Economics, administration and demography of Late Roman and Byzantine southern Transjordan

A review of historical information concerning southern Transjordan during the Late Byzantine period reveals that a serious inadequacy in administrative and military arrangements facilitated the Islamic conquest of the region in the seventh century A.D. Historically based analyses of the conquest do not provide a satisfactory understanding of why adequate arrangements did not exist. It is known that in the Nabataean-Roman period, the area experienced a rapid sociopolitical development, commonly attributed to the long-distance trade in Oriental goods passing through the region. This economic variable is selected here as possessing a strong explanatory potential for better understanding of subsequent processes of decline.;To account for the sociopolitical decline in southern Transjordan prior to the Islamic invasions, a model of culture change which relates shifts in administrative and military structures in the area to prior economic fluctuations in long-distance trade is proposed. A high volume of trade benefited individuals and communities, and helped offset the costs of attendant administrative and military structures to facilitate trading operations. Conversely, a decline in trade and shifts to alternative economic strategies resulted in subsequent changes in attendant political and military structures. To evaluate the applicability of this proposition, an analysis of spatial and temporal shifts in human populations as reflected in regional settlement patterns and communication networks is presented.;The results suggest that the political and military viability of the area was strongly influenced by fluctuations in trade. These fluctuations were the result of external political and economic factors, as documented in extant historical sources. This historical-archaeological approach to the issue of the sociopolitical decline of southern Transjordan during the Byzantine period focusses attention on the significance of changes in the regional economics of the study area. These changes resulted in a declining significance of the area relative to the considerations of the Byzantine government, as reflected by their gradual withdrawal of administrative and military forces. This process culminated in the virtual absence of such structures in the study area on the eve of the Islamic conquest.