A LANDSCAPE TRANSFORMED 207well with the well-attested situation in northern Syria), many more such vil-
lages existed in late antiquit ythan at an yearlier period.^19
One novel characteristic of these villages was, if we follow a recent sugges-
tion of Benjamin Isaac, that while as late as the earl ymid-fourth centur ythe y
were commonl yinhabited b ymixed populations of pagans, Jews, and some
Christians, there was a tendenc ylater toward religious separation.^20 Most vil-
lages came to be either Jewish or Christian, or perhaps pagan. As earl yas
the 370s Epiphanius could regard the largest settlements of Galilee, Tiberias,
Sepphoris, and Capernaum as exclusivel yJewish, though this is likel yto be
a polemical exaggeration.
B yabout 500, the pattern of separation was clearl ydefined, and it is con-
firmed b yanother fundamentall yimportant novelt yof the late antique rural
Palestinian landscape: all but the ver ysmallest villages had at their center,
often set in a paved square, a monumental, purpose-built, stone religious
building.^21 In fact, villages usuall yhad either churches or s ynagogues, not
both. There were exceptions. Some were like the extremel ylarge village of
Capernaum, located in the heart of Jewish Galilee, but also a Christian pil-
(^19) See M. Kochavi et al.,Judaea, Samaria, and the Golan: Archaeological Survey, 1967–68
(Jerusalem: Keter, 1972), and the important discussion in H. Lapin (forthcoming) containing a
complete survey, analysis, and criticism of surface surveys of late antique material in Israel and
the territories; see also Y. Hirschfeld, “Changes in Settlement Patterns of the Jewish Rural Popu-
lace before and after the Rebellions against Rome,”Cathedra80 (1996): 3–18—noting the scat-
tered evidence for farmsteads in late antique Judaea and Samaria, and the absence of such evi-
dence for Galilee (implying, Hirschfeld believes, that the Jewishness of the Galileans, which
meant that the ywere organized in communities, required them to live in nucleated settlements).
This is an interesting phenomenon, which requires some sort of explanation. But Hirschfeld
overlooks the obvious point that even in Judaea most people lived in villages, not on farmsteads.
Note also J. Pastor’s point in response to Hirschfeld that the evidence for late antiquit yis continu-
ous with that of the Second Temple period: farmsteads were never common in Galilee and never
absent from Judaea and Samaria (“Wh yWere There No Jewish Farmsteads in Galilee?”Cathedra
84 [1997]: 175).
(^20) B. Isaac, “Jews, Christians, and Others in Palestine: The Evidence from Eusebius,” inJews
in a Graeco-Roman World, pp. 65–74; on the separation of Jews and Christians, see M. Aviam,
“Christian Settlement in Western Galilee in the Byzantine Period” (master’s thesis, Hebrew Uni-
versity, 1994).
(^21) It is less clear whether Galilean villagers, like those in northern Syria in the later fifth cen-
tury, also built substantial, often heavily decorated stone houses—one of the striking characteris-
tics of the region surveyed by Tchalenko. The evidence of the Meiron excavations suggests that
on the whole the ydid not, but Meiron ma yhave been abandoned before 500, when S yria reached
the peak of its prosperit y(E. Me yers et al.,Excavations at Ancient Meiron, Upper Galilee, Israel,
1971–72, 1974–75, 1977(Cambridge: ASOR, 1981), pp. 50–65; 158–61, on the abandonment
of the site). In general, Galilee gives the impression of having been less prosperous than the
northern Syrian limestone massif, but this impression may be false: the limestone massif was a
marginal area, inhabited mainl yunder Roman rule and abandoned once and for all in the earl y
Middle Ages. Galilee has been continuousl yinhabited, and ancient stone structures are in gen-
eral unlikel yto have survived later inhabitants’ need for building materials.