Early morning. The crews at Heather’s and Fatma’s trenches mill around, carrying and throwing up dirt that hangs in the air and gives Jay another amazing photograph. Sorry we’ve been gone so long, but we’ll catch up on the work now. |
|
On the northwest side of the enclosure Elizabeth’s crew has been clearing the top of the wall that leads south from the Thutmoside gateway. The carefully cleaned wall is visible here, distinct from the otherwises uneven terrain. At the lower part of the photograph is the dock for the west side of the temple, with the mirror like surface of the lake showing. The wall has not yet been identified south of the dock, despite careful work by Elizabeth’s gufti Mamdua. We now find what may be a corner that turns westward. We’ll continue to investigate. |
|
Lo and behold! Katie’s area has broadened back into Wendy Brody’s square from last year, and clearance of the baulk between three active areas has revealed that the diagonal wall from last year actually curves around as it joins the larger east-west enclosure wall of the New Kingdom. The brick here is extremely well preserved, and a pile of 18th Dynasty pottery, similar to the many caches of “garbage” we found last year marks the spots quite prominently. |
Fatma, making drawings of her numerous walls, gives us a great smile! |
Gosh Pete, is this really how new doctors spend their vacation time? We really respect your taking the time to help us out, and we only have a couple more bags that need to be moved. OK? |
|
Heather and Katie doing levels together. Gee, Katie, you look so professional at this. Can it be that you did this sometime before? (Like maybe the entire season last year?) |
|
Maria being very helpful in bringing gufas (chicken baskets) to the site supervisors for their pottery. Adam, who continues to win the pottery contest every day, is busy marking things for his workers. |
Kate and Kathy working on brushing bricks in order to prepare for drawing. Kate stands, brush in hand, apparently contemplating the task. |
Katie is marking her bricks due to their extremely ephemeral visibility. Mahmoud Abady gives her instruction in how to recognize and outline them. No one could be a better teacher than he! |
|
In the Mut Temple, Scott is directing, together with Ahmed, the movement of huge blocks fallen on the platform. Here you see Scott and Jackie preparing for the work by numbering the stones; the careful and slow movement of a block from the platform to the courtyard, and Scott in almost guardian stance watching the procedure. |
|
Elaine’s square at the rear of the precinct has a number of wall, including one that appears to be faced with stone. The series of brick areas continues to elude us for interpretation. Any thoughts out there? |
In the newly tiled and plastered Beit Canada courtyard, pottery sorting continues as usual. We hope that we can make this a pleasant environment for all the devoted workers we have. |