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Early morning light
The incredible light of early morning hits the village behind Lisa, Betsy, and Violaine as they approach the Mut Temple. As always, we are aware of how lucky we are to be in Luxor.
Heather taking notes
Recording in her notebook by the square, Heather is making a sketch of a feature that has just been cleaned.
Max and Ahmed
Max and Ahmed stand on the enclosure wall of the precinct as they discuss where permanent control points for surveying can be placed. The kind colleagues at the Franco-Egyptian Center at Karnak have provided us their documentation of control points placed decades ago, and Max will now try to refind these as well as put in new ones.
Elizabeth with figurine  Peter and Elizabeth
Elizabeth proudly displays to Peter a female figurine that was found in Adam’s area. She is working on a dissertation about these figurines, with a focus on their significance in temple environments. The Mut Temple JHU expedition has already provided her a nice corpus with great diversity – and on this day we gave her three new ones! And, as usual, Peter responded to Elizabeth with a comment that made her roar with laughter. Who needs Comedy Central?
Heather's square  Inscribed block
In Heather’s square, VIII G Central 4, an inscribed sandstone block was revealed today. It appears to have the form of a door jamb, and we have been able to read the fragmentary inscription on it. It appears to be of Third Intermediate Period date, or thereabouts, and says “[Songstress ?] of Amen-Re king of the gods, Hatshepsut, vindicated.” This is not the well known queen with that name, but rather a lady who lived much later. At this time there is no way to know whether the block originated in this vicinity. The upper part of the block may have named her son or husband.
Mut Temple platform
Scott and Kathy are on the front of the Mut Temple platform, where an extension was built, ca. 700 B.C. We will be dismantling this section both to conserve the deteriorating blocks and to record the reused earlier scenes and texts found on them. Scott has begun a plan of the first room we will be working in, placing every stone precisely on it before we begin to move them.
Placing permanent control points  Placing permanent control points
Max has begun to place his permanent control points on the enclosure wall. He and Ahmed guided the digging of holes into which pipe was placed, surrounded by fired brick. Cement was then poured to make the point permanent, and the pipe itself was covered later with dirt. The known coordinates of these points will enable future surveying to refind the controls.
Inspecting new work
Chuck Van Siclen arrives at Elaine’s area with Betsy to see the new work.
Panoramic view of Elaine's area

Mud brick feature in trench
At the rear of the precinct Elaine’s area is shown here in a panorama. In the center, on a rise, a square, supervised by Kate, was put in. Imagine our surprise when the entire trench, 3 by 5 meters is already taken up by a single mud brick feature. This is not a little house! It could be a gateway or even another enclosure wall. Elaine will have to open another square nearby to know any more than this.
Showing walls in VIII G East 5
Fatma shows Chuck her group of walls in VIII G East 5, next to the areas where she had bakeries last year.
Heather seated in niche
At Beit Canada, Heather sits in the niche on the front porch and waits for flowers to be offered to the Buddha.
At the Flamboyant Restaurant  At the Flamboyant Restaurant
Tonight we had a special gala dinner at the Flamboyant Restaurant (remember last year?) in honor of a visit by our JHU colleague Richard Jasnow and his wife Tina DiCerbo who works at the Chicago House in Luxor. Our waiter made the “flaming spectacle” at our table from the fillet steaks we ordered, and everyone clapped with delight as the staff removed the covers to our delicious meal. A great time.

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