Editing Samaria (section)

===Byzantine period===
Following the bloody suppression of the [[Samaritan revolts|Samaritan Revolts]] (mostly in 525 CE and 555 CE) against the [[Byzantine Empire]], which resulted in death, displacement, and [[conversion to Christianity]], the Samaritan population dramatically decreased. In the central parts of Samaria, the vacuum left by departing Samaritans was filled by nomads who gradually became [[Sedentism|sedentarized]].<ref name=":Ellenblum20102">{{Cite book |last=Ellenblum |first=Ronnie |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/958547332 |title=Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-511-58534-0 |oclc=958547332 |quote=From the data given above it can be concluded that the Muslim population of Central Samaria, during the early Muslim period, was not an autochthonous population which had converted to Christianity. They arrived there either by way of migration or as a result of a process of sedentarization of the nomads who had filled the vacuum created by the departing Samaritans at the end of the Byzantine period [...] To sum up: in the only rural region in Palestine in which, according to all the written and archeological sources, the process of Islamization was completed already in the twelfth century, there occurred events consistent with the model propounded by Levtzion and Vryonis: the region was abandoned by its original sedentary population and the subsequent vacuum was apparently filled by nomads who, at a later stage, gradually became sedentarized |access-date=2023-02-05 |archive-date=2023-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230710040327/https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/958547332 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Byzantine period is considered the peak of settlement in Samaria, as in other regions of the country.<ref>זרטל, א' (1992). ''סקר הר מנשה''. קער שכם, כרך ראשון. תל-אביב וחיפה: אוניברסיטת חיפה ומשרד הביטחון. (Hebrew) 63–62.</ref> Based on historical sources and archeological data, the [[Manasseh Hill Country Survey|Manasseh Hill surveyors]] concluded that Samaria's population during the Byzantine period was composed of Samaritans, Christians, and a minority of Jews.<ref>זרטל, א' (1996). ''סקר הר מנשה. העמקים המזרחיים וספר המדבר, כרך שני''. תל-אביב וחיפה: אוניברסיטת חיפה ומשרד הביטחון. 93–91 (Hebrew)</ref> The Samaritan population was mainly concentrated in the valleys of Nablus and to the north as far as [[Jenin]] and [[Legio|Kfar Othenai]]; they did not settle south of the Nablus-Qalqiliya line. Christianity slowly made its way into Samaria, even after the Samaritan revolts. With the exception of Neapolis, Sebastia, and a small cluster of monasteries in central and northern Samaria, most of the population of the rural areas remained non-Christian.<ref>די סגני, ל' (2002). מרידות השומרונים בארץ-ישראל הביזנטית. בתוך א' שטרן וח' אשל (עורכים), ''ספר השומרונים''. ירושלים: יד יצחק בן-צבי, רשות העתיקות, המנהל האזרחי ליהודה ושומרון קצין מטה לארכיאולוגיה, עמ' 454–480. (Hebrew)</ref> In southwestern Samaria, a significant concentration of churches and monasteries was discovered, with some of them built on top of citadels from the late Roman period. Magen raised the hypothesis that many of these were used by Christian pilgrims, and filled an empty space in the region whose Jewish population was wiped out in the Jewish–Roman wars.<ref>מגן, י' 2002 .השומרונים בתקופה הרומית – הביזנטית. בתוך א' שטרן וח' אשל (עורכים), ''ספר השומרונים''. ירושלים: יד יצחק בן-צבי, רשות העתיקות, המנהל האזרחי ליהודה ושומרון קצין מטה לארכיאולוגיה, עמ' 213–244. (Hebrew)</ref><ref name=":0" />