Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T02:15:35.235Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - A Global Antiquity, 500 BC–AD 542

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2014

John L. Brooke
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Get access

Summary

The Problem of Growth in Antiquity

Throughout global prehistory during the last four millennia BC, the trajectory and pulse of climate change provided one of the fundamental variables in the human condition, establishing the boundaries within which life was conducted. Under these conditions, it is safe to say, population growth rarely came near to overwhelming local resources. In general, however, populations did grow, particularly in the Old World centers running from the eastern Mediterranean to China. Here obviously the slow, incremental advance of techno-agrarian adjustment of the inheritance of the Late Neolithic “secondary products revolution” played a fundamental role, as slight improvements in material culture allowed populations to expand slowly but inexorably, the trajectory of their increase regularly set back by natural disasters of various scales. The net result seems to fit the economist’s model of the Malthusian stalemate: by this account, as populations rose or as climates shifted slightly, people either moved or gradually adopted new crops and new techniques in Boserupian intensifications that may have temporarily improved conditions until the slow rise in numbers or another refraction in climate washed out the improved effect.

Such is the classic account. But the world historians see another dynamic at work, an incremental, cyclical ratcheting of culture and technology, best expressed in Jack Goldstone’s framework of efflorescences, or Eric Jones’s “growth recurring.” These pulses in the human condition can be dated from earliest agricultural origins, but start more markedly with the Late Neolithic intensification of agrarian practice and mastery of ceramics. Out of the kiln and glazing would evolve the knowledge of metals that has underwritten all subsequent economies, and at the time shaped the accumulation of political power that would be structured by and perpetuate the material memory systems of writing and monumental art.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Wood, James W., “A Theory of Preindustrial Population Dynamics: Demography, Economy, and Well-Being in Malthusian Systems,” CA 39 (1998), 99–216Google Scholar
Goldstone, Jack A., “Efflorescences and Economic Growth in World History: Rethinking the ‘Rise of the West’ and the Industrial Revolution,” JWH 13 (2002), 323–90Google Scholar
Jones, Eric L., Growth Recurring: Economic Change in World History (Ann Arbor, MI, 2000 [1988])
Wagner, Donald B., Iron and Steel in Ancient China (Leiden, 1993), 97–146
Bronson, Bennet, “The Transition to Iron in Ancient China,” in Pigott, Vincent C., ed., The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World (Philadelphia, PA, 1999), 177–98
von Falkenhausen, Luthar, “The Waning of the Bronze Age: Material Culture and Social Developments, 770–481 B. C.,” in Loewe, Michael and Shaughnessy, Edward L., eds., The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C (New York, 1999), 525–39.
Wagner, Donald B., The State and the Iron Industry in Han China (Copenhagen, 2001)
Elvin, Mark, The Pattern of the Chinese Past (Stanford, CA, 1973), 23–4
Sadao, Nishimjima, “The Economic and Social History of the Former Han,” in Twitchett, Denis and Loewe, Michael, eds., The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 1: The Ch’in and Han Empires, 221 BC–AD 220 (New York, 1986), 561–6
Temple, Robert, The Genius of China (New York, 1986), 15–27.
Wikander, Örjan, “Water-Mills in Ancient Rome,” Opuscula Romana 12 (1979), 13–36Google Scholar
Lewis, M. J. T., Millstone and Hammer: The Origins of Water-Power (Hull, 1998), 13–73
Wikander, Örjan, “The Water Mill,” in Örjan Wikander, Handbook of Ancient Water Technology (Leiden, 2000), 394–8
Wilson, Andrew, “Machines, Power, and the Ancient Economy,” JRS 92 (2002), 9–17Google Scholar
Russo, Lucio, The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300BC and Why It Had to Be Reborn, Silvio Levy, trans. (Berlin, 2004 [Milan, 1996]), 124–5
Schneider, Helmuth, “Technology,” in Scheidel, Walter et al., eds., The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World (New York, 2007), 144–71
Sherratt, Andrew, “The Trans-Eurasian Exchange: The Prehistory of Chinese Relations with the West,” in Mair, Victor H., ed., Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World (Honolulu, HI, 2006), 30–61.
Hall, Bert, “Lynn White’s Medieval Technology and Social Change after Thirty Years,” in Fox, Robert, ed., Technological Change: Methods and Themes in the History of Technology (London, 1996), 85–101
Greene, Kevin, “Technology and Innovation in Context: The Roman Background to Mediaeval and Later Developments,” JRA 7 (1994), 22–33.Google Scholar
Greene, Kevin, “Technological Innovation and Economic Progress in the Ancient World: M. I. Finley Reconsidered,” EconHistR 53 (2000), 55Google Scholar
Greene, Kevin, The Archaeology of the Roman Economy (London, 1986), 170
Taagepera, Rein, “Size and Duration of Empires Systematics of Size”; –, “Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 3000 to 600BC,” Social Science Research 7 (1978), 108–27, 180–96Google Scholar
McEvedy, Colin and Jones, Richard, Atlas of World Population History (New York, 1978)
Biraben, Jean Noël, “Essai sur L’Évolution di Nombre des Hommes,” Population 34 (1979), 13–24, at p. 16Google Scholar
Christian, David, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (Berkeley, CA, 2004), 344–5
Morley, Neville, “The Transformation of Italy, 225–28 B. C.,” JRS 91 (2001), 50–62Google Scholar
Scheidel, Walter, “Human Mobility in Roman Italy, I: The Free Population,” JRS 94 (2004), 2–3.Google Scholar
Lieberman, Victor, Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830. Vol. II: Mainland Mirrors: Europe, Japan, China, South Asia and the Islands (New York, 2009)
Camp, John M., “Drought and Famine in the 4th Century B.C.,” Hesperia Supplements 20 (1982), 9–17Google Scholar
–, “A Drought in the Late 8th Century B.C.,” Hesperia 48 (1979), 397–411
Scheidel, Walter, “The Greek Demographic Expansion: Models and Comparisons,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 123 (2003), 130, n 57Google Scholar
Martin-Puetra, Celia, “Arid and Humid Phases in Southern Spain during the Last 4000 Years: The Zoñar Lake Record, Córdoba,” Holocene 18 (2008), 907–21Google Scholar
Giraudi, C. et al., “The Holocene Climatic Evolution of Mediterranean Italy: A Review of the Continental Geological Data,” Holocene 21 (2011), 105–15Google Scholar
Magny, Michel et al., “Late-Holocene Climatic Variability South of the Alps as Recorded by Lake-Level Fluctuations at Lake Ledro, Trentino, Italy,” Holocene 19 (2009), 575–89Google Scholar
Holzhauser, Hanspeter et al., “Glacier and Lake-Level Variations in West-Central Europe over the Last 3500 Years,” Holocene 15 (2009), 789–801Google Scholar
Macklin, M. G., “Past Hydrological Events Reflected in the Holocene Fluvial Record of Europe,” Catena 66 (2006), 145–54Google Scholar
Kuzucuoğlu, Catherine et al., “Mid- to Late-Holocene Climate Change in Central Turkey: The Tecer Lake Record,” Holocene 21 (2011), 183Google Scholar
Kroonenberg, S. B. et al., “Solar-Forced 2600 BP and Little Ice Age Highstands of the Caspian Sea,” QuatInt 173–4 (2007), 137–43Google Scholar
van Geel, B., “Climate Change and the Expansion of the Scythian Culture after 850 BC: A Hypothesis,” JArchS 31 (2004), 1735–42Google Scholar
Schlütz, Frank and Lehmkuhl, Frank, “Climatic Change in the Russian Altai, Southern Siberia, Based on Palynological and Geomorphological Results, with Implications for Climatic Teleconnections and Human History since the Middle Holocene,” VHAb 16 (2007), 101–18Google Scholar
Dirksen, V. G. et al., “Chronology of Holocene Climate and Vegetation Changes and Their Connection to Cultural Dynamics in Southern Siberia,” Radiocarbon 49 (2007), 1103–21.Google Scholar
Terrenato, Nicola, “The Essential Countryside of the Roman World,” in Alcock, Susan E. and Osborne, Robin, eds., Classical Archaeology (Malden, MA, 2007), 139–61, esp. 140–3
Buntgen, Ulf et al., “2500 Years of European Climate Variability and Human Susceptibility,” Science 331 (2011), 578–82Google Scholar
Frederik, C.Ljungqvist, “A New Reconstruction of Temperature Variability in the Extra-Tropical Northern Hemisphere during the Last Two Millennia,” Geografiska Annaler: Series A 92 (2010), 339–51Google Scholar
Tiljander, Mia et al., “A 3000-Year Palaeoenvironmental Record from Annually Laminated Sediment of Lake Korttajärvi, Central Finland,” Boreas 32 (2003), 566–77.Google Scholar
Crumley, Carole L., “The Ecology of Conquest: Contrasting Agropastoral and Agricultural Societies’ Adaptation to Climatic Change,” in Crumley, Carole L., ed., Historical Ecology: Cultural Knowledge and Changing Landscapes (Santa Fe, NM, 1994), 183–201
Fagan, Brian, The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization (New York, 2004), 189–212.
Chang, Chun-shu, The Rise of the Chinese Empire: Nation, State, and Imperialism in Early China, ca. 1600 B.C.–A.D. 8 (Ann Arbor, MI, 2007)
Craig, Albert M., The Heritage of Chinese Civilization, second edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2007), 32–41
Barnes, Gina L., The Rise of Civilization in East Asia: The Archaeology of China, Korea, and Japan (London, 1999), 168–91, 222–45
Farris, William Wayne, Daily Life and Demographics in Ancient Japan (Ann Arbor, MI, 2009), 9, 102–3
Yancheva, Gergana et al., “Influence of the Intertropical Convergence Zone on the East Asian Monsoon,” Nature 445 (2007), 74–7.Google Scholar
Richardson, James B., People of the Andes (Washington, DC, 1994), 101–21
Evans, Susan Toby, Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History (New York, 2008), 253–81, 291–314
Hodell, David et al., “Terminal Classic Drought in the Northern Maya Lowlands Inferred from Multiple Sediment Cores in Lake Chichancanab (Mexico),” QSR 24 (2005), 1413–27Google Scholar
Haug, Gerald et al., “Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization,” Science 299 (2003), 1731–5Google Scholar
deMenocal, Peter B., “Cultural Responses to Climate Change during the Late Holocene,” Science 292 (2001),” 670–1Google Scholar
Hodell, David et al., “Solar Forcing of Drought Frequency in the Maya Lowlands,” Science 292 (2001), 1367–70.Google Scholar
Rosenstein, Nathan, Rome at War: Farms, Families and Death in the Middle Republic (Chapel Hill, NC, 2004)
Hopkins, Keith, Conquerors and Slaves (Cambridge, 1978), 1–115
Whitmore, Thomas M. et al., “Long Term Population Change,” in Turner, B. L. et al., The Earth as Transformed by Human Action: Global and Regional Changes in the Biosphere over the Past 300 Years (Cambridge, 1990), 27–30
Adams, Robert McC., Land behind Baghdad: A History of Settlement of the Dyala Plains (Chicago, IL, 1965), 61–83
Christensen, Peter, The Decline of Iranshahr: Irrigation and Environments in the History of the Middle East, 500 B.C. to A.D. 1500 (Copenhagen, 1993), 49–72
McNeill, John R. and McNeill, William H., The Human Web: A Bird’s Eye View of World History (New York, 2003), 85–6.
Finley, Moses I., “Technical Progress and Economic Growth in the Ancient World,” EconHistR 2nd ser., 18 (1965), 29–45Google Scholar
Finley, Moses I., The Ancient Economy (London, 1973)
Frederikssen, M. W., “Theory, Evidence and the Ancient Economy,” JRS 65 (1975), 164–71Google Scholar
Andreau, Jean, “Twenty Years after Moses I. Finley’s The Ancient Economy,” and Richard Saller, “Framing the Debate over the Ancient Economy,” in Scheidel, Walter and Reden, Sitta von, eds., The Ancient Economy (New York, 2002), 33–49, 251–69
Millet, Paul, “Productive to Some Purpose? The Problem of Ancient Economic Growth,” in Mattingly, David J. and Salmon, John, eds., Economies beyond Agriculture in the Classical World (London, 2001), 17–48
Bang, Peter F., The Imperial Bazaar: A Comparative Study of Trade and Market in a Tributary Empire (Cambridge, 2008)
Bang, Peter F. et al., “Introduction,” and Elio Lo Cascio, “The Role of the State in the Roman Economy: Making Use of the New Institutional Economics,” in Bang, Peter F. et al., Ancient Economies, Modern Methodologies: Archaeology, Comparative History, Models and Institutions (Bari, 2006), 16–21, 215–34
Hitchner, R. Bruce, Saller, Richard, and Greif, Avner in Manning, J. G. and Morris, Ian, eds., The Ancient Economy: Evidence and Models (Stanford, CA, 2005), 207–42.
Garnsey, Peter, Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World (Cambridge, 1988), 150–64
Jameson, Michael, “Famine in the Greek World,” and “Peter Garnsey, “Famine in Rome,” in Garnsey, Peter and Whitaker, C. R., eds., Trade and Famine in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge, 1983), 6–16, 56–65
Temin, Peter, “A Market Economy in the Early Roman Empire,” JRS 91 (2001), 169–81Google Scholar
Temin, Peter, “Financial Intermediation in the Early Roman Empire,” JEconH 64 (2004), 705–33Google Scholar
Kessler, David and Temin, Peter, “The Organization of the Grain Trade in the Early Roman Empire,” EconHistR 60 (2007), 313–32.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Keith, “Introduction,” in Garnsey, Peter et al., eds., Trade in the Ancient Economy (London, 1983), xiv
Parker, A. J., Ancient Shipwrecks of the Mediterranean and the Roman Provinces (London, 1992), 10ff
Hopkins, Keith, “Models, Ships, and Trade,” in Garnsey, and Whittaker, , eds., Trade and Famine in Classical Antiquity, 84–109
Ward-Perkins, Bryan, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization (New York, 2005), 87–120, esp. 100–4
Peacock, D. P. S. and Williams, D. F., Amphorae and the Roman Economy: An Introductory Guide (London, 1986), 54–66
Going, C. J., “Economic ‘Long Waves’ in the Roman Period? A Reconnaissance of the Romano-British Evidence,” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 11 (1992), 93–117Google Scholar
Patterson, Helen and Rovelli, Alessia, “Ceramics and Cons in the Middle Tiber Valley from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries AD,” in Patterson, Helen, ed., Bridging the Tiber: Approaches to Regional Archaeology in the Middle Tiber Valley (Rome, 2004), 269–84
Arthur, Paul and Patterson, Helen, “Ceramics and Early Medieval Central and Southern Italy: ‘A Potted History,’” in Francovich, Riccardo and Noyé, Ghislaine, eds., La Storia dell’Alto Medioevo italiano (VI-X secolo) alla luce dell’archeologia (Firenze, 1994), 409–42.
Nriagu, Jerome O, “Tales Told in Lead,” Science 281 (1998), 1622–3Google Scholar
Rosman, Kevin J. R. et al., “Lead from Carthaginian and Roman Spanish Mines Isotopically Identified in Greenland Ice Dated from 600 B.C. to 300 A.D.,” EnvSciTech 31 (1997), 3413–16Google Scholar
Hong, Sungmin et al., “History of Copper Smelting Pollution during Roman and Medieval Times Recorded in Greenland Ice,” Science 272 (1996), 246–9Google Scholar
Hong, Sungmin et al., “Greenland Ice Evidence of Hemispheric Lead Pollution Two Millennia Ago by Greek and Roman Civilizations,” Science 265 (1994), 1841–3.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Keith, “Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire, (200 B.C.–A.D. 400),” JRS 70 (1980), 101–25Google Scholar
King, Anthony, “Diet in the Roman World: A Regional Inter-Site Comparison of the Mammal Bones,” JRA 12 (1999), 168–202Google Scholar
MacKinnon, Michael, Production and Consumption of Animals in Roman Italy (Portsmouth, RI, 2004), esp. 189–240.
Mattingly, David J., “First Fruit? The Olive in the Roman World,” in Shipley, Graham and Salmon, John, eds., Human Landscapes in Classical Antiquity: Environment and Culture (London, 1996), 213–54
Fall, Patricia L. et al., “Agricultural Intensification and the Secondary Products Revolution along the Jordan Rift,” HumEcol 30 (2002), esp. 466–73.Google Scholar
Allen, Robert C., “How Prosperous Were the Romans? Evidence from Diocletian’s Price Edict (301 AD),” in Bowman, Alan and Wilson, Andrew, eds., Quantifying the Roman Economy (New York, 2009), 327–45
Ghisleni, Mariaelena et al., “Excavating the Roman Peasant I: Excavations at Pievina (GR),” PBSRom 79 (2011), 95–145Google Scholar
Jongman, Willem presents a detailed assessment of the Roman economy that broadly concurs with my analysis in “Re-constructing the Roman economy,” in Larry Neil and Jeffrey Williamson, eds., The Cambridge History of Capitalism, vol. 1 (New York, 2014), 75–100
Scheidel, Walter, “In Search of Roman Economic Growth,” JRA 22 (2009), 46–70Google Scholar
Scheidel, Walter and Friesen, Steven J., “The Size of the Economy and the Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire,” JRS 99 (2009), 61–91Google Scholar
Scheidel, Walter, “Stratification, Deprivation and Quality of Life,” in Atkins, Margaret and Osborne, Robin, eds., Poverty in the Roman World (New York, 2006), 40–59
Harris, William V., Rome’s Imperial Economy: Twelve Essays (New York, 2011), 27–54, 257–87
Wilson, Andrew, “Indicators for Roman Economic Growth: A Response to Walter Scheidel,” JRA 22 (2009), 71–82Google Scholar
Morley, Neville, Metropolis and Hinterland: The City of Rome and the Italian Economy (London, 1996)
Boatwright, Mary T. et al., The Romans: From Village to Empire (New York, 2004), 144–6
Christie, Neil, From Constantine to Charlemagne: An Archaeology of Italy, AD 300–800 (Aldershot, 2006), 428–37
Dark, Ken, “The Late Antique Landscape of Britain, AD 300–700,” in Christie, Neil, ed., Landscapes of Change: Rural Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Aldershot, 2004), 279–300.
Lawrence Angel, J., “Health as a Crucial Factor in the Changes from Hunting to Developed Farming in the Eastern Mediterranean,” in Cohen, Mark N. and Armelagos, George J., eds., Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture (New York, 1984), 65
Bennike, Pia, Paleopathology of Danish Skeletons: A Comparative Study of Demography, Disease and Injury (Copenhagen, 1985), 51
Roberts, Charlotte and Cox, Margaret, “The Impact of Economic Intensification and Social Complexity on Human Health in Britain from 6000 BP (Neolithic) and the Introduction of Farming to the Mid-Nineteenth Century AD,” in Cohen, Mark Nathan and Crane-Kramer, Gillian M. M., eds., Ancient Health: Skeletal Indicators of Agricultural and Economic Intensification (Gainesville, FL, 2007), 149–63
Roberts, Charlotte and Cox, Margaret, Health and Disease in Britain from Prehistory to the Present Day (Thrupp, Glouc., 2003), 101–3, 131–2, 135–6, 140–1, 396
Giannecchini, Monica and Moggi-Cecchi, Jacopo, “Stature in Archeological Samples from Central Italy: Methodological Issues and Diachronic Changes,” AJPA 135 (2008), 284–92Google Scholar
Garnsey, Peter, Food and Society in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge, 1999), 57–9
Bisel, Sara C. and Bisel, Jane F., “Health and Nutrition at Herculaneum,” in Jashemski, Wilhelmina F. and Meyer, Frederick G., eds., The Natural History of Pompeii (Cambridge, 2002), 451–75
Koepke, Nikola and Baten, Joerg, “The Biological Standard of Living in Europe during the Last Two Millennia,” EREconH 9 (2005), 61–95, at 76, 77Google Scholar
Randsborg, Klavs, “Barbarians, Classical Antiquity and the Rise of Western Europe: An Archaeological Essay,” P&P 137 (1992), 8–24.Google Scholar
Sallares, Robert, Malaria and Rome: A History of Malaria in Ancient Italy (Oxford, 2002)
Woods, Robert, “Ancient and Early Modern Mortality: Experience and Understanding,” EconHistR (2007), 373–99Google Scholar
Scobie, Alex, “Slums, Sanitation, and Mortality in the Roman World,” Klio 68 (1986) 399–422Google Scholar
Lewis, Mary E., “Life and Death in a Civitas Capital: Metabolic Disease and Trauma in the Children from Late Dorset Dorchester, Dorset,” AJPA 142 (2010), 405–16Google Scholar
Prowse, Tracy L. et al., “Isotopic and Dental Evidence for Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices in an Imperial Roman Skeletal Sample,” AJPA 137 (2008), 294–308Google Scholar
Prowse, Tracy L. et al., “Isotopic Evidence for Age-Related Variation in Diet from Isola Sacra, Italy,” AJPA 128 (2000), 2–13Google Scholar
Koepke, Nikola and Baten, Joerg, “Agricultural Specialization and Height in Ancient and Medieval Europe,” ExpEconH 45 (2008), 127–46Google Scholar
Craig, Oliver E. et al., “Stable Isotopic Evidence for Diet at the Imperial Coastal Site of Velia (1st and 2nd Centuries AD) in Southern Italy,” AJPA 139 (2009), 572–83.Google Scholar
Steckel, Richard H., “Nutritional Status in the Colonial Economy,” WMQ, 3d ser., 56 (1999), 34Google Scholar
–, “Stature and the Standard of Living,” JEconL 33 (1995), 1908–40
Brown, Peter R. L., The World of Late Antiquity: From Marcus Aurelius to Muhammed (London, 1971)
–, “The World of Late Antiquity Revisited,” Symbolae Osloenses 72 (1997), 5–30
Heather, Peter, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians (Oxford, 2006)
Ward-Perkins, Bryan, “Continuitists, Catastrophists, and the Towns of Post-Roman Northern Italy,” PBSRom 67 (1997), 157–76.Google Scholar
Waldron, H. A., “Lead Poisoning in the Ancient World,” Medical History 17 (1973), 391–9Google Scholar
Nriagu, J. O., Lead and Lead Poisoning in Antiquity (New York, 1983)
Scarborough, John, “The Myth of Lead Poisoning among the Romans: A Review Essay,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 39 (1984), 469–75.Google Scholar
Duncan-Jones, Richard, “Economic Change and the Transition to Late Antiquity,” in Swain, Simon and Edward, Mark, eds., Approaching Late Antiquity: The Transformation from Early to Late Empire (Oxford, 2004), 20–52
Barker, Graeme, “A Tale of Two Deserts: Contrasting Desertification Histories on Rome’s Desert Frontiers,” WdArch 33 (2002), 488–507, esp. 496–504Google Scholar
Horden, Peregrine and Purcell, Nicholas, The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History (Malden, MA, 2000), 298–341
Grove, A. T. and Rackham, Oliver, The Nature of Mediterranean Europe: An Ecological History (New Haven, CT, 2001), esp. 288–311
McNeill, John R., The Mountains of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History (New York, 1992), 72–84
Allen, J. R. M. et al., “Holocene Environmental Variability – the Record from Lago Grande di Monticchio, Italy,” QuatInt 88 (2002), 69–80Google Scholar
Schulte, Lothar, “Climatic and Human Influence on River Systems and Glacial Fluctuations in Southeast Spain since the Late Glacial Maximum,” QuatInt 93–4 (2002), 85–100Google Scholar
Magny, Michael et al., “Assessment of the Impact of Climate and Anthropogenic Factors on Holocene Mediterranean Vegetation in Europe on the basis of Palaeohydrological Records,” PPP 186 (2002), 47–59Google Scholar
Sadori, Laura and Narcisi, Biancamaria, “The Postglacial Record of Environmental History from Lago di Pergusa, Sicily,” The Holocene 11 (2001), 655–701Google Scholar
Jalut, Guy et al., “Holocene Climatic Changes in the Western Mediterranean, from South-East France to South-East Spain,” PPP 160 (2000), 255–90Google Scholar
Oldfield, F. et al., “A High Resolution Late Holocene Palaeo Environmental Record from the Central Adriatic Sea,” QSR 22 (2003), 319–42Google Scholar
Chester, David K. and James, Peter A., “Late Pleistocene and Holocene Landscape Development in the Algarve Region, Southern Portugal,” Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 12 (1999), 169–96Google Scholar
Hughes, J. Donald continues to argue for a degradation in recent work, including “Environmental Impacts of the Roman Economy and Social Structure: Augustus to Diocletian,” in Hornberg, Alf et al., Rethinking Environmental History: World-System History and GEC (Lanham, MD, 2007), 27–40
Casana, Jesse, “Mediterranean Valleys Revisited: Linking Soil Erosion, Land Use and Climate Variability in the Northern Levant,” Geomorphology 101 (2008), 429–42, quote from p. 438Google Scholar
Zielhofer, Christoph, “Sedimentation and Soil Formation Phases in the Ghardimaou Basin (Northern Tunisia) during the Holocene,” QuatInt 93–4 (2002), 109–25, esp. 122Google Scholar
Benvenuti, M. et al., “Late-Holocene Catastrophic Floods in the Terminal Arno River (Pisa, Central Italy) from the Story of a Roman Riverine Harbor,” Holocene 16 (2006), 863–76Google Scholar
Viti-Finzi, C., “Fluvial Solar Signals,” in Gallagher, K. et al., eds., Landscape Evolution: Denudation, Climate and Tectonic of Different Times and Space Scales (London, 2008), 106–15
Cheyette, Fredric L., “The Disappearance of the Ancient Landscape and the Climatic Anomaly of the Early Middle Ages: A Question to be Pursued,” Early Medieval Europe 16 (2008), 127–65, esp. 157–64Google Scholar
Woodbridge, Jessie and Roberts, Neil, “Late Holocene Climate of the Eastern Mediterranean Inferred from Diatom Analysis of Annually-Laminated Lake Deposits,” QSR 30 (2011), 3381–92.Google Scholar
McCormick, Michael et al., “Climate Change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence,” JInterdH 43 (2012), 169–220Google Scholar
Manning, Sturt, “The Roman World and Climate: Context, Relevance of Climate Change, and Some Issues,” in W. V. Harris, ed., The Ancient Mediterranean Environment between Science and History (Leiden: E.J. Brill 2013), 103–70
McNeill, William H., Plagues and Peoples (New York, 1977), 97–128
McCormack, Michael, “Toward a Molecular History of the Justinianic Plague,” in Little, Lester K., ed., Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541–750 (New York, 2007), 302–4
Cui, Yujun et al., “Historical Variations in Mutation Rate in an Epidemic Pathogen, Yersinia pestis,” PNAS 110 (2013), 577–82, at 579Google Scholar
Duncan-Jones, R. P., “The Impact of the Antonine Plague,” JRA 6 (1996), 108–36Google Scholar
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen, ed., World Epidemics: A Cultural History of Disease from Prehistory to the Era of SARS (Jefferson, NC, 2003), 19–26
Stathakopoulos, Dionysios Ch., Famine and Pestilence in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Empire: A Systematic Survey of Subsistence Crises and Epidemics (Aldershot, 2004)
Horden, Peregrine, “Mediterranean Plague in the Age of Justinian,” in Maas, Michael, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (New York, 2005), 134–60
Harbeck, Michael et al., “Yersinia Pestis DNA from Skeletal Remains from the 6th Century AD Reveals Insights into Justinianic Plague,” PLOS Pathogens 9 (2013), e1003349Google Scholar
Drancourt, Michel et al., “Yersinia Pestis Orientalis in Remains of Ancient Plague Patients,” EmInfDis 13 (2007), 332–3Google Scholar
Wiechman, Ingrid and Grupe, Gisela, “Detection of Yersinia Pestis DNA in Two Early Medieval Skeletal Finds from Aschheim (Upper Bavaria, 6th Century A.D.),” AJPA 126 (2005), 48–55Google Scholar
Drancourt, Michel et al., “Genotyping, Orientalis-like Yersinia Pestis, and Plague-like Pandemics,” EmInfDis 10 (2004), 1585–92.Google Scholar
Jongman, Willem, “Roman Economic Change and the Antonine Plague: Endogenous, Exogenous, or What?” in Lo Cascio, E., ed., L’impatto della “peste antonina” (Bari, 2012), 253–63
Morelli, Giovanna, “Yesinia Pestis Genome Sequencing Identifies Patterns of Global Phylogenetic Diversity,” NatGen 42 (2010), 1140–3.Google Scholar
Ward-Perkins, Bryan, “Land, Labor, and Settlement,” in Cameron, Averil et al., The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. XIV: Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425–600 (Cambridge, 2000), 320–7
Lewit, Tamara, Agricultural Production in the Roman Economy, A.D. 200–400 (Oxford, 1990), 27–55
Vanhaverbeke, H. et al., “Late Antiquity in the Territory of Sagalassos,” and Fabio Saggioro, “Late Antique Settlement on the Plain of Verona,” in William Bowden et al., Recent Research on the Late Antique Countryside (Leiden, 2004), 247–81, 505–34
Fentress, Elizabeth et al., “Accounting for ARS: Finewares and Sites in Sicily and Africa,” in Alcock, Susan E. and Cherry, John F., eds., Side-by-Side Survey: Comparative Regional Studies in the Mediterranean World (Oxford, 2004), 147–62, esp. 148–9
Jones, A. H. M., The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey (Norman, OK, 1964), 812–23, 1040–5
Francovich, Riccardo and Hodge, Richard, Villa to Village: The Transformation of the Roman Countryside in Italy, c. 400–1000 (London, 2003), 61–74
Stark, Rodney, The Rise of Christianity (Princeton, NJ, 1997), 73–94, 113–16
Keys, David, Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World (New York, 1999), quote from 149–50
Gunn, Joel, ed., The Years without Summer: Tracing A.D. 536 and Its Aftermath (Oxford, 2000)
Antoniou, Ionnis and Sinakos, Anastasios K., “The Sixth-Century Plague, Its Repeated Appearance until 746AD and the Explosion of the Rabaul Volcano,” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 98 (2005), 1–4.Google Scholar
Stothers, R. B., “Volcanic Dry Fogs, Climate Cooling, and Plague Pandemics in Europe and the Middle East,” ClimCh 42 (1999), 713–23Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×