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 leads the Cyber-archaeology research group at the Qualcomm Institute, California Center of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Thomas Levy received his PhD from the University of Sheffield in 1981. 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). A Fellow of the Explorers Club, Levy won the 2011 Lowell Thomas Award for “Exploring the World’s Greatest Mysteries.” 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 traditional craftsmen from the village of Swamimalai co-authored the book Masters of Fire - Hereditary Bronze Casters of South India. Bochum: German Mining Museum, 2008). Tom has published 12 books and several hundred scholarly articles. Levy’s recent book is entitled Historical Biblical Archaeology – The New Pragmatism (London: Equinox Publishers, 2010 that in 2011won the ‘best scholarly book’ from Biblical Archaeology Society (Washington, DC). Levy and his colleague Mohammad Najjar won Biblical Archaeology Review’s ‘Best BAR Article’ for “Condemned to the Mines: Copper Production & Christian Persecution.” His most recent book is: Levy, T.E., M. Najjar, and E. Ben-Yosef, eds. 2014. New Insights into the Iron Age Archaeology of Edom, Southern Jordan - Surveys, Excavations and Research from the Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project (ELRAP). Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press UCLA

He is Co-PI on the NSF IGEERT $3.2 million grant entitled “Training, Research and Education in Engineering for Cultural Heritage Diagnostics (TEECH). Levy directs the UC San Diego Levantine and Cyber-Archaeology Laboratory and is Associate Director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute – California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Tom was recently elected Chair of the Committee on Archaeological Policy (CAP) of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR).

Links:

UC Cyber Archaeology

Levantine and Cyber-Archaeology Lab

NSF IGERT TEECH Program

Levantine and Cyber-Archaeology Lab