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syria, palestine and mesopotamia 607
the most important sources of information are the mosaic floors of
churches whose built structures have almost entirely disappeared. These
have revealed an astonishing upsurge of building activity lasting until after
the Islamic conquests. The most famous of these are probably the mosaics
of Madaba (including the famous map of the Holy Land) and Mount
Nebo. 63 An illustration of the importance of archaeological evidence in
this enquiry can be seen at Petra. Until recently it was thought that Petra in
late antiquity was something of a ghost town, 64 but the discovery in 1990
of a major church with high-quality mosaics and marble furnishings must
lead to a reassessment of this verdict. 65 At present the church is dated to
the late fifth and early sixth century and may have been abandoned after
the earthquake of 551. The silence of the literary sources should not lead
us to assume that there was no cultural or economic activity in an area.
In Palestine, pilgrims and imperial subsidies for church building must
have brought money into the area. Wealthy refugees from the west, like
Melania the Younger (d. 439), settled in the area and distributed their vast
assets in pious benefactions. The most famous of these patrons was the
empress Eudocia (d. 460), who settled in Jerusalem from 441 onward.
Though estranged from her husband and the imperial court, she still
enjoyed huge wealth, with which she endowed the churches and monasteries
of the region. 66 Melania and Eudocia seem to have no parallels in the
sixth century, but pilgrims continued to arrive from the west, like the
Piacenza pilgrim whose account of his journey (c. 570) still survives, 67 and
they must have contributed to the local economy in a more modest way.
Justinian’s building projects in Jerusalem, the extended cardo and the great
Nea church, must have brought in revenue as well.
Using this material to examine the general economic history of the area
is fraught with problems, and the results of new excavations, like the
church at Petra, can suddenly upset accepted hypotheses. At present it
looks as if the period from the early fifth century to about 540 was one of
gradually expanding settlement and extensive new building of both domestic
houses and churches, though there may have been exceptions to this in
areas like the countryside around Edessa which were subject to destructive
Persian attacks. After the mid sixth century, this expansion of settlement
ceased in many areas and regional variations become much more noticeable.
There is some evidence for the decline of the coastal cities, though
because of repeated rebuilding, the evidence here is very difficult to assess.
63 64 See Piccirillo (1989) and Donner (1992). Gutwein (1981) 13.
65 For a preliminary publication see Fiema (1993) 1–3; an important find of sixth-century papyri pro-
66 vides new evidence of local economic life. See Holum, Empresses; Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage.
67 Antonini Placentini, Itinerarium ed. P. Geyer (CCSL 175, pp.127–74); English trans. Wilkinson
(1977) 79–89.
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