Just as a reminder, this photo and the next show the area west of the main roadway just as work was starting. This photograph was taken from atop the Mut Temple’s 1st Pylon and looks northwest.

The same area looking southwest from the enclosure wall east of the Precinct entrance. In both photos you can see that we had just completed the first of several mastabas.

This photo and the one that follows were taken at the very end of the season and show the kind of progress that can be made in just a few weeks when expeditions are able to co-operate to achieve common goals. Again, you are looking north from Mut’s 1st Pylon.

The whole area is now much more organized and easy to get around than it was at the beginning of the season. Here is what was accomplished in the last week of work.

The Taharqa ram going onto its new base (left) and in its final position. Now this important sculpture has an appropriate setting and can be seen clearly by visitors.

This long mastaba runs along the south side of the main group of mastabas and has been built to hold blocks from temple walls that cannot be put back in place but demonstrate the scale of work undertaken by the ancient Egyptians with minimal technology. Temperatures at the site neared 100° F for most of the last week, making the work even more difficult. Keeping hydrated is important as Mahmoud and his team know. The final blocks were put in place after we left Luxor.

Three Sakhmet statues found between the ram-sphinxes that stand before the west wing of Mut’s 1st Pylon now rest on new bases.

Building the final mastaba, at the west end of the 1st pylon, was still underway when we left the site. When complete and dry, it will hold several fragmentary Sakhmet statues and the beautiful and well-preserved head one of the ram-sphinxes that line this wing of the pylon. It was found by SCA excavators some years ago; unfortunately the sculpture from which it came is too badly deteriorated to allow the head to be put back in its original position.

We also finished the restoration of the west wing of the gate in the Mut Temple’s 2nd Pylon. This started as a small project to put two inscribed blocks back in their original position, but the rest of the blocks of this part of the gate were in such poor condition that we ended up consolidating and restoring the whole north end of the structure.

Excavation and restoration are only part of the Expedition’s work. We are also preparing to publish the Ptolemaic religious texts on the gateway in the Mut Temple’s 1st Pylon. To do so, we need good photographs of the inscriptions and reliefs. Sometimes the Egyptian sun provides perfect lighting, as on the reliefs in the background. Other reliefs, though, need reflected light to bring them out. On one of the last days at the site, Jaap and Mary used a large mirror to try to get just the right light on the inscriptions on the north face of the pylon’s west wing.

The area just outside the site has become a dumping ground for all sorts of trash. One of our last tasks this season was to arrange to have this trash removed early one morning.

This grove of palm trees is just above the southeast corner of the sacred lake, and is where the pottery is sorted and photographed. It is the only shady area in the whole 22-acre site.

And finally, one last bird shot: a flock of stilts wheeling over Mut’s Sacred Lake. It is hard to leave a place that has such beauty.

Jaap’s wife, Egyptologist Julia Harvey, arrived on February 15, completing this season’s small team. Julia has agreed to take on the pottery, with which she has considerable experience. She already has the first batches sorted and organized.

We finished work on the paving west of the Taharqa Gate early in the week and Mary got up on a ladder to photograph the results. As expected, some of the newly-exposed stone was badly decayed, but enough survives to show the course of the roadway.

Abdel Aziz’s square north of the Ramesses III temple is no longer boring. After about 1.2 m of clean earth, we began to encounter mud brick. By the end of the week, aside from a few shallow pits with stone, mud brick covered almost the whole square and we had found a line of baked brick along the west side. We are fairly certain that what we have now are the foundations either of the temple’s north enclosure wall or perhaps its pylon. Ramesses’ temple stood within its own mud-brick enclosure (remember, it was outside the precinct until the 4^th century BC), of which only the west and south walls survive. The eastern wall seems to have been completely eaten away by centuries of flooding.

With the Taharqa Gate finished, we opened a new square north of Abdel Aziz to continue our search for sphinx bases. Ayman has encountered the same thick layer of wind-blown earth over broken stone. By the end of the week he was about 90 cm below the modern surface. At least some of the stone in this square seems to be larger and in better condition than in Abdel Aziz’s square.

Several years ago we rebuilt the west wing of the Mut Temple’s mud brick 2^nd Pylon to a height of about 3 m to give visitors some idea of its appearance. Of the pylon’s sandstone gateway very little is left, as you can see. We have determined, however, that the two remaining inscribed blocks actually join, the lower one fitting to the left of the upper, although both are somewhat out of position now. We decided this season to put these two blocks back in place and started work on Tuesday.

Once the two blocks were removed we had to clean up the accumulated dirt, plant remains and deteriorated stone behind them (left). By the end of work Wednesday the debris had been removed, a new support for the blocks was well underway, the new construction conforming to the shape of the remaining ancient blocks. The 2 main pieces of the larger block are ready to be re-joined (right), with stainless steel rods ensuring that the join is secure.

Once the mastaba we built last week was dry, we began moving decorated blocks onto it. Some were relatively easy: large, but able to be moved by a few men using a wooden stretcher and stout straps. Hassan supervises the careful placement of such a block.

The beautifully carved block in the center of this picture was another matter entirely. Not only is it huge, but its lower surface has been both cut away and worn by time, making it difficult to balance. While it could be moved to the edge of the mastaba with a combination of siba (tripod and winch) and levers, it was too heavy for the siba to raise it to the top of the mastaba.

On Thursday morning Mahmoud Farouk, foreman of the work at Karnak (center) and an expert at moving large blocks, used a hydraulic jack, levers and baulks of wood to raise the block gradually to the level of the mastaba.

Once the block was on the mastaba, the siba came back into use to support the block so the wood could be removed and the block gradually tipped into position. This took all morning.

By noon the block was in its final position it’s shallowest end supported by a block of sandstone. Hassan, Mahmoud and the crew are justly proud of the work!

We have also built a second mastaba to hold the several inscribed and decorated ceiling blocks from Chapel D, like this one,  that cannot be put back in place as not enough is left of the chapel (visible in the background). This will not only protect them from water infiltration but will also improve the appearance of the approach to the chapel and the Taharqa Gate.

In the meantime, I have found time to start work in the Montuemhat Crypt, comparing Charles Edwin Wilbour’s corrections to Mariette’s copy of the texts  with what is still on the walls. A small mirror is essential to direct light on shadowed areas of the wall. From what I have seen so far, many of Wilbour’s corrections are accurate.

Adding graffiti to temples is an ancient tradition that seems to be continuing today. The new paving in the gateway of the Mut Temple’s 1^st pylon is only a few months old and already it has acquired its first graffito. The figure has a cobra on its forehead and what looks like a crudely carved beak (Horus?). It wears an elaborate crown with sun disk and a very fancy robe with checkered shoulder straps and diagonal lines on the sleeves. Pity the artist wasn’t more talented.

Jaap took this terrific photograph of two small lizards locked in combat.

And Julia contributed this photograph of a crow diving after a kite. Life is never dull at Mut!

In February 2012 the American Research Center in Egypt, with funding from USAID and in co-operation with the Ministry of State for Antiquities, began a project to prepare the Mut Precinct to open to visitors. They are not excavating but rather attempting to control the rampant growth of grasses and reeds at the site and making cosmetic improvements that will make the precinct more accessible to visitors. Under the direction of John Shearman, ARCE’s Associate Director in Luxor, there has been considerable progress.

As always, the view from the plane on the trip from Cairo to Luxor was spectacular. This year we flew down the west side of the Nile, over rugged and desolate mountains.

First, I’d like to introduce you to the Egyptian colleagues with whom we’ll be working this season. Our MSA inspector this year is Hassan El-Tawab. He and I took a tour of the site on Thursday. Once again, our foreman is Farouk Sharid Mohamed, a friend and colleague of more than 30 years.

Farouk’s two sons Ayman (left) and Abdel Aziz will be the Quftis working with us in 2013. They, too, have many years of experience excavating at Mut and other sites and are a delight to work with.

Expeditions at the Mut Precinct have always worked together whenever possible. When the ARCE team asked if we could excavate part of the mound of earth east of the gate in the Mut Temple’s first court (left) so that they could remove a number of large, undecorated blocks from the court, we were glad to oblige. We are hoping to find more of the paving that links the first court to the chapel on the rise of ground to the east.

One of the things we want to do this year (a small project) is clear the remaining earth in the square west of the Taharqa Gate where we uncovered paving in 2010. First, though, we need to remove the loose earth along the west baulk to prevent an unwary walker from falling.

Now to the changes the ARCE has made. To make it easier to get into the site and and into the Mut Temple they have been laying new paving along the precinct’s main axis. What remains of the ancient paving of the approach to the Mut Temple was badly deteriorated so it was carefully covered with protective material and the new paving laid on a bed of clean sand. Where the paving is in better condition, new blocks are laid around the ancient stones. The new signs for the temple are Egyptian alabaster etched with the images and temple name.

On the left is the road between the precinct entrance and the Mut Temple as it was in January 2011; on the right, the same area today. Quite a difference.

The first court (left) and second court have been leveled and laid with fine gravel so people can get to the Sakhmet statues. The new paving continues through the second court to the entrance to the rear part of the temple (foreground).

One of the project’s biggest challenges has been to control the growth of reeds around Mut’s Sacred Lake without the use of herbicides. In 2008-2009 the lake was drained so that the Johns Hopkins University expedition, directed by Dr. Betsy Bryan, could excavate along its shores. Once the lake was allowed to refill, the reeds grew back almost as thickly as ever; the photo on the left was taken in January 2011. The method ARCE has used seems to be working (right) without making the Isheru inhospitable to the many types of birds who feed there. In the background on the right is the pathway the ARCE team has built around the lake to allow visitors to enjoy its beauty.

To make it easier to get to the pathway on the east side of the Mut Temple (still under construction), the ARCE team has built shallow stairs leading south from the junction of Mut’s First Pylon (right) and Temple A (left). We appreciate the stairs, too, as we are doing some work in this area. All in all, navigating the site’s monuments is much less of a challenge than it was before.

Because of potential unrest, no foreign missions were allowed to work in the field on Saturday, January 29, so we weren’t able to get back to the paving until Sunday. By late morning Abdel Aziz and Mamdouh had taken down the southern half of the small baulk between their 2 areas and had reached the paving across much of the area.

And here is the square at noon on Sunday. Although a few blocks are somewhat decayed, the paving is generally in pretty good condition.  We had to cut steps into the baulk between the two sections of the square to allow the workers – and Mary – to get into and out of a square that is over 2 meters deep.

To get even lighting on the paving on a windy day, at noon, when shadows are narrow, took a complicated arrangement of sheets, galabiyas and scarves. Our workmen, as always, showed great good humor and willingness to cooperate with our odd requests.

It was much easier to take this south-looking photo of the paving early on Monday morning, when the sides of the square itself provided sufficient shadow. The angle of the Dynasty 25 paving to the later Ptolemaic wall is very evident, as is a narrow drainage channel cut diagonally across the paving, a feature not found in the areas closer to the gate.

As we suspected, the displaced block projecting from the west baulk of the square and forming the bottom of the large pit is, indeed, a displaced paving stone. Its original position was probably the now-empty space under the right end of the meter stick.

In this January 27 photograph taken from the enclosure wall, the continuity between the eastern section of the boundary wall of the approach to the Taharqa Gate (left) and the part excavated this season (right) is clear. In the foreground are the remains of the late Ptolemaic/Roman Period houses.

Although our excavations this year were intentionally limited, we did find some interesting pottery and objects. Here are the shallow, black-glazed Hellenistic bowl with impressed decoration and the slightly larger stone bowl mentioned in the posting of our first week’s work. The bowl appears to be serpentine, not diorite as we had first thought.

From the unexpected pottery cache found during our 2^nd week came this rather elegant, highly burnished juglet with blue decoration; and a Ptolemaic colander (right). Like modern colanders it even had 2 horizontal handles (one shown here) by which you could hold it while shaking the water out of your lettuce.

Mary’s favorite piece of pottery is this carinated bowl, found at the bottom of the large pit in the square west of the Taharqa Gate. While its shape is simple and the pottery fairly coarse, the potter took the time to press a subtle pattern of radiating lines into the underside, making it rather special.

We only found 2 faience objects this season. The small amulet of a falcon-headed god (left) came from the southern excavation area. The musician was found in the square west of the Taharqa Gate. When complete, the harp would most likely have rested on an oversized phallus; such erotic figures, in faience or stone, were quite common in ancient Egypt.

Last year’s “mystery” object was the item on the left. We had no idea what it was, or even which way it stood. This year we were at least able to answer the second question: it is the rear end of a hollow terracotta animal (possibly a dog). We still don’t know its purpose.

Once the paving was fully exposed and photographed on January 31, we were able to spend our last few days at the site on other matters. I had a chance once again to examine the so-called “Montuemhat crypt”: a small chapel within the Mut Temple built by and dedicated to Montuemhat. Such chapels are extremely rare. Auguste Mariette, one of the founding fathers of Egyptology, published drawings of the chapel’s texts and scenes in 1875.

The copy of Mariette’s book in the Wilbour Library was annotated and corrected by Charles Edwin Wilbour when he visited the site in the late 1880s. Here is Mariette’s drawing (with Wilbour’s notations) of one of the most interesting scenes: the relief on the rear wall that may show an inventory of ritual objects and sculptures within the temple.  (In Mariette’s book the reliefs are reversed; they are shown here in their correct orientation) I am particularly interested in comparing what Mariette and Wilbour saw with what is preserved today.

Although these scenes are very poorly preserved and difficult to light, we were able to get usable photographs of them that will assist in their study.

Not a bad end for a study season.

With the work done, Mary and I headed home on February 4 by way of Doha and Paris – a somewhat roundabout but interesting itinerary. Our last Flickr posting to “Mut 2011: Sights at the Site and Beyond” includes a few photos taken on that trip.

On January 15 we finished removing the baulk stub over the remains of the southern boundary wall of the Taharqa Gate approach. In this view to the northeast, you can now see that we have a single, wide wall that has been successively cut back. All that remains now is to map this new section of the wall.

The last of the pottery spill found in the angle of the walls at the south end of the excavation area. The sherds to the right of the meter stick sit in a corner formed by the north face of the Tuthmoside enclosure wall and the new wall found last week. With the pottery removed, we decided to explore slightly further south to see if the mud brick continues further south.

It doesn’t. Just south of our baulk line Abdel Aziz found that the mud brick gives way to loose soil containing a lot of pottery, including the broken round jars just in front of him.

One of the pieces of pottery was this storage container that projected from below the mud brick – or seemed to (left). Further cleaning revealed that the jar actually sits in front of the wall, which was built on top of the Tuthmoside enclosure wall. The jar is set in a square void in the enclosure wall, its south and west edges visible in the photo to the right. Once we’ve mapped the area we will remove the storage jar, the last part of the work here.

Having now answered two of the questions we set out to resolve in this short season, I decided on the 16^th to open a new square west of the Taharqa Gate to try to answer a third question: does the pavement running west from the Taharqa Gate continue the curve to the south that is apparent in the area excavated in 2010? Since our time is limited, the most sensible area for this square was an area we had last worked in 1978, seen here today looking east.

The same square is in the background in the photo taken from the enclosure wall at the end of the 1978 season. It is part of a group of late Ptolemaic and early Roman Period habitations we had found built north and west of the Taharqa Gate. The area we are re-opening is an open courtyard with a 3-step stairway in its southwest corner. We also want to find out this year if the wall along the south side of the court is a continuation of the south boundary wall of the approach to the Taharqa Gate.

On the left are the steps as they were in 1978, with a border of mud brick along the east side; on the right as they are today. In clearing them again we uncovered the mud brick border along the stairs’ west side, which had been buried under the 1978 baulk. By re-excavating the stairway and its associated surface we should be able to link the surface of the courtyard (and hence the houses to its north) to any structures or features uncovered this season.

In this view east, taken late Thursday morning, you can see that the courtyard’s wall runs the full length of the square with the stairway at its west end (foreground). The section across the wall (middle) revealed its south face, with another building abutting it directly. While the area of the stairs was being worked on, we temporarily divided the excavation area to make it easier for everyone to get around. In the deepest part reached so far (background), we have come on a surface with a heavy concentration of mostly small pot sherds. We’re curious to see how far this level extends.

Jaap van Dijk, of the State University of Groningen, was able to join us again, briefly, this season. It’s always good to have him back. Not only is he fun, but he’s a terrific object registrar. Here he is cleaning a rather nice juglet Abdel Aziz found among the pots atop the Tuthmoside wall.  On the table in front of him is what we have dubbed the mystery object.

This strange, hollow object came from the loose surface in the courtyard square. We have no idea what it is. We are assuming that the side with the double ring base (left) is the bottom as the object sits most securely on it. The small hole in the top (right) is intentional. What is left of the rim of the “top” and the shape of the painted band suggests the upper section may have been somewhat oval in shape.

The object is made up of 2 separate elements that were joined together before firing. Inside, the areas around the center point of both the top (shown here) and bottom have been carefully finished. As you can see in the profile (right), the rim or collar where the two sections join is almost as thick as each section. It might be a lamp, based on the possibly ovoid shape of the upper part that might have accommodated a spout, but the hole in the top is too small to be used to fill a lamp. Or perhaps it’s an incense burner, with the small hole being where the scented smoke escapes. The only problem is, there doesn’t seem to be any burning on the inside of the thing. It really is a mystery.

If anyone out there has ever seen anything like it, we’d love to hear from you!

We will be back in the field in mid-January 2011 for a short season devoted mainly to studying material excavated in earlier years, completing documentation needed to publish our work at Mut, and preparing for the imminent opening of the site to the public. We also hope to clear up at least a few of the questions that arose during the 2010 excavations.  Once again we plan to do a weekly dig diary; the first installment should be posted about January 14. Happy new year to all.

In this last dig diary for 2010 I want to acknowledge the hard work, skill and patience of some of the most important members of our team: the Egyptian technicians without whom the work would not be possible. This year we were fortunate to have Abdel Aziz Farouk Sharid, Mahmoud Abbadi, our invaluable foreman Farouk Sharid Mohamed, Ayman Farouk Sharid and Abdullah Moussa, all of whom have worked with us for many years. Excavation ended on Monday, and here is some of what was accomplished this season.

Through dogged determination and skill, Mahmoud finally found the southeast corner of the Tuthmoside enclosure wall. Centuries of erosion have created the illusion that the wall slopes down fairly steeply to the east. At the north end of the east face we found a surface of packed earth and stone chips. As mentioned last week, the Tuthmoside wall may have been cut through at this point in the Ptolemaic Period to allow access from Chapel D to the sacred lake.

When the season started, we suspected there was a corridor west of the Taharqa Gate wall. Here it is, seen from the south (left) and north.

From the enclosure wall the relationship between Chapel D and the Taharqa Gate is very clear. The chapel was built against the gate’s north wall (right), uncovered by Ayman. From this vantage point you can also see the west end of the Mut Temple’s 1st Pylon, with its late extension (rear left), the Taharqa Gate and its south wall (right) and the sacred lake in the background.

The paving of the approach to the Taharqa Gate, seen from the southwest at the end of the season. The wall forming the south side of the approach (right foreground) is preserved to a greater height here than further east, where Ayman was working.

The wall just mentioned is still in place on the right in this photograph, but we have excavated the eastern section down to the level of the 25th Dynasty paving. A surface slopes up to the left (east); this was probably an early walking surface associated with the paving. Over it lies the thick build-up of stone-filled earth with the line of baked brick on top. This stony debris may be have been intentionally dumped to create an even surface for later buildings.

The north-south portion of the odd baked brick feature whose northwest corner we found under the baulk last week runs the full length of area where we have been working. In the process of excavating this portion we confirmed that all of the mud brick structures above it (upper left) were built on layers of earth and ash that at one point ran across the whole area.

At its south end the baked brick line is somewhat broken, as you can see here in this view to the south, but it continues almost to the baked brick building that sits on top of the remains of the Tuthmoside enclosure wall. Despite having found the walls’ full extent, we still don’t know what they were for. Only a few courses remain, but they are solid and so the feature is not a drain or water conduit.

Where Abdullah has been working we now have the west face of the wall that runs from the south limit of our excavations to the Taharqa Gate boundary wall. We have found more brick running west from this long wall, some of which is visible in this shot. We are obviously dealing with a large building or complex, but still do not have enough information to be able to say what the building is, although the pottery suggests it was built in the Roman Period. Archaeology can be frustrating.

The restoration of Horwedja’s healing magic chapel continued through the end of the week. On Tuesday morning, the east wall of the chapel (left) still lacked its last block and the finishing coating for the modern stone, tinted to match the ancient stone, had yet to be applied. On the right is the completed wall on Thursday morning.

Cleaning the ancient cement and dirt from the underside of the lintel produced a surprise: the original emplacements for the chapel’s double doors and the line against which the doors closed. It is unusual for such a small chapel to have 2 doors.

On Thursday morning Mary took advantage of the early light to photograph the chapel’s facade, which is only clearly lit until about 8 am at this time of year. Despite its diminutive size (currently the smallest chapel standing at Karnak), the chapel is an important monument of its period.

The front of the chapel with its walls complete and the lintel in place. We thank Khaled Mohamed Wassel, Mohamed Gharib and their team for their hard work on this project.

We didn’t forget the sphinx from whose base the lintel came. We filled the gap with new stone that Mohamed Gharib is tinting to match the rest of the base’s blocks. On the right the finished product.

Once the excavating was finished we had time to try to answer a few questions about other parts of the site. One was the name of the king whose badly eroded torso and cartouche are on a re-used block at the south end of the west wing of the Mut Temple’s 1st Pylon. I was fairly certain it was a Tuthmosis, but we had never been able to get a legible picture of the cartouche: the block is awkwardly placed for photography and only gets direct light in the afternoon. Balancing rather precariously on the steep slope of the pylon, Jaap and Mary were able to use a mirror to cast a raking light that finally made the remains visible and I was finally able to get a picture. The cartouche clearly shows an ibis on a standard (right), which means “Djehuty”, the first element in the name Tuthmosis (Djehuty-mes).

Strong winds on Friday wreaked havoc on our workspace, knocking down both shelters. We put them back up Saturday, but the weather remained windy, threatening to bring them down on our heads. Blue cord and a couple of strategically placed stones solved the problem, and the tents survived to the end of the season.

The last few weeks of digging produced a couple of interesting objects. On the left is a stamped amphora handle, probably from an amphora produced in Rhodes. Since goods were shipped all over the Mediterranean world in such amphorae, they are very useful for dating the contexts in which they are found. On the right is a fragment of a fine glazed pottery bowl decorated with a figure that is probably Nemesis, with her raised paw on the wheel of fate (of which only the top is preserved), which she controls. Nemesis is a deity important to archaeologists.

A general view of the excavation area on Thursday around noon. What you can’t see is how hot it is: 100°F on the site every day this week, which unusual for February. The heat is hard on everyone, but the work has to go on.

Drawing pots. Dr. Ben Harer has once again spent a week with us drawing pots with his usual skill and good humor; he leaves Saturday and we are sorry to see him go. On Thursday he was joined in the drawing area by Dr. Julia Harvey, an Egyptologist who worked at Saqqara for several years – and is also Jaap’s wife. This is her first season at Mut and she will spend most of her time on pottery. Welcome Julia!

Our on-site headquarters. It is simple but provides all we need: shade, work space for drawing pots, treating objects, writing notes and discussing the work, and a clear view of the excavation area.

With the work north of the Taharqa Gate finished, we have begun excavating the wall forming the southern boundary of the gate’s approach. It and the wall forming the west side of the corridor south of the gate are a unit and post-date the Taharqa Gate, the boundary wall being built over the remains of an earlier mud brick building (foreground). By Thursday Ayman and his team had taken down the first few courses of the wall, in the process revealing that the unusual line of baked brick to the south is only 2 courses deep and is built on debris.

The boundary wall continues west into Abdel Aziz’s square, where its bricks are clearly visible in the background. Against this wall this week we have come down on a surface littered with pottery vessels, some nearly complete or broken. A selection is shown at the right. By the way, the line of brick and stone found last week turned out not to connect to anything and was removed.

As you can see in this view to the southwest, the confusion of brick in the next square south is finally beginning to resolve itself into a series of individual walls. A single, substantial wall runs the length of the west baulk.

In the Tuthmoside Period the Mut Precinct was much smaller than it is now. The baked brick building in the upper left corner of this photograph sits on the remains of its northern enclosure wall. This week we were able to trace the south face of the Tuthmoside wall further to the east, as you can see here. It is very eroded but the line of brick is quite visible in the foreground. The south end of the corridor, by the way, has been cut by a fall of baked brick (seen last week) and a pit full of Roman Period pottery to its south.

The restoration of the healing chapel is continuing apace. On Monday we installed the block forming the 3rd course of the chapel’s rear wall. This block was particularly tricky as its upper edge is very fragile. We only have two blocks (one broken) of the left wall, so need to cut new stone for most of this wall.

Watching skilled stone cutters turn large, rough pieces of sandstone into dressed blocks is fascinating. They use heavy picks to split the large block into two smaller pieces of roughly the right size (left), then make the initial cuts of the smaller block with an electric stone saw (right). This is one of the few times we’ve seen them use a tool more complicated than pick, hammer and chisel.

The fine detail work is all done by hand either with a heavy, toothed pick (left) or by hammer and chisel (right).

When it is carved to everyone’s satisfaction the new block is winched into place on the chapel wall, great care being taken not to damage the ancient rock below it (left). On the right, the chapel as of noon Thursday. We hope to finish getting the walls up next week.

A squacco heron flying across the lake in the early morning haze.

A view south from the precinct’s north enclosure wall of the whole area where we are now working. At the left are Chapel D and the Taharqa Gate; in the center the paving of the approach to the gate; and in the upper right the two squares we have opened on the high ground west of the gate.

Before I get to the work, I want to welcome back William and Elsie Peck, who arrived this week. Bill has been with the Mut Expedition longer than anyone except me, while Elsie joined us in 1979, which was also Mary’s first year. Bill’s first job this season is to map the new paving west of the Taharqa Gate. Elsie once again has taken on keeping the digging records, beginning with what Mahmoud Abbadi is doing in the corridor south of the Taharqa Gate.

The corridor at the end of the week, looking south (left) and north. The limestone chip layer at the north end now extends almost the full length of the corridor and is mixed with pieces of sandstone and pottery. What we had thought might be two brick walls on the west side of the corridor (on the right in the left picture) turned out to be a single wall whose northern end had been robbed out. Behind the meter stick in the left picture is a more organized grouping of stone fragments that seems to be an intentional blocking of the corridor at the south end of this wall.

Mary photographing the corridor in the early morning. Photographing from the top of a ladder is not her favorite activity, but sometimes it is necessary. I thank Jaap for this picture.

We expanded the square north of the Taharqa Gate and now have the full width of the gate wall from the first room of Chapel D (left) to the wall’s west face.

On the east side of the expanded enclosure wall square we found this curious baked brick feature set into the east side of the wall. Of the south and north walls only a few bricks remain, so we will never know what it was. Its presence, though, suggests there may have been a corridor (or at least a space) between the rear rooms of Chapel D and the Taharqa Gate wall.

The square on the high ground west of the gate, where Abdel Aziz found a mud brick wall last week, has produced no architectural remains since then, which doesn’t surprise us. The area is part of the same mass of debris we found last season, filling the space between the north and south boundary walls of the approach to the Taharqa Gate to a depth of almost 3 meters. We hope that the debris isn’t that deep in this square, which abuts an area of Ptolemaic and early Roman Period habitations.

On Saturday we opened a new square just south of Abdel Aziz to try to find more of the mud brick buildings discovered last year. You can see some of them in the upper right corner of this photograph. Abdullah struck mud brick almost immediately, only about 10 cm below the modern surface.

The same area at the end of work on Thursday, looking east. We already have at least 2 phases of brick walls (foreground), an area of confused brick in the southeast corner (under the meter stick) and in the northeast corner a patch that so far is just loose earth. Have I mentioned that mud brick is complicated?

Our most interesting find of the week was this mould for a figure of Osiris. Even though the figure is only about 2 inches tall, it is very finely carved with a great deal of detail. The only problem is that it did not turn up in the areas we are excavating: I found it on the ground behind a gate in the Mut Temple’s first pylon one day this week while checking inscriptions.

In 2007, local artists created a mosaic-decorated wall along the road to Karnak in front of a rundown cemetery for foreigners who died in Luxor; here it is in progress. During last year the city government decided to move the residents to a new cemetery and create a lovely public park on the grounds (right).

Among the park’s most charming features are groups of whimsical sculptures, my favorite being this cluster of mushrooms.