With the addition of church sites from the Syrian Hauran and from Southern Phoenicia, the dataset for the project is now complete. When I went to the Albright in the spring of 2023, my goal was to develop a regional dataset of basilical churches through the comparative study of which I hoped to understand more fully the diversity of floor plans and annexes in the churches at Hippos. By the time I left Jerusalem in May, I had an initial list of 104 churches, mostly basilicas, which would form the dataset for my comparative analysis. I had also gathered preliminary and/or final excavations reports on each and had begun to summarize them in a common format.

Subsequently, I have worked through all the materials (translating as needed) and have summarized them on a map with links to web pages for each church. Of the initial group, 97 different structures are in the dataset all within 100 km of Hippos. Phase 1 of the project is complete.

After a literature review of theories about the development of the forms of Late Antique churches, I will collate all this data into charts and from those charts seek to develop an analytical protocol for understanding the particular layout of a church within the regional context defined by the dataset.

It had been my intent to do the rest of this work at the Albright in Jerusalem starting next week. However, the security situation is such that I have cancelled the trip. Instead, I will do the work here in the states over the next months and propose a paper outlining my conclusions for the next meeting of ASOR in November of 2024.