After more than 20 hours of travel, and three planes later (nearly missing the first plane in NYC, but never mind...), I find myself in Egypt. I have completed one week of work, and have had the opportunity to work with my old friends from the site. Above, I am standing with Mohammed, the mason for the site, in front of the ram that Tina, and I helped to conserve last year. On the surface, Mohammed and I do not have much in common. Mohammed does not speak English (although he likes the word, "awesome") and I really don't speak much Arabic, but we manage to communicate, because we do share at least one thing in common. That is, we both like to work with our hands to preserve material culture.
Pictured here is Jaap, the epigrapher trying to read the inscriptions on this beautiful lintel that Richard has described in previous postings. To his left is Khaled, my co-conservator on the site. Like Mohammed and I, Khaled also likes to work with his hands.
Here are two conservators for the Luxor Museum who are assisting Khaled and I as we do tests to clean the surface of the lintel. In the weeks to come, I look forward to sharing my experiences on the site.

Lisa Bruno