468 days after our last farewell to Deir el-Bahari, we are back again opening the tombs of a familiar landscape that is at the same time so different. For the first time after 6 archaeological seasons focused on the north and eastern areas of the Theban hill, in the tombs of Ipi (TT 315), Henenu (TT 313) and E1 (MMA 521), in this 7th season all our efforts will be concentrated in the Asasif area.

Our goals this season are the funerary complexes of the vizier Dagi (TT 103) and the director of prisons Djari (TT 366). Both Middle Kingdom monuments still preserve painted decoration on their walls of extraordinary quality, even though the passing of time has caused some damage to them. Thus, an international team of restorers, the biggest we’ve had in the MKTP up until now, will assess the current state of the paintings to decide which is the better strategy to follow in order to preserve as much as possible these treasures of the ancient Egyptian art. 

Our day today was a day of settling in in the field to get it ready for the next three weeks of work at full esteem. A day of reunion with our local experts in Luxor who over the years have become part of the MKTP family, lead by our esteemed rais Ali Farouk, and who we haven’t seen for more than a year. We visited the tombs to ases the current state of preservation, we built the tents which will give us a bit of shadow under the strong Egyptian sun, electricity has been installed, and we discussed in situ how to better proceed with all the plans that we’ve been building the past months in the university offices.

Mid morning our GIS expert, Kate Rose, joined the team already in the field, our moudir Antonio Morales, subdirectories Raúl Sánchez and Sergio Alarcón, and the photographer Patricia Mora. Tonight most of the members of the team of this summer season will arrive from Madrid and Barcelona, all keen to start working next Saturday. No doubt we start a new stage of tasks, research and adventure…