The disappearance of the ancient landscape and the climatic anomaly of the early Middle Ages: A question to be pursued

Early Medieval Europe

Volumn 16, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 127-165

  Cheyette, Fredric L ^a  

^a AMHERST COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARABLE LAND; ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE; CLIMATE EFFECT; LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION; MIDDLE AGES; PALEOCLIMATE; PASTURE;

EURASIA; EUROPE; RHONE VALLEY;

EID: 47749092140     PISSN: 09639462     EISSN: 14680254     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0254.2008.00225.x     Document Type: Article

References (198)

1. M. Barceló and F. Sigaut (eds), The Making of Feudal Agricultures? (Leiden and Boston, 2004). The article in this volume by A. Durand and P. Leveau, 'Farming in Mediterranean France and Rural Settlement in the Late Roman and Early Medieval Periods', is one of the most important attempts in recent years to ?ll the gap. Because there is a vast bibliography on nearly every subject touched on in this article, I will restrict my references to only a few items, whose own notes and bibliographies will lead the interested reader on to a larger range of literature. For a more extensive bibliography, regularly updated, see this article on my web site: .
2. A recent exception is C. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400-800 (Oxford, 2005), which considers many of the issues in the ?rst part of this article. Some of the data that I present here were published too recently to have been available to him.
3. In 1821, in the midst of industrialization, some English counties still counted over 60% of the population engaged in agriculture, while in Finland in 1805 it was still 82% of the male labour force. E.A. Wrigley, Poverty, Progress, and Population (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 118, 297.
4. The first US census (1790) classi?ed 95% of the population as 'rural': Historical Statistics of the United States (Washington, 1975), series A 67-72.
5. Discussion of the literary evidence in T. Lewit, Agricultural Production in the Roman Economy, A.D. 200-400, BAR International Series 568 (Oxford, 1991), Ch. 8
6. and in P. Van Ossel and P. Ouzoulias, 'Rural Settlement Economy in Northern Gaul in the Late Empire: An Overview', Journal of Roman Archaeology13 (2000), pp. 133-60.
7. See also P. Ouzoulias, 'La déprise agricole du Bas-Empire: Un mythe historiographique?', in P. Ouzoulias and P. Van Ossel (eds), Les campagnes de l'Ile de France de Constantin à Clovis: Colloque de Paris 1996, Document de travail 3 (Ile-de-France, 1997) pp. 10-20
8. P. Van Ossel, Etablissements ruraux de l'Antiquité tardive dans le Nord de la Gaule, Gallia supplément 51 (Paris, 1992).
9. See the pertinent critical comments of Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages, pp. 259-65
10. and for a recent example of this historiographical tradition, P. Sarris, 'The Origins of the Manorial Economy: New Insights from Late Antiquity', English Historical Review 119 (2004), pp. 279-311.
11. Notably G. Duby, Rural Economy and Country Life(Columbia SC, 1968), pp. 20-2
12. and The Early Growth of the European Economy(Ithaca, 1974), pp. 13-17,
13. repeated almost verbatim by R. Fossier, La terre et les hommes en Picardie (Paris, 1968), I, p. 236, both based essentially on the inventory of Annapes.
14. The theory was already severely criticized by R. Delatouche, 'Regards sur l'agriculture aux temps carolingiens', Journal des Savants (1977), pp. 73-100, at pp. 78-9.
15. Archaeologists have since found that the country smithy (evident in the slag from his furnace) was far from unknown in the early Middle Ages: iron production is present at 18 of the fifth- to eighth-century rural sites inventoried by E. Peytremann, Archaéologie de l'habitat rural dans le nord de la France, Mémoires publiś par l'Association française d'Archéologie mérovingienne 13, 2 vols (St-Germain-en-Laye, 2003).
16. For the presence in the early Middle Ages of iron-tipped ploughs capable of turning the soil, see now J. Henning, 'Germanisch-romanische Agrarkontinuität und -discontinuität im nordalpinen Kontinentaleuropa', in D. Hägermann et al. (eds), Acculturation: Probleme einer germanisch-romanischen Kultursynthese in Spätantike und frühem Mittelalter (Berlin, 2004), pp. 396-435.
17. The classic statement of the first idea is M. Bloch, French Rural History, An Essay on its Basic Characteristics, trans. J. Sondheimer (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966), p. 1.
18. The classic statement of incastellamento is P. Toubert, Les structures du Latium médiéval, 2 vols (Rome, 1973), I, pp. 330-54,
19. generalized as 'encellulement' by R. Fossier, Enfance de l'Europe, 2 vols (Paris, 1982), I, pp. 288-317, and since turned into a commonplace in French and Italian historiography. Without denying the importance of tenth- to eleventh-century developments, both the archaeological and documentary evidence point to proto-villages as geographical and social entities and perhaps as nascent field systems at a significantly earlier date: See Wickham's nuanced discussion, Framing the Early Middle Ages pp. 516-17
20. and for Mediterranean Gaul, A. Durand, Les paysages mácdiévaux du Languedoc (Xe-XIIe siècles) (Toulouse, 1998), pp. 77-95.
21. For Italy, see for example R. Francovich, 'L'incastellamento e prima dell'íncastellamento nell'Italia centrale', in E. Boldrini and R. Francovich (eds), Acculturazione e mutamenti: Prospettive nell'archeologia medievale del mediterraneo (Florence, 1995), pp. 397-406; É. Hubert, L'incastellamento en Italie centrale (Rome, 2002)
22. R. Frankovich and R. Hodges, Villa to Village (London, 2003), 23 Ch. 3
23. and for the area studied by Toubert, H. Patterson, H. DiGiuseppi et al., 'Three South Etrurian "Crises" First Results', Papers of the British School at Rome 72 (2004), pp. 1-36.
24. I set out this last problem in F. Cheyette, 'The Origins of European Villages and the First European Expansion', Journal of Economic History37 (1977), pp. 182-206
25. and for the Mediterranean landscape in C. Amado and F. Cheyette, 'Organisation d'un terroir et d'un habitat concentré: Un exemple méridional', in A. Bazzana, P. Guichard and J.M. Poisson (eds), Habitats fortifiés et organisation de l'espace en Méditerrané médiv́ale (Lyon, 1983), pp. 35-44.
26. T.W. Potter, The Changing Landscape of South Etruria (New York, 1979), Ch. 6.
27. R. Hodges and D. Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne and the Origins of Europe: Archaeology and the Pirenne Thesis (Ithaca, 1983), pp. 33-48.
28. Patterson et al., 'Three South Etrurian Crises', p. 18. At the time this publication was prepared, Patterson states, the survey data had not been completely analysed.
29. See especially N. Christie, From Constantine to Charlemagne: An Archaeology of Italy, AD 300- 800 (Aldershot and Burlington, 2006), 30 Ch. 5
30. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages, pp. 465-518
31. B. Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization (Oxford, 2005), especially pp. 138-46. They reach very different conclusions about the meaning of the data.
32. Major critiques of survey data at P. v. Dommelen, 'Una riconsiderazione di ricognizioni estensive: Il caso dello Scarlino-survey', in M. Bernardi (ed.), Archeologia del paesaggio (Florence, 1992), pp. 859-76
33. P. Van Ossel and P. Ouzoulias, 'Rural Settlement Economy'
34. E. Louis, 'A De-Romanised Landscape in Northern Gaul: The Scarpe Valley from the 4th to the 9th Century AD', in W. Bowden et al. (eds), Recent Research on the Late Antique Countryside (Leiden, 2004), pp. 479-504.
35. Patterson et al., 'Three South Etrurian Crises', and M. Valenti, 'La formazione dell'insediamento altomedievale in Toscana. Dallo spessore dei numeri alla construzione di modelli', in G.P. Brogiolo et al. (eds), Dopo la fine delle ville: Le Campagne dal VI al IX secolo, Documenti di Archeologia 40 (Mantua 2005), pp. 193-219.
36. Similar densities in the area of Claterna in Emilia: M. Librenti, 'Ricognizione di super?cie e insediamento medievale nella pianura emiliano romagnola: Alcune considerazioni', in Secondo Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale (Florence, 2000), pp. 170-4.
37. On the 'catastrophic' interpretation see the cautious remarks by Patterson et al., 'Three South Etrurian Crises', pp. 22-3.
38. In general Christie, Constantine to Charlemagne, pp. 412-27.
39. For differing rates of survival between areas as close as Parma and Cesena see now S. Gelichi et al., 'La transizione dell' antichità al medioevo nel territorio dell'antica Regio VIII', in Brogiolo et al. (eds), Dopo la fine delle ville, pp. 53-80, on which more below.
40. S. van der Leeuw et al. (eds), Archéologie et systèmes socio-enviornnementaux: études multiscalaires sur la vallée du Rhône dans le programme ARCHAEOMEDES, Collection de Recherches Archéologiques. Monographies 27 (Paris, 2003), annexe 2. The original data are presented in fifty-year periods. I have simplified by giving in Table 2 the higher of the two figures for each century.
41. Archaeomedes, Des oppida aux métropoles (Paris, 1998), Ch. 5 and annex 1.
42. Potter, Changing Landscape, p. 145.
43. 'Depopulation ... is not impossible; the ruined towns and wasted countryside suggest that it happened in the Mediterranean at the end of the Roman period - and the burden of proof rests with those who maintain that it didn't.' Hodges and Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne, p. 53.
44. See the discussion of the villa of Pré-Bas, below. Older excavations of rural sites, unfortunately, largely ignored their production areas, since these were unlikely to produce museum-quality artefacts.
45. See in general J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City (Oxford, 2001), pp. 64-97,
46. supplemented now by G.P. Brogiolo and S. Gelichi, La città nell'alto medioevo italiano (Rome, 1998), and by S.T. Loseby, 'Decline and Change in the Cities of Late Antique Gaul', in J.-U. Krause and C. Witschel (eds), Die Stadt in der Spätantike: Niedergang oder Wandel? (Stuttgart, 2006), pp. 67-104.
47. Italian exceptions are surveyed by F. Marazzi, 'Cadavera urbium, nuove capitali e Roma aeterna', in ibid., pp. 33-66.
48. A striking example of the synchronicity in the depopulation of a major urban centre and the depopulation and reorganization of its rural environs is presented by V. Bel et al., 'Réflexions sur une ville et sa proche campagne dans l'Antiquité: Le cas de Nîmes (Gard)', in A. Bouet and F. Verdin (eds), Territoires et paysages: mĺanges Philippe Leveau (Bordeaux, 2005), pp. 19-44.
49. A hypothesis recently proposed by Louis, 'A De-Romanised Landscape'.
50. Proposed by F. Favory, J.-L. Fiches and C. Raynaud in 'La dynamique spatio-temporelle de l'habitat rural gallo-romain', in van der Leeuw et al. (eds), Archólogie et systèmes socioenvironnementaux, especially pp. 309 -11.
51. On the difficulties of using published reports to say anything about post-fifth-century villas as recently as a decade ago, see C. Balmelle, Les demeures aristocratiques d'Aquitaine (Bordeaux, 2001), pp. 118-22. Not much had changed since my lament in 'Origins of European Villages'.
52. What follows comes from C. Pellecuer, 'La villa des Prés-Bas (Loupian, Hŕault) dans son environnement: Contribution à l'étude des villae et de l'économie domaniale en Narbonnaise', thesis, University of Aix-Marseille I (2000). It is to be hoped that this important thesis will soon be published.
53. For a much richer examination of the problems involved in deriving demographic data from archeological surveys see F. Trément, 'Études micro-regionales et paléodémographie', in F. Gateau et al., L'Etang-de-Berre, Carte archéologique de la Gaule 13:1 (Paris, 1996), pp. 98 -113. My thanks to Paul Van Ossel for clarifying these issues in conversation.
54. Lewit, Agricultural production.
55. J. Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity: Gold, Labour, and Aristocratic Dominance (Oxford, 2001), esp. p. 16.
56. Balmelle, Les demeures aristocratiques.
57. Recent discoveries of second- to third-century abandonment and fourth-century reoccupation: L. Schneider, 'Dynamiques spatiales et transformations de l'habitat en languedoc méditerranéen durant le haut Moyen Age (VIe-IXe s.)', in Brogiolo et al. (eds), Dopo la fine delle ville, pp. 287-312.
58. Favory et al., 'Dynamique spatio-temporelle', pp. 297-9, 307-10.
59. Archaeomedes, Des oppida, pp. 110 -14.
60. Gelichi, 'La transizione dell' antichità al medioevo'. Librenti, 'Ricognizione di superficie e insediamento'. Valenti, 'Formazione dell'insediamento altomedievale'. C. Magrini, 'Il territorio di Aquileia tra tardoantico e altomedioevo', Archeologia Medievale 24 (1997), pp. 155-71.
61. As suggested by Favory et al., 'Dynamique spatio-temporelle', pp. 307-10. A start in considering the general problem, though only regionally, is J.-L. Fiches (ed.), Le IIIe siècle en Gaule Narbonnaise (Sophia Antipolis, 1995).
62. Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity, pp. 83-120.
63. Lewit, Agricultural Production, Ch. 5.
64. For example, M. Py (ed.), Dicocer: Dictionnaire des céramiques antiques en Méditerranée nordoccidentale: VIIème s. av. n. è - VIIème s. de n. è., Provence, Languedoc, Ampurdan (Lattes, 1993).
65. T. Lewit, 'Bones in the Bathhouse: Re-Evaluating the Notion of "Squatter Occupation" in Fifth to Seventh Century Villas', in Brogiolo et al. (eds), Dopo la fine delle ville, pp. 251-62.
66. T. Lewit, '"Vanishing Villas": What Happened to Elite Rural Habitation in the West in the 5th-6th C.?', Journal of Roman Archaeology 16 (2003), pp. 260-74, whose argument that this was only a 'cultural change' and not a sign of impoverishment and depopulation, I ?nd implausible.
67. Metz: G. Halsall, 'The Merovingian Period in North-East Gaul: Transition or Change?', in J. Bintliff and H. Hamerow (eds), Europe between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1995), pp. 38-52.
68. Eifel: K.H. Lenz, 'Late Roman Rural Settlement in the Southern Part of the Province of Germania Secunda in Comparison with other Regions of the Roman Rhineland', in P. Ouzoulias, P. Van Ossel et al. (eds), Les Campagnes de la Gaule à la fin de l'Antiquité (Antibes, 2001), pp. 113-46.
69. Paris basin: P. Van Ossel, 'Structure, évolution et statut des habitats ruraux au Bas-Empire en Ile-de-France', in Ouzoulias and Van Ossel (eds), Campagnes de l'Ile de France, pp. 94-118,
70. and P. Van Ossel and P. Ouzoulias, 'La mutation des campagnes de la Gaule du Nord entre le milieu du 3e siècle et le milieu du 5e siècle. Où en est-on?', in M. Lodewijckx (ed.), Belgian Archaeology in a European Setting, 2 vols (Louvain, 2001), II, pp. 231-45.
71. Danube: C. Siffre, 'Kontinuität und Bruch entlang der Donau (4-8 Jahrhundert)', in S. Biegert et al. (eds), Kontinuitätsfragen Mittlere Kaiserzeit- Spätantike, Spätantike-Frühmittelalter (Oxford, 2006), pp. 71-5.
72. Northern Italy: S. Gelichi et al., 'La transizione dell' antichità al medioevo nel territorio dell'antica Regio VIII', in Brogiolo et al. (eds), Dopo la fine delle ville, pp. 53-80.
73. Southern Italy: A.R. Staffa, 'Riasseto urbano, trasformazioni territoriali, forme di acculturazione nell'Abruzzo Bizantino (secc. VI-VII)', in Boldrini and Francovich (eds), Acculturazione e mutamenti, pp. 315-60.
74. See the articles by S. Gelichi, G. Volpe and P. Arthur in L'Archeologia dell'Adriatico dalla preistoria al medioevo (Florence, 2003).
75. G. Volpe, 'Villaggi e insediamento sparso in Italia meridionale fra tardoantico e altomedioevo: Alcune note', in Brogiolo et al. (eds), Dopo la ?ne delle ville, pp. 221-49
76. Gelichi et al., 'La transizione dell' antichità al medioevo'.
77. Data in Van Ossel, Etablissements ruraux de l'Antiquitá tardive Comment in Van Ossel and Ouzoulias, 'Mutation des campagnes'.
78. Lenz, 'Late Roman Rural Settlement'.
79. Peytremann, Archólogie de l'habitat rural.
80. My thanks to Isabelle Catteddu for clarifying all these issues and for identifying the problematic dates in Peytremann's catalogue. In the following discussion I have included only those sites whose dating is relatively certain (i.e., indicated in black on the graph).
81. M. Valenti, 'Forme abitative e strutture materiali dell'insediamento in ambito rurale toscano tra Tardoantico ed Altomedioevo', in G.P. Brogiolo (ed.), Edilizia residenziale tra 5 e 8 secolo (Mantua, 1994), pp. 179-90.
82. G.P. Brogiolo and S. Gelichi, La città nell' alto medioevo italiano: Archeologia e storia (Rome, 1998), Ch. 4.
83. Peytremann, Archéologie de l'habitat rural, I, p. 335.
84. Here my interpretation differs from Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages, pp. 476-81. His focus, however, is not on numbers and physical properties but rather on the villa as a cultural and economic phenomenon.
85. Compare Peytremann's data to the schematic flow chart in Christie, Constantine to Charlemagne, p. 493.
86. Francovich and Hodges, Villa to Village.
87. Gelichi, 'Transizione dell'antichità al medioevo'.
88. S. Gutiérrez-Lloret, 'La experiencia arqueológica en el debat sobre las transformaciones del publamiento altomedieval en el SE de al-Andalus: El caso de Alicante, Murcia y Albacete', in E. Boldrini and R. Francovich (eds), Acculturazione e mutamenti (Florence, 1995), pp. 165-89.
89. Schneider, 'Dynamiques spatiales'.
90. A. Piganiol, Les documents cadastraux de la colonie romaine d'Orange Gallia suppl. 16 (Paris, 1962).
91. Centuriated landscapes: J. Bradford, Ancient Landscapes: Studies in Field Archaeology (London, 1957)
92. and above all, Misurare la terra: Centuriazione e coloni nel mondo romano. Catalogo del Mostra (Modena, 1983).
93. Polemical critique of the ancient cadaster scholarly 'industry' by one of its early promoters: G. ChouqEer, L'etude des paysages: essais sur leurs formes et leur histoire (Paris, 2000).
94. For a detailed analysis of this landscape see Amado and Cheyette, 'Organisation d'un terroir'.
95. M. Clavel, Baceziers et son territoire dans l'Antiquite (Paris, 1970).
96. O. Ginouvez and H. Pomaredes, 'Premieres observation sur les sites antique et médiéval de Saint-Jean d'Aureilhan commune de Béziers', Archéologie en Languedoc 17 (1993), pp. 157-71.
97. Supplemented by Ginouvez et al., 'Saint Jean d'Aureilhan, fouilles programmées 1994, Parcelles HX 241, 258', manuscript report, Direction Régional des Affaires Culturelles, Service Régional d'Archéologie [hereafter ms. DRAC SRA], Montpellier (1994).
98. Ginouvez et al., 'St Jean d'Aureilhan, Sauvetage Archeologique', ms. DRAC SRA, Montpellier (1993).
99. And P. Chevillot et al., 'Beziers ZAC de Montimaran', ms. DRAC SRA, Montpellier (1998).
100. J. Rouquette (ed.), Cartulaire de Béziers: Livre noir (Paris, 1918).
101. See Amado and Cheyette, 'Organisation d'un terroir'.
102. Cartulaire de Béziers, no. 57.
103. J.-F. Berger and C. Jung, 'Developing a Methodological Approach to the Evolution of Field Systems in the Middle-Rhône Valley', in P. Leveau et al. (eds), Environmental Reconstruction in Mediterranean Landscape Archaeology
104. The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes 2 (Oxford, 1999), pp. 155-67
105. and reports on geomorphology by Berger and Jung in P. Boissinot et al., 'Lapalud: Les Girardes. Archéologie et TGV: Lot 21. Rapport de Fouille', ms. DRAC SRA, Aix-en-Provence (1998) and M. Goy and I. Remy, 'Montboucher-sur-Jabron: Constantin. Archéologie et TGV: Lot 12. Rapport de Fouille', ms. DRAC SRA, Lyon (1996).
106. Boissinot et al., 'Lapalud: Les Girardes'.
107. J.-F Berger et al., 'Donnés paléogéographiques et données archéologiques dans le cadre de l'opération de sauvetage archéologique du TGV-Méditerranée', in J. Burnouf et al. (eds), La dynamique des paysages protohistoriques, antiques, médiévaux et modernes (Sophia Antipolis, 1997), pp. 155-84.
108. See for example, M. Cremaschi, 'Il territorio mantovano fra il Boreale e l'età romana: L'evoluzione ambientale', in Misurare la terra, III, pp. 13-17, describing medieval field patterns overlying centuriation-oriented ditches filled with alluvial soil.
109. In northern Germany and Scandinavia the change has been dated to the seventh century, though there is some evidence from southern Scandinavia that in some locations it may have occurred as early as the third; in Anglo-Saxon England it has been dated to the eighth century: H. Hamerow, Early Medieval Settlements: The Archaeology of Rural Communities in Northwest Europe 400-900 (Oxford, 2002), pp. 140-4, 152.
110. D. Marguerie et al., 'Bocages armoricains et sociétés, genèse, évolution et interactions', in T. Muxart et al. (eds), Des milieux et des hommes: Fragments d'histoires croisées (Paris, 2003), pp. 115-31.
111. A representative sample: C. Lewis, P. Mitchell-Fox and C. Dyer, Village, Hamlet and Field: Changing Medieval Settlements in Central England (London, 2001), pp. 76-81.
112. The photographs of Estrées-s-Noye in R. Agache, Atlas d'archéologie aérienne de Picardie: Le bassin de la Somme et ses abords à l'époque protohistorique et romaine (Amiens, 1975), pp. 317, 385 where the relic of the medieval forest and even a charcoal-burning pit impinge on a great Roman villa.
113. Rippe, Padoue et son contado: Xe-XIIIe siècle (Rome, 2003), pp. 45-57, especially the case of the forest of Viminario, pp. 54-5.
114. W. Janssen, 'Römische und frühmittelalterliche Landerschliessung im Vergleich', in W. Janssen and D. Lohrmann (eds), Viilla-curtis-grangia: Landwirtschaft zwischen Loire und Rhein von der Römerzeit zum Hochmittelalter (Munich, 1983), pp. 81-122.
115. Lenz, 'Late-Roman Rural Settlement'. B. Zolitschka and J.F.W. Negendank, 'A High Resolution Record of Holocene Palaeohydrological Changes from Lake Holzmaar, Germany', in S.P. Harrison et al. (eds), Palaeohydrology as Re?ected in Lake-Level Changes as Climatic Evidence for Holocene Times, Paleoclimate Research 25 (Mainz, 1998), pp. 37-52.
116. 'Environmental Change and Human Impact in the Middle Lahn Valley (Hessen) during the Middle and Late Holocene', .
117. C. Siffre, 'Kontinuität und Bruch entlang der Donau (4-8 Jahrhundert)', in S. Biegert et al. (eds), Kontinuitätsfragen Mittlere Kaiserzeit-Spätantike, Spätantike-Frühmittelalter (Oxford, 2006), pp. 71-5.
118. S.T. Anderson, 'Local and Regional Vegetational Development in Eastern Denmark in the Holocene', Denmarks Geologiske Undersogelse. Arbog (1976), pp. 5-27.
119. K.E. Barber, F.M. Chambers and D. Maddy, 'Late Holocene Climatic History of Northern Germany and Denmark: Peat Macrofossil Investigations at Dosenmoor, Schleswig-Holstein, and Svanemose, Jutland', Boreas 33 (2004), pp. 132-44, at p. 142.
120. See also the pollen diagram from Lake Woryty, Poland in B.E. Berglund (ed.), Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology (New York, 1986), Fig. 22.10.
121. J.-L. de Beaulieu, A. Pons and M. Reille, 'Histoire de la ?ore et de la vègètation du Massif Central depuis la fin de la dernière glaciation', Cahiers de micropaleontologie, ns 3 (1988), pp. 5-35.
122. C. Raynaud, Le Village gallo-romain et médiéval de Lunel-Viel (Hérault) (Paris, 1990), pp. 322-3, 327.
123. So also in the Cantabrian mountains of north-west Spain: C. Muñoz Sobrino et al., 'Palynological Data on Major Holocene Climatic Events in NW Iberia', Boreas 34 (2005), pp. 381-98.
124. Bourgeois, 'Espaces boisées, pôles d'habitat, et occupations marginales de l'Antiquité au Haut Moyen Age', in Ouzoulias and Van Ossel (eds), Les Campagnes de l'Ile de France, pp. 32-4.
125. S. Lepetz et al., 'Culture et élevage en France septentrionale de l'Age du Fer à l'an Mil', in A. Belmont (ed.), Autour d'Olivier de Serres: Pratiques agricoles et pensée agronomique, Bibliothèque d'Histoire Rurale6 (Paris, 2002), p. 96.
126. S. Deschler-Erb et al., 'La crise de l'empire romain au IIIe siècle après J.-C: Les données archéozoologiques en Suisse du nord', in H. Richard and A. Vignot (eds), Equilibres et ruptures dans les écosystémes depuis 20 000 ans en Europe de l'ouest, Annales littéraires de Besançon 730 (Paris, 2002), pp. 281-90.
127. F. Salvadori, 'Resti osteologici animali: Elementi di continuità e discontinuità tra tardoantico e altomedioevo', in R. Francovich and M. Valenti (eds), IV Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale (Florence, 2006), pp. 520-4.
128. See M.W. Demment, and P.J. Vansoest, 'A Nutritional Explanation for Body-Size Patterns of Ruminant and Nonruminant Herbivores', American Naturalist 125 (1985), pp. 641-72.
129. D. Barbier, J. Burnouf and L. Visset, 'Les diagrammes Société/Vég/étation: Un outil de dialogue interdisciplinaire pour la compréhension des interactions Homme/Milieux', Quaternaire (2001), 12, (1-2), pp. 103-8.
130. Interpretation of the data in this diagram in D. Barbier, L. Visset, J. Burnouf, 'Une source pollinique et son exploitation - A propos de la tourbière de Glatinié (Mayenne)', Histoire et Sociétés Rurales 18 (2002), pp. 137-58.
131. I have calibrated the raw BP dates given in Barbier et al. using U. Danzeglocke, O. Jöris, B. Weninger, CalPal online. http://www.calpal-online.de/, accessed 2007/30/1.
132. For a new version of the old political explanation see Ward-Perkins, Fall of Rome, pp. 128-34.
133. Yet the argument of P. Delogu, 'La fine del mondo antico e l'inizio del medioevo: Nuovi dati per un vecchio problema', in R. Francovich and G. Noyé (eds), La Storia dell'alto Medioevo italiano (VI-X secolo) alla luce dell'archeologia (Florence, 1994), pp. 7-29 has only been con?rmed by more recent research, and seems as valid for the north as for Italy.
134. Brief narrative in L.K. Little, 'Life and Afterlife of the First Plague Pandemic', in L.K. Little (ed.), Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750 (Cambridge, 2007), Ch. 1.
135. Literary evidence assembled and translated in D.C. Stathakopoulos, Famine and Pestilence in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Empire (Aldershot, 2004). On the prosperity of the east,
136. see C. Foss, 'The Near Eastern Countryside in Late Antiquity: A Review Article', in The Roman and Byzantine Near East: Some Recent Archaeological Research, Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supplementary Series 14:1 (Ann Arbor, MI, 1995), pp. 213-34
137. and Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages, pp. 443-65
138. disputed by H. Kennedy, 'Justinianic Plague in Syria and the Archaeological Evidence'
139. and P. Sarris, 'Bubonic Plague in Byzantium: The Evidence of Non-Literary Sources', both in Little (ed.), Plague and the End of Antiquity, Chs 4 and 6 respectively.
140. See in general, J.D. Gunn (ed.), The Years Without Summer: Tracing A.D. 536 and its Aftermath, BAR International Series 872 (Oxford, 2000).
141. Tree-ring evidence analysed in M.G.L. Baillie, 'Dendrochronology Raises Questions about the Nature of the AD 536 Dust Veil Event', The Holocene 4 (1994), pp. 212-17.
142. A sceptical assessment of volcanic effects (though not addressing the 536 event) is J. Grattan, 'Aspects of Armageddon: An Exploration of the Role of Volcanic Eruptions in Human History and Civilization', Quaternary International151:1 (2006), pp. 10-18.
143. See the 'volcanic explosivity index' in A. Robock and M. Free, 'The Volcanic Record in Ice Cores for the Past 2000 Years', in P.D. Jones et al. (eds), Climatic Variations and Forcing Mechanisms of the last 2000 Years (Heidelberg, 1996), pp. 533-46.
144. The explanation favoured by Ward-Perkins, Fall of Rome, esp. pp. 132-7, which must be considered apart from his blaming it all on the 'barbarians'.
145. E. Zanini, 'Racontando la terra sigillata africana', Archeologia Medievale 23 (1996), pp. 677-88.
146. G. Volpe, 'San Giusto e l'Apulia nel contesto dell'Adriatico tardoantico', in L'archeologia dell'Adriatico, pp. 507-36.
147. A. Toniolo, 'Importazioni tra IV e VIII secolo d.c. nella laguna di Venezia', ibid., pp. 616-21.
148. P. Arthur, 'I Balcani e il Salento nel medioevo', ibid., pp. 654-65.
149. Older survey by A.R. Staffa, 'Riasseto urbano, trasformazioni territoriali, forme di acculturazione nell'Abruzzo Bizantino (secc. VI-VII)', in Boldrini and Francovich (eds), Accultrazione e mutamenti pp. 315-60. Comparison of site survival around Modena and Cesena with that elsewhere in Gelichi, 'La transizione dell' antichità al medioevo'.
150. L. Sagui, 'Indagini archeologiche a Roma: Nuovi dati sul VII secolo', in P. Delogu (ed.), Roma medievale: Aggiornamenti (Florence, 1998), pp. 63-78.
151. Patterson, 'Three South Etrurian Crises'. F. Tráment, Archéologie d'un paysage: Les étangs de Saint-Blaise (Paris, 1999).
152. Notably by Jones, End of Roman Britain.
153. See also E. Jones, 'Climate, Archaeology, History and the Arthurian Tradition: A Multiple-Source Study of two Dark-Age Puzzles', in Gunn (ed.), The Years without Summer, pp. 25-34.
154. A. Durand, 'Les milieux naturels autour de l'An Mil: Approches paléoenvironnementales méditerranéennes', in P. Bonnassie and P. Toubert (eds), Hommes et sociétés dans l'Europe de l'An Mil (Toulouse, 2004), pp. 74-9.
155. Durand and Leveau, 'Farming in Mediterranean France', in Barceló and Sigaut (eds), The Making of Feudal Agricultures, pp. 177-241.
156. J.-F. Berger, 'Les étapes de la morphogenèse holocène dans le sud de la France', in van der Leeuw et al. (eds), Archéologie et systèmes, pp. 144-7, with a curious contradictory assertion by Favory et al. in the same volume, 'Dynamique spatio-temporelle', p. 311.
157. P. Leveau et al., 'La crise environnementale de la fin de l'Antiquité et du Haut Moyen Age: Définition d'un modèle et retour aux milieux réels', in Richard and Vignot (eds), Equilibres et ruptures, pp. 291-303, is a sceptical view.
158. The period was labelled the 'Vandal Minimum' by R.A. Bryson, 'Orbital History, Volcanism, and Major Climate Changes: On Integrating Climate Change and Culture Change', Human Ecology 22 (1994), pp. 115-58, but this name has not gained popularity.
159. It is usually now called simply 'the early medieval cold period': See for example M. Benvenuti et al., 'Late-Holocene Catastrophic Floods in the Terminal Arno River (Pisa, Central Italy) from the Story of a Roman Riverine Harbour', The Holocene 16 (2006), pp. 863-76.
160. For scientific details see J.F. Bierhuizen, 'The Effect of Temperature on Plant Growth, Development and Yield', in R.O. Slatyer (ed.), Plant Response to Climatic Factors (Paris, 1973), pp. 89-98.
161. For historical data from the twentieth century: C. Pfister, Bevölkerung, Klima und Agrarmodernisierung, 1525-1860, 2 vols (Bern, 1985), II, pp. 35-7.
162. C. Vita-Finzi, The Mediterranean Valleys: Geological Changes in Historical Times (London, 1969).
163. C. Giraudi, 'Late-Holocene Alluvial Events in the Central Apennines, Italy', The Holocene 15 (2005), pp. 768-73.
164. C. Morhange, C. Vella et al., 'Human Impact and Natural Characteristics of the Ancient Ports of Marseille and Fos in Provence, Southern France', in Leveau et al., (eds), Environmental Reconstruction, pp. 145-53.
165. For the Tiber, see D. Camuffo and S. Enzi, 'The Analysis of Two Bi-Millennial Series: Tiber and Po River Floods', in Jones et al. (eds), Climatic Variations, pp. 433-50.
166. For the Arno: M. Benvenuti et al., 'Late-Holocene Catastrophic Floods'. And in southern Gaul, the small Vidourle river: J.F. Berger et al., 'Villetelle/Ambrussum', in Service Régional d'Archéologie Languedoc-Roussillon, Bilan Scienti?que (2001).
167. Compare: Mark G. Macklin et al., 'Pervasive and Long-Term Forcing of Holocene River Instability and Flooding in Great Britain by Centennial-Scale Climate Change', The Holocene 15 (2005), pp. 937-43.
168. B. Vannière et al., 'Land Use Change, Soil Erosion and Alluvial Dynamic in the Lower Doubs Valley over the 1st millennium AD', Journal of Archaeological Science 30 (2003), pp. 1283-99.
169. F. Trément et al., 'Mutations environnementales et systèmes socio-économiques en Grande Limagne (Massif Central Français) de l'Age du Fer au Moyen Age', in Hervé and Vignot (eds), Equilibres et Ruptures, pp. 269-79.
170. Among others: J.-F. Berger et al., 'Géoarchéologie du bassin valdainais', in J.P. Bravard and M. Prestreau (eds), Dynamique du Paysage: Entretiens de Géoarchéologie, DARA 15 (Lyon, 1997), pp. 103-28.
171. Berger and Jung, 'Developing a Methodological Approach', pp. 155-67.
172. J.-F. Berger and C. Jung, 'Données paléogéographiques et données archéologiques', in Burnouf et al. (eds), Dynamique des
173. See Leveau et al., 'Crise environnementale', pp. 291-303.
174. For Pisa, see Benvenuti et al., 'Late- Holocene Catastrophic Floods'.
175. F. Arnaud, M. Revel et al., '7,200 Years of Rhône River Flooding Activity in Lake Le Bourget, France: A High-Resolution Sediment Record of NW Alps Hydrology', The Holocene 15 (2005), pp. 420-8.
176. For the hydrology of the lake, see E. Chapron et al., 'Climatic Variability in the Northwestern Alps, France, as Evidenced by 600 Years of Terrigenous Sedimentation in Lake Le Bourget', The Holocene12 (2002), pp. 177-85.
177. For a description of the catchment area see M. Revel-Rolland et al. 'Sr and Nd isotopes as tracers of clastic sources in Lake Le Bourget sediment (NW Alps, France) during the Little Ice Age: Palaeohydrology implications, Chemical Geology 224 (2005), pp. 183-200.
178. See W. Tinner et al., 'Climatic Change and Contemporaneous Land-Use Phases North and South of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD', Quaternary Science Reviews 22 (2003), pp. 1447-60.
179. C. Giraudi, 'Late-Holocene Alluvial Events in the Central Apennines, Italy', The Holocene 15 (2005), pp. 768-73
180. and Benvenuti et al., 'Late-Holocene Catastrophic Floods'.
181. K.E. Barber et al., 'Late Holocene Climatic History of Northern Germany and Denmark: Peat Macrofossil Investigations at Dosenmoor, Schleswig-Holstein, and Svanemose, Jutland', Boreas 33 (2004), pp. 132-44.
182. Compare Figure 6 to the reconstructed phases of the NAO in J. Luterbacher et al., 'Extending North Atlantic Oscillation Reconstructions back to 1500', Atmospheric Science Letters (2002) at .
183. Also M.F. Glueck and G.W. Stockton, 'Reconstruction of the North Atlantic Oscillation, 1429-1983', International Journal of Climatology 21 (2001), pp. 1453-65. For general information on the NAO consult .
184. H. Holzhauser et al., 'Glacier and Lake-Level Variations in West-Central Europe over the Last 3500 Years', The Holocene 15 (2005), pp. 789-801.
185. J. Grove, 'The Century Time-Scale', in T.S. Driver and G.P. Chapman (eds), Time-Scales and Environmental Change (London, 1996), p. 41.
186. G. Patzelt, 'Die klimatischen Verhaltnisse im südlichen Mitteleuropa zur Römerzeit', in H. Bender and H. Wolff (eds), Ländliche Besiedlung und Landwirtschaft in den Rhein-Donau- Provinzen des Römischen Reiches (Espelkamp, 1994), pp. 7-20.
187. M.L. Parry and T.R. Carter, 'The Effect of Climatic Variations on Agricultural Risk', Climatic Change 7 (1987), pp. 95-110.
188. M.L. Parry presents the theoretical relationship between the principal climate factors and the growth and maturation of food crops in Climate Change and World Agriculture (London, 1990), pp. 41-52.
189. Although his focus is on global warming, the analysis is suggestive for cooling as well. See also, Pfister, Bevölkerung, Klima, II, pp. 35-7.
190. J.D. Post, The Last Great Subsistence Crisis in the Western World (Baltimore, 1977).
191. This has been studied most thoroughly in the middle Rhône valley: Berger and Jung, 'Developing a Methodological Approach'. It has been noted from the Ile de France to Italy, though without specific reference to hydrological causes: L. Bourgeois, Territoires, réseaux et habitats: L'occupation du sol dans l'ouest parisien du Ve au Xe siècle, 3 vols, thesis, Paris I - Sorbonne (1995), I, pp. 75, 199.
192. Frankovich and Hodges, Villa to Village, Ch. 3.
193. Abandonment of heavy clay soils: Private communication from P. Van Ossel apropos of the differences in late antique settlement survival between the Pays de France (between the Seine and Oise valleys) and Marne-la-Vallée. See also F. Gentili and N. Mahé, 'Serris: Les Ruelles. Village Du Haut Moyen-Âge', ms. DRAC SRA, St Denis (1997). Spread of rye cultivation: K.E. Behre, 'The History of Rye Cultivation in Europe', Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 1 (1992), pp. 141-56.
194. Hamerow, Early Medieval Settlements, pp. 135-7, 140.
195. On such transfers see Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity.
196. Stathakopoulos, Famine and Pestilence.
197. For an overview of ancient demography and a critique, see W. Scheidel, Measuring Sex, Age and Death in the Roman Empire: Explorations in Ancient Demography, Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supplementary Series 21 (Ann Arbor, 1996), and
198. W. Scheidel (ed.), Debating Roman Demography (Leiden and Boston, 2001).