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In 1902 the Egyptian Antiquities Service (now called the Supreme Council of Antiquities) granted permits for scientific excavations at the royal pyramids and private mastaba tombs of Giza. The American team under George A. Reisner (1867–1942), eventually became the Joint Egyptian Expedition of Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1905, and continued almost uninterrupted until Reisner's death in 1942. The Expedition formally closed in 1947. Despite the publication of his monumental History of the Giza Necropolis III, Reisner was unable to see through the press an additioal 5,000 pages of unpublished manuscript (Giza Necropolis II, III, IV), or begin the tomb-by-tomb publication series he originally envisioned. This task was initiated by William Kelly Simpson in the early 1970s in the form of the Giza Mastabas Series. The goal of the project is to continue and complete the publication of Reisner’s excavations at Giza, fully documenting the mastaba tombs with descriptive text, hieroglyphic translations, facsimile line drawings, plans, sections, and photographs. |
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