Norman Yoffee is professor emeritus of the Depts of Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology, University of Michigan. He is adjunct professor, Depts. of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and University of New Mexico and senior fellow, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University. He is author of Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations (2005) and co-editor (with Patricia McAnany) of Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire (2010). He editor of the regional archaeology series, Cambridge World Archaeology and is editing vol. 3 of a new Cambridge World History entitled Early Cities and Comparative History. Homepage: sitemaker.umich.edu/nyoffee