Description: Hayim Lapin examines the economic geography of fourth-century Roman Galilee. Drawing on literary and archaeological material for the distribution of cities, villages, roads and other features of trade and marketing, and making use of the central-place theory, the author attempts to reconstruct models of the regional economy of northern Palestine, and to examine the degree of economic integration in the region. As a contribution to the historiography of Jews and Palestine in antiquity, Hayim Lapin argues that the economic, social and cultural landscape inhabited by residents of fourth-century Palestine was in many ways shaped by its Roman provincial administrative setting and political economy. Thus key aspects of the history of later Roman Palestine, and particularly of Jews, need to be reexamined.
Brief description: Hayim Lapin, Born 1964; BA, MA at the Jewish Theological Seminary, BA PhD at Columbia University; Adjunct Assistant Professor at SUNY Purchase; 1993-94 Assistant Professor at the Baltimore Hebrew University; since 1994 Assistant Professor, since 1998 Associate Professor at the University of Maryland.