| The lava lands of southern Syria extend south of Damascus from the upper Jordan valley and the Sea of Galilee eastward to the Syrian steppe. The region is bound on the west by the Golan and on the east by the Jebel Hawran. The central area is the wide fertile plain of ancient Bashan, known today as the Nuqrah. The lava field of the Leja' borders the region on the northeast. In ancient times the area was divided into the districts of Gaulanitis, Batanea, Trachonitis and Auranitis. During the second and third centuries A.D., agriculture replaced pastoralism as the major form of land use and a once sparsely settled landscape filled with numerous small cities, towns and farming villages. The subject of this study is that urbanization in the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods.; The region is a remarkable subject for urban study, offering for investigation both a unique combination of topographical and climatic factors and a wealth of Roman architectural and epigraphic evidence. The significance of the region in antiquity was its position as a transit area for long distance trade between Arabia and Damascus and its exceptional potential for agriculture. Three major economies commingled in the landscape, agriculture, commerce, and, because of the proximity of the steppe, nomadism.; The problem is the emergence of urbanism, what it was and what it meant in this place. The argument is that urbanism resulted from the growth of farming village settlements that created an agricultural hinterland capable of supporting towns and cities. Expansion of village settlement depended upon two factors, security and a year-round water supply provided by the imposition of Roman political control and the application of Roman hydraulic technology. The origins of urbanization are traced back to contributions made by the Nabateans and Jews before the Roman occupation.; The study concludes that the basis for urbanization was agriculture, that the settlement forms of city, town and hinterland village were interrelated and interdependent components of regional urbanism, and that the functions and meaning of the agrarian and urban architecture reflect on the process of urbanization itself. |
