Monday, March 14, 2011

"Lost" Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions found?

THAT "LOST" INSCRIPTION from Kuntillet Ajrud may not be lost any longer. Hershel Shanks discusses the Kuntillet Ajrud finds in the article "Another unexpected surprise from the Egyptian revolution" in the Jerusalem Post. It seems that they were among the Sinai artifacts turned over by the Israelis to the Egyptian Government in the 1979 peace agreement. Hershel reports:
Then on March 3, the Egyptian press reported that 30 truckloads of antiquities had been moved for safekeeping from the Qantara storage facilities to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Included were “Sinai artifacts that were retrieved from Israel following the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.”

So we now know where they are. Whether they will ever be exhibited in Egypt is another question. (Wouldn’t it be nice if they were lent for exhibition to an Israeli museum?) And what steps, if any, are being taken to conserve these fragile, faint and delicate drawings and inscriptions?
It is an inference that the Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions are among these 30 truckloads of antiquities, but a reasonable one. I hope that they turn up and prove to be undamaged. And that they really are published this year.