Desert Chiefdom: Dimensions of Subterranean Settlement and Society in Israel’s Negev Desert (c. 4500 – 3600 BCE) Based on New Data from Shiqmim (contracted to Equinox Publishing Ltd., London)
Edited by Thomas E. Levy (PI), Yorke M. Rowan, and Margie M. Burton

This proposal seeks support to prepare a book-length publication concerning the Phase II excavations at Shiqmim, the largest and most deeply stratified Chalcolithic (ca. 4500 - 3500 BCE) site in Israel's Negev desert. The major field work for this project took place in 1987 -1989 and was sponsored by the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology (NGSBA) of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. A final supplementary field season was conducted five years ago, in 1993, sponsored by the NGSBA and UCSD. Funding for the Phase II fieldwork came from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geographic Society, and private donors. Over the years, a considerable number of timely reports and synthetic articles have been published by the Shiqmim team concerning the Phase II research. In many respects, Shiqmim has become a bench-mark for social evolutionary studies in the southern Levant. As the PI is now actively engaged in university teaching and a new research project in Jordan, it has become increasingly difficult to devote the time needed to bring the Shiqmim project to closer. The Shelby White - Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publication can provide the much needed funding to support graduate students at the applicant's university and recent graduates and researchers who have been associated with the field project since 1987 to complete the study of Shiqmim. It is primarily through the process of graduate student participation in the research endeavor that the necessary momentum can be gained to produce the final publication of the site. Although Equinox Publishing Ltd (UK) has contracted to publish the Shiqmim volume, there are no funding sources available that will enable the PI to carryout and coordinate the research needed to produce the final publication. For this reason, funding from the Shelby White – Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications has been essential for bringing this project to completion. Shortly after finishing the publication project described here, we hope to coordinate with government authorities to back-fill the ca. 5,000 m2 excavation area at Shiqmim to protect the site (located in a military firing zone) for the future.