Technology In Transition A D 300 650

This collection of papers, arising from the conference series Late Antique Archaeology, examines technology in late antiquity. Papers explore agriculture, production, engineering and building technologies, and include a bibliographic essay.

Long-distance trade under Rome is well-understood. But the importance of local exchange has not been fully explored. The volume investigates how inland regions could become prosperous in late antiquity, especially when not integrated in long-range trading networks. Robust local economies emerge, stimulated by both taxation and local market systems.

This book explores the construction processes and the mechanisms of transmission of knowledge between the eastern and western Mediterranean lands from the late Roman period to the early centuries of Islam.

This volume compares two of the most famous cases of civilizational collapse, that of the Roman Empire and the Classic Maya world. First examining the concept of collapse, and how it has been utilized in the historical, archaeological and anthropological study of past complex societies, Storey and Storey draw on extensive archaeological evidence to consider the ultimate failure of the institutions, infrastructure and material culture of both of these complex cultures. Detailing the relevant economic, political, social and environmental factors behind these notable falls, Rome and the Classic Maya contends that a phenomenon of “slow collapse” has repeatedly occurred in the course of human history: complex civilizations are shown to eventually come to an end and give way to new cultures. Through their analysis of these two ancient case studies, the authors also present intriguing parallels to the modern world and offer potential lessons for the future.

The collected essays explore late antique and Byzantine Constantinople in matters sacred, political, cultural, and commercial.

"An examination of the transformations in lowland Britain's material culture over the course of the long fifth century CE during the late Roman regime and its end"--

This book looks at secular urban space in the Mediterranean city, A.D. 284-650, focusing on places where people from different religious and social group were obliged to mingle. It looks at streets, processions, fora/ agorai, market buildings, and shops.

This volume brings together a series of papers at Kalamazoo as well as some contributed papers inspired by the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Lynn White Jr.’s, Medieval Technology and Social Change (1962), a slim study which catalyzed the study of technology in the Middle Ages in the English-speaking world. While the initial reviews and decades-long fortune of the volume have been varied, it is still in print and remains a touchstone of an idea and a time. The contributors to the volume, therefore, both investigate the book itself and its fate, and look at new research furthering and inspired by White’s work. The book opens with an introduction surveying White’s career, with a bibliography of his work, as well as some opening thoughts on the study of medieval technology in the last fifty years. Three papers then deal explicitly with the reception and longevity of his work and its impact on medieval studies more generally. Then five papers look at new cast studies areas where White’s work and approach has had a particular impact, namely, medieval technology studies and medieval rural/ ecological studies.