The Onomasticon, a monumental endeavor begun in the 1960s by the late
Prof. Michael Avi-Yonah, collates all the known Greek and Latin literary
and documentary sources mentioning geographical and ethnic names
attested in Iudaea, under the Hasmonaean and Herodian dynasties, and in
the Roman and Byzantine provinces of Palaestina and Arabia - an area
today spread over Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Sinai and
southern Syria. The source texts, dating from the fourth century BCE to
the seventh century CE, are culled from over 1,300 texts by more than
750 separate authors, and from papyri, inscriptions and coins. The
individual place names are arranged in alphabetical entries, each
presenting a comprehensive collection of excerpts from the texts in
which that place is mentioned. Where possible, the places are identified
and described on the basis of up-to-date archaeological and
bibliographical research. Volume I contains an annotated bibliography of
the primary source texts, a collection of major texts from which many of
the sources in the alphabetical entries are excerpted, and a listing of
all the place names covered in the series. Volume II, in two parts, will
contain the entries for geographical names beginning with the letter A,
including the massive entry for Arabia.