Jacob Ashkenazi is an associate professor of history at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Israel. He earned a PhD in history from the University of Haifa in 2000. His research examines the material and cultural foundations of religious transformation in Late Antiquity, combining archaeological evidence, epigraphy, and literary sources to understand how sacred authority operated in daily life across the Eastern Mediterranean.

• Introduction: Late Antique Palestine Beyond the Sacred Veil; 1. Arise, the Holy Land: From Heavenly Jerusalem to Contested Sacred Geography; 2. Competing for the Sacred: Late Antique Palestine as a Field of Religious Goods; 3. Sacred Space and Secular Life: The Madaba Map as a Window into Palestine's Dual Identity; 4. Governing the Lay Land: Imperial Authority, Provincial Administration, and Civic Order; 5. Episcopal Authority: Competing for Sacred Territory; 6. Pilgrimage: Movement Through the Lay Land; 7. Monasticism: Between Solitude and Society; 8. Cities of Power: Elite Patronage and Urban Christianity; 9. Sacred Estates: Land, Power, and Religion in the Countryside; 10. People on the Margins: The Invisible Inhabitants of the Unholy Land; Conclusion: Beyond the "Land called Holy".

Jacob Ashkenazi is an associate professor of history at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Israel. He earned a PhD in history from the University of Haifa in 2000. His research examines the material and cultural foundations of religious transformation in Late Antiquity, combining archaeological evidence, epigraphy, and literary sources to understand how sacred authority operated in daily life across the Eastern Mediterranean.

• Introduction: Late Antique Palestine Beyond the Sacred Veil; 1. Arise, the Holy Land: From Heavenly Jerusalem to Contested Sacred Geography; 2. Competing for the Sacred: Late Antique Palestine as a Field of Religious Goods; 3. Sacred Space and Secular Life: The Madaba Map as a Window into Palestine's Dual Identity; 4. Governing the Lay Land: Imperial Authority, Provincial Administration, and Civic Order; 5. Episcopal Authority: Competing for Sacred Territory; 6. Pilgrimage: Movement Through the Lay Land; 7. Monasticism: Between Solitude and Society; 8. Cities of Power: Elite Patronage and Urban Christianity; 9. Sacred Estates: Land, Power, and Religion in the Countryside; 10. People on the Margins: The Invisible Inhabitants of the Unholy Land; Conclusion: Beyond the "Land called Holy".

Jacob Ashkenazi is an associate professor of history at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Israel. He earned a PhD in history from the University of Haifa in 2000. His research examines the material and cultural foundations of religious transformation in Late Antiquity, combining archaeological evidence, epigraphy, and literary sources to understand how sacred authority operated in daily life across the Eastern Mediterranean.

• Introduction: Late Antique Palestine Beyond the Sacred Veil; 1. Arise, the Holy Land: From Heavenly Jerusalem to Contested Sacred Geography; 2. Competing for the Sacred: Late Antique Palestine as a Field of Religious Goods; 3. Sacred Space and Secular Life: The Madaba Map as a Window into Palestine's Dual Identity; 4. Governing the Lay Land: Imperial Authority, Provincial Administration, and Civic Order; 5. Episcopal Authority: Competing for Sacred Territory; 6. Pilgrimage: Movement Through the Lay Land; 7. Monasticism: Between Solitude and Society; 8. Cities of Power: Elite Patronage and Urban Christianity; 9. Sacred Estates: Land, Power, and Religion in the Countryside; 10. People on the Margins: The Invisible Inhabitants of the Unholy Land; Conclusion: Beyond the "Land called Holy".