This fact was first ascertained in 1910, and in that year twelve tombs of this necropolis were opened. Their exploration was continued in 1911, when four more were revealed, and three out of the four were thoroughly investigated.
All the graves examined during the two seasons had had their original burials previously pillaged: firstly, at a period not long after their origin, and certainly before the New Empire; and in certain instances a second time in the XVIIth or XVIIIth Dynasties, when some were re-used for odd burials.
These successive plunderings gave access to the white ants, the worst of all the enemies the explorer has to contend with. Often when a chamber is first entered its contents seem in comparatively good preservation, but on the slightest touch or movement they fall into a thousand fragments, their substance being riddled by these tiny insects.
The positions and plans of these tombs are shown in the Plan and Survey, [Pl. XXX].
Corridor Tomb 24.
This was the first and most spacious among those opened in 1910. It had no less than eight chambers, a long passage, an open court, and a pit. It was only from the remains of funereal débris, discovered in the rubbish of an open depression in the rock (i. e. the court), that it was recognized that an early and violated tomb was in the course of being revealed. These fragments were:—
1. The cross-bars of an Angarib (bedstead made of plaited rope on a wooden frame supported by four legs).
2. The greater part of a wooden model boat of uncommon design.
3. A small piece of wood with beautiful cornelian inlay upon it from a coffin (?).
4. Broken pieces of cartonnage painted and gilded.