Tutankhamen by Joyce Tyldesley

considerable difficulty we helped Monsieur Maspero safely to scale the obstruction, and then Mr Weigall made his entry. The chamber was as dark as dark could be and extremely hot… We held up our candles, but they gave so little light and so dazzled our eyes that we could see nothing except the glint of gold.
    As Davis leaned forward to read the name of the tomb owner, ‘Iouiya’ (or Yuya), triumph almost turned to disaster:
    â€¦Monsieur Maspero cried out ‘Be careful!’ and pulled my hands back. In a moment we realised that, had my candle touched the bitumen, which I came dangerously near doing, the coffin would have been in a blaze. As the entire contents of the tomb were inflammable, and directly opposite the coffin was a corridor leading to the open air and making a draught, we undoubtedly should have lost our lives, as the only escape was by the corridor, which would have necessitated climbing over the stone wall barring the doorway. This would have retarded our exit for at least ten minutes. 8
    Weigall, a more fluent commentator, was equally struck by the enormity of the occasion:
    Imagine entering a town house which had been closed for the summer: imagine the stuffy room, the stiff, silent appearance of the furniture, the feeling that some ghostly occupants of the vacant chairs have just been disturbed, the desire to throw open the windows to let life into the room once more. That was perhaps the first sensation as we stood,
really dumbfounded, and stared around at the relics of the life of over three thousand years ago, all of which were as new almost as when they graced the palace of Prince Yuaa. Three arm-chairs were perhaps the first objects to attract the attention: beautiful carved wooden chairs, decorated with gold. Belonging to one of these was a pillow made of down and covered with linen. It was so perfectly preserved that one might have sat upon it or tossed it from this chair to that without doing it injury. Here were fine alabaster vases, and in one of these we were startled to find a liquid, like honey or syrup, still unsolidified by time. Boxes of exquisite workmanship stood in various parts of the room, some resting on delicately wrought legs. Now the eye was directed to a wicker trunk fitted with trays and partitions, and ventilated with little apertures, since the scents were doubtless strong. Two most comfortable beds were to be observed, fitted with springy string mattresses and decorated with charming designs in gold. There in the far corner, placed upon the top of a number of large white jars, stood the light chariot which Yuaa had owned in his lifetime. In all directions stood objects gleaming with gold undulled by a speck of dust, and one looked from one article to another with the feeling that the entire human conception of Time was wrong. These were the things of yesterday, of a year or so ago… 9
    Word of the spectacular discovery spread and, in a foretaste of things to come, Weigall’s work – the official recording of the tomb contents – was interrupted that afternoon by a stream of titled visitors including the Duke of Connaught, the Duke of Devonshire and the Crown Prince of Norway. The next day the Empress Eugénie, widow of Napoleon III, arrived for a private tour. Despite these interruptions, the tomb was emptied in just ten days. Although Maspero offered Davis a share of the artefacts, Davis waived any claim, preferring to keep the assemblage intact. Today Yuya and Thuya and their grave goods are displayed in Cairo Museum. During the riots that ended the Mubarak regime in early 2011, several items from their
burial assemblage were damaged and some were reported stolen. As I write, the lost artefacts are gradually being recovered by the Museum authorities.
    Yuya and Thuya came from the Middle Egyptian city of Akhmim. Although non-royal, they had the closest of links with the royal family. Among his string of impressive titles, Yuya was