Study reveals Roman Empire's expansion following volcanic eruption and plague

Archaeology Magazine ^ | January 5, 2025 | Dario Radley

[SunkenCiv]

...there are still many in academia who claim that changes to the climate and the outbreak of plague were catastrophic for the eastern Roman Empire... Our findings reveal that there was no decline in the 6th century, but rather a new record in population and trade in the eastern Mediterranean...

Previous research claimed that this site declined in the middle of the 6th century... The decline only started in the 7th century.

Large-scale data included new databases compiled using archaeological survey, excavation and shipwreck finds. The survey and excavation databases, which were made up of tens of thousands of sites, were used to map the general changes in the size and number of sites for each historical period.

The shipwreck database showed the number of shipwrecks for each half century...

Our results showed that there was a high correlation in the archaeological record for numerous regions, covering modern-day Israel, Tunisia, Jordan, Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt and Greece. There was also a strong correlation between the different types of data.

Both the smaller case studies, and the larger datasets, showed there was no decrease in population or economy in the 6th century eastern Roman Empire. In fact, there seems to have been an increase in prosperity and demography. The decline occurred in the 7th century, and so cannot be connected to sudden climate change or the plague which happened more than half a century before.

It seems the Roman Empire entered the 7th century at the peak of its power. But Roman miscalculations, and their failure against their Persian opponents, brought the entire area into a downward spiral. This left the two empires weak and allowed Islam to rise.

[SunkenCiv]

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• Medieval Black Death Was Probably Not Bubonic Plague [04/15/2002]
• Black Death 'Was Not Plague' Say Experts [04/12/2002]

[SunkenCiv]

[DIRTYSECRET]

Covid. Lahina/Southerrn Cal fires. No border wall. See a similarity?

[ClearCase_guy]

It’s refreshing to see this referred to as the Roman Empire during this time period.

[Red Badger]

Well, volcanoes and plagues are good reasons to
MOVE!..................

[Wuli]

God.

[BipolarBob]

The enormous costs associated with this bankrupted Roman Province Insurance company costing millions of denarius. The plague hit the Roman soldiers hard with legionaires disease.

[SunkenCiv]

I wholeheartedly agree.