This book tells the story of one of the leading figures of Near Eastern archaeology. But it is also an extraordinary evocation of the world of Near Eastern archaeology in the last half of the twentieth century: a world of big digs, big ideas, big personalities that has disappeared forever.

Warwick Ball, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Afghanistan, Australia

This biography of the much-admired and beloved archaeologist, David Stronach, is both informed and enlivened by its extensive verbatims from colleagues and friends (two groups certainly not mutually exclusive!), his daughters, and from David himself. I am grateful for having known him in Iran during some of those glorious BIPS years, and then later, when, with his family, he was settled in Berkeley and imparting his knowledge and experience to students, colleagues and friends alike. This is the David I knew and admired, along with many aspects and experiences I did not know.

The volume presents a welcome record of David's (and more broadly, British) contributions to the pre-Islamic history and archaeology of Iran-in particular, his digs at Median Nush-e Jan and Achaemenid Pasargadae-along with a history of British archaeology in the Near East from the 20th century into our current one, as it includes David's accounts of his early professional years in Anatolia and in Iraq, especially at Assyrian Nimrud.

Judith A. Lerner, Research Associate, New York University, USA