It had been planned that Dr Tony Waldron would come and complete the study of the human remains begun in 1998, but his illness regrettably prevented his coming to Egypt. The remaining bones to be studied were from Shafts H and I in the courtyard of the tomb. As these remains are certainly of the highest importance for the history of the tomb in the 18th dynasty, Helen and Nigel Strudwick sorted and photographed the bones as far as possible so as to provide some basic information on them. Dr Waldron is presently examining these photographs.
We have no specialist knowledge of bones, and we could draw no real conclusions other than possible minimum numbers based on identification of obvious body parts. In Shaft I, the burial place of Senneferi, we noted the remains of five individuals. One of these individuals was elaborately mummified (1 below), but we have no way of knowing whether this body was male or female. Of particular interest is the packing (possibly gypsum) placed between the body and the bandages (2 below), presumably in an attempt to restore the shape of the corpse.
We also examined the concentration of bones from the bottom of Shaft H, which may be an 18th dynasty context, as noted in the Ceramic report above. There we identified a minimum number of 12 individuals, including at least one child perhaps about 7-9 years old (3 above).
These bones have all been packed in boxes and left with the agreement of the SCA in the tomb so that they can be studied in another short season in 2002.
