The heat and the mosquitos give us no rest in Egypt but the excavation must go on.

Carmen and Iria finished the organization of the bone, ceramics and the organic material boxes and started to classify some objects from previous seasons of the Middle Kingdom Theban Project in order to continue checking the inventory of Henenu’s tomb.

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In the tomb of Ipi the excavation of the courtyard is progressing with the removal of a huge rock located in the middle. This rock has required more than eight workers’ efforts to be rolled because of its size and weight. Mohamed and Bea continued locating different points of the courtyard with the total station; they opened a new trench with contained mainly ceramics. Bea drew shabtis from the first and second seasons of the MKTP. At the end of the morning she has registered other new finds from the new and old trenches including alabaster fragments, wooden pieces, textile, charcoal and one fragment of funerary cone

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Reed visited the sarcophagus of Ipi together with Bettina and the moudir. Then she continued cleaning cartonnage fragments and mixed an appropriate adhesive to stabilize and consolidate the more fragile pieces. With the help of the restoration inspector, Fathi, several fragments were reassembled into their original shape. At noon, she was introduced to the inscribed stone fragments from Henenu’s tomb which she is excited to work with.

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Patri was working today with the stoppers and recording the main advances of the MKTP in the archaeological and egyptological field.

In the afternoon, Carmen has been updating the database for Henenu’s tomb; Bettina and the moudir had a meeting on the ceramics of the tomb of Ipi.

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Fridays are free days for the members and workers of the MKTP, so we spent these days planning cultural visits and the work for the following days as well as continuing with the office tasks.

In the morning, Reed, Carmen, Bea, Mohamed and Iria have visited the funerary temple of Medinet Habu, built under Ramesses III, and enjoy its history, its magnificent carved scenes and monumental architecture. After such inspiring visit, the team has taken some refreshments and get ready for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, in the Marsam, Patricia was editing the pictures and videos of the excavation and Bettina labelled the photos of the ceramics found in the embalming cachette in Ipi’s tomb.

In the afternoon, the moudir started the presentation of the 2021-2022 new edition of the FSE (Formación Superior en Egiptología), FSE I, FSE II and the Masters degree offered by the University of Alcalá. Bea has been updating the MKTP website and working in her PhD. Mohamed,  Carmen, Reed and Iria went to Luxor to buy some stuff for the team.

In sum, we hope having saved energy for another intense week!

This first week we are working under a scorching sun. Even though it’s November, the temperature it’s over 30ºC. At least the tea that Najar prepares for us helps us to cope with the rays of Aton.

Carmen and Iria have continued with the inventory tasks in Henenu’s tomb by renewing the organization criteria for the boxes containing different types of objects and registering some of them in the archaeological folder.

Mohamed and Bea started the day by taking measurements of the main points of the courtyard with the total station. Beatriz continued with the artifacts register and started the drawings of the more significant objects such as shabtis. Bettina also continued the completion of the previous drawings of the pottery jars from Ipi’s tomb and she is focusing on their manufacture.

Besides, Reed started by looking at the cartonnage from the special finds box from Ipi’s tomb. She cleaned some of them and discussed future repairs for the cartonnage and the alabaster elements with the inspector of restoration. Reed also took pictures of every object before treatment to begin the conservation records.

In the evening, some members of the French team excavating in Karnak under the direction of Dr Luc Gabolde and the Austrian-German team working at a Coptic monastery in Deir el-Bahît, led by Dr Ina Eichner, visited us at the Marsam. We were able to enjoy a nice dinner and sangria made by our mudir. During the evening, we were able to share experiences and anecdotes of our work. At the end, we invited both teams to our concession in Deir el-Bahari and they have also offered us to visit their sites. Insha’Allah we will be able to visit them soon.

Today, new members have joined the team. These incorporations have allowed to start several tasks in Henenu and Ipi’s tombs.

Carmen and Iria checked the boxes and their contents as well as the last season inventory. They have started to reorganize the artifacts inventory according to type and material (ceramics, bones, textile, special objects such as shabtis, papyrus, cartonnage, etc.) so that later the various experts coming to conduct research on particular types of objects can easily access the inventory and its items.

Early in the morning Mohamed started directing the excavation of the mid-section in the courtyard of Ipi’s tomb. In this sector, considerable findings such as ceramics, bones, textile, wooden and shabti fragments together with faience beads have appeared. The material provenance is disturbed because of previous archaeological works conducted in this area by Egyptologist Herbert Winlock in the 1920s and 30s. Also in the complex of Ipi, Bea has been organizing and registering the new findings and checking the special finds from the previous season.

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As one of the newest members of the restoration team, Reed has examined the sarcophagus of Ipi and has discussed cleaning tasks based on the reports made by Rawda with the head of the project and the inspector of conservation. She has also started to organize the special finds box, focusing on alabaster fragments which may be part of a single figurine because most of them match perfectly.

Meantime, Bettina has started his work in the MKTP by studying the drawings ––previously made by Kei and Hazem– of ceramic elements so that she can continue their previous work and conduct a complete research on this impressive assemblage of pottery. It is not usual to work with such a well-preserved and large sized jar set as the one found in Ipi’s tomb. For this, Bettina identifies several indicators that appear in these ceramic jars that can provide significant information about their production, materials, origins, and contents.

Work is gradually taking shape and we cannot wait to share it with you in the next days.

Fieldwork in Egypt does not only involve the development of ambitious and well-calculated plans, the engagement of team members on very particular duties, and the expectation that hard work will pay back with data, findings and, ultimately, primary evidence that allows us to deepen our knowledge into the concession and period. It also requires passion, sacrifice, and a determined will to conduct work despite any typical or uncommon difficulty one may find. Archaeology is a scientific and a team adventure, and we experience it with the most intense dedication.

Four members of the team arrived last night. Sayed, the most attentive driver of Marsam Hotel, took Antonio to the airport to pick up the first member of the night, Reed Hudson, who was arriving around 10 pm. Together they went back to the Marsam where a second driver was ready to go to the airport and pick up the other three members of the team, Bea, Carmen and Iria. Unfortunately, customs police decided that entering the country with walkie-talkies is not the best idea and we had to spend the whole night until 8 am in the airport responding questions and dealing with paperwork. They treated us very well and tried to explain the situation about the use of technological devices, so we can only say that it is better to obtain them in the country. Maalesh! We will pick them up when returning to Spain…

However, that meant some changes in the plans for Tuesday. One of our restorers, Reed, who spent the night in the hotel, went to work with our photographer Patricia, our ceramicist Hazem, and our inspector Mahmoud, who allowed Antonio to finish all paperwork at the airport before coming (late) to the site. By 9:30 am the whole team was back, Antonio with the members in the site and our three travelers going to sleep after a long night. It can be said that we went through the experience with positive attitude and a good mood toward the strict customs regulations and the responsible officials that must guard them.  

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As for the work in the site, we have continued with the removal of large stones in the mid-courtyard of Ipi’s tomb. A large boulder, which must have fallen some time ago from the upper cliffs of the mountain, is in the way of the new units that Mohamed Osman will be opening tomorrow Wednesday, and we need to consider the best way to get rid of it. In addition, Hazem and Antonio continued completing artefact sheets. Reed started a first approach to evaluate Ipi’s sarcophagus conditions, while Patricia tried to finish with the photographs of jar stoppers.

It was a long day after so many adventures, but a good rest will help all of us to be back in track.

After 593 days away from Egypt and a difficult year and a half living an unprecedented health crisis worldwide, the day to go back to Luxor and resume our work in the necropolis of Deir-el Bahari and Asasif has finally arrived.

The first four days we dedicated our time to open the tombs of Henenu (TT313) and Ipi (TT315) as well as tomb E1, located in the eastern side of the Theban hill and whose owner is unknown (by now). The main goal of these days previous to start the actual archaeological work has been start setting up tents and electricity in the tombs, to fulfill all the necessary preparations so the work could start smoothly for the thirty specialist coming this season to work with us.

With a small group of team members, consisting on the director of the project Antonio Morales, the ceramologist Hazem Shared and the photographer Patricia Mora, and with the help of rais Omar Farouk and Bessam, Nagaar and Antar, three local workers that have already been with us several seasons, we started to set the stage for the following seven weeks of archaeological and restoration works in the tombs of the high officials of the Middle Kingdom, Ipi, Henenu, Dagi and the owner of E1.

Antonio and Hazem proceeded to check the inventory of the special finds discovered in the previous seasons in the courtyard of Ipi’s tomb. Patri has resumed photographing the objects of the embalming cachette of Amenemhat I’s vizier, and kept going with the pictures of the stoppers belonging to the embalming jars. Meantime, eight more locals joined Bessam and Antar to start cleaning the debris located down the hill in Ipi’s courtyard.

Today, November 1, we officially start our VI season. In the next days thirty specialists will arrive and join the team to produce some of the most advanced research that these hills have ever witnessed, and we will introduce them to you together with the work they are going to carry out in these weeks.

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With the help of those specialists, two raises –Ali and Omar Farouk–, a hundred locals, and under the supervision of three inspectors of the Ministry of Antiquities, we hope to be able to finish all our goals for this season and develop the subsequent research in the rest of the year. We will continue excavating in the courtyards of the officials Ipi (TT315) and Henenu (TT313), and will try to complete the excavation of the corridor in tomb E1 and reach the cultic chapel of this tomb. These works will allow us to find new structures and subsidiary chambers to unravel the secrets of the Theban necropolis during the Middle Kingdom. In addition, a group of highly qualified restorers will work on the preservation and restoration of the mural paintings of the tomb of Dagi (TT103) and the inscriptions of Ipi’s sarcophagus, GIS work and landscape archaeology will also be developed by some of our specialists, we will resume the analysis of the contents of the embalming cachette of Ipi for its final publication, and we will build a 1:1 scale of the embalming deposit for an exhibition…

Let’s dig again…!