187Roman period. Despite agrowing wealth ofarchaeological data from
numerousdigsintheregion,onlyafewbroaderstudieshaveexamined
andanalyzedthematerial.AsthestudyofancientPalestinestillhasmuch
(0dowitha desiretolinkone'sownreligioustraditionback(0persons,
localities,andevenlSconnectedwiththatregion,paganismoftencomes
intoviewonlyinconnectionorcontrAstwithJudaismorearlyChristianity.
Lookingthroughrelevantcomputerdatabases,itisperhapsnotsurprising
tofindnumerousstudiesonthepagan~Chrisliancontroversyinlaleanliq~
UilY,onrheconversionofa paganempiretoChristianity,ontheroleof
pagancultureasrepresented in Christian apologeticliter.llllre,andon
Jewish-pag~mrelationsintheageoftheTalmud.Ofcourse,thesestudies
arcimportantintheirownrightbecause(heyshowIhat,despitetheirdiffer-
ences,allgroupsinPalestinewereinconstantinteraction.Ilowcver,these
studiesareneitherintendednorsufficienttofill theplaceofindependent
andcomprehensiveanalysesofthe growingevidence; even studiesin
pagan-Christianandpagan-jewishrelationsneeda soliddatabaseonthe
pagansideofLhestory.
A thirdreasonforthedifficultiesinstudyingpagancultureinilSown
rightistheregrettablyWidespread1:lckofliLerarysources.Fewandoften
only passing reports in ancient geographic (SLmbo, Pliny the Elder,
Diodoros),historical(Tacitus,DioCassius),andphilosophical(Damascius,
Porphyry)literaturecanhelpidentifyandreconstructpaganreligiouslife.
MostoftheJewishliteratureisnotveryreliableindepietingpaganreli-
giousactivity,norCdnonetnlstmanyoftheChristianauthors,although
somefifth- andSixth-century author~provide valuableinformmion on
somesites(Procopius,Epiphanius,Sozomenos),butitalwaysremainsto
be checked if their information can safelybe used for e'lrlier times.
Strangelyenough,Josephusisoftenourbestandonlysource,evenwhen
itcomestothepresenceHndbeh~wiorofpagansinthelargercitiesinand
aroundPalestineinNewTestamcnttimes.Wcknowlittlcaboutthehistory
orarchitectural development ofalmost all ofthe pagan holysites in
ancientPalestine(thesituationseemstobechanginginregardtoCaesarea
PhiliPI'D,wehaveonlyscantinformationabouttheritualsthatwcreper-
formedatthesesites(iftheywereanydifferentfromneighboringregions
suchasSyriaorEgyplatall)oraboutthepopulationLheyserved,andusu-
ally wecan onlyguessat themythological worldthaisurrounded the
foundingandmainlenanceoftheparticularsite.
In thestudyofpaganism,therefore,archaeologyhasa muchlarger
roletoplaythaninolherfieldsofresearchonancientPaleshne.Strati-
graphicexcavalionalnshowhowa panicularcultpbcewasusedand
alteredduringilSexiSlence.111eanalysisofsmallfindssuchasJX>lteryand
coinsmayhelpidentifytheroleofthecullinilSformersocial,economic,
andgeographicenvironment.Incollabomtionwitharchaeology,epigmphy