Today some fronts have started to close on the site, while others are just opening up. The work in Ipi’s complex may be nearing its end, but at E1 things are just getting interesting.

At the tomb of Henenu, work continues in the upper courtyard. Today three complete squares have been excavated, reaching down to the bedrock. Several significant cartonnages have been found. David, Iria and Carmen are beginning to better understand the structure of this part of the courtyard.

Mohamed has finished excavating the shaft of the subsidiary chamber. Although Winlock had already excavated it, the documentation he produced on it is quite scarce. First of all, the profile he drew is totally different from the one we have found, and secondly, the large amount of mud bricks we have found leads us to think that the shaft may have been divided into two compartments.

Bea has been inside the tomb, taking samples of the botanical remains obtained from the entrance of this chamber. Next year we will request radiocarbon analysis for all these samples, which will help us to better date the complex.

Elsa has been working with some very special textiles that we found in the embalming cachette. This year we found very similar textiles in the courtyard, which Elsa found interesting. Meanwhile, Enrique and Manuel have been working with the mummified head of a person, inside which there was a plug of textile and resin.

Today a very important event took place in E1: we said goodbye to Marisa. The big rock that occupied a very important part of the chamber and slowed down the excavation has disappeared forever. Antar, together with several other workers, had to use a drill to turn Marisa into small fragments that could be easily thrown outside the tomb.

The conservation team has been working in the morning, as usual, in all the complexes. At Ipi’s tomb they are organising the box of special find  s, sorting them according to their state of conservation. After breakfast they went to Dagi where they are still working on a restoration plan for the wall paintings.

Today we also stayed at the site until four o’clock in the afternoon. If it were a normal day, the team would probably have taken a well-deserved rest. However, we are at the end of the season and the work is just piling up: writing reports, drawing up plans, maps, lists…. It is very likely that we will get very little rest for the rest of the week, but we can always do that when we return home.