Plague and the End of Antiquity

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Plague significantly influenced the decline of Antiquity and the onset of the Middle Ages. Eight centuries prior to the Black Death, a plague pandemic spread across the Mediterranean, reaching as far east as Persia and as far north as the British Isles. This outbreak persisted from 541 to 750, coinciding with the formation of the Byzantine Empire, the rise of the Roman papacy and monasticism, the emergence of Islam, the rapid expansion of the Arabic Empire, the rise of the Carolingian dynasty in Frankish Gaul, and the development of a positive work ethic in the Latin West. In this volume, twelve scholars from diverse fields—history, archaeology, epidemiology, and molecular biology—offer a thorough examination of the pandemic's origins, spread, mortality, and its economic, social, political, and religious impacts. Historians analyze texts in various languages, including Arabic, Syriac, Greek, Latin, and Old Irish. Archaeologists investigate burial sites, abandoned villages, and incomplete construction projects. Epidemiologists track the disease's transmission methods and patterns of recurrence, while molecular biologists pioneer paleopathology, working to identify ancient pathogens in human remains.