CLEARING OF THE DEBRIS AT SOUTH-EAST OF THE MAIN ENTRANCE

During the 2000 season we started excavations in front of the main entrance of the Tomb of Harwa. They brought to the discovery of part of the ramp leading to the portico. To completely uncover it we felt necessary to enlarge excavations also to the mound of debris that hypothetically is covering the easternmost part of the ramp. The complete exposure of the ramp and of the entrance portico will permit us to re-open the outside door of the vestibule. That access will eventually enable us to enter the courtyard and to continue excavations in it.
We started the removal of the mound of debris in March. It was mainly formed by a large layer of limestone fragments of different dimensions deriving from ancient works of digging, connected with the realisation of the Tomb of Harwa or of a later tomb. In June, at the beginning of the reprisal of our works, we divided into squares the area under excavations to have a better record the position of the findings made during the clearing of the debris.
In March, in correspondence of the western edge of the mound (Square B4), we had the surprise to find some limestone ostraca, a fragment of a papyrus and the pieces of a large jar with two hieratic texts: one painted in black ink - and mostly faded away - and another painted in red ink (Fig. 3).
We found other parts of the same jar during the reprise of the excavations in June, scattered in a surface of ten meters (Square A2-B3) eastward of the finding spot of the other fragments. Both groups of shards are bearing the hieratic text in red ink but they are not joining together. It is sustainable that they come from the same vessel on the basis of the identical palaeography and of characteristics similarity showed by the different shards. Same fabric and internal coating (a sort of asphalt) are detectable in each shard. Those similarities also permitted the identification of some un-inscribed fragments of the jar.

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