Re: Monday answer.
From: The Pyramid and the Sphinx (Desmond Stewart), Tutunkahamen (New York Graphic Society), digitalegypt from the UK, and �the Testimony of Radiocarbon Dating� (1952), upwards of 43% of the tested wood (very small numbers and amounts were tested) objects in the tomb were of Cedar. Identical to the wood found to be from Lebanon. Also used was ebony for furniture parts, (with some of the most intricate pieces to be from master craftsmen and sent upriver as a completed piece from Sudan) but most of the tomb�s �black� color wood was darkened using color coupled with the age of old varnish. Taking away the previously mentioned wood for chariots, also found were Sycomore Fig, Acacia, Palm, Carob, Boxwood, Storax, Almond, Tamarisk, Cypress has been found elsewhere in ancient Egypt but no mention in the Tut tomb, reeds, and Silver Birch which was used in imported bows. Also found were boomerangs (no wood identified) which caught me by surprise. These did not return to the thrower but when thrown correctly could accurately travel 150 yards or so and cut down a man or beast. That would be a good topic for investigation! I looked it up. The earliest boomerang, Kylie, throwing stick, was from what is now Poland and is supposedly 20,000 years old.
Bill was correct. It was in hand at first discovery. The substance used to preserve the wood was paraffin. Simple wax. Also used was a colloid of amyl nitrate, cellulose, which is what the base of motion picture film was made of up until the 1950�s. The colloid was applied over the object to be preserved and let evaporate which left a thin supposedly protective film. The stuff was explosive and when it dryed it shrank. It was dangerous work. There must have been some very high scientists working in close quarters with that stuff�to say nothing of jury rigged electrical and I�m sure open flame from, if nothing else, smokers)
Journal of the American Institute of Conservation (JAIC 1997, Volume 36, Number 1, Article 3 (pp. 31 to 48) Treatment was minimal. Objects were cleaned of dirt using soft bristle brushes and bellows and, if necessary, strengthened by impregnation with paraffin or beeswax, or celluloid (cellulose nitrate) dissolved in acetone. They also undertook minor repairs on certain items. The use of cellulose nitrate as a consolidant for the treatment of archaeological materials had only recently been introduced. Lucas recognized its potential but at the same time was aware of its limitations, particularly its tendency to discolor with age: Celluloid does of course turn slightly yellow in time, but the amount of discolouration shown by a 1% solution is very small and all other colourless fixative solutions I know also discolour. Incidentally, Carter went WAY out on a limb when he used wax. A lot of people didn�t trust it. It worked however and Egypt let him continue work.
Just as an aside. The last coffin (there were three nested ones each with barely �� of space around them, was of pure gold--2448 1/8 pounds of it. The total of the three was 3,030 pounds of gold. All supported on a low wood bed/platform (seasoned wood in compression) that held it all for three thousand, three hundred years. (To any treasure investigators--today (2/12/07) price of gold is 661.80 per ounce!)
