The interrelationships between environment, climate and society are by definition highly complex, and only a close analysis of the specific mechanics of change can reveal any putative causal connections. This paper will take the case of Byzantine Anatolia between the 6th and 8th c., together with the case of the small provincial city of Euchaïta in the Pontus, and examine some of the evidence for such causal links. As part of this discussion, I will suggest some of the reasons for the survival of the eastern Roman empire during the crisis of the later 7th and early 8th c.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Baillie M. G. L. (2010) “Volcanoes, ice-Cores and tree-rings: one story or two?”, Antiquity 84 (2010) 202–215.
Bikoulis P., Elton H., Haldon J. F. and Newhard J. M. (2015) “Above as below. The application of multiple survey techniques at a Byzantine church at Avkat”, in Landscape Dynamics and Settlement Patterns in Northern Anatolia during the Roman and Byzantine Period, edd. K. Winther-Jacobsen and L. Summerer (Geographica Historica 32) (Stuttgart 2015) 101–117.
Bottema S., Woldring H. and Aytuğ B. (1986) “Palynological investigations on the relations between prehistoric man and vegetation in Turkey: the Beyşehir Occupation Phase”, in Proceedings of the Fifth Optima Meeting, Istanbul, 8–15 September 1986, edd. H. Demiriz and N. Özhatay (Istanbul 1986) 315–328.
Bottema S. and Woldring H. (1990) “Anthropogenic indicators in the pollen record of the eastern Mediterranean”, in Man’s Role in the Shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape, edd. S. Bottema, G. Entjes-Nieborg and W. van Zeist (Rotterdam 1990) 231–264.
Brandes W. (2002) Finanzverwaltung in Krisenzeiten. Untersuchungen zur byzantinischen Administration im 6.–9. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt am Main 2002).
Büntgen U., Myglan V. S., Ljungqvist F. C. et al. (2016) “Causes and concurrences of Europe’s unprecedented sixth-century summer cooling”, Nature Geoscience 9 (February 2016) 1–7.
Cassis M. (2009) “Çadir Höyük: a rural settlement in Byzantine Anatolia”, in Archaeology of the Countryside in Medieval Anatolia, edd. T. Vorderstrasse and J. Roodenberg (Leiden 2009) 1–24.
Dean J. R. et al. (2013) “Palaeo-seasonality of the last two millennia reconstructed from the oxygen isotope composition of diatom silica and carbonates from Nar Gölü, central Turkey”, Quaternary Science Reviews 66 (2013) 35–44.
Doonan O. (2004) Sinop Landscapes: Exploring Connections in the Hinterland of a Black Sea Port (Philadelphia 2004).
Eastwood W. J. and Haldon J. F. (forthcoming) “Euchaïta, landscape and climate in the Byzantine period”, in A Companion to the Environmental History of Byzantium, edd. J. Preiser-Kapeller, A. Izdebski and M. Popović (Leiden 2018).
Eastwood W. J., England A., Gümüşçü O., Haldon J. F. and Yiğitbaşioğlu H. (2009) “Integrating palaeoecological and archaeo-historical records: land use and landscape change in Cappadocia (central Turkey) since Late Antiquity’, in Archaeology of the Countryside in Medieval Anatolia, edd. T. Vorderstrasse and J. Roodenberg (Leiden 2009) 45–69.
Eastwood W. J., Roberts N. and Lamb H. (1998) “Palaeoecological and archaeological evidence for human occupancy in southwest Turkey: the Beyşehir Occupation Phase”, AnatSt 48 (1998) 69–86.
Gunn J. D. (2000) The Years without Summer: Tracing AD 536 and its Aftermath (New York 2000).
Haldon J. F. (2016a) The Empire That Would Not Die. The Paradox of Eastern Roman Survival 640–740 (Cambridge, Mass. 2016).
Haldon J. F. (2016b) edd. and transl. A Tale of Two Saints: the Passions and Miracles of Saints Theodore ‘the Recruit’ and ‘the General’ (Translated Texts for Byzantinists 2) (Liverpool 2016).
Haldon J. F. (2012). “Commerce and exchange in the seventh and eighth centuries: regional trade and the movement of goods”, in Trade and Markets in Byzantium, ed. C. Morrisson (Washington D.C. 2012) 99–122.
Haldon J. F. (1994) “Synone: re-considering a problematic term of middle Byzantine fiscal administration”, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 18 (1994) 116–153 (repr. in Haldon J. F. (1995) State, Army and Society in Byzantium: Approaches to Military, Social and Administrative History, 6th–12th Centuries (Aldershot 1995) VIII).
Haldon, J.F., Mordechai, L., Newfield, T.P., Chase, A.F., Izdebski, A., Guzowski, P., Labuhn, I. and Roberts, C.N. (2018), “History meets paleoscience: Consilience and collaboration in studying past societal responses to environmental change”, Proc. Nat. Acad. of Sciences of the USA 115/13 (2018) 3210–3218.
Haldon J. F., Elton H. and Newhard J. M. (2017) “Euchaïta”, in The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia: from Late Antiquity to the Coming of the Turks, ed. P. Niewöhner (Oxford 2017) 375–388.
Haldon J. F., Elton H. and Newhard J. M. (2015) “Euchaïta”, in The Archaeology of Anatolia: Current Work, edd. S. Steadman and G. McMahon (Cambridge 2015) 332–355.
Haldon J. F., Roberts N., Izdebski A. et al. (2014) “The climate and environment of Byzantine Anatolia: integrating science, history, and archaeology”, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 45.2 (2014) 113–161.
Izdebski A. (2013) A Rural Economy in Transition. Asia Minor from Late Antiquity into the Early Middle Ages (Journal of Juristic Papyrology Supplement Series) (Warsaw 2013).
Izdebski A. (2011) “Why did agriculture flourish in the late antique east? The role of climate fluctuations in the development and contraction of agriculture in Asia Minor and The Middle East from the 4th till the 7th c. AD”, Millenium 8 (2011) 291–312.
Izdebski A., Pickett J., Roberts N. and Waliszewski T. (2015) “The environmental, archaeological and historical evidence for climatic changes and their societal impacts in the eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity”, Quaternary Science Reviews 136 (2015) 189–208
Jones M. D. et al. (2006) “A high-resolution Late Holocene lake isotope record from Turkey and links to North Atlantic and monsoon climate”, Geology 34 (2006) 361–364.
Larsen L. B., Vinther B.M., Briffa K. R. et al. (2008) “New ice core evidence for a volcanic cause of the AD 536 dust veil”, Geophysical Research Letters 35 (2008): L04708, doi:10.1029/2007GL032450 (last accessed December 21 2016).
Little L. K. (2006) ed. Plague and the End of Antiquity: the Pandemic of 541–750 (New York 2006).
Manning S. (2013) “The Roman world and climate: context, relevance of climate change, and some issues”, in The Ancient Mediterranean: Environment between Science and History, ed. W. V. Harris (Leiden 2013) 103–170.
McCormick M., Büntgen U., Cane M. A. et al. (2012) “Climate change during and after the Roman empire: reconstructing the past from scientific and historical evidence”, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 43.2 (2012) 169–220.
Noyé G. (2015) “L’économie de la Calabre de la fin du VIe au VIIIe siècle”, in L’Italia Bizantina: una prospettiva economica, ed. S. Cosentino (Paris 2015) 323–388.
Olsson L., Jerneck A., Thoren H., Persson J. and O’Byrne D. (2015) “Why resilience is unappealing to social science: theoretical and empirical investigations of the scientific use of resilience”, Science Advances 22 May 2015: 1: doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1400217 (last accessed 12 January 2017).
Orland I. J. et al. (2009) “Climate deterioration in the eastern Mediterranean as revealed by ion microprobe analysis of a speleothem that grew from 2.2 to 0.9 ka in Soreq Cave, Israel”, Quaternary Research 71 (2009) 27–35.
Perrings C. (1998) “Introduction: resilience and sustainable development”, Environment and Development Economics 3 (1998) 221–222.
Prigent V. (2006) “Le rôle des provinces d’Occident dans l’approvisionnement de Constantinople (618–717). Témoignages numismatique et sigillographique,” MÉFRM 118 (2006) 269–299.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 375 | 51 | 7 |
| Full Text Views | 142 | 1 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 97 | 3 | 0 |
The interrelationships between environment, climate and society are by definition highly complex, and only a close analysis of the specific mechanics of change can reveal any putative causal connections. This paper will take the case of Byzantine Anatolia between the 6th and 8th c., together with the case of the small provincial city of Euchaïta in the Pontus, and examine some of the evidence for such causal links. As part of this discussion, I will suggest some of the reasons for the survival of the eastern Roman empire during the crisis of the later 7th and early 8th c.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 375 | 51 | 7 |
| Full Text Views | 142 | 1 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 97 | 3 | 0 |