Today Ipi was once again in the spotlight. What seemed to be simple botanical remains at the threshold of the side chamber turned out to be a floral offering with the remains of palms, flowers and even a garland.

Mohamed and Bea have been carefully excavating the entrance all day. They have been taking samples of plant remains and fragments of charcoal that are being uncovered in order to analyze them, which will hopefully help to establish a date for the whole complex. It is a complicated and delicate excavation due to the fragility of the flowers and plants. Our aim is to try to extract all the flowers intact. For this reason, Ella, Lily and Jaume have been consolidating the most significant features as the excavation progresses. In addition, at the end of the day a seal impression appeared on a piece of clay attached to one of the bouquets of flowers.

Due to the amount of small plant fragments that have broken off at the entrance, Lily and Ella have put aside their work as conservators for a while to start sifting through all the sand that has been removed from the area.

Jaume has had to go to E1 because Carmen and Raúl have found a mummy’s torso. This is the first great discovery that this tomb has provided us with and it couldn’t come at a better time, as our forensic doctors are arriving this very night.

At Henenu everything is being prepared for the excavation of the courtyard, which will begin next week. The tomb has been cleaned and documented beforehand, the materials from inside the tomb have been recorded, and the conservation team has worked on the stone fragments found in the tomb, most of which come from the shafts.

Antonio, Mohamed and Bea spent the afternoon analysing the inscription on the seal impression found at Ipi. Thanks to the photographs that Patri has taken, they have been able to better discern some of the inscribed hieroglyphs. Tomorrow, we hope to finish the excavation of the entrance of this chamber, and hopefully it will continue to give us more joy.