Footnote 3 – Egypt’s Chief Archaeologist Defends His Rights (and Wrongs)

I am advised by Joseph Aviram, president of the Israel Exploration Society, which is publishing the final report of the excavation, that the volume is nearing completion. Shmuel Ahituv and Esther Eshel, who were recently assigned to publish the inscriptions, have completed their work, and the volume awaits only the final contribution of excavator Ze’ev Meshel. The volume should be in print, according to Aviram, in 2011. But, still, that is 35 years after the excavation, an embarrassment to Israeli archaeology.