The rise and fall of viticulture in the Late Antique Negev Highlands reconstructed from archaeobotanical and ceramic data

Abstract

The international scope of the Mediterranean wine trade in Late Antiquity raises important questions concerning sustainability in an ancient international economy and offers a valuable historical precedent to modern globalization. Such questions involve the role of intercontinental commerce in maintaining sustainable production within important supply regions and the vulnerability of peripheral regions believed to have been especially sensitive to environmental and political disturbances. We provide archaeobotanical evidence from trash mounds at three sites in the central Negev Desert, Israel, unraveling the rise and fall of viticulture over the second to eighth centuries of the common era (CE). Using quantitative ceramic data obtained in the same archaeological contexts, we further investigate connections between Negev viticulture and circum-Mediterranean trade. Our findings demonstrate interrelated growth in viticulture and involvement in Mediterranean trade reaching what appears to be a commercial scale in the fourth to mid-sixth centuries. Following a mid-sixth century peak, decline of this system is evident in the mid- to late sixth century, nearly a century before the Islamic conquest. These findings closely correspond with other archaeological evidence for social, economic, and urban growth in the fourth century and decline centered on the mid-sixth century. Contracting markets were a likely proximate cause for the decline; possible triggers include climate change, plague, and wider sociopolitical developments. In long-term historical perspective, the unprecedented commercial florescence of the Late Antique Negev appears to have been unsustainable, reverting to an age-old pattern of smaller-scale settlement and survival–subsistence strategies within a time frame of about two centuries.

Unprecedented yet gradual nature of first millennium CE intercontinental crop plant dispersal revealed in ancient Negev desert refuse

“…The excavations' stratigraphic, ceramic, and radiocarbon analyses enabled differentiation of five chronological phases obtained from the middens [43,54]: Roman (ca. 0-300 CE), Early Byzantine (ca.…”

The Avdat in Late Antiquity Project: uncovering the Early Islamic phases of a Byzantine town in the Negev Highlands

“…Throughout the literature are tantalisingly short references to previous finds of Islamic material culture elsewhere in Avdat (Shamir & Baginski 2001), further justifying a planned systematic survey and additional excavation of the sector to gauge the extent of Islamic-period activity. Ongoing archaeobotanical and archaeozoological analyses will refine our understanding of local economic activity over time, particularly with regard to viticulture (Fuks et al 2020(Fuks et al , 2021. Geoarchaeological analyses for stratigraphic characterisation of sediments and chronological fine-tuning via additional radiocarbon dating (Butler et al 2020)-including of post-Abbasid strata-are expected to provide highresolution documentation of Avdat's urban and post-urban phases.…”

Ftir Bone Characterization and Radiocarbon Dating: Timing the Abandonment of Byzantine Pigeon Towers in the Negev Desert, Israel

“…Parallel to the urban collapse of Elusa, there is also evidence of a significant global climatic environmental deterioration primarily in Europe (the LALIA of 536-ca. 660 CE) that might have not necessarily affected the climate of the Negev, but influenced its commerce (Bar-Oz et al 2019;McCormick 2001;Fuks et al 2020), as well as the Justinianic Plague waves that claimed tens of millions of lives around the Mediterranean (541-ca. 750 CE; Benovitz 2014).…”

“…This time interval is synchronized with LALIA, and therefore corresponds the climatic event with the societal and agricultural change in the Negev arid landscape. Even if the local climate and population was not affected by the LALIA or the Justinianic Plague in the same way as in Europe, the population and economic decline in Europe could affect the viticulture in the Negev via a decreased demand for wine export (Fuks et al 2020;Lanos et al 2020).…”