Ascalon 'Arus Al-Sham: Domestic architecture and the development of a Byzantine-Islamic city

This dissertation uses a methodology based on the analysis of archaeological and documentary evidence to investigate the domestic architecture, city plan and urban development of the city of Ascalon in the Byzantine and Islamic periods. It develops an archaeological application for Julian of Ascalon's sixth century treatise On the Laws or Customs of Palestine. Data on domestic and other nonpublic architecture derived from this text supplements the evidence for domestic structures in the archaeological record; a number of conclusions can be reached about the development of this existing city in the Early Islamic period.; Ascalon in the sixth century has a dense built environment incorporating a wide variety of building types that form diverse rather then homogenous neighborhoods. These neighborhoods include single family homes, condominium buildings and other structures ranging from warehouses and shops to bakeries and baths. The Byzantine period city has a clear and undeniable influence over the development of Ascalon into the Middle Islamic period. This is apparent in the maintenance of existing buildings and the city plan. Evidence for the Islamic conquest or the implementation of new ideas and forms in the Islamic period is missing from the archaeological record. While there is strong evidence for continuity, there are indications of change in the built environment as early as the sixth century. Most significant is a recognition of the changing uses of public and private space prior to the advent of Muslim rule, the event with which this pattern is commonly associated.; An analysis of the domestic architecture of Ascalon shows that such structures are sensitive to urban development in ways not found in major institutions. It is not the history of individual structures that makes houses meaningful but rather the cumulative pattern of housing that reveals the gradual process of change in the built environment of Ascalon. The example of Ascalon demonstrates the potential of using domestic architecture to develop more nuanced and comprehensive models of cities and their development in the Islamic period.