Of course, generally speaking, less advance was made than in many previous decades, owing to the interregnum caused by the World War, when all British, French, German, and Austrian work was held up, and only the Americans and to a lesser degree the so-called " Egyptian " Service of Antiquities (manned by French and English) did any digging at all; while in all the European countries the energies of all the archaeologists who were not superannuated were transferred to the field of war, and there was no time left to write little papers, still less big books.