This volume celebrates the career of Norma Franklin, an archaeologist who has made important contributions to our understanding of the three key cities of Samaria, Megiddo and Jezreel in the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the Iron Age. The sixteen essays offered by Franklin's colleagues in archaeology and biblical studies are a fitting tribute to the woman in the pith helmet: an indomitable field archaeologist who describes herself as "happiest with complex stratigraphy" and as being dedicated to "killing sacred cows".

Jennie Ebeling is an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Evansville in Indiana; she co-directed the Jezreel Expedition with Norma Franklin.

Philippe Guillaume joined the Jezreel Expedition after a decade of digging at Megiddo with Norma Franklin.