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Elaine's Squares  second View of Squares  Third View of the Squares
Elaine’s western square yesterday gave us a fired brick of Menkheperre, and there is also a fired brick in the small semi-circular structure, probably an oven, in the foreground of the trench. If the enclosure wall (the large mud brick wall we’re following in the right (west) side of this square and further to the west as well) is New Kingdom, ca. Dynasty Eighteen, how can we have a fired brick of the Dynasty Twenty-one at a lower level? It was common in all time periods for people to build their houses against temple enclosures, and here, as at a number of sites, such as Edfu, Medinet Habu, etc., a family cut into the earlier enclosure wall to use it as a wall of their house. In a period at least as late as the Twenty-first Dynasty the enclosure wall of the Eighteenth Dynasty was being adapted for people’s houses. Now, does the presence of the stamped brick suggest to us that we have a priest’s house? We don’t know the answer to that one.
Northwest Jamb of Thutmose III Gateeway
On the northeast jamb of the Thutmose III gateway, where Violaine and Elizabeth are working, we see a patchwork of sandstone pieces in place. This gateway was in use over many centuries, beginning in the 15th B.C., and at various periods it needed restoration. Some work was done in the early 19th Dynasty by Sety I, ca. 1290 B.C., who tried to replace the names of Amun-Re that had been destroyed by Akhenaten, ca. 1350 B.C. Here there is a replacement with no inscription on it that probably represents an attempt to fix an Atenist (Akhenaten’s henchmen) destruction. Below that, however, is a block with inscription that was a later restoration. The block at the bottom of the gateway is a reused door lintel that identifies Amun-Re king of the Gods beneath a mention of the god Behdety. The size and type of the inscription makes one wonder whether this block may not have been the original gateway lintel right here in the mid-18th Dynasty! We will look further.

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