William Matthew Flinders Petrie

“ My man Ali Suefi was even more valuable than before, as he was not only proof against all the blandishments of the local rascals—the Abd er Rasuls and others—but harassed them in any attempt to get at the other workers, and saved us a large part of our results. Of course I put him on to all the best places, and he got about half of all the bakhshish of the season as his reward. When you have an honest man, make it worth his while to continue so. ”

“ While in cemeteries, only one tomb in ten repays the work; and it is the rare one tomb in a hundred that compensates for the ninety blanks and nine scanty results.
2. The region of the work was about half a mile long, and a furlong wide, along the desert edge of the western shore of Thebes. This ground reached from behind the Kom el Hettan to near the temple of Tahutmes III. When I went there in December, 1895, the temples already known in this ground were those of Tahutmes IV, and Ramessu II, and between them the chapel of Uazmes, discovered in 1887 ”

“ Very soon we had to enclose a space in front of the galleries to hold our collections of pottery, pieces of sculpture, and stacks of ushabtis.
3. At first I brought up some of our best men from Koptos, and took on many of the Qurneh people for the work. But as soon as we began to find antiquities, it was evident that the previous engagements of these local workers to the various dealers of Thebes took precedence of their engagement to me. ”