Title: Did the Byzantine Negev settlements exhaust the surrounding environment? : a response to "Environment and horticulture in the Byzantine Negev Desert, Israel: sustainability, prosperity and enigmatic decline"
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2022, vol. 27, iss. 2, pp. 5-14
Extent
5-14
-
ISSN1803-7402 (print)2336-4424 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2022-2-1
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.77366
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
The recently published Langgut et al. article claims that there was over-exploitation of the Byzantine Negev Desert. They suggest that the over-exploitation worked in conjunction with the Justinianic Plague and the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA), and caused the decline of the Negev settlements in the middle of the 6th century CE. The current article wishes to respond to Langgut et al. article and show that what they found cannot be used to claim that there was an over-exploitation of the land. Moreover, contrary to what they suggest, their finds indicate and support the fact that the decline occurred later. As part of this rebuttal, we will also show that the dating used in this article, like the other articles published by the project titled "NEGEVBYZ," is incorrect.
References
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[25] Picornell Gelabert, L., Asouti, E., & Martí, E. (2011). The ethnoarchaeology of firewood management in the Fang villages of Equatorial Guinea, central Africa: Implications for the interpretation of wood fuel remains from archaeological sites. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 30(3), 375–384 [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2011.05.002].
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[30] Tepper, Y., Erickson-Gini, T., Farhi, Y., & Bar-Oz, G. (2018). Probing the Byzantine/Early Islamic transition in the Negev: The renewed Shivta excavations, 2015–2016. Tel Aviv, 45(1), 120–152 [https://doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2018.1412058].
[31] Théry-Parisot, I., Chabal, L., & Chrzavzez, J. (2010). Anthracology and taphonomy, from wood gathering to charcoal analysis. A review of the taphonomic processes modifying charcoal assemblages, in archaeological contexts. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 291(1), 142–153 [from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.09.016].
[32] Tomber, R. S. (1996). Provisioning the desert: Pottery supply to Mons Claudianus. In D. M. Bailey (Ed.), Archaeological research in Roman Egypt: the proceedings of the Seventeenth Classical Colloquium of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum held on 1–4 December, 1993 (pp. 39–49). Ann Arbor, MI: Journal of Roman Archaeology.
[33] Vaiglova, P., Hartman, G., Marom, N., Ayalon, A., Bar-Matthews, M., Zilberman, T., Yasur, G., Buckley, M., Bernstein, R., Tepper, Y., Weissbrod, L., Erickson-Gini, T., & Bar-Oz, G. (2020). Climate stability and societal decline on the margins of the Byzantine Empire in the Negev Desert. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1512 [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58360-5].
[34] Wilson, P., & Grigoropoulos, D. (2009). The West Nile Delta regional survey, Beheira and Kafr el-Sheikh provinces. London: Egypt Exploration Society.
[2] Bar-Oz, G., Weissbrod, L., Erickson-Gini, T., Tepper, Y., Malkinson, D., Benzaquen, M., Langgut, D., Dunseth, Z. C., Butler, D. H., Shahack-Gross, R., Roskin, J., Fuks, D., Weiss, E., Marom, N., Ktalav, I., Blevis, R., Zohar, I., Farhi, Y., Filatova, A., Gorin-Rosen, Y., Yan, X., & Boaretto, E. (2019). Ancient trash mounds unravel urban collapse a century before the end of Byzantine hegemony in the southern Levant. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(17), 8239–8248 [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900233116].
[3] Bonifay, M., Carre, M. B., & Rigoir, Y. (1998). Fouilles à Marseille: Les mobiliers, Ier–VIIe siècles ap. J.C. Paris: Errance, ADAM.
[4] Bonifay, M., & Pieri, D. (1995). Amphores du Ve au VIIe s. à Marseille: Nouvelles données sur la typologie et le contenu. Journal of Roman Archaeology, 8, 94–120.
[5] Bonifay, M., & Pieri, D. (2020). Merovingian Gaul and the Mediterranean: Ceramics and trade. In B. Effros, & I. Moreira (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Merovingian World (pp. 861–882): Oxford University Press.
[6] Butler, D. H., Dunseth, Z. C., Tepper, Y., Erickson-Gini, T., Bar-Oz, G., & Shahack-Gross, R. (2020). Byzantine—Early Islamic resource management detected through micro-geoarchaeological investigations of trash mounds (Negev, Israel). PLoS ONE, 15(10), 1–22 [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239227].
[7] Carmel, Y. (2020). At the end and beyond it. Calcalist [retrieved 10.11.2022 from https://newmedia.calcalist.co.il/magazine-20-02-20/m03.html].
[8] Donner, F. M. (2014). The Early Islamic conquests. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[9] Elton, H. (2018). The Roman Empire in late antiquity: A political and military history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[10] Fuks, D., Bar-Oz, G., Tepper, Y., Erickson-Gini, T., Langgut, D., Weissbrod, L., & Weiss, E. (2020). The rise and fall of viticulture in the Late Antique Negev Highlands reconstructed from archaeobotanical and ceramic data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(33), 19780–19791 [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1922200117].
[11] Heather, P. J. (2018). Rome resurgent: War and empire in the age of Justinian. New York: Oxford University Press.
[12] Ibrahim, R. R. (2002). The battle of Yarmuk: An assessment of the immediate factors behind the Islamic conquests. Diss. California State University, Fresno.
[13] Kenawi, M. (2014). Alexandria's hinterland: Archaeology of the Western Nile Delta. Oxford: Archaeopress.
[14] Kennedy, H. (2008). The great Arab conquests: How the spread of Islam changed the world we live in (Paperback ed.). London: Phoenix.
[15] Langgut, D., Tepper, Y., Benzaquen, M., Erickson-Gini, T., & Bar-Oz, G. (2021). Environment and horticulture in the Byzantine Negev Desert, Israel: Sustainability, prosperity and enigmatic decline. Quaternary International, 593, 160–177.
[16] Magness, J. (2003). The archaeology of the Early Islamic settlement in Palestine. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns.
[17] Majcherek, G. (1995). Gazan amphorae: Typology reconsidered. In H. Meyza, & Y. Młynarczyk (Eds.), Hellenistic and Roman pottery in the Eastern Mediterranean: Advances in scientific studies-acts of the II Nieborów Pottery Workshop, Nieborów, 18–20 December 1993 (pp. 163–178). Warsaw: Polish Academy of Sciences.
[18] Mangel, M., & Samaniego, F. J. (1984). Abraham Wald's work on aircraft survivability. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 79(386), 259–267 [https://doi.org/10.2307/2288257].
[19] Marozzi, J. (2021). The Arab conquests. London: Apollo.
[20] Nicolle, D. (1994). Yarmuk, 636 AD: The Muslim conquest of Syria. London: Osprey.
[21] Olshanetsky, H. (2021). On the walls of Naples. Segula, 127, 36–43.
[22] Olshanetsky, H., & Cosijns, L. (2021). The Persian invasion of 614 A.D. as a possible catalyst for the decline and fall of the Negev settlements. Diogenes, 12, 4–25.
[23] Olshanetsky, H., & Cosijns, L. (2022). Did they influence at all? A re-analysis of the effects of the Late Antique Little Ice Age and the Justinianic plague on the eastern Roman Empire during the 6th and 7th centuries CE. Muza, 5, 24–41.
[24] Olshanetsky, H., & Cosijns, L. (Forthcoming 2023). Did we stop throwing away the garbage? Questioning urban collapse at Elusa in the sixth century CE. Israel Exploration Journal.
[25] Picornell Gelabert, L., Asouti, E., & Martí, E. (2011). The ethnoarchaeology of firewood management in the Fang villages of Equatorial Guinea, central Africa: Implications for the interpretation of wood fuel remains from archaeological sites. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 30(3), 375–384 [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2011.05.002].
[26] Pieri, D. (2005). Le commerce du vin oriental à l'époque Byzantine (Ve–VIIe siècles): Le témoignage des amphores en Gaule. Beyrouth: Institut français du Proche-Orient.
[27] Reynolds, P. (2005). Levantine amphorae from Cilicia to Gaza: A typology and analysis of regional production trends from the 1st to 7th centuries. In J. M. Gurt Esparraguera, J. Buxeda i Garrigós, & M. A. Cau Ontiveros (Eds.), LRCW I: Late Roman coarse wares, cooking wares and amphorae in the Mediterranean: Archaeology and archaeometry (pp. 563–611). Oxford: Archaeopress.
[28] Riley, J. A. (1975). The pottery from the first session of excavations in the Caesarea Hippodrome. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 218, 25–63.
[29] Sazanov, A. (2017). Les amphores LRA 4: Problèmes de typologie et de chronologie. In D. Dixneuf (Ed.), LRCW 5: Late Roman coarse wares, cooking wares and amphorae in the Mediterranean: Archaeology and archaeometry (Vol. 2; pp. 629–650). Oxford: Archaeopress.
[30] Tepper, Y., Erickson-Gini, T., Farhi, Y., & Bar-Oz, G. (2018). Probing the Byzantine/Early Islamic transition in the Negev: The renewed Shivta excavations, 2015–2016. Tel Aviv, 45(1), 120–152 [https://doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2018.1412058].
[31] Théry-Parisot, I., Chabal, L., & Chrzavzez, J. (2010). Anthracology and taphonomy, from wood gathering to charcoal analysis. A review of the taphonomic processes modifying charcoal assemblages, in archaeological contexts. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 291(1), 142–153 [from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.09.016].
[32] Tomber, R. S. (1996). Provisioning the desert: Pottery supply to Mons Claudianus. In D. M. Bailey (Ed.), Archaeological research in Roman Egypt: the proceedings of the Seventeenth Classical Colloquium of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum held on 1–4 December, 1993 (pp. 39–49). Ann Arbor, MI: Journal of Roman Archaeology.
[33] Vaiglova, P., Hartman, G., Marom, N., Ayalon, A., Bar-Matthews, M., Zilberman, T., Yasur, G., Buckley, M., Bernstein, R., Tepper, Y., Weissbrod, L., Erickson-Gini, T., & Bar-Oz, G. (2020). Climate stability and societal decline on the margins of the Byzantine Empire in the Negev Desert. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1512 [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58360-5].
[34] Wilson, P., & Grigoropoulos, D. (2009). The West Nile Delta regional survey, Beheira and Kafr el-Sheikh provinces. London: Egypt Exploration Society.