This article addresses several issues relevant to a better understanding of why archaeologists have generally failed to reach a consensus on the dating, regional impact, or identification of earthquake destructions in the depositional records of Roman/Byzantine Palestine and the province of Arabia. An evaluation of earthquake destructions in these regions from the 2nd through the mid-8th century AD is based upon an analysis of both ancient textual accounts and contemporaneous archaeological data. Depositional processes affecting archaeoseismic destruction evidence as it appears in the archaeological record are also discussed. -- AATA