399 research outputs found
Climate and Famines: a Historical Reassessment
No full textThis study, dealing with the question of the impact of climate and extreme weather events on famines, has two objectives. The first objective is to review recent literature on the topic, distinguishing between economic and political science papers aimed at addressing contemporary famine events in the Third World countries, and historical research dealing with famines of the past. The former category of literature is characterized by a tendency to take the connection between the two variables for granted. The latter category, however, tends to exercise more analytical caution, but it still exhibits a degree of environmental determinism. The second objective of the article is to reassess the role and impact of climate and short-term weather anomalies on famines in pre-Industrial societies, in both European and non-European history. At first, it appears that famines went invariably hand-in-hand with climatic changes and anomalies. A closer analysis, however, reveals that those climatic events created environmental shocks (harvest failures and blights), which implied shortages, rather than famines. Whether those shortages were bound to transform into full-fledged famines was determined by nonenvironmental factors: primarily, human institutions and demographic trends. Climate alone, it is argued, is incapable of creating famines. The often unquestioned connection between the two variables appears to be an imaginary cultural and political construct of our era, when the fear of global warming and the awareness of climate change dominate the public and scholarly discours
Mites and merchants: the crisis of English wool and textile trade revisited, c. 1275-1330
No full textOn the basis of 7,871 manorial accounts from 601 sheep‐rearing demesnes and 187 tithe receipts from 15 parishes, this article addresses the origins, scale, and impact of the wool and textile production crisis in England, c. 1275–1350. The article argues that recurrent outbreaks of scab disease depressed sheep population and wool production levels until the early 1330s. The disease, coupled with warfare and taxation, also had a decisive role in depressing the volumes of wool exports. Despite this fact, wool merchants were still conducting business with major wool producers, who desperately needed access to the capital to replenish their flocks
Warfare and Ecological Destruction in Early Fourteenth-century British Isles
No full textThe environmental, economic, and demographic consequences of Anglo-Scottish warfare in the early fourteenth century were far reaching. This article looks at the extent of environmental damage brought about by the ongoing warfare, primarily between England and Scotland from 1296 to 1328. The conflict coincided with a series of ecological and biological crises, most notably the Great European Famine of 1315–17 and the Great Bovine Pestilence of 1319–20. As I argue, the armed conflict aggravated the crisis further and caused immense damage within the war zones of the British Isles
Bread and Ale for the Brethren. The Provisioning of Norwich Cathedral Priory, 1260-1536
No full textBy 1300, England and other West-European countries had undergone a significant degree of commercialisation. More and more communities, both urban and rural, depended on an efficient network of local markets to obtain the goods they needed, in particular for their food. Yet in spite of this, some landed lords and, most notably, monasteries and convents continued to rely on the produce of their own estates, even though there were significant costs and risks associated with the production, transportation and storage of their own food. Philip Slavin sets out to account for this puzzling situation through an in-depth study of the changing patterns and fortunes of the provisioning of Norwich Cathedral Priory between c.1260 and 1536. Close analysis of contemporary archival sources reveals that the Priory made a deliberate choice, dictated by various economic, social and environmental factors and which, altogether, made isolation from the market a profitable, and very rational, option. This is a new sort of estate study that considers questions of both production and consumption as well as health issues, including the problems of overeating and obesity occurring in late-medieval monastic populations. Particular attention is given to the production, transportation, storage and consumption by the Priory household of grain-based products. In the late-medieval period, grains were the single most important component in the daily diet, for both commoners and the higher echelons, accounting for between 50 and 80 per cent of total calorific intake. Although focusing on one specific region, this is more than just a regional study, analysing as it does a microcosm of the late-medieval English economy and society at a time of political, socio-economic and biological shocks and crises, including years of bad weather, famine, pestilence (both human and bovine), warfare and revolts. The study of the food supply of late-medieval conventual households sheds much light on the wider process of decline and eventual collapse of direct demesne management in particular, and feudalism in general, in the post-Black Death era
Black death: how we solved the centuries-old mystery of its origins
No full textFirst paragraph: It is not an exaggeration to say that the question of where and when the Black Death, the deadliest pandemic ever, originated is one of the biggest mysteries in human history. After all, the Black Death was the first wave of the second plague pandemic of the 14th to early 19th centuries. It killed some 50-60% of the population in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa and an unaccountable number of people in Central Asia.https://theconversation.com/black-death-how-we-solved-the-centuries-old-mystery-of-its-origins-18542
Principal Aspects of Olbian History in Works of L.M. Slavin
No full textСтаттю присвячено загальному огляду головних питань з історії Ольвії, які вивчав Л.М. Славін, у контексті
минулих і сучасних досліджень.Научная деятельность Л.М. Славина была всесторонней, однако на первое место он всегда ставил интерпретацию и
хронологию археологических памятников. Вместе с тем ему принадлежит много исторических работ. Самой важной
научно-теоретической разработкой Л.М. Славина была общеисторическая периодизация Ольвии. Л.М. Славин первым
обосновал принципы создания исторической периодизации. Он считал целесообразным разделить историю Ольвии
на ряд периодов, качественно отличающихся друг от друга прежде всего по признакам экономического развития, социально-политической жизни, исторических судеб. Ученый впервые попытался применить комплексную методику
исследования источников для каждого из пяти выделенных им периодов с их подробной характеристикой. В своих
обобщающих работах Л.М. Славин оставил много убедительных выводов и соображений относительно разных вопросов
исторического, экономического и культурного развития Ольвии.Research activity of L.M. Slavin was comprehensive, though his principal aim was the interpretation and chronology
of archaeological monuments. In addition, he was the author of many historical works. The most important theoretical
research development of L.M. Slavin was the general historical periodization of Olbia. L.M. Slavin was the first
who substantiated the principles for historical periodization. He considered that it was expedient to divide the
history of Olbia into several periods first of all on the basis of the evidence of economic development, social and
political life, and historic destinies. Also he tried to apply the comprehensive methodology of monuments research
for each of five distinguished periods and for their detailed description
Personality of L.M. Slavin on the materials of Scientific Archive of IA NAS of Ukraine
No full textСтаттю написано на основі архівних матеріалів, що змальовують Л.М. Славіна як вченого і неординарну особистість. У науковий обіг введено невідомі архівні матеріали.В его жизни было четыре главных города: Витебск, где он родился и вырос; Ленинград, в котором прошли его
студенческие годы и началась научная карьера; Киев, где он жил и работал; древняя Ольвия, изучению которой
он посвятил свою жизнь. Уделяя большое внимание подготовке молодых кадров, Л.М. Славин преподавал в Киевском государственном университете им. Т.Г. Шевченко. В первые послевоенные годы Л.М. Славин был директором, а позже — заместителем директора Института археологии УССР; одновременно он возглавлял сектор скифо-античной археологии. Л.М. Славин — автор 151 научной публикации.In the life of L.M. Slavin there were four main cities: Vitebsk, where he was born and grew up, Leningrad, where his
student years passed and the scientific career started, Kyiv, where he worked, and ancient Olbia, to study of which he
devoted all his life. Placing high emphasis on teaching new personnel, L.M. Slavin taught at the State Taras Shevchenko
University of Kyiv. He was an advisor of many authors of dissertations. In early post-war years L.M. Slavin was the
director and later the assistant of a director of Institute of Archaeology of USSR. At the same time he was the head of the
department of Scythian and Sarmatian archaeology. L.M. Slavin was an author of 151 scientific publications
Epizootic Landscapes: Sheep Scab and Regional Environment in England in 1279–1280
No full textThis essay looks at late-medieval rural landscapes of animal disease through the prism of sheep epizootics in England, caused by sheep scab, a highly acute and transmissive disease, whose first wave broke out in 1279–1280. The essay focuses on three regions in England: East Anglia, the Wiltshire-Hampshire Chalklands and Kent, each possessing distinct topographic and environmental features and exhibiting different rates of mortality. The study sets a theoretical model, based on the concept of ‘complexity theory’ and consisting of ten different principles, determining regional variances in dissemination of scab and in mortality patterns. A close analysis of the available statistical sources suggests that there was no ‘universal’ explanatory factor accounting for the correlation between regional geography and mortality rates, and that the situation varied not only from region to region, but from farm to farm, depending on a combination of several possible factors. It is only through a meticulous analysis of local, rather than regional, conditions that the complexity of the situation can begin to be appreciate
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