Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750Lester K. Little Plague was a key factor in the waning of Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Eight centuries before the Black Death, a pandemic of plague engulfed the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and eventually extended as far east as Persia and as far north as the British Isles. Its persisted sporadically from 541 to 750, the same period that witnessed the distinctive shaping of the Byzantine Empire, a new prominence of the Roman papacy and of monasticism, the beginnings of Islam and the meteoric expansion of the Arabic Empire, the ascent of the Carolingian dynasty in Frankish Gaul and, not coincidentally, the beginnings of a positive work ethic in the Latin West. In this volume, the first on the subject, twelve scholars from a variety of disciplines-history, archaeology, epidemiology, and molecular biology- have produced a comprehensive account of the pandemic's origins, spread, and mortality, as well as its economic, social, political, and religious effects. The historians examine written sources in a range of languages, including Arabic, Syriac, Greek, Latin, and Old Irish. Archaeologists analyze burial pits, abandoned villages, and aborted building projects. The epidemiologists use the written sources to track the disease's means and speed of transmission, the mix of vulnerability and resistance it encountered, and the patterns of reappearence over time. Finally, molecular biologists, newcomers to this kind of investigation, have become pioneers of paleopathology, seeking ways to identity pathogens in human remains from the remote past. |
Contents
Section 1 | 3 |
Section 2 | 4 |
Section 3 | 7 |
Section 4 | 15 |
Section 5 | 18 |
Section 6 | 33 |
Section 7 | 36 |
Section 8 | 46 |
Section 13 | 119 |
Section 14 | 135 |
Section 15 | 142 |
Section 16 | 150 |
Section 17 | 171 |
Section 18 | 188 |
Section 19 | 215 |
Section 20 | 231 |
Section 9 | 50 |
Section 10 | 59 |
Section 11 | 87 |
Section 12 | 99 |
Section 21 | 233 |
Section 22 | 245 |
Section 23 | 290 |
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Common terms and phrases
Agathias ancient Anecdota Syriaca Anglo-Saxon Annals Arabic archaeological argued Bede Benedictow biovar Biraben bishop Black Death buboes bubonic plague burial Byzantine caused Chronicle Chronique de Michel church Conquest of Plague Conrad Constantinople corpses CSCO Cuthbert demic demographic East Egypt England epidemiology essay Europe Evagrius evidence example famine Gaul genome Gregory of Tours Histoire Nestorienne Historia Francorum History human Ibid Incerti auctoris India infection Ireland Irish John of Ephesus Justinianic Plague king Late Antiquity later malaria mawtānā Mediterranean Mesopotamia Michael the Syrian Michel le Syrien modern molecular monasteries mortality outbreak of bubonic pathogen Paul the Deacon period peste plague epidemics Plague of Justinian plague pandemic plague's pneumonic plague Pollitzer population Procopius record regions rodents Roman rural Sallares says Scott and Duncan second pandemic sequence settlements seventh century sixth century sources spread suggested symptoms Syria third pandemic typhus victims Yeavering Yersinia pestis Zuqnin
References to this book
Rome and China: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires Walter Scheidel Limited preview - 2009 |
The End: Natural Disasters, Manmade Catastrophes, and the Future of Human ... Marq de Villiers No preview available - 2008 |