When Alexander the Great conquered the ancient cultural lands on both sides of the Jordan, which are now controlled by Israel, Jordan, and Syria, in a rapid campaign in 333 BC, Palestine began an almost thousand-year history as a province of various Greek-Roman empires. Nevertheless, the land remained the starting point for significant historical movements: the collapse of Jewish statehood and the departure of Palestinian Jewry into the diaspora, the beginnings of Christianity, and - from 640 AD - the spread of Islam. While biblical archaeology has primarily viewed the Hellenistic and Roman periods of Palestine as a backdrop for Jewish and Christian religious history, this volume treats the material monuments of this century as evidence of the history of the Greek-Roman provinces. Organized by subject areas and divided into periods.