The timbers that closed the recovered end of the boat had been removed in antiquity when it was abandoned, but much about its original shape could be deduced.
Very often such statues were enclosed in rectangular shrines or wall niches whose only opening was at the front, making it natural for the statue to display frontality.
Geigl herself believes that with cooperation between bench and field researchers preserving fossils properly could open up avenues of discovery that have long been assumed closed.
Decades of working over coal fires in tight, closed spaces with little fresh air (to ensure his dishes would not get cold) had fatally damaged his lungs.
It was on Nov 4, 1923, the British archaeologist Howard Carter stumbled on a stone at the base of the tomb of another pharaoh in Luxor that eventually led to a sealed doorway.