We arrived in the village of El Kurru on Friday, slept without blankets due to an oversight, and started excavation the next day in our 3 areas: pyramid, temple, and city wall. We have hired about 40 local men to help us, and that number will increase in the weeks to come.

Our first find came in the temple. Last year, we excavated an inner room of the temple that was surrounded by 26 columns. This year we are excavating the outer room of the temple first so that if it contains graffiti or relief carvings, we’ll be able to record them using a sophisticated photographic technique called RTI (more on that later). On our second day of digging, we found a row of graffiti including animals and the seated person shown here, who seems to be holding a staff or ritual rattle (although either would be unusual for a seated figure). A good omen for finds to come, perhaps.