Thomas E. Levy is Professor of Anthropology and Judaic Studies at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Formerly, the Assistant Director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (one of the American Schools of Oriental Research) and the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology of the Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, he joined the UCSD faculty in 1992.
'The six-thousand-year old complex of buildings at Gilat, on the desert edge of the Fertile Crescent, raises important questions of how human societies were organized on the eve of urban life. The elaboration of material culture at this and related sites can only be understood in the dual context of environmental constraints and equally strong systems of belief. Tom Levy has brought together not just a highly professional scientific report but also a sustained anthropological investigation. This is both a report to refer to and a volume to read for its ideas.' Andrew Sherratt, Professor of Archaeology, University of Oxford