Our early trip to the site is always surprising us with some new feature of the landscape, a monument whose structures can be better seen in the early morning, or the preparation by the Egyptians to receive the hundreds of tourists approaching the archaeological sites in the following hours. Today we got a good view of the arrangements for a balloon trip near the Ramesseum.
In TT 313 the excavation of the northwestern corner of the courtyard was continued under the supervisision of Kelly. Meantime, in the northeastern unit of the excavation the work came to an end. The unit was cleaned and prepared for the final 3D-survey, which will be conducted by Ernesto and Flavio, two specialists from the University of Alcala coming next Friday. Sergio took pictures of some decorated relief fragments in the photo studio set up at the burial chamber of Henenu. At the same time, Ana was in charge of cleaning the corridor and one of the chambers inside the tomb in order to find more relief fragments and other kinds of materials scattered therein. Jónatan has concentrated on the recording and documentation of the incoming findings as usual, while Hazem has continued the drawing of special pieces, especially some fragments with interesting iconography. One of the special finds today was the pinkie of a mummy whose nail was still preserved in perfect condition.
Meanwhile, in TT 315, Mohamed continued the excavation of the northwestern unit. There new interesting features were discovered during the morning. They need further documentation so we can better understand what happened in that area sometime ago. The wall of a neighbour complex relates to the one in our tomb, but the structures engaged in the combined wall are not clear. On the other hand, the material coming from this trench has decreased in number, which could indicate that we finally arrived at a layer of soil which is undisturbed and untouched by Winlock’s excavation in the 1920s. Two of the best collaborators in the site are Kazem, our inspector, and Abd el-Ghany. They are always discussing the archaeological issues of that moment or making jokes about any anecdote around. In the other side of the complex, Sebastian was responsible for the cleaning of the upper hall, descent and corridor of the tomb of Meseh. This tomb also requires much analysis and interpretation since its date could vary from the time of Ipi´s complex to the later 12th Dynasty. Here some findings like bone, wood and textiles became less frequent and mostly mingled with modern and more recent materials, like plastic garbage. In any case, our wondergul colleague Abd el-Hady is always attentive to the materials coming out. His experience and knowledge makes him a great excavator.
Inside the tomb, Raúl and Antonio reorganized the materials from the previous two seasons. This meant reopening the old boxes and sorting the material into the new reed baskets that were purchased last week.
Our conservation inspector, Ali, decided to help with some materials and treated some cartonnage fragments today. Some of them seem to belong to the head or shoulder of a mummy mask or a coffin. One of the pieces, which is decorated and painted, shows an inscription with the name of the god Wepwawt, who got a strong connection with the funerary realm according to the ancient Egyptian religious thought.
