In recognition of the significant contribution that Suzanne Richard has made to the archaeology of the Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant, this Festschrift represents the best of scholarship in her areas of interest and publication in the field. Professor Richard is known for her work on the Early Bronze Age, especially the EB III-IV. Her first major articles (BASOR 1980; BA 1987) are still standard references in the field. More recently, she is concerned with interconnectivity, social organization in rural periods, and urban-rural transitions in the Levant in the fourth and third millennia BCE in particular.

With an international cadre of leading scholars, the volume reflects recent scholarship on the nature of Bronze Age urbanism and cultural transitions at key junctures. The volume is an important contribution to the field of late 4th through the 2nd millennia BCE.