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Group observing emerging threshold   Cleaning the doorway

Scott and Saad cleaning doorway   View of the square
Okay, if you look closely you’ll see smiles on these faces. Why? Well yesterday we found a layer of sand where we normally have the east-west brick wall, and I spoke with my colleague Chuck Van Siclen about it. He thought we might be getting a doorway set on sand. Well, behold, a threshold appeared this morning! Chuck is today’s genius. Scott and the gufti Saad cleaned the doorway and we have a true door socket in it as well. Since the doorway is to the west of the rear of the temple, it’s a secondary entrance into the precinct from the New Kingdom city of Thebes. Perhaps another like it will appear on the east end?
Bakery room with mixing jars   Bakery room with oven
In Fatma’s square the bakery rooms are quite evident now, and in the room with mixing jars and the next room with the ovens the pottery tells us that this was a bakery even earlier than the 18th Dynasty. Bread molds are now visible dating from the early 18th Dynasty and also the Second Intermediate Period. This is the type of bread made for temple offerings specifically, so the area was in use for a lengthy period for the same purpose. This is a truly significant finding for our work.
Working on a new square   Violaine drawing wall
The square that Wendy worked is completed for the moment, and we have opened a new one just to the east and slightly south. This is because there is a round mud brick feature in the first trench that we hope to recover in this new one – quite possibly a granary to accompany the bakeries. Violaine is drawing the wall in the older square, while Betsy watches the beginning of work in the newer one.
Feature near the lake   Feature near the lake
The remarkable feature near the lake is now more than sixty meters in length. It is partially a mud brick wall and partially extremely hard packed bricky surface with plaster throughout. We are still moving west with it, and a corner running north has not yet emerged, but in the central area behind the lake the feature has given us some further information. Mahmoud Abady (super-gufti) has unearthed mud brick wall that is clearly following the slope – that is, it is laid like a ramp on the rise. This tends to confirm out first inclination to call this a lake revetment feature, rather than another enclosure wall. But, of course, we’ll still excavating. This has just been a great month. The first half of the 18th Dynasty (ca. 1500-1400 B.C.) is just beautifully preserved here, and we are benefiting.
Jay says goodbye
This will be our final entry of the 2003 season, because Jay has to return home to teach Photography. Betsy will be out here until March 12, so just send an email, and we can update people on the progress. Goodbye Jay, and thanks for everything!
Elaine and her crew   Elaine and her crew
Both of Elaine’s groups of workers gather round for final photographs before her departure.
Scott and his workers   Scott and his workers
Scott oversaw two trenches this season and both groups did an outstanding job.
Yasmine and her crew
Even though Yasmine is not leaving until the end of February we did not want to exclude them from the seasons final group shot. Congratulations for a job well done.
Reiss Farouk, Betsy Bryan, Violaine Chauvet and Ahmed El-Araby
Reiss Farouk, Betsy Bryan, Violaine Chauvet and Ahmed El-Araby at the end of a very successful season. Not really the complete end because Fatma, Yasmine and Betsy will be working for a while longer.

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