Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

980 conclusion
There is, indeed, also new evidence from excavation from which to
reconstruct the concerns and life of the time. The epigraphic record of late
antique cities like Aphrodisias in Caria and Ephesus in Asia Minor traces
their change from Roman imperial centres with confident local élites ready
to spend freely on civic adornment to Byzantine bishoprics, much diminished
from their former glory; yet seat inscriptions help to reveal the prominence
of the Blue and Green factions during the fifth and sixth century, as
well as the hierarchical seating arrangement of different groups within the
city. 25 Elsewhere, recently discovered charred papyrus scrolls at Petra in
southern Jordan show that the city was the home of a substantial Christian
population in the sixth century, which engaged in agriculture and bore
names which mixed Greek and Arabic. Such evidence is centred on cities,
and the study of late antique urbanism is one of the liveliest fields in
modern scholarship. 26 There are some common features, to be found in
differing combinations across the Mediterranean – the decline of the traditional
upper-class house, the reuse of earlier materials (to our eyes often
inappropriately), the abandonment of public buildings and spaces associated
with the urbanism of an earlier age in favour of impressive defensive
and ecclesiastical buildings, and, at the later end of the period,
subdivision of houses and the once-forbidden practice of burial within the
walls. Yet the occurrences vary in different areas, and the changes happen
at differing speeds. Cities in some areas continue to show signs of growth,
whereas others manifest decline. Constantly-growing evidence, as more
towns are excavated and studied, makes this an often bewildering as well as
fascinating area of study, and one in which no general view is as yet possible.
Research over recent decades, on individual sites and on big international
projects like that at Carthage, has transformed our knowledge of late
antique pottery, whether amphorae or fine table-wares, often allowing very
precise dating and a clear idea of provenance. 27 It is becoming increasingly
possible to map detailed patterns of distribution, although, inevitably, the
mechanisms behind it remain the subject of active scholarly debate. At the
same time, we also know more about the countryside, including in some
cases the continuing prosperity of villages, from the growing number of
archaeological surveys, whether in Greece or North Africa, which examine
a small area over a long chronological period. And re-examination of
known evidence, as in the case of the villages of the limestone massif of
northern Syria, is changing older conclusions. 28
This is a period which has attracted much recent scholarship, and which
has seen considerable development in its analysis. From the relevant literature
in English one could single out in addition to Jones’s Later Roman
25 See ch. 21a (Roueché), pp. 570,87 above.
26 See e.g. Rich (1992); Cameron, Mediterranean World ch. 7; Christie and Loseby (1996); Brogiolo
(1997). 27 Hayes (1972); Giardina (1988). 28 See Tate (1992).
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008