Regional Survey and the Boom-and-bust Countryside: Re-reading the Archaeological Evidence for Episodic Abandonment in the Late Roman Corinthia

Abstract

This paper reexamines the archaeological evidence for three episodes of rural abandonment and resettlement in the countrysides of Late Roman Greece (200-700 CE): an abandoned Late Hellenistic-Early Roman countryside (second century BCE to third century CE), a decline in the third to early fourth centuries CE, and the Dark Age beginning in the seventh century CE. The first and third episodes of abandonment, especially, have sharply defined Late Antiquity (250-700 CE) as a healthy period of new rural settlement and economic resurgence, and the entire pattern has been described in the terms of "boom-and-bust" demographic and economic cycles. Closer readings of the archaeological data can contribute to more sensitive pictures of continuity and change in settlement and connectivity in the late antique Corinthian countryside and other regions in Greece.

Landscape Change and Trade in Ancient Greece: Evidence from Pollen Data

“…The only component of pollen-based trends that is inconsistent with archaeological data is the trend in the relative presence of coniferous trees in the period of c. 200-400 CE. At that time, the entire Roman Empire was experiencing a profound political crisis, and Greece was among the provinces that suffered from the barbarian raiding and political instability (Pettegrew 2007;Ziolkowski 2011). The increase in the presence of conifers, which quickly encroach on abandoned fields and pastures in the process of secondary ecological succession, would point to some decrease in the anthropogenic pressure, which, however, did not lead to a major episode of landscape change.…”

“…For major overviews, seePettegrew (2007Pettegrew ( , 2010 and Bintliff (2012a) on Greece; Izdebski (2013a,b) on Anatolia; as well asDecker (2009) andAvni et al (2013) on the Levant.…”

Survey Archaeology in the Mediterranean World: Regional Traditions and Contributions to Long-Term History

“…These artifact collections typically have a high degree of spatial resolution, which has allowed patterns to be tracked across a landscape or a site for a variety of periods. Many surveys have noted significant variability in artifact quantities across space and time, which has invited a series of questions concerning the human, material, and environmental factors that influence this observed variation; this was particularly highlighted in the "chronotype" systems of artifact analysis developed in Greece and Cyprus in the 1990s and 2000s (Pettegrew 2010;Winther-Jacobsen 2010). This system provides a flexible set of 50 chronological and typological designations for ceramic artifacts, acknowledging also uncertainty inherent in pottery identification (i.e., some sherds will be identifiable only in general terms [Roman transport vessel], while others can be identified very specifically [Late Roman Amphora 2]) (Caraher et al 2020b;Cloke et al, in press).…”

The current state of Byzantine archeology

“…Indeed, scholars recently have emphasized our overreliance on red fine ware pottery and potentially faulty methodologies and proposed new ways to engage in the study of both past landscapes and settlements. However, the disintegration of familiar markers of material culture and exchange networks in the early medieval period has been reconsidered in a number of local studies (Caraher, Nakassis, & Pettigrew, ; Pettegrew, ; Sanders, ), through both archeological survey (in which larger rural areas are examined, usually by foot, and where individual “sites” linked to human activity in place and time are recorded) and excavation. Nonetheless, the replacement of mass produced and imported ceramics makes it difficult to precisely identify human activity from the 7th to 10th centuries.…”