Thomas E. Levy

Thomas Evan Levy is Distinguished Professor and holds the Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at the University of California, San Diego. He is a member of the Department of Anthropology and Judaic Studies Program, and Associate Director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) at the California Center of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Levy carries out cyber-archaeology research with students and colleagues at Calit2. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Levy is a Levantine field archaeologist with interests in the role of technology, especially early mining and metallurgy, on social evolution from the beginnings of sedentism and the domestication of plants and animals in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (ca. 7500 BCE) to the rise of the first historic Levantine state level societies in the Iron Age (ca. 1200 – 500 BCE). Levy has been the principal investigator of many interdisciplinary archaeological field projects in Israel and Jordan that have been funded by the National Geographic Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, and other organizations. Tom also conducts ethnoarchaeological research in India.

Levy, his wife Alina Levy and the Sthapathy brothers who are traditional craftsmen in the village of Swamimalai co-authored the book Masters of Fire - Hereditary Bronze Casters of South India. Bochum: German Mining Museum, 2008). He has published 10 books and numerous scholarly articles. Levy’s most recent book is entitled Historical Biblical Archaeology – The New Pragmatism (London: Equinox Publishers, 2010).