EXCAVATIONS TO THE NORTH OF THE COURTYARD

In the second part of the season (December – January) we continued the removal of the heaps of debris accumulated along the northern edge of the courtyard. This was intended to lighten the heavy burden of sand weighing on the remains of the ceiling of the northern portico, to reduce the danger of collapse. During this operation we removed a large number of layers, mainly composed of sand and chips of limestone from ancient and modern digging carried out in the surrounding areas, but recovered no artefacts, with the exception of a wooden hammer showing evident traces of use.

Further deepening the excavations, we recovered the left hand of a large dimensions statue – two or three times life-size – holding an ankh-sign. The stone seems to be basalt and the sculpture can be tentatively dated to the New Kingdom. Twenty centimetres deeper and at some distance south of the hand we discovered a portion of the mud-brick ramp leading to the temple of Mentuhotep II (Fig. 6).

The South side of the ramp was cut by the Harwa’s workmen to make room for the courtyard and on the East side, where it crossed the mud-brick girdle wall of the tomb of Petamenophis. Along the North side of the ramp, a limestone ostracon was discovered with a column of hieratic signs that can be dated to the Middle Kingdom – and considered contemporary to the ramp itself –on the basis of the paleography.

Top of the page