In the beautiful early morning light Scott begins to write labels for his pottery baskets. The morning is cooler than it’s been with a light breeze. |
Maria and Ahmed are doing Arabic together this morning. He is teaching her phrases, and, as you can see, she’s getting a kick out of it. Okay, back to work Maria. |
This huge balloon nearly landed in our temple today but finally got a burst of wind that carried it up and over in the direction of Karnak Temple – where we assume it was originally headed. It caused quite a commotion, however. |
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In the temple proper Betsy and Jay are doing photo documentation of reused New Kingdom blocks. Here are two, both dating to the reign of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut, ca. 1479 B.C. Note in the upside down one, the beautiful profile of the king’s face and that of the goddess Mut as well. |
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In Fatma’s new trench mud brick walls are beginning to pop up everywhere. In the foreground on the right is a large burnt surface, perhaps representing the remains of an oven. To the left is a wall as yet unrelated to any cross feature. Today on the right side (north) of the square, beyond the burnt surface, an interesting configuration of brick has emerged, including four bricks laid lengthwise in a square, with a fifth placed as a header in the center of them. This could be a pillar or an unusual wall arrangement. We will see. |
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In Wendy’s square things are popping now. We have been getting New Kingdom pottery from this trench for several days, particularly in an ashy area next to the heavily burned wall. Now the area has begun to look like it belongs to an elite building, with massive mud brick walls. Stone door jambs appear to have been part of it, and a stone door socle, found out of context, apparently was also part of the building. Today, while cleaning the pottery lying on the exposed surface, the gufti found that one of the large jars has a stamped seal on its handle naming king Thutmose IV of the 18th Dynasty, ca. 1400-1390 B.C. We are very excited now, since this confirms the high status of this installation. Keep tuned in. |
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Elaine’s trench is fascinating too. Having found mud brick running east-west across the trench on the northern (lake) side and then a hardened packed bricky surface to its north, we decided to follow this wall to the west and the bricky patch to the north towards the lake. Here you see the exposure of this “wall” as it crosses her square and then continues westward. In the close up shot you see a portion of the packed earth surface with a possible plaster (whitish) atop it. It is slanting down the hill, and we are devising a number of possible explanations. We’ll start giving them to you soon. |