This paperfocuses on the assertion that Roman baths diffused into late Hellenistic and early Roman period Palestine. Its analysis begins with a division offeatures of Palestinian baths into builder and user categories. Correlations between these features and the people of ancient Palestine are expressed. In the builder category all the features correlate to building techniques specific to the Near East. In the user category spatial analyses unveil two cultural models of the Palestinian bathing regime. These models are differentfrom those of contemporary Roman/Italian baths and militate against hypotheses of Roman/Italian diffusion. A final note examines the ramifications of this conclusion to the issue of Roman acculturation in Palestine, and its integration into future work on Roman-Palestinian provincial control.