The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant ─ C. 8000-332 BCE

This Handbook aims to serve as a research guide to the archaeology of the Levant, an area situated at the crossroads of the ancient world that linked the eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The Levant as used here is a historical geographical term referring to a large area which today comprises the modern states of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, western Syria, and Cyprus, as well as the West Bank, Gaza, and the Sinai.

Unique in its treatment of the entire region, it offers a comprehensive overview and analysis of the current state of the archaeology of the Levant within its larger cultural, historical, and socio-economic contexts. The Handbook also attempts to bridge the modern scholarly and political divide between archaeologists working in this highly contested region. Written by leading international scholars in the field, it focuses chronologically on the Neolithic through Persian periods - a time span during which the Levant was often in close contact with the imperial powers of Egypt, Anatolia, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia. This volume will serve as an invaluable reference work for those interested in a contextualised archaeological account of this region, beginning with the tenth millennium BCE 'agricultural revolution', until the conquest of Alexander the Great that marked the end of the Persian period.

Margreet L. Steiner is an independent scholar in Leiden, The Netherlands. She has, together with Henk Franken, published the results of the large trench of Kenyon's excavations in Jerusalem. For the past thirty years she has participated in or directed excavations in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Territories. Currently she is co-director of the renewed excavations of tell Abu Sarbut, Jordan. She has published widely on the archaeology of the Levant.

Ann E. Killebrew is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Jewish Studies program at the Pennsylvania State University. She has directed or participated in dozens of excavations in Israel, Turkey, and Egypt during the past thirty-five years. Currently she co-directs the Tel Akko Total Archaeology Project in Israel. She is author of numerous publications relating to archaeology of the Levant, including the award-winning book, Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanite, Philistines, and Early Israel 1300 - 1100 B.C.E. (2005).