Today we have initiated the excavation of a new square in the eastern sector of the mid-courtyard of Ipi. In this area, Winlock had already discovered a chamber of which he offered not so much information, except that he included the chamber in one of his plans. We would like to know more about this structure and will be looking for it in the next days. The relationship between burials, subsidiary structures and shafts in this eastern side of the complex is interesting and for sure the excavations of the MKTP will offer more information to reassess the importance of this mortuary monument for Egyptology. Not in vain, in this area one can find the mummification deposit for the visir Ipi, the tomb of Meseh, the papyri of Heqanakhte… and a series of subsidiary structures that we hope to understand and explain more in detail.
Besides, we have had much progress in the study of our materials from Ipi and Henenu. Hazem and Kei have continued with the study of the Middle Kingdom collection found last year, and Sofía have joined the team to continue with the study of materials proceedings from the tomb of Henenu. After four seasons, the responsibles for the organization, catalogue, and study of the materials from these two tombs (Raúl and Jónatan, mainly) feel overwhelmed by the quantity of materials to be catalogued and studied, so it is important to keep a good pace of work with the storage to obtain all the available information.
Finally, today we have had the visit of the TV producers Windfalls, a company that came to film with one of its stars, Tony Robinson, a well-known TV presenter specialized on documentaries about ancient history and archaeology. We have been filming with him in the tombs of our concession, and he has put much interest on the monumentality and impact of the tomb of Ipi. Let´s hope that the documentary is a complete success and we can offer more distribution, information, and interesting stories about the Middle Kingdom Theban tombs. They are still a treasure to be discovered and understood.
