economic exploitation in Palestine and the way local elites were used by
the king to secure regular taxation.
From the second half of the third centuryb.c.e., both the growing
contacts between the coastal cities and the larger Greek world and the
rapid development of cities in Transjordan increasingly influenced the cul-
tural context of the traditionally Jewish regions in central Palestine. From
then on, the hill country of Judea, Samaria, and the Galilee was sand-
wiched between areas deeply influenced by Hellenism.The Coastal Plain
Particularly important were developments in the coastal plain. The region
functioned as a starting point for more permanent settlement of Phoeni-
cian colonists in the agricultural hinterland. In the south, Khirbet el-
Qom and Aderet are good examples of rural sites having contacts with the
coast. The hinterland provided agricultural goods (mostly wine and oil)
that were consumed in or exported from the coastal cities. In turn, the in-
habitants of settlements in the hinterland (above all, cities like Samaria)
bought goods that had entered the country through the coastal plain har-
bors. Small amounts of Greek luxury ceramics had already served local
elites since the fourth centuryb.c.e.Now, stamped amphorae indicate a
growing demand for imported goods. Although perhaps only a few Jews
lived in cities like Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Dor, and Ptolemais (Akko),
the old cultural demarcation between coastal plain and hill country grad-
ually decreased.The Transjordan Plateau
The systematic reurbanization of the Transjordanian plateau created mar-
kets east of central Palestine that were to a large extent supplied by the cit-
ies on the coast. The exact circumstances of the transformation of older
settlements into new, Hellenized urban centers during the first half of the
third centuryb.c.e.are not entirely clear, but they quickly constituted an
ever-growing cultural and economic factor. In cities like Gadara, Pella,
Gerasa, Philadelphia, and Scythopolis (Beth Shean), which later combined
with others to form the Decapolis, a lively blend of Greek and local pagan-
Semitic culture developed.324jürgen k. zangenbergEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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