INTRODUCTION

The 2003 autumn season of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor in the tombs of Harwa (TT 37) and Akhimenru (TT 404) demonstrated the impossibility of continuing the excavations in the courtyard of the Tomb of Harwa without the re-opening of the vestibule. It was used as storeroom by the Metropolitan Museum Archaeological Mission working at Thebes in the Twenties of the last century and was found filled by monuments and findings made during their excavations in Malqata, Deir el-Bahri and the Assasif. Our presence in Spring and in Summer was mainly intended to move all the antiquities from the vestibule to prepare the ground to further excavations in the courtyard of the tomb. Other activities were carried on in the meanwhile. We cleared from the debris a large area at South-East of the tomb of Harwa in the aim of exposing the ramp leading to the portico entrance of the tomb. We continued and we complete the inventory of the small finds found during the excavations in the tomb of Harwa. We eventually moved them in the SCA magazine situated near the Carter House. We recuperated a piece of the decoration of the tomb of Harwa stored in the Sheikh Labib Magazine at Karnak. In March we also prepared the objects chosen for the exhibition “Cento anni di archeologia italiana in Egitto” that opened at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo on May 30^th, 2004.
In Spring we worked from 13^th to 24^th of March, in Summer from June 27^th to July 21^st.
Francesco Tiradritti (Director and Egyptologist) and Mustafa Mohammed Mohamed el-Sughair (Egyptologist) took part to the activities in March and in June-July. Federica Raverta (Egyptologist), Eva Butina (Archaeologist), Daša Pavlovic (Archaeologist), and Vesna Tratnik (Archaeologist) were also present on the excavations in June-July.