SHAFT YN

During Summer 2004 the process of removing the debris from the south-western part of the subterranean corridor that surrounds the tomb of Harwa was begun. This led to the discovery of the opening of a shaft (YN) to the left of the room that connects the corridor to the shrine of Osiris.
At the beginning of the winter season the removal of the debris was continued, and once the south-western part of the corridor had been completely cleared, excavation of the shaft YN was begun.
The fill of the shaft proved to be different from that of the shafts we had excavated in the past which had been found to have been visited by tomb robbers. These were invariably found to have been filled with fragments of limestone of various size, whereas the sand and soil in YN was composed very largely of stone. Also worthy of note was the near complete absence of any pottery. During the excavation of the shaft we recovered a clay shabty that, on the basis of typology, can be dated between the end of the New Kingdom and the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period, though the column of hieroglyphs painted on the front of the shabty would suggest a much later dating. Among the debris, at a depth of little less than 3 m, the dried corpses of a cat and a jackal were recovered.
At the bottom of the shaft, a chamber (YN.A2) opens to the north. It is almost square in plan with sides around two metres long. It was filled with debris to half a metre from the ceiling. On top of the debris the dried corpse of a big feline was found.
Against the rear wall of the chamber there was a substantial accumulation of pottery. Among the shards, again on the surface of the debris, a skull of another animal, probably of a dog, was lying.

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