Past the halfway point of the season, things are getting interesting. Excavation in the Henenu courtyard is about to begin, while the Ipi courtyard is yielding unexpected surprises.

At Henenu’s tomb, David has continued with the cleaning and documentation of different parts of the tomb. Iria and Óscar have been taking reference points with the total station in the courtyard. In addition, Daniel has been checking the plans of the tomb and has drawn some of the main shafts.

The conservation team has also been working in the Henenu tomb. Reed, Ella, Lily and Jaume have been documenting and labelling stone fragments that have been found in various pits.

At Ipi’s tomb, Mohamed excavated the shaft that was found yesterday in the courtyard. Unfortunately, it was fairly shallow and had no associated materials. It is likely that someone started digging a shaft and abandoned it, perhaps because of the quality of the rock in that area.

The good news is that a subsidiary chamber that Winlock had noted has been found in the eastern area. It is likely that the chamber had been plundered earlier but, based on photographs from the 1920s, it seems that the American archaeologist did not completely excavate the chamber.

Bea has been recording a large amount of pottery that has appeared in the southern part of the courtyard, while Hazem has been sketching an offering table that appeared a few years ago.

At E1, work is slowing down due to the amount of sand and rock in the tomb, but is progressing safely.

In the afternoon, the team celebrated Mohamed’s birthday. In addition to the typical celebration at the Marsam (including singing, dancing and cake), the team went to Luxor to enjoy dinner together. These are the moments that really bring us together as a team and make MKTP our second family.