Having just submitted a paper about our new discovery of tomb 26 in cemetery SAC5, Sai Island, for Sokar (focusing on the pyramidion of the deputy of Kush Hornakht), I got to review the entire documentation of the excavation of the shaft in March 2015.
As a reminder: the rectangular shaft (2.6 x 1.8 m) of tomb 26 is a bit more than 5.2 m deep – it has several interesting features and revealed some significant finds. I would like to share some of them in the following photographic time line:
March 3: The outline of the shaft is discovered, hurray!
March 4: First foot holes appear on the lateral sides! Current depth: 1.7 m!
March 5: Down at 2 m! Work gets more difficult!
March 5: A schist slab appears along the southern side.
March 5: Martin Fera documents the situation with the fully exposed schist slab with SFM – down at 2.5 m.
March 5: Getting ready to get the slab out…
March 5: Done – mabrouk to all!
March 5, afternoon: Uuuups… really a challenge to measure this deep shaft…
March 7: Work continues, worked stone blocks appear!
March 7: Space is limited down at the shaft, but the foot holes are perfect for climbing up and down.
March 7: Standing safely in the foot holes, I could shoot photos in both directions.
March 8: The entrance of the burial chamber appears on the northern side!
March 8: Together with other worked stone, sitting on complete pottery vessels, the pyramidion of Hornakht is discovered and cleaned!
March 9: The situation below the pyramidion – lots of nice pots!
March 10: Shaft base reached, entrance of burial chamber cleared!
March 10: Martin using the ancient foot holes during the final SFM documentation.
March 11: Shaft backfilled again – secure to wait for the 2016 season!