One of this season's projects is to join together fragments of the wall plaster from the tomb of Horemkhawef, and re-attach them to the walls of the tomb. Horemkhawef was a high priest at Nekhen during the Second Intermediate Period (1650 -1550 BC). According to a stela he set up in the courtyard (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Horemkhawef was summoned by a king of the 13th Dynasty to Lisht to pick up a new cult image of Horus. This event was most definitely the highlight of this country priest's career.

His tomb is one of several grouped around a courtyard cut into a knoll to the southwest of the mudbrick structure of Khasekhemwy (ca. 2700 BC). Unfortunately, this poor tomb has suffered considerably recently at the hands of humans. Its current state is even more heart breaking when one realizes that 100 years ago it was completely intact. The tomb is very important as it is one of only three decorated tombs of this period to be found.

The fragments of wall plaster were collected when the tomb was cleared during the 1998 excavation season. Last year they were consolidated so that they would be stable enough to handle and join together. The photographs of the walls as they appeared in 1894 when Somers Clarke originally cleared the tomb show its condition at that time. We know from other archival photographs from the 1930's (courtesy of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) that plaster was already falling off the wall. Plaster that was already lost by that time would be unlikely to be among the fragments collected in 1998. From photographs taken during the 1985 season, and those taken last year, it was possible to see which areas had fallen down in recent years, and were most likely to be found. By studying these drawings we completed several groups of figures and sections of inscription that we could identify. We took these to the tomb to match them to the remaining decoration. The expeditions conservators will soon reattach many pieces in their original places. This work is being undertaken with funds provided by USAID conservation grant and administered by the Egyptian Antiquities Project of the American Research Center in Egypt.

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