Villas, farmhouses, and production settlements along the via Maris and the coastal stretch of Roman Palestine (1st-7th century AD)

The paper collects evidence relating to the presence of villas and production settlements along the so-called via Maris and the southern coast of the Roman Levant. The aim is to analyse the rural settlement phenomenon along the coast in relation to the urbanization of the coastal plain and the road network, in a transit area that has always been significant for the connection between Syria and Egypt. The initial question concerns the extent of the phenomenon of maritime villas-villae rusticae in the Levantine coastal area in Roman and Byzantine times. Local specificities due to the presence of Jewish population and related religious needs are also taken into consideration