Tilling the Hateful Earth: Agricultural Production and Trade in the Late Antique East

Description

This work examines the mechanisms of cultivation of the three major crops of the ‘Mediterranean triad’ (grain, wine, and olive oil) during the 4th through 7th centuries AD along the coastlands of the eastern Mediterranean. This book examines the production of crops vital to subsistence, and also argues that the late antique Levant witnessed a period of demographic growth, a rising market in the demand for commodities, and competitive elite that invested heavily in agriculture. One of the results of the concatenation of these phenomena was increasing specialization and the development of a large-scale export of wine and oil on a scale hitherto unrealized by eastern products. One of the points that emerges from the analysis of wider historical significance is that overland trade of heavy bulk goods, till now considered irrelevant or scarce, seems to have been a regular feature of the late antique Levant. In addition, the eastern provinces were deeply developed and dependent on interlocking trade interests which, although somewhat reduced in the early 7th century, were apparently robust into the period of the early Islamic conquests. This development and interdependence ultimately made agrarian conditions difficult to sustain. Introduction 1 The Land 2 The Countryside in Late Antiquity 3 Hand to Mouth 4 The Vine 5 The ‘Queen of All Trees’ 6 Invading the Desert 7 Mixed Farming and Limited Specialization 8 Trade, Agriculture, and the Economy of the Late Antique East Conclusion