From jsiegel@nimbus.ocis.temple.edu Sun Sep 10 08:22:39 2000 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id IAA147026 for ; Sun, 10 Sep 2000 08:22:38 -0700 Received: from rly-ip02.mx.aol.com (rly-ip02.mx.aol.com [152.163.225.160]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id IAA08406 for ; Sun, 10 Sep 2000 08:22:37 -0700 Received: from tot-te.proxy.aol.com (tot-te.proxy.aol.com [152.163.195.131]) by rly-ip02.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.8/AOL-5.0.0) with ESMTP id LAA12173 for ; Sun, 10 Sep 2000 11:22:24 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Dr.J (ACA6BC8C.ipt.aol.com [172.166.188.140]) by tot-te.proxy.aol.com (8.10.0/8.10.0) with SMTP id e8AFM4805654 for ; Sun, 10 Sep 2000 11:22:04 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <067d01c01b39$bf9b84a0$e49db798@J> From: "Janice Siegel" To: References: Subject: Re: The NTD virus Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 11:13:59 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_067A_01C01B18.37C07A20" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_067A_01C01B18.37C07A20 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Well, I was waiting to get this published, but since everyone seems = confused about the *real* story concerning the burn marks on the gypsum = still covering the remains of the Cretan "palatial = structures"...Everyone knows that the Minoans had flush toilets. But = what they might not have understood was the danger of the build-up of = certain toxic gases...so all this (methane? ammonia? whatever) gas is = collecting in underground chambers all over Crete, and along comes this = tiny little seismic disturbance. The plates shift, the rock grinds, a = spark ignites the gas. Kaboom. Obviously, it was the Great Bean Festival = of 1450 BC that brought them down. Geez. Cheers, Janice ----- Original Message -----=20 From: Christopher Robbins=20 To: Late Antique ; BYZANS-L ; classics@u.washington.edu=20 Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2000 4:24 AM Subject: The NTD virus (was: ... London Times) - long DW posted the following (here edited) from the London Times: _____________________________________________________ "The story of the death of King Arthur and its references to a = wasteland may have been inspired by the apocalyptic effects of a giant = comet bombarding the Earth in AD540, leading to the Dark Ages, a British = scientist said [...]" Oh, brother! But there is a serious warning to be taken from this, = namely that even the best of minds can be infected by NTD (Nutty Theory = Disease). Don't believe it? Then let's take a look at some of the = equally ludicrous theories that were put forth as causal to a Dark Age = that will be more familiar to the Classics community, that which = afflicted Greece and virtually the entire Near East at the end of the = Aegean Bronze Age. (1) C.F.A Schaeffer on the ruin of the Anatolian cities ca. 1200 BC: = "...il est plausible d'admettre que les destructions massives qui = firent dispara=EEtre, au temps de Suppiluliuma, l'empire hittite, sa = capitale et nombre d'autres villes importantes en Hatti, ne sont pas = imputables =E0 des actions guerri=E8res, mais =E0 de d=E9sastreux = tremblements de terre dont l'Asie Mineure, l'une des r=E9gions du globe = les plus =E9prouv=E9es par les s=E9ismes, a =E9t=E9 si souvent le = th=E9=E2tre." (2) Sir Arthur Evans on the fire that destroyed the Knossos palace and = baked its tablet archives: "...it seems best to assign a seismic cause." = But even for this distinguished figure, his explanation of how an = earthquake caused the fires but little damage to neighboring sites is = nuttier still. You see, it was just a moderate earthquake (hence = affecting only Knossos) but it occurred when the Notios (south wind) was = blowing. So the minor quake upset some lamps and the Notios fans the = flames of those lamps into a blaze that so thoroughly destroys the = palace that it had to be abandoned. I am not joking; this is what Evans = proposed. =20 (3) What about Hissarlik (i.e., Troy VIh)? Per Carl Blegen, this once = "royal" city was likewise destroyed and burned by an earthquake. What, = no Achaeans? :-) (4) Perhaps more to the Classicist soul is the Peloponnese where far = more sites than Mycenae alone were destroyed, plundered, burned, and = eventually abandoned. How did all this happen? In a conclusion that = was shared by others as well, Spyridon Iakovides reports: "During the = last quarter of the c13 BC a violent earthquake, signs of which have = been noticed both inside and outside the citadel, overthrew the palace = and many other buildings and started fires which caused the total = destruction of many of them." Presumably the earthquake carried off the = treasure as well, although how it planned to spend it is not mentioned. That's probably enough to show that NTD can affect even the most = distinguished figures in a field. It would further seem that nutty = theories and dark ages tend to go together, although not necessarily in = that order. And in this regard. let us return briefly to the London = Times article, which said: >Dr Baillie also cited the death of King Arthur, which is dated to = 537, 539 and 542 in various works [...] There is not a shred of evidence that a King Arthur ever existed, and = Geoffrey of Monmouth's elaborate romantic fictions, composed six = centuries later in his _Historia regnum Britanniae_, are nothing but the = combination of his imagination, his pro-Breton sentiments, and what = appears to be his father's name, Arturus. As this was a common Breton = name at that time (though not with the Welsh), it has been inferred that = Geoffrey was of Breton descent, which may have contributed to his = sympathy with the ancient Britons. Like the Romans before them, the = Anglo-Saxons had first to contend with the native Britons, mostly those = who had not been subsumed into the Roman world of the Britannia = province. These battles appear to have been fierce indeed, if = intermittent. But again like the Romans, the A/S kingdoms eventually = prevailed and drove their Briton challengers back into the so-called = Celtic fringe, with Offa's dyke standing in lieu of the Hadrian and = Antonine walls. The matter of "Saxon or Celt", as the movies of my childhood used to = say, was well settled before the A/S kingdoms became Christianized and = literate. So even the best sources that we have about the A/S-Briton = conflict are those recorded by Latin clerics a century or so after the = fact and taken from the memory and oral history of people who were not = alive when the events transpired. And even those are mostly from way up = north of the Humber in present-day Yorkshire, where the first = florescence of A/S culture in England was expressed. This is frail = evidence indeed, and there is no possible way it could pinpoint the = death of any Briton chieftain, least of all one named Arthur, since this = name was not appended to this lore until some 600 years later. And to = rely on a mythical fantasy written in the c12 for the climatic = conditions in the c6 seems rather unadvisable to me. But what about the Dark Age? The "darkness" involved has always been = more attendant to our vision than theirs. As we now know vastly more = about the period to which this term was applied (roughly the first five = or so centuries after the demise of the Western Empire) than was known = when it was coined, the term has effectively been abandoned by medieval = historians. As to the alleged cause of this Dark Age, we return to the = London Times article: "The impacts filled the atmosphere with dust and debris; a long winter = began. Crops failed, and there was famine, Dr Mike Baillie of Queen's = University, Belfast, told the British Association for the Advancement of = Science. There was now overwhelming evidence from studies of tree rings = of a catastrophic climate change at that time, he said. "Dr Baillie, who is based at the university's school of archaeology = and palaeoecology, said studies of Irish oaks showed that the climate = suddenly became inhospitable around AD540. Other researchers had = discovered the same narrow rings on trees in places such as Germany, = Scandinavia, Siberia, North America and China. "For all these trees to = show the same rings at the same time means it must have been a = profoundly unpleasant event, a catastrophic environmental downturn, in = AD540, which is in or at the beginning of the Dark Ages." "The tightly bound rings are consistent with fierce frosts that would = have devastated agriculture and made a malnourished population more = vulnerable to the plague of 542, which killed millions. Plague-carrying = rats and pests would have been looking for sustenance, thus hastening = the spread of the disease. [...]" Sounds grim. If only it were true. If we may refer to a "Dark Age" = from the standpoint of those who experienced it and in terms of the = brutality and the collapse of order, law, and civilized culture plus the = disruption of economic relations and patterns that attended the early = onrush of Germanic barbarians into Europe as the authority of the = Western Empire receded, then we may think of the fierce struggles of = countless petty barbarian duchies for land, survival, and consolidation = and the newness of it and the shock effect on extant populations, then = perhaps nominate the period from, say, the mid-c5 to the late-c6 as = something of a Dark Age. Even for the top social strata is was no easy = ride, as landed senatorial-class aristocrats in the provinces scrambled = to save their skins by becoming administrators and recorders for one or = another local barbarian prince. And the massive sums which that same = class in Rome had to come up with to bribe the new warrior interlopers = they now had to confront. It was the price, one might say, for their = sneering and tax-avoiding refusal to adequately fund the army earlier = when there still was a chance. Since the Dr Baillie of the London Times article is at a university in = Belfast, let us look at Britain for this period of supposed nuclear-type = winter, fierce frosts, catastrophic environmental downturn, devastated = agriculture, crop failures, famine, malnourished population more = vulnerable to the plague of 542, which killed millions, plague-carrying = rats and pests hastening the spread of the disease, all of which = purportedly began with some sort of meteor shower "in AD540, which is in = or at the beginning of the Dark Ages." The tenuous Dark Age date aside, Classicists certainly know about the = vicious plague epidemic that broke out between AD 541-543 and continued = into the AD 570's. Though largely confined to the Mediterranean, its = effects were nonetheless horrific. But it didn't stop Justinian or his = Persian, Avar, and Bulgar adversaries from near continuous engagement = any more than the plague stopped the Plantagenet kings or their Valois = adversaries from carrying on the 100 Years War eight centuries later. But to test this proposed meteor induced start of a Dark Age and the = alarming effects suggested to ensue therefrom, let us return to our = focus on the other side of the "canal de la Mancha". The first A/S = kingdom (Kent) was established in AD 455, the same year the Vandals = sacked Rome. The following period was brutal and grim, to be sure, but = by a century later the contest with the Britons had been settled in a = way that would never be seriously challenged and the basic structure of = the A/S kingdoms had been set - from Bernicia and Deira in the north = (merged in AD 550 to form Northumbria) to Wessex in the south. By the = end of the c6, A/S speech was used by populations from the Firth of = Forth to Land's End. In AD 597 the other Augustine arrived in Kent to become the first = Archbishop of Canterbury. The process of becoming literate and = Christian, begun earlier in some measure by itinerant monks who came = over from Ireland then down from Scotland, was underway, and by the end = of the c7 it was complete. And with that, the function of A/S kingship = also changed from plundering warrior to law giver and law enforcer. = There were some shifts in the Bretwalda role, but nothing like before = and in all events with long periods of stability first under = Northumbria, then under Mercia, and finally and, of course, permanently = under Wessex. In the late c8 the first commercial treaty in English = history was made with the great empire in Aachen, and Mercia's King Offa = was marrying off his daughters to Charlemagne's sons. We cannot say = that it was a kingdom united; it would take the Danish wars to achieve = that. But from the mid-c6 on, we can see an A/S England that was a = steadily growing, increasingly prosperous, and a by-and-large stable = collection of agrarian mini-states that was well on its way in the = development of trade and political relations with the wider continental = world. To be sure, the Danish wars that began in the mid-c9 came very near to = collapsing A/S England. But this had nothing to do with meteor showers = and much to do with land hungry Scandinavian Vikings confronting = successful agrarian farmers whose swords had long since been effectively = rent into plowshares. And there is no small analogy here as well to = Athens vis a vis Macedonia in the BC c4. But whether by chance or by = cause, there came the extraordinary figure of Alfred and his heirs, who = in the course of a mere three generations had taken back all of England, = unified the realm and successfully incorporated the Danes (now with = plowshares too) into it, effected a literary and legal renaissance, set = a standardized coinage, had diplomatic emissaries both to and from all = the leading continental powers, and was only shortly away from putting a = final end to Norse pretensions in England. From AD 960 on it was clear that A/S England was experiencing a growth = surge in both wealth and population, leading to a striking period of = so-called monastic reform (i.e., church patronage) and a spectacular = flourishing of late-Saxon artisanship, architecture, literary production = and the copying of texts, and domestic industries, such as fisheries and = the experimentation with new crops and agricultural methods. The = intercession of Cnut in the early c11 advanced this prosperity by the = considerable augmentation of trade with his Scandinavian domains and the = suppression of piracy on the Baltic trade routes. All this while = showing unprecedented respect for A/S law and tradition, even to the = point of enforcing Christian conversion on his own troops that he had = brought with him to England. By the mid-c11, therefore, late Saxon England was the most literate, = most artistically and culturally advanced, one of the most wealthy if = not the most, and in all events the one with the most effective = administration and tax collection system of all the European world. It = was an astonishing history that began to unfold around ca. AD 550. And = it is no wonder at all that it was the prize for which both Scandinavian = and Latin Europe were hungry and would soon be in competition to seize, = that prize going to the latter in 1066. Looking back on this, then, we may wonder where was this calamitous = Dark Age that Dr. Baillie from Belfast and his Irish-oak tree rings so = ominously and boldly asserted must have begun in ca. AD 550? Even if we = take the definition I had earlier suggested for such as it might be seen = in the eyes of the then contemporary peoples, that Dark Age did not = begin in ca. AD 550. In Britain, at least, it ended in ca. AD 550. And from that point on we find no support in the historical record of = Britain for some nuclear-type winter, fierce frosts, a catastrophic = environmental downturn, devastated agriculture, crop failures, famine, a = malnourished population vulnerable to the plague, and plague-carrying = vermin everywhere hastening the spread of the disease, and all this = leading to the onset of a spine-chilling and meteor induced Dark Age. =20 What we find is just the opposite. It is sometimes said that specialization has been one of the keys to = the Western world's remarkable success. We leave the question to = philosophers and tinkers. But our Dr. Baillie is a specialist, one in = archaeology and palaeoecology it seems. So we do not doubt that his = Irish oaks have those tree rings, and we imagine that his training in = those disciplines would define for him the parameters and limits of the = reasoned conclusions that can be drawn from those tree rings alone as = evidence. =20 But we suggest that it may be wiser to demur on fervid speculations = regarding human and historical conditions where there is no supporting = evidence at all. =20 Cheers, CRR ------=_NextPart_000_067A_01C01B18.37C07A20 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Well, I was waiting to get this = published, but=20 since everyone seems confused about the *real* story concerning the = burn=20 marks on the gypsum still covering the remains of = the Cretan=20 "palatial structures"...Everyone knows that the Minoans had flush = toilets. But=20 what they might not have understood was the danger of the build-up of = certain=20 toxic gases...so all this (methane? ammonia? whatever) gas is collecting = in=20 underground chambers all over Crete, and along comes this tiny little = seismic=20 disturbance. The plates shift, the rock grinds, a spark ignites the gas. = Kaboom.=20 Obviously, it was the Great Bean Festival of 1450 BC that brought them = down.=20 Geez.
 
Cheers, Janice
----- Original Message -----
From:=20 Christopher = Robbins=20
To: Late Antique ; BYZANS-L ; classics@u.washington.edu
Sent: Sunday, September 10, = 2000 4:24=20 AM
Subject: The NTD virus (was: = .... London=20 Times) - long

DW posted the following (here=20 edited) from the London Times:
______________________________________________= _______

"The story of the death of King Arthur and its = references to a=20 wasteland may have been inspired by the apocalyptic effects of a giant = comet=20 bombarding the Earth in AD540, leading to the Dark Ages, a British = scientist=20 said [...]"

Oh,=20 brother!  But there is a serious warning to be taken from this, = namely=20 that even the best of minds can be infected by NTD (Nutty Theory=20 Disease).  Don't believe it?  Then let's take a look at  some of the equally = ludicrous=20 theories that were put forth as causal to a Dark Age that will be more = familiar to the Classics community, that which afflicted Greece and = virtually=20 the entire Near East at the end of the Aegean Bronze Age.

(1) = C.F.A=20 Schaeffer on the ruin of the Anatolian cities ca. 1200 BC: "...il est=20 plausible d'admettre  que les destructions massives qui = firent dispara=EEtre,=20 au temps de Suppiluliuma, l'empire hittite, sa capitale et nombre = d'autres villes importantes en Hatti, ne=20 sont pas imputables =E0 des actions guerri=E8res, mais =E0 de = d=E9sastreux=20 tremblements de terre dont l'Asie Mineure, l'une des r=E9gions du = globe les plus=20 =E9prouv=E9es par les s=E9ismes, a =E9t=E9 si souvent le th=E9=E2tre."

(2)=20 Sir Arthur Evans on the fire that destroyed the Knossos palace and=20 baked its tablet archives: "...it seems best to assign a seismic=20 cause."  But even for this = distinguished=20 figure, his explanation of how an earthquake caused the fires but = little=20 damage to neighboring sites is nuttier still.  You see, it was = just a=20 moderate earthquake (hence affecting only Knossos) but it occurred = when the=20 Notios (south wind) was blowing.  So the minor quake upset = some=20 lamps and the Notios fans the flames of those lamps into a blaze = that so=20 thoroughly destroys the palace that it had to be abandoned.  I am = not joking; this is what Evans proposed.  =

(3) What about Hissarlik (i.e., = Troy VIh)? Per Carl Blegen, this once = "royal" city=20 was likewise destroyed and burned by an earthquake.  What, no = Achaeans?=20 :-)

(4) Perhaps more to the Classicist = soul is the=20 Peloponnese where far more sites than Mycenae alone were destroyed, = plundered,=20 burned, and eventually abandoned.  How did all this happen?  = In a=20 conclusion that was shared by others as well, Spyridon = Iakovides reports:=20 "During the last quarter of the c13 BC a violent earthquake, signs of = which=20 have been noticed both inside and outside the citadel, overthrew the = palace=20 and many other buildings and started fires which caused the total = destruction of many of them." Presumably the earthquake carried off = the=20 treasure as well, although how it planned to spend it is not=20 mentioned.

That's probably enough to show that NTD can = affect=20 even the most distinguished figures in a field. It would further seem = that=20 nutty theories and dark ages tend to go together, although not = necessarily in=20 that order.  And in this regard. let us return briefly to=20 the London Times article, which said:

>Dr=20 Baillie also cited the death of King Arthur, which is dated to 537, = 539 and=20 542 in various works [...]

There is not a shred of evidence that a King = Arthur=20 ever existed, and Geoffrey of Monmouth's elaborate romantic fictions, = composed=20 six centuries later in his _Historia regnum Britanniae_, are=20 nothing but the combination of his imagination, his = pro-Breton=20 sentiments, and what appears to be his father's name, = Arturus.  As=20 this was a common Breton name at that time (though not with the = Welsh),=20 it has been inferred that Geoffrey was of Breton descent, which = may=20 have contributed to his sympathy with the ancient Britons.  = Like the=20 Romans before them, the Anglo-Saxons had first to contend with the = native=20 Britons, mostly those who had not been subsumed into the Roman world = of the=20 Britannia province.  These battles appear to have been fierce = indeed, if=20 intermittent.  But again like the Romans, the A/S kingdoms=20 eventually prevailed and drove their Briton challengers back into the=20 so-called Celtic fringe, with Offa's dyke standing in lieu = of the=20 Hadrian and Antonine walls.

The = matter of=20 "Saxon or Celt", as the movies of my childhood used to say, = was well=20 settled before the A/S kingdoms became Christianized and = literate.  So=20 even the best sources that we have about the = A/S-Briton = conflict are=20 those recorded by Latin clerics a century or so after the fact and = taken=20 from the memory and oral history of = people who=20 were not alive when the events transpired.  And even those are = mostly=20 from way up north of the Humber in present-day Yorkshire, where the = first=20 florescence of A/S culture in England was expressed.  This is = frail=20 evidence indeed, and there is no possible way it could pinpoint the death of any = Briton=20 chieftain, least of all one named Arthur, since this name was not = appended to=20 this lore until some 600 years later.  And to rely on a = mythical=20 fantasy written in the c12 for the climatic conditions in the c6 seems = rather=20 unadvisable to me.

But what about the Dark Age?  The = "darkness"=20 involved has always been more attendant to our vision than = theirs.  As we=20 now know vastly more about the period to which this term was applied = (roughly=20 the first five or so centuries after the demise of the Western Empire) = than=20 was known when it was coined, the term has effectively been abandoned = by=20 medieval historians.  As to the alleged cause of this Dark Age, = we return=20 to the London Times article:

"The=20 impacts filled the atmosphere with dust and debris; a long winter = began. Crops=20 failed, and there was famine, Dr Mike Baillie of Queen's University, = Belfast,=20 told the British Association for the Advancement of Science. There was = now=20 overwhelming evidence from studies of tree rings of a catastrophic = climate=20 change at that time, he said.

"Dr=20 Baillie, who is based at the university's school of archaeology and=20 palaeoecology, said studies of Irish oaks showed that the climate = suddenly=20 became inhospitable around AD540. Other researchers had discovered the = same=20 narrow rings on trees in places such as Germany, Scandinavia, Siberia, = North=20 America and China. "For all these trees to show the same rings at the = same=20 time means it must have been a profoundly unpleasant event, a = catastrophic=20 environmental downturn, in AD540, which is in or at the beginning of = the Dark=20 Ages."

"The tightly = bound rings=20 are consistent with fierce frosts that would have devastated = agriculture and=20 made a malnourished population more vulnerable to the plague of 542, = which=20 killed millions. Plague-carrying rats and pests would have been = looking for=20 sustenance, thus hastening the spread of the disease. [...]"

Sounds grim.  If only it were = true.  If we may refer to a "Dark Age" from the standpoint of = those who=20 experienced it and in terms of the brutality and the collapse of = order, law,=20 and civilized culture plus the disruption of economic relations and = patterns=20 that attended the early onrush of Germanic barbarians into Europe = as the=20 authority of the Western Empire receded, then we may think of the = fierce struggles of countless petty barbarian duchies for land, = survival,=20 and consolidation and the newness of it and the shock effect on extant = populations, then perhaps nominate the period from, say, the mid-c5 to = the=20 late-c6 as something of a Dark Age.  Even for the top = social=20 strata is was no easy ride, as landed senatorial-class aristocrats in = the=20 provinces scrambled to save their skins by becoming = administrators and=20 recorders for one or another local barbarian prince.  And the = massive=20 sums which that same class in Rome had to come up with to bribe the = new=20 warrior interlopers they now had to confront.  It was the = price, one=20 might say, for their sneering and tax-avoiding refusal to = adequately fund=20 the army earlier when there still was a chance.

Since the Dr Baillie of the London = Times=20 article is at a university in Belfast, let us look at Britain for this = period=20 of supposed nuclear-type winter, fierce frosts, catastrophic = environmental=20 downturn, devastated agriculture, crop failures, famine, malnourished=20 population more vulnerable to the plague of 542, which killed = millions,=20 plague-carrying rats and pests hastening the spread of the disease, = all of=20 which purportedly began with some sort of meteor shower "in AD540, which is in or at the beginning = of the Dark=20 Ages."

The tenuous Dark Age = date aside,=20 Classicists certainly know about the vicious plague epidemic that = broke out=20 between AD 541-543 and continued into the AD 570's.  Though = largely=20 confined to the Mediterranean, its effects were nonetheless = horrific. =20 But it didn't stop Justinian or his Persian, Avar, and Bulgar = adversaries from=20 near continuous engagement any more than the plague stopped the = Plantagenet=20 kings or their Valois adversaries from carrying on the 100 Years War = eight=20 centuries later.

But to test this proposed meteor = induced=20 start of a Dark Age and the alarming effects suggested to ensue = therefrom, let=20 us return to our focus on the other side of the "canal de la = Mancha". =20 The first A/S kingdom (Kent) was established in AD 455, the same year = the=20 Vandals sacked Rome.  The following period was brutal and grim, = to be=20 sure, but by a century later the contest with the Britons had been = settled in=20 a way that would never be seriously challenged and the basic structure = of the=20 A/S kingdoms had been set - from Bernicia and Deira in the north = (merged=20 in AD 550 to form Northumbria) to Wessex in the south.  By the = end of the=20 c6, A/S speech was used by populations from the Firth of Forth to = Land's=20 End.

In AD 597 the other Augustine = arrived in=20 Kent to become the first Archbishop of Canterbury.  The process = of=20 becoming literate and Christian, begun earlier in some measure by = itinerant=20 monks who came over from Ireland then down from Scotland, was=20 underway, and by the end of the c7 it was = complete.  And with=20 that, the function of A/S kingship also changed from plundering = warrior to law=20 giver and law enforcer.  There were some shifts in the Bretwalda = role,=20 but nothing like before and in all events with long periods of = stability first=20 under Northumbria, then under Mercia, and finally and, of course, = permanently=20 under Wessex.  In the late c8 the first commercial treaty in = English=20 history was made with the great empire in Aachen, and Mercia's King = Offa was=20 marrying off his daughters to Charlemagne's sons.  We cannot say = that it=20 was a kingdom united; it would take the Danish wars to achieve = that.  But=20 from the mid-c6 on, we can see an A/S England that was a steadily = growing,=20 increasingly prosperous, and a by-and-large stable collection of = agrarian=20 mini-states that was well on its way in the development of trade and = political=20 relations with the wider continental world.

To be sure, the Danish wars that = began in=20 the mid-c9 came very near to collapsing A/S England.  But this = had=20 nothing to do with meteor showers and much to do with land hungry = Scandinavian=20 Vikings confronting successful agrarian farmers whose swords had long = since=20 been effectively rent into plowshares.  And there is no small = analogy=20 here as well to Athens vis a vis Macedonia in the BC c4.  But = whether by=20 chance or by cause, there came the extraordinary figure of Alfred and = his=20 heirs, who in the course of a mere three generations had taken back = all of=20 England, unified the realm and successfully incorporated the Danes = (now with=20 plowshares too) into it, effected a literary and legal renaissance, = set a=20 standardized coinage, had diplomatic emissaries both to and from all = the=20 leading continental powers, and was only shortly away from putting a = final end=20 to Norse pretensions in England.

From AD 960 on it was clear that = A/S England=20 was experiencing a growth surge in both wealth and population, = leading to=20 a striking period of so-called monastic reform (i.e., church = patronage) and a=20 spectacular flourishing of late-Saxon artisanship, architecture, = literary=20 production and the copying of texts, and domestic industries, such as=20 fisheries and the experimentation with new crops and agricultural=20 methods.  The intercession of Cnut in the early c11 advanced this = prosperity by the considerable augmentation of trade with his = Scandinavian=20 domains and the suppression of piracy on the Baltic trade = routes.  All=20 this while showing unprecedented respect for A/S law and tradition, = even to=20 the point of enforcing Christian conversion on his own troops=20 that he had brought with him to England.

By the mid-c11, therefore, late = Saxon=20 England was the most literate, most artistically and culturally = advanced, one=20 of the most wealthy if not the most, and in all events the one with = the most=20 effective administration and tax collection system of all the European = world.  It was an astonishing history that began to=20 unfold around ca. AD 550.  And it is no wonder at all that = it was=20 the prize for which both Scandinavian and Latin Europe were = hungry and=20 would soon be in competition to seize, that prize going to the latter = in=20 1066.

Looking back on this, then, we=20 may wonder where was this calamitous Dark Age that Dr. Baillie = from=20 Belfast and his Irish-oak tree rings so ominously and boldly asserted = must=20 have begun in ca. AD 550?  Even if we take the definition I = had=20 earlier suggested for such as it might be seen in the eyes of the then = contemporary peoples, that Dark Age did not begin in ca. AD 550.  = In=20 Britain, at least, it ended in ca. AD 550.

And from that point on we find no = support in=20 the historical record of Britain for some nuclear-type winter, = fierce=20 frosts, a catastrophic environmental downturn, devastated agriculture, = crop=20 failures, famine, a malnourished population vulnerable to the plague, = and=20 plague-carrying vermin everywhere hastening the spread of the = disease,=20 and all this leading to the onset of a spine-chilling and meteor=20 induced Dark Age. 

What we find is just the=20 opposite.

It is sometimes said that = specialization=20 has been one of the keys to the Western world's remarkable = success.  We=20 leave the question to philosophers and tinkers.  But our Dr. = Baillie is a=20 specialist, one in archaeology and palaeoecology it seems.  So we do not doubt that = his Irish=20 oaks have those tree rings, and we imagine that his training in those=20 disciplines would define for him the parameters and limits of the = reasoned=20 conclusions that can be drawn from those tree rings alone as=20 evidence.
 
But we suggest that it may be = wiser to=20 demur on fervid speculations regarding human and historical conditions = where=20 there is no supporting evidence at all.
 
Cheers,
CRR
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