{
  "work": "R. W. Howard Vyse, Operations Carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837, volume II (London: J. Fraser, 1840)",
  "verified_date": "2026-10-19",
  "checked_scope": "Six selected excerpts and one supplementary contextual fragment only; not a corrected transcription of the complete pages or volume.",
  "method": "All three page images were visually inspected at original display detail. PDF text extraction was consulted only as an aid after that inspection. No historical claim has been independently verified merely by checking transcription.",
  "normalization": [
    "Printed line breaks and page breaks have been replaced by spaces in the display quotes.",
    "Words split solely at printed line ends have been joined, including hieroglyphics, sarcophagus, considering and undertaking.",
    "The lexical hyphen in merchant-ship is retained. Original spelling, names and substantive punctuation are retained; spacing around punctuation has been regularised.",
    "Superscript footnote call numbers are omitted where recorded in segment metadata. Footnote 3 is identified as such in the location metadata.",
    "Square-bracketed ellipses […] are editorial omission markers; an unmarked join between pp. 83–84 in the extraction excerpt indicates continuous text.",
    "The p. 85 lid excerpt deliberately ends after a semicolon within a sentence and is followed by […].",
    "No Arabic handwriting or hieroglyphic illustration has been transcribed."
  ],
  "facsimiles": [
    {
      "page": 83,
      "image": "assets/vyse-p83.jpg",
      "pdf": "sources/vyse-p83.pdf",
      "pdf_sha256": "df3a222a1f3cefe815e0d2710504dae42afda8e8f55aa94fdda41f07ebd960e2"
    },
    {
      "page": 84,
      "image": "assets/vyse-p84.jpg",
      "pdf": "sources/vyse-p84.pdf",
      "pdf_sha256": "d8866178e043079027bb0a6532dbad625c44d166bf395b3c532caf11a2fc775f"
    },
    {
      "page": 85,
      "image": "assets/vyse-p85.jpg",
      "pdf": "sources/vyse-p85.pdf",
      "pdf_sha256": "2601c11d3e7bb0fba0d05e5e2c2bc6df6bfc505a95d9515dc75bc1b4699f4a41"
    }
  ],
  "records": [
    {
      "id": "vyse-empty-surface-decoration",
      "title": "Empty interior, material description and ornament",
      "pages": [
        84
      ],
      "source_records": [
        "v84"
      ],
      "segments": [
        {
          "page": 84,
          "location": "Main text, first complete sentence on the page",
          "text": "It was entirely empty, and composed of basalt, which bore a fine polish of a shaded brown colour, but was blue where it had been chipped off, or broken.",
          "footnote_markers_removed": [
            "4"
          ],
          "omission_after": "Two sentences about manufacture and sawing, including a reference to note 5."
        },
        {
          "page": 84,
          "location": "Main text, final sentence of the upper paragraph",
          "text": "It was finely carved in compartments, and the ornaments upon it resembled in some degree the architectural decorations in the tomb of Numbers, and those carved upon two blocks of stone now exhibited in the British Museum, and which formerly belonged to the collection of the late Mr. Salt."
        }
      ],
      "quote": "It was entirely empty, and composed of basalt, which bore a fine polish of a shaded brown colour, but was blue where it had been chipped off, or broken. […] It was finely carved in compartments, and the ornaments upon it resembled in some degree the architectural decorations in the tomb of Numbers, and those carved upon two blocks of stone now exhibited in the British Museum, and which formerly belonged to the collection of the late Mr. Salt.",
      "interpretive_note": "Vyse's published description. 'Basalt' is his material name, not a modern petrographic identification; the comparison of decoration is also his comparison. The two segments are separated by an explicit editorial omission.",
      "verification": "Visually compared with the supplied facsimile image, not accepted from OCR alone."
    },
    {
      "id": "vyse-removal-rationale",
      "title": "Vyse’s stated reason for sending it to the Museum",
      "pages": [
        83
      ],
      "source_records": [
        "v83"
      ],
      "segments": [
        {
          "page": 83,
          "location": "Footnote 3, opening sentence",
          "text": "As the sarcophagus would have been destroyed, had it remained in the pyramid, I resolved to send it to the British Museum."
        }
      ],
      "quote": "As the sarcophagus would have been destroyed, had it remained in the pyramid, I resolved to send it to the British Museum.",
      "interpretive_note": "This records Vyse's stated justification. It does not independently establish that destruction would have occurred, or establish the scope of export permission.",
      "verification": "Visually compared with the supplied facsimile image, not accepted from OCR alone."
    },
    {
      "id": "vyse-extraction-packing",
      "title": "Extraction equipment and timber casing",
      "pages": [
        83,
        84
      ],
      "source_records": [
        "v83",
        "v84"
      ],
      "segments": [
        {
          "page": 83,
          "location": "Footnote 3, from “One of the ramps” to the page break",
          "text": "One of the ramps in the inclined passage was to be removed in order to get it into the large apartment, where it was placed upon trucks, and the blocks in the anteroom having been got rid of, it arrived at the bottom of the entrance passage. By means of a number of men, and of a crab at the mouth of the pyramid, it had been conveyed half way up, when, owing to the roughness of the bottom, the trucks on one side",
          "continues_on": 84
        },
        {
          "page": 84,
          "location": "Continuation of footnote 3, from “gave way” through “British Museum”",
          "text": "gave way. As they could not be repaired for want of space, the sarcophagus was slowly lifted by levers, and got out by degrees; which, considering that its weight was nearly three tons, was an arduous undertaking. It was, however, at last safely hauled out, and placed on a proper carriage, in which, with the assistance of planks, it was drawn over the rocks and sands to the tents, and afterwards cased with strong timbers, to be sent to the British Museum.",
          "continues_from": 83
        }
      ],
      "quote": "One of the ramps in the inclined passage was to be removed in order to get it into the large apartment, where it was placed upon trucks, and the blocks in the anteroom having been got rid of, it arrived at the bottom of the entrance passage. By means of a number of men, and of a crab at the mouth of the pyramid, it had been conveyed half way up, when, owing to the roughness of the bottom, the trucks on one side gave way. As they could not be repaired for want of space, the sarcophagus was slowly lifted by levers, and got out by degrees; which, considering that its weight was nearly three tons, was an arduous undertaking. It was, however, at last safely hauled out, and placed on a proper carriage, in which, with the assistance of planks, it was drawn over the rocks and sands to the tents, and afterwards cased with strong timbers, to be sent to the British Museum.",
      "interpretive_note": "Continuous excerpt across a printed page break. 'Crab', 'trucks', 'half way' and 'nearly three tons' preserve the wording; the excerpt does not establish modern equipment specifications or a measured mass.",
      "verification": "Visually compared with the supplied facsimile image, not accepted from OCR alone."
    },
    {
      "id": "vyse-shipment-reported-loss",
      "title": "Shipment and the reported loss",
      "pages": [
        84
      ],
      "source_records": [
        "v84"
      ],
      "segments": [
        {
          "page": 84,
          "location": "Footnote 3, final sentence",
          "text": "It was embarked at Alexandria in the autumn of 1838, on board a merchant-ship, which was supposed to have been lost off Carthagena, as she never was heard of after her departure from Leghorn on the 12th of October in that year, and as some parts of the wreck were picked up near the former port."
        }
      ],
      "quote": "It was embarked at Alexandria in the autumn of 1838, on board a merchant-ship, which was supposed to have been lost off Carthagena, as she never was heard of after her departure from Leghorn on the 12th of October in that year, and as some parts of the wreck were picked up near the former port.",
      "interpretive_note": "The sentence does not name Beatrice. Preserve 'supposed', Carthagena and Leghorn in the quotation; Cartagena and Livorno may be given separately as modern place names. The footnote supplies no named informant, wreckage identifier, eyewitness account, coordinates or observed sinking date.",
      "verification": "Visually compared with the supplied facsimile image, not accepted from OCR alone."
    },
    {
      "id": "vyse-no-inscription",
      "title": "Statement about inscriptions",
      "pages": [
        85
      ],
      "source_records": [
        "v85"
      ],
      "segments": [
        {
          "page": 85,
          "location": "Main text, opening sentence",
          "text": "The sarcophagus did not bear any inscription or hieroglyphics."
        }
      ],
      "quote": "The sarcophagus did not bear any inscription or hieroglyphics.",
      "interpretive_note": "Read alongside the separate p. 83 report of Arabic words and characters on walls and inside the object. Do not paraphrase this as 'no marks of any kind'. See the supplementary context excerpt supplied below.",
      "verification": "Visually compared with the supplied facsimile image, not accepted from OCR alone."
    },
    {
      "id": "vyse-lid-pieces",
      "title": "Lid fragments and their reported location",
      "pages": [
        85
      ],
      "source_records": [
        "v85"
      ],
      "segments": [
        {
          "page": 85,
          "location": "Main text, final sentence of first paragraph",
          "text": "The lid was not found in the sepulchral chamber, but pieces of it were afterwards discovered.",
          "omission_after": "The intervening description of the passage and adjacent room."
        },
        {
          "page": 85,
          "location": "Main text, final paragraph, opening clause",
          "text": "When the large apartment was finally cleared out, the greater part of the lid of the sarcophagus was found (as I have already stated) near the entrance of the passage descending to the sepulchral chamber;",
          "omission_after": "The sentence continues “and close to it” at the foot of p. 85 and beyond this page.",
          "ends_mid_sentence": true
        }
      ],
      "quote": "The lid was not found in the sepulchral chamber, but pieces of it were afterwards discovered. […] When the large apartment was finally cleared out, the greater part of the lid of the sarcophagus was found (as I have already stated) near the entrance of the passage descending to the sepulchral chamber; […]",
      "interpretive_note": "The last segment is a deliberately finite clause; append a visible editorial omission marker after its semicolon. 'The greater part' does not establish one largest fragment. The excerpt does not justify describing the illustrated complete lid as an observed intact lid.",
      "verification": "Visually compared with the supplied facsimile image, not accepted from OCR alone."
    },
    {
      "id": "vyse-piece-sent-museum",
      "title": "A piece sent to the British Museum",
      "pages": [
        84
      ],
      "source_records": [
        "v84"
      ],
      "quote": "A piece of it has been sent to the British Museum.",
      "interpretive_note": "Footnote 4, attached to the material and broken-surface description. The published note gives no current museum inventory number. The connection to EA6646 remains the museum catalogue attribution.",
      "verification": "Visually checked against the original p.84 facsimile in the editorial review."
    }
  ],
  "supplementary_context": [
    {
      "id": "vyse-arabic-marks-context",
      "title": "Context for the inscription sentence",
      "page": 83,
      "source_record": "v83",
      "location": "Main text, first paragraph, fragment from a sentence begun on p. 82",
      "quote": "[…] some rude and unconnected Arabic words and characters scrawled with something like chalk on various parts of the walls, and on the inside of the sarcophagus.",
      "footnote_markers_removed": [
        "2",
        "3"
      ],
      "omission": "The preceding sentence begins on the previous page; this quotation intentionally starts within it.",
      "interpretive_note": "This is a finite fragment, visually checked. It does not date the Arabic marks, identify their authors or establish their meaning. The following footnote says attempts to read and copy the faint writing were unsuccessful, apart from words over the entrance; do not imply those entrance words were on the stone object."
    }
  ],
  "uncertainties": [
    "The first p. 83 main-text sentence begins on p. 82; the Arabic-writing excerpt is therefore explicitly introduced as a sentence fragment.",
    "The pp. 83–84 footnote gives a published retrospective account; its particulars should not be presented as independently corroborated by this transcription exercise.",
    "The p. 84 shipment sentence does not identify the merchant ship by name; its linkage with Beatrice requires other sources."
  ]
}