Dr. Uzi Avner began his acquaintance with the desert in 1969 as a guide in the Eilat Field-School and began studying archaeology in the Hebrew University, Jerusalem in 1973. His researches in the archaeology of the southern Negev and Sinai began in 1977. He served as a district archaeologist of the southern Negev for the Israel Department of Antiquities, later- the Israel Antiquity Authority from 1977 to1999. In 2002 his Ph.D. dissertation, titled: “Studies in the Material and Spiritual Culture of the Desert Population During the 6th to 3rd Millennia BC,” was awarded summa cum laude by the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.