet by 4) lying in the Antechamber, which is not to be found there now. This slab is 32 inches wide to the broken sides, 45 long to a broken end, and 20·6 thick; and, strangely, on one side edge is part of a drill hole, which ran through the 20·6 thickness, and the side of which is 27·3 from the worked end. This might be said to be a modern hole, made for smashing it up, wherever it was in situ; but it is such a hole as none but an ancient Egyptian would have made, drilled out with a jewelled tubular drill in the regular style of the 4th dynasty; and to attribute it to any mere smashers and looters of any period is inadmissible. What if it came out of the grooves in the Antechamber, and was placed like the granite leaf across that chamber? The grooves are an inch wider, it is true; but then the groove of the leaf is an inch wider than the leaf. If it was then in this least unlikely place, what could be the use of a 4-inch hole right through the slab? It shows that something has been destroyed, of which we have, at present, no idea.
Soon after passing this granite, we got into the lower part of the entrance passage, which was clear nearly to the bottom. Here a quantity of mud had been washed in by the rains, from the decayed limestone of the outside of the Pyramid, thus filling the last 30 feet of the slope. This was dug out and spread on the passage floor, to save having to carry it out up the long 300 feet of the narrow passage; no truck arrangement could be easily worked, owing to the granite block lying in the passage. Work down at the bottom, with two lanterns and six men, in the narrow airless passage, was not pleasant; and my visits were only twice a day, until they cut through to the chamber. Here I had the rest of the earth piled up, clear of the walls, and also of the well, and so re-established access to these lower parts.
In the well leading from the gallery to the subterranean passages, there is a part (often called the “Grotto”) cased round with small hewn stones. These were built in to keep back the loose gravel that fills a fissure in the rock, through which the passage passes. These stones had been broken through, and much of the gravel removed; on one side, however, there was a part of the rock which, it was suggested, might belong to a passage. I therefore had some of the gravel taken from under it, and heaped up elsewhere, and it was then plainly seen to be only a natural part of the water-worn fissure. This well is not at all difficult to visit; but the dust should be stirred as little as possible. One may even go up and down with both hands full, by using elbows and toes against the sides and the slight foot-holes.
14. The next business was to find the casing and pavement of the Great Pyramid, in other parts beside that on the N. face discovered by Vyse: the latter part had been uncovered, just when I required it, in 1881, by a contractor, who took the chips of casing from the heaps on the N. face to mend the road. Thus the tourists to the Pyramid actually drive over the smashed-up casing on their way. On the three other sides the Arabs had some years ago cut away a large part of the heaps of casing chips, in search of pieces which would do for village building. Thus the heaps were reduced from about 35 to only 20 feet in depth, over the middle of the base sides of the Pyramid; though they were not touched at their highest parts, about 40 or 50 feet up the sloping side of the Pyramid.
The shafts for finding the casing were then sunk first of all about 100 feet from the corners of the Pyramid; and then, finding nothing there but rock (and that below the pavement level), places further along the sides were tried; until at last the highest parts, in the very middle of the sides, were opened. There the casing and pavement were found on every side, never seen since the rest of the casing was destroyed a thousand years ago. Thus for the North casing four