Beth Alpert Nakhai is Associate Professor in the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at Arizone State University, at which she teaches courses in archaeology, Hebrew Bible, Near Eastern history, and women in ancient Israel. Nakhai is also an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Near Eastern Studies. She received her Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Archaeology from The University of Arizona. Her publications focus on the lives of women in antiquity, and on Canaanite and Israelite religion and culture. Nakhai also chairs sessions on gender and religion for the annual meetings of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Society of Biblical Literature.

• List of Figures Acknowledgements Biography of William G Dever Students of William G Dever Chapter 1 - Bronze Age Rural Economic Transitions in the Jordan Valley   Steven E Falconer, Patricia L Fall, Mary C Metzger and Lee Lines Chapter 2 - Merenptah's Inscription and Reliefs and the Origin of Israel   Michael G Hasel Chapter 3 - Slouching toward Beersheva: Chalcolithic Mortuary Practices in Local and Regional Context   Alexander H Joffe Chapter 4 - Four-Room Structures at Late Bronze/Iron I Age Hill Country Workstations   Gloria London Chapter 5 - The Birth of the Ancestors: The Meanings of Human Figurines in Near Eastern Neolithic Villages   Jonathan B Mabry Chapter 6 - Pottery Production and Demand in a Middle Bronze Age Levantine Village: Ceramic Specialization and Rural Development   Bonnie Magness-Gardiner Chapter 7 - Israel on the Horizon: The Iron I Settlement of the Galilee   Beth Alpert Nakhai Chapter 8 - The Emergence of Ammon: A View of the Rise of Iron Age Polities from the Other Side of the Jordan   Randall W Younker Index