As Mary, our photographer pointed out in the last posting, the cleaning of the lintel is complete, or more precisely, we have taken it to a uniform level, given the time and materials we have on hand. Conservators, as well as photographers, working on archaeological digs often work under very difficult conditions. As you can see in this photo above, the team is getting in some weight lifting, while trying to position the lintel so that there is the raking light needed for Mary to photograph the shallow, carved design.
We have been cleaning the lintel in the conservaton laboratory at the Luxor Museum, where there is running water, electricity, and chairs. We have had the good fortune this week to go to the museum in the afternoons, avoiding the hot sun. With those basic services, we could take the cleaning to a certain level, and stabilize the very fragile paint and gilded surfaces. At the site, we do not have running water, or electricity and little shade, and since I'm having technical difficulties with the photographs, I'll talk about conservation on site in the next posting.