as well as several huge pools surrounded by gardens, pavilions, and storage
facilities. Remains of stucco and wall paintings show that sumptuous dec-
oration was already present in the initial phase of the palace. The ceramic
profile, however, demonstrates that until the beginning of the Herodian
period few foreign imports reached the palace; the residents used mainly
local ware. Another, earlier example of Hasmonean palace architecture can
be found in the second-century-b.c.e.phase of the Qasr el-Abd palace at
{Araq el-Amir. Here, unlike west of the Jordan, free use was made of figura-
tive art on a truly monumental scale.Architecture in Rural Contexts
Architecture in rural areas was far less lavish than in the palaces of the rul-
ing elite and more or less followed traditional lines. Typologically, houses
in Hellenistic Palestine fell into two types: (1) polygonal courtyard com-
plexes separated from each other by irregular streets; and (2) rectangular
courtyard houses integrated into square neighborhoods in classical Greek,
“Hippodamic” style. Towns and villages mostly followed traditional, irreg-
ular plans, as in Shechem, Shiqmona, and Bethel. At the end of the second
centuryb.c.e., a new type of rural settlement made its appearance: the for-
tified farmstead consisting of rooms and installations arranged around a
usually rectangular courtyard with a tower in one corner. The building
type is similar to that of Hellenistic farmsteads in Asia Minor and the
Black Sea area. It made its way into late Hellenistic and early Roman Pales-
tine, in upper-class agricultural sites such as Ramat ha-Nadiv.
From around 100b.c.e.onward settlement intensified in various re-
gions. On the Dead Sea, ample evidence attests a systematic integration of
the once rather thinly populated area. Settlements at Qumran, Khirbet
Mazin, Qasr et-Turabe, Masada, and Machaerus signal growing interest in
the region. After 100b.c.e.settlement activity also dramatically increased
in the Galilee and the Western Golan. Due to the destruction and aban-
donment of some sites (e.g., at Anafa and Qedesh) and the foundation of
new settlements (e.g., at Gamla and Yodefat), settlement patterns and the
flow of household goods changed. On Tel Anafa a small village with square
houses of similar size was built a couple of years after the destruction of
the large stuccoed building. The once fortified site on et-Tell was now built
up with irregularly oriented, large farmhouses. New regional types of
common ware developed (e.g., Kfar Hananiah ware), but the region was330jürgen k. zangenbergEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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