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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cplradar, post: 8024219, member: 108985&quot;]This extensive article reviews how ancient coinage reflects and informs modern scholars about the economic and environmental events that shaped history in the Levant in and around the 6th Century</p><p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p><p><br /></p><p>The climate factor has become a focus of much historical and archaeological investigation, encouraged recently by improvements in palaeoclimatic techniques and interest in global climate change. This article examines correlations between climate and history in the Byzantine southern Levant (<i>c.</i> 4th–7th centuries AD). A proposed 5th century economic downturn attested to by numismatic trends is shown to coincide with palaeoclimatic evidence for drought. We suggest a climatic ultimate cause for the apparent economic decline. In addition, the relationship between the Dust Veil Index (DVI) and annual precipitation in Jerusalem suggests the likelihood of increased precipitation following the 536 AD volcanic dust veil. This prediction is borne out by high-resolution precipitation reconstructions from Soreq Cave speleothems and by sedimentation records of extreme flash flooding. These finds complement palaeoclimatic reconstructions from Europe showing a drop in precipitation after 536 AD. Drought in Europe and flooding in the Middle East are both expected outcomes of global cooling during volcanic winters, such as those described in historical accounts of the 530s AD</p><p><br /></p><p><font size="5"><i>In his book, The Missing Century, Safrai (1998)</i></font></p><p><font size="5"><i>argued for a 5th century AD (408–491 AD) decline</i></font></p><p><font size="5"><i>in demographic and economic vitality in the southern</i></font></p><p><font size="5"><i>Levant, and the eastern Roman Empire generally. This</i></font></p><p><font size="5"><i>conclusion was based primarily on quantitative numismatic data, particularly the marked decrease in identified bronze coins from the 5th century (Fig. 2). This trend is corroborated by an independent database compiled by Gitler, in which the number of coin</i></font></p><p><font size="5"><i>finds annually is 4.5 for the years 383–408 AD, 0.4</i></font></p><p><font size="5"><i>for 408–489 AD, 0.7 in the 6th century and 0.4 in</i></font></p><p><font size="5"><i>the 7th century (Gitler and Weisburd 2005; see also</i></font></p><p><font size="5"><i>Bijovsky 2000–2002; 2012; Guest 2012).</i></font></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://lisa.biu.ac.il/sites/lisa/files/shared/fuks_et_al_dust_clouds_climate_change_and_coins_levant_2017.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://lisa.biu.ac.il/sites/lisa/files/shared/fuks_et_al_dust_clouds_climate_change_and_coins_levant_2017.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://lisa.biu.ac.il/sites/lisa/files/shared/fuks_et_al_dust_clouds_climate_change_and_coins_levant_2017.pdf</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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