Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

David Schloen is a Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology in the Oriental Institute and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of the University of Chicago, where he is also an Associated Faculty member of the Divinity School. He specializes in the archaeology and history of the Levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages (ca. 3500 to 300 BCE). His archaeological fieldwork began at Ashkelon in Israel, where he served as associate director and co-edited the series of excavation reports. He has also conducted excavations at Yaqush, a village of the Early Bronze Age (3500–2500 BCE) on the northern Jordan River in Israel, and at Alalakh near Antakya (Antioch) in Turkey, a prominent city of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages (2000–1200 BCE); and he has ongoing excavation projects at Sam’al (Zincirli) in Turkey and at the Canaanite-Phoenician site of Tell Keisan near Haifa in Israel. His aim is to synthesize archaeological and textual evidence to understand the early cities and kingdoms of the Eastern Mediterranean and how they were organized, socially and economically.