Introduction and thanks

The Permanent Committee of the Supreme Council for Antiquities granted permission in October 1999 for the University of Cambridge Theban Mission to continue work in Theban Private Tomb 99, that of Sennefer or Senneferi.

I should like to thank Prof. Gaballa Aly Gaballa, Principal Secretary of the SCA and all members of the Committee for agreeing to the request for permission to work in Thebes. In particular I am grateful to Dr Mohamed el-Saghir, Director of Pharaonic Monuments and the staff in Abbassiya for enabling this permission to be carried out. In Luxor, I am indebted to Mr Sabri Abdel Aziz, General Director of Upper Egypt and Luxor and Mr Mohamed el-Bialey, General Director of the West Bank, for their assistance. The inspector attached to the Mission during the season was Mr Abdulrahman Ahmed Hassan, without whom the season would not have been so successful, and we are very grateful to him for all his help and advice. 1

Financial backing was generously provided by a variety of sources: the Townley Group of the British Museum Friends, Mr R Hardy, Wim Hance, and Robin Young. The support and good wishes of many others are acknowledged. We are very grateful to the Egypt Exploration Society for the use of the facilities of their Cairo office, and to their representative, Miss Rawya Ismail, for her help and support. We are grateful to Hanwell Instruments Ltd for allowing us to test a new model of data logger in the field.

The Mission worked in Luxor from 1 December 1999 to 2 January 2000. Members of the mission were: Dr Nigel Strudwick (Field Director), Mrs Helen Strudwick (Assistant Director), Miss Julie Dawson (Conservator), Miss Bridget Leach (Conservator), Dr John Taylor (Coffins specialist), Dr Pamela Rose (Ceramics specialist), Dr Gillian Pyke (Ceramics specialist), and Dr Alan Clapham (Archaeobotanist)

Clearance work having been completed at the end of the previous year, the purpose of this season was to undertake systematic study of the finds and to continue with the conservation of some of them. A visit to the SCA magazine was also planned, as was visiting a number of other tombs for comparative purposes.

A more popular `Dig Diary' will be found at http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/tt99/index.html