Last night the last three members of the 2021 campaign team arrived: Elsa, Didi and Nisha. Each of these women are great specialists in different disciplines, so their work is absolutely essential to improve the project.

Elsa Yvanez is a specialist in the textiles of Meroitic Sudan. She works at the Centre for Textile Research (CTR) at the University of Copenhagen and is co-founder of the research project “Textile Archaeology in Egypt and Sudan”. Elsa will be with us for the rest of the campaign to analyse, in particular, the textiles from the mummification deposit.

Didi, who participated in this summer’s study season, continues to take points around Deir el-Bahari to produce a digital elevation model to analyse the geomorphology of the landscape. This is also part of a collaborative project with Angus Graham of Uppsala University, which aims to identify Middle Kingdom structures below ground.

Nisha, from Harvard University, has also joined the team and has quickly started working on E1. Together with Sergio, they have established fixed points in the tomb for photogrammetry. In addition, wooden panels have been added to the tomb to prevent sand and stones from falling into the excavated chamber.

At the tomb of Henenu, David has continued with the cleaning of the corridor and Iria has recorded new materials that have appeared. Inma scanned some of the most significant reliefs to create 3D models.

Inma also went to Ipi, where she scanned the heart of the vizier. We hope to be able to create a 3D model of the organ that will allow both researchers and the general public to easily approach this finding.

At Ipi’s tomb, the courtyard has been cleared for Mohamed to carry out the relevant photogrammetry. Meanwhile, Bea and Óscar have sifted and recorded many botanical remains from the entrance of the subsidiary chamber.

The conservation team is continuing to work with the special finds from each tomb: they have mainly consolidated and cleaned inscribed reliefs from Henenu and cartonnage from Ipi, as well as his sarcophagus.

Archaeologically it may have been a quieter day, but it is only the calm before the storm. In a few days the excavation of the courtyard of Henenu and the subsidiary chamber of Ipi will begin. E1 continues at a slow but steady pace and we hope to be able to finish the campaign with a fairly clear idea of the complicated architecture of the tomb’s entrance.