Launching Studies in Late Antiquity one year ago, we wanted to publish methodologically sophisticated and multidisciplinary scholarship that would de-center the study of Late Antiquity, engaging the Mediterranean with the wider late ancient world. This month's issue fulfuls that goal by presenting four articles from four disciplinary perspectives on the culture of Syria Palaestina. While each article makes an original and important contribution in its own right, the issue as a whole conveys an appreciation not just for the kaleidoscope of cultures that contributed to the region's heritage, but also for the centrality of its legacy—for Christianity and Judaism, for the Roman legal tradition, and for the wider world.
The topography of Syria Palaestina opened the region to diverse cultural expressions from all directions. Local artisans, receptive to new styles, rendered them in local materials using native techniques. When artists transform local stone, mixing their labor with imported styles, they...
University of California Press