01-27-2007, 05:30 PM
[quote]Plague has been known to rage through Norway in winter - apparently, temperatures do not hold back the plague. Infected people can spread the disease as well, besides rodents.[quote]
Now that's just the point.
[quote=Vortigern]
So you're practically suggesting that the Germanic speakers in Britain and elsewhere were not/less affected by plague because they were completely isolated from traders with the Mediterranean and thus escaped infection.[/quote]
Yes, he is. And so am I. :lol:
[quote]I can't agree with that hypothesis - did they not trade with other people who traded with the Mediterranean (such as Franks and Goths)?[/quote]
But - and here's the kicker - as you so eloquently point out, yourself,
above, it wasn't just rats bringing the plague here, it was people.
Thus, arriving Byzantine sailors, bringing imports from the Eastern
Empire, also infected the native Britons they had contact with. Especially so if those trading ships bere actually bringing Byzantine passengerswith them, as diplomats (even military advisers :lol: ) But the kind
of trade which any Anglo-Saxons in Britain would have had with the East would - as you point-out again - have been several times removed.
That is, via the Frankish, Gothic, Hunnic etc middle-men who would
have insulated Anglo-Saxons from the effects of the plague, as it would
have passed through many different hands going overland (if there was
any signifficant trade in Byzantine goods by Anglo-Saxons at this time,
in any case. Direct contact with ship's rats or crews/passengers, on the
other hand, would easily explain the higher incidence of the Justinian
Plague among Romanised Britons in the West.
[quote] Besides, the amount of trade between Irish/British and the Med is not shown to reach such volumes either.[/quote]
Oh, Robert. There you go again. Always talking in absolute terms, when
the debate is on the relative amount of trade. :lol: Anyway, you find me any sites on the Eastern coast of England which have the kind of 'Tintagel' ware which is imported all up the West coast of Britain in the period 450-550. That's what we're talking about, here.
Ambrosius / Mike
Now that's just the point.
[quote=Vortigern]
So you're practically suggesting that the Germanic speakers in Britain and elsewhere were not/less affected by plague because they were completely isolated from traders with the Mediterranean and thus escaped infection.[/quote]
Yes, he is. And so am I. :lol:
[quote]I can't agree with that hypothesis - did they not trade with other people who traded with the Mediterranean (such as Franks and Goths)?[/quote]
But - and here's the kicker - as you so eloquently point out, yourself,
above, it wasn't just rats bringing the plague here, it was people.
Thus, arriving Byzantine sailors, bringing imports from the Eastern
Empire, also infected the native Britons they had contact with. Especially so if those trading ships bere actually bringing Byzantine passengerswith them, as diplomats (even military advisers :lol: ) But the kind
of trade which any Anglo-Saxons in Britain would have had with the East would - as you point-out again - have been several times removed.
That is, via the Frankish, Gothic, Hunnic etc middle-men who would
have insulated Anglo-Saxons from the effects of the plague, as it would
have passed through many different hands going overland (if there was
any signifficant trade in Byzantine goods by Anglo-Saxons at this time,
in any case. Direct contact with ship's rats or crews/passengers, on the
other hand, would easily explain the higher incidence of the Justinian
Plague among Romanised Britons in the West.
[quote] Besides, the amount of trade between Irish/British and the Med is not shown to reach such volumes either.[/quote]
Oh, Robert. There you go again. Always talking in absolute terms, when
the debate is on the relative amount of trade. :lol: Anyway, you find me any sites on the Eastern coast of England which have the kind of 'Tintagel' ware which is imported all up the West coast of Britain in the period 450-550. That's what we're talking about, here.
Ambrosius / Mike
"Feel the fire in your bones."
