“The Justinianic Plague: An Inconsequential Pandemic?”
Posted in Scholarship | Tagged Scholarship 2019, Timothy Newfield
In “The Justinianic Plague: An Inconsequential Pandemic?”, Timothy Newfield and his co-authors challenge current consensus about the number of deaths and significance of the Justinianic Plague. They argue that earlier estimates are based on a small subset of textual evidence and are not supported by many other independent types of evidence. Nontextual evidence suggests plague did not play a significant role in the transformation of the Mediterranean world or Europe. Thus, they conclude that earlier analyses of the mortality and social effects of the plague are exaggerated.