“And in Length of Days Understanding” (Job 12:12)

Erez Ben-Yosef is Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University. He directs the Central Timna Valley Project in southern Israel, where he and his team have unearthed evidence of intense copper production from the time of David and Solomon. His research focuses on ancient technologies, especially metal production, and on the archaeological sciences.  Ben-Yosef studied archaeology and geology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BA, BSc, MSc) and archaeology and anthropology at the University of California, San Diego (MA, PhD). His postdoctoral research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography focused on the ancient copper mines of Cyprus and the application of slag material in geomagnetic research. Ben-Yosef won multiple awards and research grants, including a Fulbright Fellowship, an ERC - Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (CIG), and the Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research (2018). Since August 2020 he serves as a member of the Archaeological Advisory Board of Israel's Ministry of Culture. In 2022 he was elected as a member of The Israel Young Academy, the leading body of Israeli academics under 45 years old.  Ian W. N. Jones is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California San Diego and will be postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Near Eastern Archaeology at La Sierra University beginning in Spring 2023. His research explores the political-economy and environmental impacts of resource extraction, particularly copper production and agriculture, in the southern Levant during the late 1st and 2nd millennia AD. He is Field Director of the Balu‘a Regional Archaeology Project Islamic Village Excavations, which is investigating shifts in the agricultural economy of central Jordan during the 2nd millennium AD.