''Up to the Gates of Ekron'': Essays on the Archaeology and History of the Eastern Mediterranean in Honor of Seymour Gitin Edited by S. White Crawford et al. Seymour (Sy) Gitin is the Dorot Director and Professor of Archaeology at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. Under his leadership since 1980, the Institute has flourished, becoming the internationally recognized center for ancient Near Eastern Studies that it is today. Gitin's involvement with the Tell Gezer excavations led to the publication of his Ph.D. dissertation, A Ceramic Typology of the Late Iron II, Persian, and Hellenistic Periods at Tell Gezer, a seminal work on pottery typology. In 1981, he and Trude Dothan of the Hebrew University launched the Tel Miqne-Ekron Excavation and Publications Project, involving 14 excavation seasons and an extensive publication program (including 13 preliminary and final field reports, two object studies volumes, and two synthetic summary volumes). Gitin's numerous publications and lectures on his research on the late Philistine period at Ekron and beyond have dramatically changed our perception of the history of the Philistines and provided innovative insights into the interconnections between the nation-states of the Levant in the Iron Age II. Gitin also directs an international research project on "The Neo-Assyrian Empire in the Seventh Century BC: A Study of the Interactions between Center and Periphery." The 46 essays in this volume are a tribute to Gitin's outstanding contribution to the field, his promotion of the dialogue between archaeological and textual evidence, and his advancement of multi-national and interregional scholarly collaboration in ancient Near Eastern studies.