This work looks at basic questions pertaining to sacred space and applies them to several well documented archaeological sites with strong material remains, interpreting the meanings and causes of the changes in spatial patterns that occurred within the late Antique polis in the East. The study is based on both physical and abstract spatial dimensions (the 'real' and metaphysical) of civic and sacred landscapes that defined the Classical and Early Christian city 'types'. The archaeological sites of Gerasa of Jordan and Dura Europos of Syria were selected as interpretive models due to their...