6th May Howard Carter's Diary

Back at 18 Reutevennen Strasse. I began removing slates to expose the roof of the half pyramidal attic/ dungeon. Then, cutting carefully through the boards, suddenly the darkness was pierced by shafts of light exposing the tomb in all its putridessence. The bright orange carpet, the blue and lemon walls, and at the far end a secret door.... Perhaps this part of the pyramid was merely an ante-chamber. I examined the exposed portion of the sealed doorway and noticed that the only decipherable impressions of the seals were those of the well-known Royal Necropolis. The doorway yielded to a screwdriver and I was able to peer in. It was a thrilling moment for an archeologist quite alone, to suddenly find himself, after so many years of toilsome work, on the verge of what looked like a magnificent discovery - an untouched tomb.
It was sometime before one could see, but as soon as one's eyes became accustomed to the glimmer of light the interior of the chamber gradually loomed before one, with its strange and wonderful medley of extraordinary and beautiful objects heaped upon one another.

My feelings of astonishment are difficult to describe at the revalation of the marvellous collection of treasures of a lost civilization: an ebony-black Matsui video recorder minus its plug; gilded baubles in strange forms; a foldaway xmas tree; exquisitely painted, inlaid, and ornamental decorations; a Tesco bag full of tinsel; a stoneware dinner service undisturbed since the xxth dyn; a home tanning salon (still boxed ); dark blue tiles and numerous tins of brightly hued gloss and emulsion. My sensations were bewildering and full of strange emotion, as to the meaning of it all. Was it a tomb or merely a cache?