This presentation will feature a study of the settlement structure in the southern Golan Heights (Israel), in an attempt to reconstruct the extent of the city’s hinterland and administrative territory during the Hellenistic to the Late Roman periods. The study aims to test models of the development of territories proposed for Greek poleis, employing approaches related to site catchment and central place theory. The research methodology encompasses spatial analyses of the settlement patterns, using average neighbour analysis and kernel density analysis, and using archaeological heritage data. The geo-spatial analyses are supplemented with historical-geographical sources and newly acquired data. Based on these analyses, a “core” Hellenistic chora is delimited, presumably coterminous with the agricultural hinterland of the city. Further, it is argued that the city’s administrative territory was enlarged during the Early-Middle Roman transition (late 1st/early 2nd c. CE), possibly reflecting administrative changes in the provinces between the Great Revolt and Hadrian’s reign.

(Published as “Pažout, A. and M. Eisenberg 2021. The territory of Hippos: Its settlement dynamics and development from the Hellenistic to the Late Roman period as seen through spatial analytical methods. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

38. doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103066”)