Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750

by Lester K. Little (Editor)

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.

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction, Medicine, Health

384 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2006

Reviews

[Katia M. Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thing I enjoyed the most about this book was the alternate theories of what disease the 'plague' discussed in historical records actually was. We automatically assume it was black death, but was it? The implications of such wide scale death were also integral to how societies changed and grew. The look into palaeopathology was also extremely interesting. A good read and I fully recommend.

[Marius Stangeland]

Ci sono tantissimi libri sul Pete Nera, ma solo uni pochi sul Peste Giustiniano – è questo e uno deli pochi che c’è. Il libro è diviso in dodici capitoli di qui sono scritti da vari scrittori. Alcuni dei capitoli sono più interessanti che altri, ma in generale, credo che è un buon libro che divulga il peste largamente sconosciuta.

[Doris Raines · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LIKE THIS BOOK.

[Lucy Barnhouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection, with a variety of methodological perspectives. This variety, and the consideration of diverse regions, make it a great resource for assigning.