IV. Acknowledgements

IV. Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Dr. Hamdan Taha for his support of the project and to INSTAP for the financial assistance. We would like to pay tribute to the enthusiasm and the hard work of all the participants in this project including the people of the Gaza Strip, who worked under sometimes extremely difficult conditions. Sincere thanks are also due to Professor Manfred Bietak (SCIEM2000), who strongly supported the project and who undertook the publication of this preliminary report in Egypt and the Levant. Thanks are also due to Professor Max Bichler and his assistants for the prompt implementation of the neutron activation analysis of the Tell el-cAjjul pumice. We would also like to thank Professor em. Paul Åström for his encouragement and his valuable comments on the Cypriote material. We are also indebted to Dagmar Melman, MA (SCIEM2000), for her kind assistance, and to Dr. Irmgard Hein (SCIEM2000), Dr. Teodozja I. Rzeuska and Mag. Anne Seiler for their comments on the Egyptian pottery, and to Dr. Gundula Kaschau for her comments on the import from the Middle Euphrates. We are in addition indebted to our most experienced archaeologist and foreman Hikmat Ta’ani, who contributed to the successful accomplishment of this campaign, and to Muwafaq Al-Bataineh who again did an excellent job as our field surveyor and draughtsperson. Many thanks are also due to Dr. Margareta Tengberg who did the flotation, and to Professor Pierre de Miroschedji, the co-director of the nearby excavations at Tell es-Sakan, who allowed us to use the flotation facilities. Thanks are also due to the personnel of the Austrian embassy in Tel Aviv who arranged transport from Gaza during the increasingly tense situation in October 2000.