In anticipation to the entangled years to come, the governor at Moalla, Ankhtify, prepared the series of troops that he succeeded to control in the three southernmost Upper Egyptian nomes and advanced against the Theban king Intef II and his coalition with Koptos. The references to the arrangements and intentions of this local leader are a clear example of the situation in the country of the Two Lands, with several regional parties struggling to control the Egyptian throne. Interestingly, a few years before Ankhtify appeared in the sources as part of an “altruistic” mission expanding from Elephantine to Hierakompolis that aimed at counteracting the effects of a dramatic famine and, above all, contributed to distinguish him as an exceptional nomarch. Without such pretensions but keeping the same spirit of Ankhtify “the brave, he who made himself”, the members of the MKTP wait for the initiation of our works tomorrow Saturday. With the help of rais Alí Farouk el-Qeftawi and our incredible workers and friends, we will work for the next four weeks to develop our plans and continue making use of the information to understand the great Theban mountain.

Last night, we received the first six members of the project who joined the small group that was already in Luxor (Patricia, Raúl, Sergio, and Antonio). The group included a couple of members with experience at Deir el-Bahari (José Alba and Carmen Díaz), the new members Jaime Colás (UAH fellow), Laura Hernando (UAH fellow), Jesús Martínez (Margarita Salas postdoc fellow, URV), and Ana Jiménez, professional photographer that joins the team this year. Besides, this morning around 8 AM we also welcome from Great Britan and US three of our conservators, Ella Andrews, Reed Hudson and Olivia O’Dwyer. All of them will enjoy the visual experience of the Theban necropolis and a kind of job that we all love and wish to develop through our field duties.

Despite the heat and too little sleep, the team organized today at 10:30 AM the first work meeting to face with clear plans the first duties in the tombs of Djari and Dagi. The main goals in this season are the excavation, documentation, and conservation of the two façades of the tombs, including their texts and scenes. The originality of these compositions at the end of the XI Dynasty demonstrates the influence of the Theban pre-reunification style in later works. All these works will soon become the target of our researchers’ work and passion.