This volume is not intended to be an exhaustive study of the various issues involved in determining when and why the Persian-era temple was rebuilt; it is more a programmatic investigation. It was researched and written in two years, from August 2002–September 2004, and during the first year, I was teaching undergraduates, carrying out a number of administrative duties, and advising postgraduate students. During the second year, I had a one-semester sabbatical leave from the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield and a Research Grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board that relieved me of teaching and administrative duties during the second semester as well. My only academic responsibilities during the entire second year involved advising my MPhil and PhD research students, which, nevertheless, involved hours of reading chapters and rough drafts. As a result, I did not have the luxury of being able to devote my full attention and energies to researching and producing this volume, which I think is the case for almost everyone after they complete their doctoral research.

I have tried to obtain as much relevant secondary literature as possible but have not been able to trace the historical discussion of each topic thoroughly. Since the inter-library loan system in the UK is costly to a Department's research budget, I also had to be selective in the end about which articles and books would be likely to be the most useful for my project.