Eric Cline

I mean, at one point there's probably 14 or 15 staff members there because they were able to bring their spouses.

And so they had, you know, one big happy family in the dig house.

Wasn't always so happy.

There were soap operas galore.

I mean, oh my word.

So, but they're there until 1939 and they end because of World War II.

mostly because a couple of the key members went off and got other jobs.

But most of them went into the war effort and went to work for them.

And so 1939, they dissipate.

There is actually a letter that gives permission that they could, Chicago could have started up the excavations again.

And it said, as long as they start within two years after the war has ended,

but they never did get their act together because, again, the group had dispersed.

And so they held onto it with a caretaker until 1955.

And then Chicago sold the site of Megiddo and the dig house and all of its

possessions to the state of Israel for $1.

Yeah, in 1955.

So they got there in 1925, and they give up possession in 1955.

So all told, it's 30 years that they're there, but they're actively digging only for about 15 years.

And in those 15 years, they have three different directors because Breasted, micromanaging from far off Chicago, though coming to the dig every couple of years, fired them one after the other, right?

So it was trials and tribulations, right?