The space where our newly found columns of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III have been cleared will soon be emptied as we winch up each large piece and move it to the nearby mastabas. Here we see the workers moving column drums found last year from the same “porch of drunkenness” up onto the bench-like mastabas. The move is in preparation for Keli and Will’s tracing of the inscriptions.

Will and Keli work together to discuss the best way to copy these carved stone texts. Will prompts Keli to consider both the actual line traces and the sculptors’ intentions, because an ink pen has a difficult time recording something carved into the stone without distorting the outline. The work of the epigrapher is to find the balance that best represents the intended outline.

Elsewhere in the temple today, Adam continues to excavate the mud brick across the north of the porch. His find of fascinating and unusual brick shapes has suggested areas used in the early construction of the stone temple, when mud bricks and mud-based mortar were common building materials, combined with stone fragments and pot sherds. Betsy, having returned to the site visits Adam to see his improved definition of the brick walls.

Lotfi and Betsy discuss the emerging museum display at the rear of the temple. Lotfi has been working to move the blocks he so beautifully conserved over the past year and a half. Many still have beautiful paint on the surface, and Lotfi’s team has cleaned and preserved them for all of us to see. We look forward to visitors to the temple who can see the remains of the earliest stone temple here, built by Hathshepsut and Thutmose III, ca. 1479-1425 B.C.