Second Week (written by Paolo Del Vesco):
The second week of excavation has been completed. We still have three weeks of work ahead, but already interesting results were reached. We extended the excavation area of about 100 square metres to the west of the two small Ramesside chapels found last year. The extension of the area also allowed us to remove another section of the old retaining wall that was built to prevent the sand from flowing back in the late 1980s after the excavation of the tomb of Maya. This revealed more of the thick mudbrick wall found last year immediately to the north of Maya’s external wall, and most likely pertaining to another New Kingdom tomb. We must also mention the careful stratigraphic investigation of the interesting Late Antique occupation levels, plastered installations and walls carried out by our Leiden University team member Miriam Müller (fig. 1), and the excavation and recording of new Late Period embalming deposits by Nico Staring.
Fig. 1. Investigation of Late Antique occupation levels
All archaeological documentation this year hugely benefits from the participation in the Dutch-Italian archaeological fieldwork of the 3D Survey Group (fig. 2). The group is an Italian interdisciplinary team of engineers, architects and archaeologists based in Milan, working and carrying out research on cultural heritage. In particular, the team is specialized in 3D survey techniques and modelling applied to cultural heritage and environment. Read more about their work in their own Digging Diary!
Fig. 2. Archaeological fieldwork of the 3D Survey Group