Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T02:17:10.965Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - The Global Dark and Middle Ages, AD 542–1350

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2014

John L. Brooke
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Get access

Summary

The millennium from AD 500 to AD 1500 is suffering from an identity crisis. The convenient labels of Dark Ages and Middle Ages have come under attack from historians seeking to unsettle our standard narrative chronology, and to get at the qualities of lived experience during these centuries. Peter Brown led the way, smoothing out the discontinuities between an Age of Rome and the Middle Ages with the construct of a “Late Antiquity” running from roughly AD 400 to AD 900, condemning the Dark Ages to outer darkness. At the other end of the spectrum, the terms late medieval and early modern, covering the period from 1350 to 1815, are equally problematic because the people of the period had no sense of themselves as ending the Middle Ages or launching “modernity,” at least before 1700. In general, historians are questioning the cultural periodization of the entire domain before 1700, proposing that it all should simply be seen as premodern. Then of course there is the question of whether modernity is a universal, or a term fundamentally a feature of North Atlantic societies from some time in the eighteenth century.

When I wear my hat as a cultural historian, I am happy to engage in these debates, but the older terms make some sense from an earth systems perspective. Here we enter directly into Victor Lieberman’s world of “strange parallels.” Just as they uncannily support traditional understandings of the chronology of a longer antiquity running between 3000 BC and the “fall of Rome,” the boundaries and constraints imposed by the action of climate and disease broadly reinforce the traditional historical chronology for the next millennium. Climate and disease made Brown’s Late Antiquity a tough time in both hemispheres, perhaps a “Dark Age.”

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

Brown, Peter, The World of Late Antiquity: From Marcus Aurelius to Muhammed (London, 1971)
Ward-Perkins, Bryan, “Continuitists, Catastrophists, and the Towns of Post-Roman Northern Italy,” PBSRom 67 (1997), 157–76Google Scholar
Kaminsky, Howard, “From Lateness to Waning to Crisis: The Burden of the Later Middle Ages,” Journal of Early Modern Europe 4 (2000), 85–125Google Scholar
Symes, Carol, “When We Talk about Modernity,” AHR 116 (2011), 715–26.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), 79–84.
Haug, Gerald et al., “Southward Migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone through the Holocene,” Science 293 (2001), 1304–8Google Scholar
Moy, Christopher M., “Variability of El Niño/Southern Oscillation Activity at Millennial Timescales during the Holocene Epoch,” Nature 420 (2002), 162–5Google Scholar
Rodbell, Donald et al., “An ~15,000-Year Record of El Niño-Driven Alluviation in Southwestern Ecuador,” Science 283 (1999), 516–20Google Scholar
Sinha, Ashish et al., “The Leading Mode of Indian Summer Monsoon Precipitation Variability during the Last Millennium,” GRL 38 (2011), L15703Google Scholar
Tan, L. et al., “Climate Patterns in North Central China during the Last 1800 yr and the Possible Driving Force,” Climates of the Past 7 (2011), 685–92Google Scholar
von Rad, U. et al., “A 5000-Yr Record of Climate Change in Varved Sediments from the Oxygen Minimum Zone off Pakistan, Northeastern Arabian Sea,” QuatRes 51 (1999), 39–53Google Scholar
McCormick, Michael et al., “Climate Change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence,” JInterdH 43 (2012), 169–220, esp. 191–202Google Scholar
Thapar, Romila, Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 (London, 2002), 280–9, 332–4
Walsh, Judith E., A Brief History of India (New York, 2006), 47–50, 57–62
Kaniewski, D. et al., “The Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age in Coastal Syria Inferred from Pollen-Derived Palaeoclimatic Patterns,” GPC 78 (2011), 178–87Google Scholar
Woodbridge, Jessie and Roberts, Neil, “Late Holocene Climate of the Eastern Mediterranean Inferred from Diatom Analysis of Annually-Laminated Lake Sediments,” QSR 30 (2011), 3381–92Google Scholar
Kuzucuoğlu, Catherine et al., “Mid- to Late-Holocene Climate Change in Central Turkey: The Tecer Lake Record,” Holocene 21 (2011), 183Google Scholar
Bar-Matthews, Mira et al., “Middle to Late Holocene (6,500 Yr. Period) Paleoclimate in the Eastern Mediterranean Region from Stable Isotopic Composition of Spelothems from Soreq Cave, Israel,” in Issar, Arie S. and Brown, Neville, eds., Water, Environment and Society in Times of Change (Dordrecht, 1998), 127–45, 203–14
Watson, Andrew M., Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700–1100 (Cambridge, 1983)
Adams, Robert McC., Land behind Baghdad: A History of Settlement of the Dyala Plains (Chicago, IL, 1965), 97–102
Bulliet, Richard, Cotton, Climate, and Camels in Early Islamic Iran: A Moment in World History (New York, 2009)
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)
Decker, Michael, “Plants and Progress: Rethinking the Islamic Agricultural Revolution, JWH 20 (2009), 187–206Google Scholar
Moseley, Michael E., The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru, rev. ed. (London, 2001), 223–43
Richardson, James B., People of the Andes (Washington, DC, 1994), 101–21, 129–30, 133, 135
Thompson, L. G. et al., “Glacial Records of Global Climate: A 1500-Year Tropical Ice Core Record of Climate,” HumEcol 22 (1994), 83–95Google Scholar
Shimada, Izumi et al., “Cultural Impacts of Severe Droughts in the Prehistoric Andes: Application of a 1,500-Year Ice Core Precipitation Record,” WdArch 22 (1991), 247–70Google Scholar
Binford, Michael W., “Climate Variation and the Rise and Fall of an Andean Civilization,” QuatRes 47 (1997), 235–48Google Scholar
Williams, Patrick Ryan, “Rethinking Disaster-Induced Collapse in the Demise of the Andean Highland States: Wari and Tiwanaku,” WdArch 33 (2002), 361–74Google Scholar
Dillehay, Tom D. and Klata, Alan L., “Long-Term Human Response to Uncertain Environmental Conditions in the Andes,” PNAS 101 (2004), 4325–50Google Scholar
deMenocal, Peter B., “Cultural Responses to Climate Change during the Holocene,” Science 292 (2001), 667–73, esp. 671–2Google Scholar
Dillehay, Tom et al., “Pre-Industrial Human and Environmental Interactions in Northern Peru during the Late Holocene,” Holocene 14 (2004), 272–81Google Scholar
Manners, R. B. et al., “Floodplain Development, El Niño, and Cultural Consequences in a Hyperarid Andean Environment,” Annals of Association of American Geographers 97 (2007), 229–49Google Scholar
Paulson, Allison C., “Environment and Empire: Climatic Factors in Prehistoric Andean Culture Change,” WdArch 8 (1976), 121–32.Google Scholar
Ponting, Clive, A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations (New York, 1991), 78–83
Redman, Charles L., Human Impact on Ancient Environments (Tucson, AZ, 1999), 139–46
Diamond, Jared, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (New York, 2005), 157–77.
Gill, R. B., The Great Maya Drought: Water, Life, and Death (Albuquerque, NM, 2000)
Evans, Susan Toby, Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History (New York, 2008), 317–48
Yancheva, Gergena et al., “Influence of the Intertropical Convergence Zone on the East Asian Monsoon,” Nature 445 (2007), 74–7Google Scholar
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
Hodell, David et al., “Solar Forcing of Drought Frequency in the Maya Lowlands,” Science 292 (2001), 1367–70Google Scholar
Dunning, Nicholas P. et al., “Kaz and Kol: Collapse and Resilience in Lowland Maya Civilization,” PNAS 109 (2012), 3652–7Google Scholar
McAnamy, Patricia A. and Negron, Tomas Gallareta, “Bellicose Rulers and Climatological Peril? Retrofitting Twenty-First Century Woes on Eighth-Century Mayan Society,” in McAnamy, Patricia A. and Yoffee, Norman, eds., Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability and the Aftermath of Empire (New York, 2010), 142–75, esp. 159–63
Yeager, Jason and Hodell, David A., “The Collapse of Mayan Civilizations: Assessing the Interaction of Culture, Climate, and Environment,” in Sandweiss, Daniel H. and Quilter, Jeffrey, eds., El Niño, Catastrophism, and Cultural Change in Ancient America (Washington, DC, 2008), 187–242
Hodell, David A., “Climate and Cultural History of the Northwestern Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo, Mexico,” ClimCh 83 (2007), 215–70, quote from 238Google Scholar
Acuna-Soto, Rodolfo et al., “Drought, Epidemic Disease, and the Fall of Classical Period Cultures in Mesoamerica (AD 750–950): Hemorrhagic Fevers as a Cause of Massive Population Loss,” MedHyp 65 (2005), 405–9.Google Scholar
Zhang, Pingzhong et al., “A Test of Climate, Sun, and Culture Relationships from a 1810-Year Chinese Cave Record,” Science 322 (2008), 940–2Google Scholar
Osborn, Timothy A. and Briffa, Keith R., “The Special Extent of 20th-Century Warmth in the Context of the Past 1200 Years,” Science 311 (2006), 841–4Google Scholar
Wright, Arthur F., “The Sui Dynasty (581–617),” in Twitchett, Denis, ed., The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 3: Sui and T’ang China, 589–906, Part I (Cambridge, 1979), 144–60.
McNeill, William H., Plagues and Peoples (New York, 1976), 147–9.
Graham, Nicholas E. et al., “Tropical Pacific – Mid-Latitude Teleconnections in Medieval Times,” ClimCh 83 (2007), 241–85, esp. 276–7Google Scholar
McCormick, Michael et al., “Volcanoes and the Climate Forcing of Carolingian Europe, A.D. 750–950,” Speculum 82 (2007), 865–95.Google Scholar
Lamb, H. H., Climate, History, and the Modern World, second edition (New York, 1995), 172–82
Ljungqvist, Frederik C. for “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
Mann, Michael E. et al., “Global Signature and Dynamical Origins of the Little Ice Age and Medieval Climate Anomaly,” Science 326 (2009), 1256–60Google Scholar
Trouet, Valérie et al., “Persistent Positive North Atlantic Oscillation Mode Dominated the Medieval Climate Anomaly,” Science 324 (2009), 78–80Google Scholar
–, “North Atlantic Storminess and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation during the Last Millennium: Reconciling Contradictory Proxy Records of NAO Variability,” GPC 84–5 (2012), 48–55
Fagan, Brian, The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations (New York, 2008)
Sicre, Marie-Alexandrine et al., “A 4500-Year Reconstruction of Sea Surface Temperature Variability at Decadal Time-Scales off North Iceland,” QSR 27 (2008), 2041–7Google Scholar
Bird, Broxton W. et al., “A 2,300-Year-Long Annually Revolved Record of the South American Summer Monsoon from the Peruvian Andes,” PNAS 108 (2011), 8583–8Google Scholar
Farris, William Wayne, Population, Disease, and Land in Early Japan, 645–900 (Cambridge, MA, 1985), 50–73
Jannetta, Ann B., Epidemics and Mortality in Early Modern Japan (Princeton, NJ, 1987), 16–32, 65–70, 114–17, 147–50, 191–200
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), 164–286, 396
Bennike, Pia, Paleopathology of Danish Skeletons: A Comparative Study of Demography, Disease, and Injury (Copenhagen, 1985), 50–3
Goody, Jack, The Development of the Family and Marriage in Europe (Cambridge, 1983)
Williams, Michael, Deforesting the Earth: From Prehistory to Global Crisis (Chicago, IL, 2003), 102–36
Hoffman, Richard C., “Economic Development and Aquatic Ecosystems in Medieval Europe,” AHR 101 (1996), 631–69, esp. 632–4Google Scholar
Ransborg, Klavs, The First Millennium in Europe and the Mediterranean: An Archaeological Essay (Cambridge, 1991), 29–31
Bloch, Marc, French Rural History: An Essay on Its Basic Characteristics, Sondheimer, Janet, trans. (1931; Berkeley, CA, 1966), 5–7
Scheidel, Walter, “A Model of Demographic and Economic Change in Roman Egypt after the Antonine Plague,” JRA 15 (2002), 97–114.Google Scholar
Pearson, Kathy L., “Nutrition and the Early Medieval Diet,” Speculum 72 (1997), 1–32.Google Scholar
Hodges, Richard, Dark Age Economics: The Origins of Towns and Trade, A. D. 600–1000 (London, 1982), 139
McCormack, Michael, The Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, AD 300–900 (New York, 2001), esp. 733–77
–, “New Light on the ‘Dark Ages’: How the Slave Trade Fuelled the Carolingian Economy,” P&P 197 (2002), 17–54
Keys, David, Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World (New York, 1999), 15
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen, ed., World Epidemics: A Cultural History of Disease from Prehistory to the Era of SARS (Jefferson, NC, 2003), 25
Davis, Robert C., Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500–1800 (New York, 2003)
Gunnell, Yanni et al., “Response of the South Asian Runoff-Harvesting Civilization to Northeast Rainfall Variability during the Last 2000 Years: Instrumental Records and Indirect Evidence,” The Holocene 17 (2007), 207–15Google Scholar
Jalut, Guy, “Holocene Climatic Changes in the Western Mediterranean, from South-East France to South-East Spain,” PPP 160 (2000), 255–90Google Scholar
Martín-Puerta, Celia, “Arid and Humid Phases in Southern Spain during the Last 4000 Years: The Zoñar Lake Record, Córdoba,” Holocene 18 (2008), 907–21Google Scholar
Chen, Fa-Hu et al., “Moisture Changes over the Last Millennium in Arid Central Asia: A Review, Synthesis and Comparison with Monsoon Region,” QSR 29 (2010), 1044–68Google Scholar
Boomer, Ian et al., “Advances in Understanding the Late Holocene History of the Aral Sea Region,” QuatInt 194 (2009), 79–90Google Scholar
Sorrel, Philippe, “Climate Variability in the Aral Sea Basin (Central Asia) during the Late Holocene Based on Vegetation Changes,” QuatRes 67 (2007), 357–70.Google Scholar
Verschuren, Dirk, “Decadal and Century-Scale Climate Variability in Tropical Africa during the Past 2000 Years,” in Batterbee, R. W. et al., eds., Past Climate Variability in Europe and Africa (Dordrecht, 2004), 139–58
Shanahan, T. M. et al., “Atlantic Forcing of Persistent Drought in West Africa,” Science 324 (2009), 377–80Google Scholar
Russell, J. M. and Johnson, T. C., “Little Ice Age Drought in Equatorial Africa: Intertropical Convergence Zone Migrations and El Niño-Southern Oscillation Variability,” Geology 35 (2007), 21–4.Google Scholar
Graham, Nicholas et al., “Support for Global Climate Reorganization during the ‘Medieval Climate Anomaly,’ClimDyn 37 (2011), 1217–45Google Scholar
Hassan, Fekri A., “Extreme Nile Floods and Famines in Medieval Egypt (A.D. 930–1500) and Their Climatic Implications,” QuatInt 173–4 (2007), 101–12.Google Scholar
Ellenblum, Ronnie, The Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean: Climate Change and the Decline of the East, 950–1072 (Cambridge, 2012)
Petry, Carl F., ed., The Cambridge History of Egypt, Vol. I: Islamic Egypt, 640–1517 (Cambridge, 1998), 116, 152, 208, 221, 228
Bird, Broxton W. et al., “Holocene Tropical South American Hydroclimate Revealed from a Decadally Resolved Lake Sediment δ18O Record,” EPSL 310 (2011), 192–202Google Scholar
Upham, Steadman et al., “Evidence Concerning the Origin of Maiz de Ocho,” AmAnth 89 (1987), 410–19Google Scholar
Hyland, D. C. et al., “Corn, Cucurbits, Cordage, and Colonization: An Absolute Chronology for the Appearance of Mesoamerican Domesticates in the Jordana Basin, New Mexico,” North American Archaeologist 26 (2005), 147–64Google Scholar
Richter, Daniel, Before the Revolution: America’s Ancient Pasts (Cambridge, 2011), 12–15
Fagan, Brian M., Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent, fourth edition (London, 2005), 464–7
Cook, Edward R. et al., “Megadroughts in North America: Placing IPCC Projections of Hydroclimatic Change in a Long-Term Palaeoclimate Context,” JQS 25 (2010), 48–61, figure 7Google Scholar
Kennett, Douglas J. and Kennett, James P., “Competitive and Cooperative Responses to Climatic Instability in Coastal Southern California,” AmAntiq 65 (2000), 379–95Google Scholar
Mark Raab, L. and Larson, Daniel O., “Medieval Climate Anomaly and Punctuated Cultural Evolution in Coastal Southern California,” AmAntiq 62 (1997), 319–36Google Scholar
Walker, Philip L., “Cranial Injuries as Evidence of Violence in Prehistoric Southern California,” AJPA 80 (1989), 313–23Google Scholar
–, “Porotic Hyperstosis in a Marine-Dependent California Indian Population,” AJPA 69 (2986), 345–54
Feng, Song, “Atlantic and Pacific SST Influences in Medieval Drought in North America Simulated by the Community Atmospheric Model,” JGR 113 (2008)Google Scholar
Benson, Larry V. et al., “Cahokia’s Boom and Bust in the Context of Climate Change,” AmAntiq 74 (2009), 467–83.Google Scholar
Oglesby, Robert et al., “The Role of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation on Medieval Drought in North America: Synthesizing Results from Proxy Data and Climate Models,” GPC 84–5 (2012), 56–65Google Scholar
Benson, Larry et al., “Anasazi (Pre-Columbian Native-American) Migrations during the Middle-12th and Late 13th Centuries – Were They Drought Induced?ClimCh 83 (2007), 187–213Google Scholar
–, “Possible Impacts of Early-11th, Middle-12th-, and Late-13th Century Droughts on Western Native Americans and the Mississippian Cahokians,” QSR 26 (2007), 336–50
Jones, Terry L. et al., “Environmental Imperatives Reconsidered: Demographic Crises in Western North America during the Medieval Climate Anomaly,” CA 40 (1999), 137–56Google Scholar
Folger, Tim, “Ancient America’s Culture of War,” Discover (2003), 65–9Google Scholar
Billman, Brian R. et al., “Cannibalism, Warfare, and Drought in the Mesa Verde Region during the Twelfth Century, A.D.,” AmAntiq 65 (2000), 145–78.Google Scholar
Blitz, John H., “New Perspectives in Mississippian Archaeology,” JArchRes 18 (2010), 1–39Google Scholar
Elvin, Mark, The Pattern of China’s Past (Stanford, CA, 1973), 113–99
Shiba, Yoshinoba, Commerce and Society in Sung China (Ann Arbor, MI, 1970), esp. 45–50, 103–40, 202–13
Christian, David, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (Berkeley, CA, 2004), 274–8
McNeill, William H., The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Society, and Armed Force since A. D. 1000 (Chicago, IL, 1982), 24–57
Hartwell, Robert, “A Revolution in the Chinese Iron and Coal Industries during the Northern Sung, 960–1126 A.D.,” Journal of Asian Studies 21 (1962), 153–62Google Scholar
–, “Markets, Technology, and the Structure of Enterprise in the Development of the Eleventh-Century Iron and Steel Industry,” JEconH 26 (1966), 29–58
–, “The Evolution of the Early Northern Sung Monetary System, A. D. 950–1025,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 87 (1967), 28–89
Mote, F. W., Imperial China, 900–1800 (Cambridge, MA, 1999), 92–168
Abu-Lughod, Janet L., Before European Hegemony: The World System, A. D. 1250–1350 (New York, 1989)
Modelski, George and Thompson, William R., Leading Sectors and World Powers: The Coevolution of Global Politics and Economics (Columbia, SC, 1996), 142–76
Ku, T.-L. and Li, H.-C., “Speleothems as High-Resolution Paleoenvironment Archives: Records from Northeastern China,” Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Earth Planet. Sci.) 107 (1998), 321–30.Google Scholar
Taagepera, Rein, “Size and Duration of Empires: Systematics of Size,” Social Science Research 7 (1978), 117Google Scholar
Schlütz, Frank and Lehmkuhl, Frank, “Climate Change in the Russian Altai, Southern Siberia, Based on Palynological and Geomorphological Results, with Implications for Climate Teleconnections and Human History since the Middle Holocene,” VHAb 16 (2007), 101–18, at 114–15Google Scholar
Barfield, Thomas J., The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China (Cambridge, MA, 1989), 203–6
Stothers, Richard B., “Climatic and Demographic Consequences of the Massive Volcanic Eruption of 1258,” ClimCh 43 (2000), 361–74Google Scholar
Emile-Geay, Julien et al., “Volcanoes and ENSO over the Past Millennium,” JClim 21 (2008), 3134–48Google Scholar
Miller, Gifford H. et al., “Abrupt Onset of the Little Ice Age Triggered by Volcanism and Sustained by Sea-Ice/Ocean Feedbacks,” GRL 39 (2012), L02708.Google Scholar
Nunn, Patrick D., “Environmental Catastrophe in the Pacific Islands around A. D. 1300,” Geoarchaeology 15 (2000), 715–40Google Scholar
Lieberman, Victor, “Charter State Collapse in Southeast Asia, ca. 1250–1400, as a Problem in Regional and World History,” AHR 116 (2011), 937–63Google Scholar
Cook, Edward R. et al., “Asian Monsoon Failure and Megadrought during the Last Millennium,” Science 328 (2010), 486–9Google Scholar
Oppo, Delia W. et al., “2,000-Year-Long Temperature and Hydrology Reconstruction from the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool,” Nature 460 (2009), 1113–16Google Scholar
Gupta, Anil K. et al., “Abrupt Changes in the Asian Southwest Monsoon during the Holocene and Their Links to the North Atlantic Ocean,” Nature 421 (2003), 354–7Google Scholar
Anderson, David M., “Increase in the Asian Southwest Monsoon during the Past Four Centuries,” Science 297 (2002), 596–9Google Scholar
Buckley, Brendan M. et al., “Climate as a Contributing Factor in the Demise of Angkor, Cambodia,” PNAS 107 (2010), 6748–52.Google Scholar
Hatcher, John and Bailey, Mark, Modeling the Middle Ages: The History and Theory of England’s Economic Development (Oxford, 2001)
Harvey, Barbara F., “Introduction: The ‘Crisis’ of the Early Fourteenth Century,” in Campbell, Bruce M. S., ed., Before the Black Death: Studies in the “Crisis” of the Early Fourteenth Century (Manchester, 1991), 1–24
Hybel, Nils, Crisis or Change: The Concept of Crisis in the Light of Agrarian Structural Reorganization in Late Medieval England (Aarhus, 1988)
Ashton, T. H. and Philpin, C. H. E., eds., The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe (Cambridge, 1985)
Pirenne, Henri, Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade,Halsey, Frank D., trans. (1925; Princeton, NJ, 1952)
Bloch, Marc, French Rural Society: An Essay on its Basic Characteristics, Sondheimer, Janet, trans. (1931; Berkeley, CA, 1966), 5–20, 48–56
Brintnell, Richard H., The Commercialization of English Society, 1000–1500, second edition (Manchester, 1996)
White, Lynn, Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change (New York, 1962)
Gimpel, Jean, The Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages (New York, 1976)
Gies, Frances and Gies, Joseph, Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages (New York, 1994)
Snooks, Graeme Donald, Economics without Time: A Science Blind to the Forces of Historical Change (Ann Arbor, MI, 1993), 240–69
Jones, Eric, The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia, second edition (New York, 1987)
North, Douglass C. and Thomas, Robert Paul, The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History (Cambridge, 1973)
Landes, David S., The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (New York, 1998), 3–28
Holt, Richard, “Medieval Technology and the Historians: The Evidence for the Mill,” in Robert Fox, ed., Technological Change: Methods and Themes in the History of Technology (Amsterdam, 1996), 85–122
Greene, Kevin, “Technology and Innovation in Context: The Roman Background to Medieval and Later Developments,” JRA 7 (1994), 22–33.Google Scholar
Postan, M. M., “Some Economic Evidence of Declining Population in the Later Middle Ages,” Economic Historical Review 2 (1949–50), 221–46Google Scholar
Ladurie, Emmanuel Le Roy, The Peasants of Languedoc, Day, John, trans. (Urbana, IL, 1974)
Findlay, Ronald and Lundhal, Mats, “Demographic Shocks and the Factor Proportion Model: From the Plague of Justinian to the Black Death,” in Findlay, Ronald et al., eds., Eli Heckscher, International Trade, and Economic History (Cambridge, MA, 2006), 157–96, quote at 190
Komlos, John and Nefedon, Sergey, “A Compact Macromodel of Pre-Industrial Population Growth,” Historical Methods 35 (2002), 93Google Scholar
Persson, Karl Gunnar, Pre-Industrial Economic Growth: Social Organization and Technological Progress in Europe (Oxford, 1988), esp. 63–88
Herlihy, David, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West, Cohn, Samuel K., Jr., ed. (Cambridge, MA, 1997), 38–9
Harvey, Barbara F., “The Population Trend in England between 1300 and 1348,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th ser., 16 (1966), 23–42Google Scholar
Hallam, H. E., Rural England, 1066–1348 (Sussex, 1981), 10–16, 245–64
Campbell, Bruce M. S., “Ecology vs. Economics in Late Thirteenth- and Early Fourteenth-Century English Agriculture,” in Sweeney, Del, ed., Agriculture in the Middle Ages: Technology, Practice, and Representation (Philadelphia, PA, 1995), 21–40
Miller, Edward and Hatcher, John, Medieval England: Towns, Commerce, and Crafts, 1086–1348 (London, 1995), 393–429
Campbell, Bruce M. S., English Seignorial Agriculture, 1250–1450 (Cambridge, 2000), 386–430
Campbell, Bruce M. S. and Overton, Mark, “A New Perspective on Medieval and Early Modern Agriculture: Six Centuries of Norfolk Farming c 1250–c. 1850,” Past and Present 141 (1993), 38–105, quote from 96Google Scholar
Epstein, S. R., Freedom and Growth: The Rise of States and Markets in Europe, 1300–1750 (London, 2000), 45–6.
Clark, Gregory, “The Long March of History: Farm Wages, Population, and Economic Growth, England 1209–1869,” EconHistR 60 (2007), 97–135, quote from 125Google Scholar
Karakacili, Eona, “English Agrarian Labor Productivity Rates before the Black Death: A Case Study,” JEcH 64 (2004), 24–60Google Scholar
Langdon, John, Horse, Oxen, and Technological Innovation: The Use of Draught Animals in English Farming from 1056 to 1500 (Cambridge, 1986), 264–72
Stone, David, “Medieval Farm Management and Technological Mentalities: Hinderclay before the Black Death,” EconHistR 4 (2001), 612–38Google Scholar
Langdon, John, Mills in the Medieval Economy: England, 1300–1540 (Oxford, 2004), 8–64.
Hallam, H. E., “Age at First Marriage and Age at Death in the Lincolnshire Fenland, 1252–1478,” PopSt 39 (1985), 55–69, at 60Google Scholar
Herlihy, David, who generalized from relatively elite and anecdotal contexts that women married in their late teens in the central Middle Ages: Medieval Households (Cambridge, MA, 1985), 103–10
Dyer, Christopher, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages: Social Change in England, c. 1200–1520 (Cambridge, 1989), 6–7, 109–89
–, “Changes in Nutrition and Standard of Living in England, 1200–1500,” in Fogel, Robert W., ed., Long-Term Changes in Nutrition and the Standard of Living (Berne, 1986), 35–44.
Koepke, Nikola and Baten, Joerg, “The Biological Standard of Living in Europe during the Last Two Millennia,” EREconH 9 (2005), 61–95Google Scholar
Steckel, Richard H., “New Light on the ‘Dark Ages’: The Remarkably Tall Stature of European Men during the Medieval Era,” Social Science History 28 (2004), 211–29Google Scholar
–, “Health and Nutrition in the Pre-Industrial Era: Insights from a Millennium of Average Heights in Northern Europe,” in Robert C. Allen, et al., eds., Living Standards in the Past: New Perspectives on Well-Being in Asia and Europe (New York, 2008), 227–54
Bullough, Vern and Campbell, Cameron, “Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages,” Speculum 55 (1980), 317–25Google Scholar
Jordan, William Chester, The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century (Princeton, NJ, 1996), 185–7.
Morineau, Michael, “Malthus: There and Back from the Period Preceding the Black Death to the ‘Industrial Revolution,’JEEconH 27 (1998), 137–202, esp. 143–5Google Scholar
Langdon, John and Masschaele, James, “Commercial Activity and Population Growth in Medieval England,” P&P 190 (2006), 35–81Google Scholar
Campbell, Bruce M. S., “Nature as Historical Protagonist: Environment and Society in Pre-Industrial England, EconHistR 63 (2010), 284Google Scholar
Zielinski, Gregory A., “Record of Volcanism since 7000B.C. from the GISP2 Greenland Ice Core and Implications for the Volcano-Climate System,” Science 264 (1994), 948–52Google Scholar
Mayewski, Paul A. et al., “Holocene Climate Variability,” QuatRes 62 (2004), 243–55, esp. 250–2Google Scholar
Stothers, Richard B., “Far Reach of the Tenth-Century Eldgjá Eruption, Iceland,” ClimCh 39 (1998), 715–26Google Scholar
Atwell, William S., “Volcanism and Short-Term Climatic Change in East Asian and World History, c. 1200–1699,” JWH 12 (2001), 29–98Google Scholar
Stothers, Richard B., “Volcanic Dry Fogs, Climate Cooling, and Plague Pandemics in Europe and the Middle East,” ClimCh 42 (1999), 713–23.Google Scholar
Crowley, Thomas J., “Causes of Climate Change over the Past 1000 Years,” Science 289 (2000), 270–7Google Scholar
Denton, George H. and Broecker, Wallace S., “Wobbly Ocean Conveyer Circulation during the Holocene?QSR 27 (2008), 1939–50Google Scholar
Broecker, Wallace S., “Was a Change in Thermohaline Circulation Responsible for the Little Ice Age?PNAS 97 (2000), 1339–42.Google Scholar
Lund, David C. et al., “Gulf Stream Density Structure and Transport during the Past Millennium,” Nature 444 (2006), 601–4Google Scholar
Nyberg, Johan et al., “A Centennial-Scale Variability of Tropical North Atlantic Surface Hydrology during the Late Holocene,” PPP 183 (2002), 25–41, figures 7d, eGoogle Scholar
Bianchu, Giancarlo G. and icholas McCave, I., “Holocene Periodicity in North Atlantic Climate and Deep-Water Flow South of Iceland,” Nature 397), 515–17
Sicre, Marie-Alexandrine, “Decadal Variability of Sea Surface Temperatures off North Iceland over the Last 2000 Years,” Early and Planetary Science Letters 268 (2008), 137–42.Google Scholar
Meeker, Loren D. and Mayewski, Paul A., “A 1400-Year High-Resolution Record of Atmospheric Circulation over the North Atlantic and Asia,” Holocene 12 (2002), 257–66.Google Scholar
Dawson, A. et al., “Greenland (GISP2) Ice Core and Historical Indicators of Complex North Atlantic Climate Changes during the Fourteenth Century,” Holocene 17 (2007), 427–34.Google Scholar
Rein, Bert et al., “A Major Holocene ENSO Anomaly during the Medieval Period,” GRL 31 (2004)Google Scholar
Zanchettin, Davide et al., “On ENSO Impacts on European Wintertime Rainfalls and the Modulation by the NAO and the Pacific Multi-Decadal Variability Described through the PDO Index,” IJC 28 (2008), 995–1006Google Scholar
Kryjov, Vladimir N. and Park, Chung-Kyu, “Solar Modulation of the El-Niño/Southern Oscillation Impact on the Northern Hemisphere Annual Mode,” GRL 34 (2007), L10701Google Scholar
Emile-Geay, Julien et al., “Volcanoes and ENSO of the Past Millennium,” JClim 21 (2008), 3134–48Google Scholar
Mann, Michael et al., “Volcanic and Solar Forcing of the Tropical Pacific over the Past 1000 Years,” JClim 18 (2005), 447–56Google Scholar
Shindell, Drew T. and Schmidt, Gavin A., “Dynamic Winter Climate Responses to Large Tropical Eruptions since 1600,” JGR 109 (2004), D05104Google Scholar
Fagan, Brian, The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300–1850 (New York, 2000), 66–9
Dugmore, Andrew W. et al., “Cultural Adaptation, Compounding Vulnerabilities and Conjunctures in Norse Greenland,” PNAS 109 (2012), 3658–63Google Scholar
McGhee, Robert, “Contact between Native North Americans and the Mediaeval Norse: A Review of the Evidence,” AmAntiq 49 (1984), 4–26Google Scholar
Campbell, Bruce M. S., “Physical Shocks, Biological Hazards, and Human Impacts: The Crisis of the Fourteenth Century Revisited,” in Cavaciocchi, Simonetta, ed., Le interazioni fra economia e ambiente biologico nell’Europe preindustriale. Secc. XIII-XVIII (Economic and biological interactions in pre-industrial Europe from the 13th to the 18th centuries) (Prato, 2010), 13–32
Galloway, James A. and Potts, Jonathan S., “Marine Flooding in the Thames Estuary and Tidal River c. 1250–1450: Impact and Response,” Area 39 (2007), 37079Google Scholar
Achtman, Mark et al., “Yersinia Pestis, the Cause of the Plague, is a Recently Emerged Clone of Yersinia Pseudotuberculosis,” PNAS 96 (1999), 14043–8Google Scholar
–, “Microevolution and History of the Plague Bacillus, Yersinia Pestis,” PNAS 101 (2004), 17837–42
Huang, Xiao-Zhe et al., “Current Trends in Plague Research: From Genomics to Virulence,” Clinical Medicine & Research 4 (2006), 189–99Google Scholar
Ayyadurai, Saravanan et al., “Body Lice, Yersinia Pestis Orientalis, and Black Death,” EmInfDis 16 (2010), 892–3Google Scholar
Chouin, Gérard L. and Decorse, Christopher R., “Prelude to the Atlantic Trade: New Perspectives on Southern Ghana’s Preatlantic History (800–1500),” Journal of African History 51 (2010), 123–45, at 143–4Google Scholar
Scott, Susan and Duncan, Christopher J., The Biology of Plagues: Evidence from Historical Populations (New York, 2001)
Cohn, Samuel K., Jr., The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe (London, 2002)
Wood, James W. et al., “The Temporal Dynamics of the Fourteenth-Century Black Death: New Evidence from English Ecclesiastical Records,” Human Biology 75 (2003), 427–48Google Scholar
Thomas, M. et al., “Absence of Yersinia Pestis-Specific DNA in Human Teeth from Five European Excavations of Putative Plague Victims,” Microbiology 150 (2004), 341–54Google Scholar
Christakos, George and Olea, Ricardo, “New Space-Time Perspectives on the Propagation Characteristics of the Black Death Epidemic and Its Relation to Bubonic Plague,” Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment 19 (2005), 307–14Google Scholar
Cohn, Samuel K., Jr. and Alfani, Guido, “Households and Plague in Early Modern Italy,” JInterdH 38 (2007), 177–205.Google Scholar
Thielman, John and Cate, Francis, “A Plague of Plagues: The Problem of Plague Diagnosis in Medieval England,” JInterdH 37 (2007), 371–93.Google Scholar
Raoult, Didier et al., “Molecular Identification of ‘Suicide PCR” of Yersinia Pestis as the Agent of Medieval Black Death,” PNAS 97 (2000), 12800–3Google Scholar
Wiechman, Ingrid and Grupe, Gisela, “Detection of Yesrsinia Pestis DNA in Two Early Medieval Skeletal Finds from Aschheim (Upper Bavaria, 6th Century A.D.),” AJPA 126 (2005), 48–55Google Scholar
Haensch, Stephanie et al., “Distinct Clones of Yersinia Pestis Caused the Black Death,” PLoS Pathogens 6 (2010), e1001134Google Scholar
Schuenemann, Verena J. et al., “Targeted Enrichment of Ancient Pathogens Yielding the pPCP1 Plasmid of Yestinia Pestis from Victims of the Black Death,” PNAS 108 (2011), E746–E552Google Scholar
Little, Lester K., “Plague Historians in Lab Coats,” P&P 213 (2011), 267–90.Google Scholar
Drancourt, Michel et al., “Genotyping, Orientalis-like Yersinia Pestis, and Plague Epidemics,” EmInfDis 10 (2004), 1585–92Google Scholar
–, “Yersinia Pestis Orientalis in Remains of Ancient Plague Patients,” EmInfDis 13 (2007), 332–3
Morelli, Giovanna et al., “Yesinia Pestis Genome Sequencing Identifies Patterns of Global Phylogentica Diversity,” Nature Genetic 42 (2010), 1140–3.Google Scholar
Bos, Kirsten et al., “A Draft Genome of Yersina Pestis from Victims of the Black Death,” Nature 478 (2011), 506–10.Google Scholar
Cui, Yujun et al., “Historical Variations in Mutation Rate in an Epidemic Pathogen, Yersinia Pestis,” PNAS 110 (2013), 577–82Google Scholar
Callaway, Ewan, “The Black Death Decoded,” Nature 478 (2011), 444–6Google Scholar
Benedictow, Ole J., The Black Death, 1346–1353: The Complete History (Woodbridge, Eng., 2004), 48–54
May, Timothy, The Mongols in World History (London, 2012), 199–210
Norris, John, “East or West? The Geographic Origin of the Black Death,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 51 (1977), 1–24Google Scholar
Schamilglou, Uli, “Preliminary Remarks on the Role of Disease in the History of the Golden Horde,” Central Asian Survey 12 (1993), 447–57Google Scholar
Noymer, Andrew, “Contesting the Cause and Severity of the Black Death: A Review Essay,” PopDevR 33 (2007), 616–27Google Scholar
Brook, Timothy, The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (Cambridge, MA, 2010), 64–7
Mengel, David C., “A Plague on Bohemia? Mapping the Black Death,” P&P 211 (2011), 3–34.Google Scholar
Dennis, David T. et al., Plague Manual: Epidemiology, Distribution, Surveillance, and Control (Geneva: Word Health Organization, 1999), 72–9
Creighton, Charles, A History of Epidemics in Britain from A.D. 664 to the Extinction of the Plague (Cambridge, 1901), 152–4.
Pollitzer, R., Plague (Geneva, 1954), 13–14
Zeigler, Philip, The Black Death (New York, 1969), 25–6
Kausrad, Kyrre Linné et al., “Modeling the Epidemiological History of Plague in Central Asia: Palaeoclimatic Forcing of a Disease System over the Past Millennium,” BMC Biology 8 (2010)Google Scholar
DeWitte, Sharon N. and Wood, James W., “Selectivity of Black Death Mortality with Respect to Preexisting Health,” PNAS 105 (2008), 1436–41Google Scholar
Margerison, Beverley J. and Knusel, Christopher J., “Paleodemographic Comparison of a Catastrophic and an Attritional Death Assemblage,” AJPA 119 (2002), 134–43.Google Scholar
Hatcher, John, “England in the Aftermath of the Black Death,” P&P 144 (1994), 3–35Google Scholar
Hanawalt, Barbara A., The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England (New York, 1986), 124–40.
Homer-Dixon, Thomas F., Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (Princeton, NJ, 1999)

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
×