The Griffith Institute (
part of
Oxford University) has put online the journals and diaries of Howard
Carter written during the discovery and excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun. You can see them on a timeline or as continuous text (crossing outs and mistakes included).
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringTut/journals-and-diaries/The descriptions of the removal of the two inner coffins and the mummy are quite heart-stopping!
Excavation processes were not quite as rigorous then either. The inner
coffin and mummy were glued together with gunge created by the oils used 3000 years ago. This is what they did:
Removed the Royal Mummy to No. 15. It took ten men to bring out of the Tomb and carry it up. Placed in the sun for a few hours, while Lucas, Burton & self hammered off the black coating upon the lid of the third coffin. Heat of the sun not sufficient today to make any real impression upon the pitch-like material which has stuck fast the mummy & coffins.
