Antioch after Dark: Archaeology and the ‘Dark Ages’ in North Syria

Antioch after Dark: Archaeology and the ‘Dark Ages’ in North SyriaSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/W9Z7RF2W/tei

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2025-05-20-05:00

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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.MichaelDeckerAntioch after Dark: Archaeology and the ‘Dark Ages’ in North Syriahttp://syriaca.org/cbss/W9Z7RF2Whttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/W9Z7RF2Whttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/W9Z7RF2WElizabeth S.BolmanScott FitzgeraldJohnsonJackTannousWorlds of Byzantium: Religion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near EastCambridgeCambridge University Press2024226-251In this chapter we explore the textual and material evidence for the transformation of the city of Antioch in northern Syria from the seventh through ninth centuries. Through observations of the environmental shocks, including the Justinianic Plague, which first arrived in AD 542, as well as the effects of a series of major earthquakes, we assess demographic changes that likely accompanied these events. Following this, we explore some possible reconstruction of the population of Antioch and its hinterland. In the early medieval period, a reassessment of the material evidence, read together with descriptions from medieval texts, demonstrates that a level economic and social activity, probably significantly exceeding previous estimates, persisted through the ‘Dark Ages’ of the seventh-ninth centuries. Decker, Michael. “Antioch after Dark: Archaeology and the ‘Dark Ages’ in North Syria.” In Worlds of Byzantium: Religion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East, edited by Elizabeth S. Bolman, Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, and Jack Tannous, 226–51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024. Michael Decker, Antioch after Dark: Archaeology and the ‘Dark Ages’ in North Syria, in Worlds of Byzantium: Religion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East, ed. Elizabeth S. Bolman, Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, and Jack Tannous (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024), 226–51.