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Monday, January 26, 2009


Early morning work begins in the new square H extension, and Drew makes notes in the book to start the day.

Work on the new square H extension.
Drew makes notes .

Square west quay 2.

Over at the west quay, the work in the trench has come to an end. The water has recaptured the square, but we reached the bottom of the dock and were ready to move on. Square west quay 2 has begun to be worked by Qufti Emad, and Chuck will oversee the work as before. Violaine and I laid out this square in early January with the view that eventually we would reach it. Our hope is to find any semblance of an embankment running away from the quay. On the east of the temple, the south side of the lake produced only baked brick and the plastered sloping surface to indicate the lake edge. Here we wonder whether there was any stone feature.

View from the west quay.

A forklift moves the quarried blocks

Back in the first court of the temple a forklift brings the large quarried blocks from outside the temple into the area for further work. Laurent applied a model of a column drum to the side, cut from plastic foam, and he then traces it onto the stone.

The forklift moving the blocks.
Tracing the form onto the stone.

Kent working on the columns.
Close view of damaged area.

Kent is also working on the columns today, mending a fragment of inscription that broke away when Franck lifted the column. Carefully Kent replaces tiny pieces and soon the whole will be back in place.

Kent makes the repair.

View of trench G.

The team from G has completed work and cannot go further due to the water level, (note in the shot of the brick feature the water in the attempted well) so they have been sent over to work at the west quay. Chuck sets them to work clearing the north side of the quay from east to west. Richard Fazzini worked along this area some years ago, but our intention is solely to get a general plan of the stone feature as we consider any embankment attached to it. The sandstone is highly endangered here and in poor condition. We will need to recover it as soon as possible to preserve it.

Uncovering the stone feature.
General view of the area surrounding the west quay.

In the second court, the first concrete pad to hold the columns is nearing completion. First rebar was used to strengthen it, then concrete was poured, and finally the smoothing has begun on the top.

At work in the second court.
View of the concrete pad.
The pad completed.

The face of the goddess or queen.

Here are two of the reused blocks from square I that were part of the embankment. The first two are from the same block that broke when it was moved. However, Kent has now cleaned up most of the surfaces, and the face of the goddess or queen is far more visible now. It still looks probable that this is a late 25th or early 26th dynasty block, and the chisel marks behind the female figure are intriguing. The original source for these blocks is uncertain. The name of the god on the second block is not given, but there must have been a royal name, because we have the text: “…beloved of (Amun-Re presumably)… Ipet-Sut (Karnak), given life, stability, dominion, like Re (sic).

Inscribed block.
Inscribed block.

 

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