P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. is a leading expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the origin of the alphabet. His most recent work is on the Tel Zayit inscription. McCarter and his co-editor Ron Tappy were awarded the 2009 Frank Moore Cross Award for the Most Substantial Book on Near Eastern Epigraphy from the American Schools of Oriental Research for their book Literature Culture and Tenth-Century Canaan: The Tel Zayit Abecedary in Context (Eisenbrauns, 2008).
He is also former director of the Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) program at Johns Hopkins.