image: View of Elusa trash mound. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Guy Bar-Oz.
A study of ancient urban trash mounds suggests a link between climate change and Late Antique urban collapse. Archaeological evidence for the role of climate in the decline of the Byzantine Empire during the 6th and 7th centuries CE is sparse. Guy Bar-Oz and colleagues used ancient trash mounds to document urban decline in the Byzantine settlement of Elusa in the Negev Desert of the southern Levant. The presence of organized large-scale trash disposal serves as a proxy for high-level urban functioning. Excavation and sediment analysis of four mounds surrounding the ancient settlement revealed that the mounds consisted largely of refuse from domestic fire installations and construction debris. The authors recovered an abundance of ceramic sherds from the early and middle Byzantine periods, around 350-550 CE, and significantly fewer sherds from earlier or later periods. Carbon dating of seeds and charcoal yielded no dates later than the mid-6th century CE. The results suggest that organized trash disposal at Elusa ended and the decline of the settlement began around the mid-6th century, approximately one century before the Islamic conquest ended Byzantine control over the region. The end of organized trash removal coincides with other evidence for Byzantine urban upheaval, the beginning of the Late Antique Little Ice Age climate event, and the outbreak of the Plague of Justinian, suggesting a link between climate change and Byzantine decline, according to the authors.
Article #19-00233: "Ancient trash mounds unravel urban collapse a century before the end of Byzantine hegemony in the southern Levant," by Guy Bar-Oz et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Guy Bar-Oz, University of Haifa, ISRAEL; tel: +972-54-5755872, +972-4-8240070; e-mail: guybar@research.haifa.ac.il
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