thanks to the carbonized condition of some that were kept in clay jars (à la the Dead Sea Scrolls).55 Third, those who excavate at delta sites are normally limited in accessing lower levels from earlier history, owing to high water tables. Archaeologists who employ a costly pumping system, such as at Tell el-Dab‘a and Buto, have been able to reach earlier strata. I have seen this system at work at Dab‘a during an April 2002 visit. The scriptorium of the fifteenth-century palace was being excavated.