Davies, Norman de Garis: Two Ramesside tombs at Thebes (New York, 1927)

PREFACE

THE completion of this selected edition of five Theban tombs, by
which, I venture to think, the coloration employed by skilled Egyptian
artists has been set before the public with a degree of exactitude not
before attained, is an occasion on which feelings of gratitude are natur-
ally aroused and may therefore fitly be expressed. They are due, of
course, in the first place to Mrs. Tytus, who in these books has raised so
happy a monument to her son and to his tastes that many another mother,
under a similar loss, will envy her the inspiration and opportunity. But
the project would scarcely have reached its successful end but for the
resolute zeal of the Editor, Albert M. Lythgoe, nor emerged with this
measure of credit in respect of format and typography had it not been
for the expert guidance of H. W. Kent, Secretary of the Museum, in co-
operation with the late Walter Gilliss, publisher of the volumes. To the
habitual care and scrutiny of Winifred E. Howe, Editor of Museum pub-
lications, is due the clerical correctness of the series. I am also greatly
indebted to those who have striven with me, often under trying con-
ditions, to mete out sympathetic justice to the line and color of the
ancient artists. Three of these, Launcelot Crane, Norman Hardy, and
Francis Unwin, have already passed beyond the reach of thanks, but I
can still express my gratitude to Emery Walker, veteran of a splendid
era, for watching over the reproduction of the paintings with the sym-
pathy of an artist as well as the skill of a master-printer. I have also
become aware from time to time that the staff of the Egyptian Depart-
ment was laboriously contributing to the perfecting of these memorial

IX