This volume represents the partial outcome of a workshop organized by the author at the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East held in Warsaw in 2012, and my warmest acknowledgments goes to all the organizers, especially Piotr Bielinski and Zuzanna Wygnanska. In order to broaden the chronological and geographical topics covered at the initial workshop and to make the whole volume more coherent, a few other contributions have been included along the way. I would also like to dedicate this volume to the memory of three authors (Jean Daniel Forest, Sharon Zuckerman and Klaus Schmidt) who were invited to participate in the workshop as leading figures in the investigation of ancient religions in the ancient Near East and have since passed away. In particular, the front cover of the volume appears in honour of the great work done by Klaus Schmidt at Göbekli Tepe.
I would also like to thank Oxbow Books and its editorial board (Julie Gardiner, Clare Litt, Lizzie Holiday, and Samantha McLeod) for their great work of assembling the volume, the Fuller Theological Seminar of Pasadena and Christopher Hays for having hosted me as visiting scholar and allowed me to use their facilities while working on the introduction to the volume as well as Ernestine Elster and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati for their support in allowing me to use the UCLA library.
Also, I would like to thank Sharon Steadman for her suggestions and my wife Karen for her support.