This volume comprises a study of both the site and the surrounding hinterland of one of the earliest and largest Early Bronze Age (3500-2300 b.c.) cities of the Levant. The site of Beth Yerah, located in the Jordan Valley of Israel on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, was excavated by the Oriental Institute in 1952/53 and 1963/64. This regional survey incorporates archaeological, geological, and phytogeographical evidence, as well as more recent records from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries a.d., to establish the environmental setting and the subsistence base for the beginnings of civilization in northern Palestine. Using Beth Yerah and northern Palestine as a casestudy, the emergence of intraregional and international trade during the Early Bronze Age and its effect on the growth of urban centers and the development of social hierarchies is explored.