Viewpoint New Approaches to the 'Plague of Justinian
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4162763 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Sarris (0000-0001-8323-4029, Trinity College, Cambridge, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 254 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 315-346 |
| Publication date | 2022-01-27 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Past & Present (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-2746 • E-ISSN: 1477-464X |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/pastj/gtab024 |
| OpenAlex | W3216868440 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 23 |
This viewpoint is meant as a contribution to debate over the nature and significance of the 'Justinianic Plague', which struck Western Eurasia between the sixth and eighth centuries ce, and the methodological challenges posed by attempting to reconcile historical evidence with that derived from the realm of the Natural Sciences. In recent years, major advances have been made in our genetic understanding of the Justinianic Plague. Yet growing scientific interest in the disease has coincided with a concerted effort amongst some historians to seek to downplay its historical importance. This article surveys our current state of historical and scientific understanding with respect to the sixth-century pandemic, responds to the recent attempts to argue that the disease had only a minimal impact on the societies that it struck, and considers how historians should respond to the burgeoning scientific evidence in order to take study of the plague forward. For co-operation between geneticists, environmental scientists, archaeologists and historians, it argues, offers the chance to transform our understanding of how, when and where the plague spread and to assess its impact across the Afro-Eurasian world as a whole, and not just on the Mediterranean, for which we have our best written sources
Ancient history · Archaeology · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Disease · Environmental ethics · Genealogy · Geography · Infectious disease (medical specialty) · Pandemic · Plague (disease) · Realm · State (computer science) · History · Medicine · Philosophy · Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research
Towards and beyond the ‘Fall’
La peste de Justiniano en las fuentes latinas (siglos VI-VIII)
Science, Morality, and the Roman Economy
A Tangled Web
“The Navigators”. Mediterranean Cities and Urban Spaces in the Passage from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (ca. 600 – ca. 850 CE)
Mapping Changes in Settlement Number and Demography in the South of Israel from the Hellenistic to the Early Islamic Period
The victims of the last great Bubonic plague epidemic in Ottoman Anatolia
The First Plague Pandemic in the Byzantine Empire – Toward a New Dynamic Consensus
The Downturn of Egypt’s Eastern Desert in the Middle Roman Imperial Period
Human migration, infectious diseases, plague, global health crisis - historical evidence
From Neolithic Boom-and-Bust to Iron Age Peak and Decline
Agricultural Development in the Context of the 6th Century Crisis – A Synthesis of Plant-Macrofossil Data from Southwestern Norway
Ispanka
Dating the Justinianic Plague in England
Varia Philippica, 3. Que s’est‐il passé à Philippes dans la seconde moitié du vie s. apr. J.‐C
Can we estimate crisis death tolls by subtracting total population estimates? A critical review and appraisal
What can we learn from historical pandemics? A systematic review of the literature
Innovation and Experimentation in Late Seventh-Century Law
Plague, Climate and Faith in Early Medieval Western Britain
The Circulation of Yersinia pestis in Central Eurasia before and during the First Plague Pandemic (Second to Eighth Century CE)
Bioarchaeological signatures during the Plague of Justinian (541–750 CE) in Jerash (ancient Gerasa), Jordan
Plague in the Mediterranean and Islamicate World
Nouvelles données sur un assemblage ostéoarchéologique en lien avec la première pandémie de peste historique
| Citations per year | 4.6 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |