Monasteries in rural context in Byzantine Arabia and Palaestina Tertia : A reassessment

Monasteries were an integral part of the social and economic landscape of Arabia and Palaestina Tertia. They represented a clear expression of the importance of the church in daily life, as displayed by the strict correlation with the nearby dioceses evidenced by written inscriptions. Monastic communities experienced a degree of material comfort that reflected in the architecture of the buildings, in liturgical furniture and in mosaic pavements. The pavements display much similar iconography to those discovered in urban and rural contexts reflecting the generosity of local civic and ecclesiastical patronage and the correlation between monastic, rural and urban communities of the area, with prosperity enduring at least until the 8th-9th centuries A.D.