After the weekend, starting early was a bit difficult. Nevertheless, the four teams went to work with undiminished enthusiasm. In the evening Ashraf el-Senoussi lectured on pottery production and recording pottery.

Team 3 left at 5:00 this morning to make sure the trench was swept in preparation of photography at first light. Now the trenches are getting slightly deeper, photographs in bright sunlight will show heavy shadows that hide details that should be recorded. After trench 3, photographs were taken in trenches 2 and 1 in a mad race against the sunrise. We managed before the sun rose so high that a tent wall used for shading was no longer sufficient to block out a large enough patch of direct sun light.

In the evening Ashraf el-Senoussi gave the second part of his lecture on recording and drawing pottery. From this day on, a group of three people, from different trenches, are involved in pottery sorting and recording practice.

The trenches are getting deeper and each trench has now excavated a number of different deposits for which unit sheets have been completed. The next tool in recording the stratigraphical relations is the Harris Matrix. Lauren Bruning introduced the concept of the matrix with a large number of examples and practice matrices.

A site visit from the interim director of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), Irene Bierman, and the director of the Egyptian Antiquities Project (EAP), Robert Vincent, gave the team members of each trench the opportunity to present the latest results of their work. In the evening, matrix practice continued and the concept of phasing a trench was introduced.

The end of the week seemed to arrive too fast. In all trenches the work progressed well, although several supervisors expressed the wish for more time to do paperwork in the afternoons. So far, the program has been very full with lectures. Now the sand fills have been removed, the units are getting smaller and involve more intense recording.

During the trench tour we see that trench 1 has two large limestone millstones, which are not in their original position. One of them has been incorporated in an installation that involves a plastered basin and is connected to the basin with a pedestal of coarse plaster. The function of this set-up is not clear.	QuickTime panorama: 522 KB
Trench 2 shows a phase of beautification of an existing building: limestone ashlars were placed to line the original mud brick walls. These blocks have partly been robbed out, but were not removed from the area and in future can be placed back in their original position by an architectural conservator.	QuickTime panorama: 581 KB
In trench 3 the team came upon a layer of mudbrick tumble in an ongoing windblown sand matrix. A start was made to remove the tumble.	QuickTime panorama: 490 KB
Trench 4 excavators toiled hard to investigate the two southern quadrants. These were filled with pure wind-blown sand, without any features. To the disappointment of the team members, modern intrusions were found at very deep levels, which indicates that the area has been disturbed or did not fill up until recently. The benefit of using detailed unit sheets became very clear, since it forced the team to study the wall in all its detail and resulted in a captivating sequence of wall building, rebuilding, blocking and plastering.	QuickTime panorama: 589 KB