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 publications in the field. Professor Richard is known for her work on the Early Bronze Age, especially the EB III-IV. Her first major articles are still standard references in the field. More recently, she has been concerned with interconnectivity, social organization in rural periods, and urban-rural transitions in the Levant in the fourth and third millennia BC. Also, as co-director of the Madaba Regional Archaeological Museum Project (MRAMP), she is involved in a number of community archaeology projects to safeguard and preserve the cultural heritage of Madaba, Jordan.


With an international cadre of leading scholars, this volume reflects recent scholarship on the nature of Bronze Age urbanism and cultural transitions at key junctures. It is an important contribution to the field from the late fourth through to the second millennia BC.