Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic

Plague was a key factor in the waning of Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. 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 analyse 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 reappearance over time. Finally, molecular biologists, newcomers to this kind of investigation, have become pioneers of paleopathology, seeking ways to identify pathogens in human remains from the remote past.

Contributors	p. vii
Preface	p. xi
Map	p. xvi
Introduction
Life and Afterlife of the First Plague Pandemic	p. 3
Historians and Epidemics: Simple Questions, Complex Answers	p. 33
The Near East
'For Whom Does the Writer Write?': The First Bubonic Plague Pandemic According to Syriac Sources	p. 59
Justinianic Plague in Syria and the Archaeological Evidence	p. 87
The Byzantine Empire
Crime and Punishment: The Plague in the Byzantine Empire, 541-749	p. 99
Bubonic Plague in Byzantium: The Evidence of Non-Literary Sources	p. 119
The Latin West
Consilia humana, ops divina, superstitio: Seeking Succor and Solace in Times of Plague, with Particular Reference to Gaul in the Early Middle Ages	p. 135
Plague in Spanish Late Antiquity	p. 150
Plague in Seventh-Century England	p. 171
The Plague and Its Consequences in Ireland	p. 215
The Challenge of Epidemiology and Molecular Biology
Ecology, Evolution, and Epidemiology of Plague	p. 231
Toward a Molecular History of the Justinianic Pandemic	p. 290
Bibliography	p. 313
Index	p. 355
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541â€“750

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