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Natural Disasters and Time: Non-eschatological Perceptions of Earthquakes in Late Antique and Medieval Historiography

Published/Copyright: December 10, 2021
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Millennium
From the journal Millennium Volume 18 Issue 1

Abstract

This contribution analyzes the rhetoric surrounding natural disasters in historiographic sources, challenging our assumptions about the eschatological nature of late antique and medieval historical consciousness. Contrary to modern expectations, a large number of late antique and medieval sources indicate that earthquakes and other natural disasters were understood as signs from God, relating to theophanic encounters or divine wrath in the present time. Building on recent research on premodern concepts of time and historical consciousness, the article underscores the fact that eschatological models of time and history-that is, the relentless linear, teleological progression of time towards the End of Days-was not how premodern people perceived the relationship between past, present, and future. The textual evidence presented here is supported by a fragmented and littleknown illuminated historiographic text, the Ravennater Annalen, housed today in the cathedral library in Merseburg. This copy of a sixth-century illustrated calendar from Ravenna contains unique depictions of earthquakes in the form of giants breathing fire. Like the textual sources, this visual document should not be read as a premonition of the End of Days, rather it visualizes the belief that divine agency and wrath caused natural disasters.

Online erschienen: 2021-12-10
Erschienen im Druck: 2021-11-08

© 2021 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Inhalt
  3. Titel
  4. Inhalt
  5. Abkürzungen (Editionen, Zeitschriften, Reihen, Nachschlagewerke)
  6. Barbatoriam facere. Distinktion und Transgression in der römischen Kaiserzeit
  7. The Death of Mani in Retrospect
  8. The Origin and Evolution of Early Christian and Byzantine Universal Historiography
  9. Natural Disasters and Time: Non-eschatological Perceptions of Earthquakes in Late Antique and Medieval Historiography
  10. The Emperor at the Council. Imperial Interventions in Late Antique Church Councils in Literary Sources and Documentary Records
  11. Frühbyzantinische Kreuzdiskurse des 6. und 7. Jahrhunderts und ihre Rezeption in Konstantinopel, Kappadokien und im Westen
  12. A Hidden Agenda of Imperial Appropriation and Power Play? Iconological Considerations Concerning Apse Images and Their Role in the Iconoclast Controversy
  13. Diskretion bis Verschleierung. Der Weg zur byzantinischen Anerkennung des Kaisertums von Karl dem Großen, vor allem im Spiegel diplomatischer Aktivitäten 802–812
  14. The Abbey of Werden on the Frankish-Saxon Frontier. The Depictions of Landscapes and Emotions in the vita Gregorii and the vitae Liudgeri
  15. A New Edition of the De cerimoniis: No Longer a ‘geteiltes Dossier’?
  16. Das ‚Schisma von 1054‘ als mikro- und makrohistorisches Ereignis. Überlegungen zu einem theologisch-kirchenpolitischen Erklärungsmodell
https://doi.org/10.1515/mill-2021-0005

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Inhalt
  3. Titel
  4. Inhalt
  5. Abkürzungen (Editionen, Zeitschriften, Reihen, Nachschlagewerke)
  6. Barbatoriam facere. Distinktion und Transgression in der römischen Kaiserzeit
  7. The Death of Mani in Retrospect
  8. The Origin and Evolution of Early Christian and Byzantine Universal Historiography
  9. Natural Disasters and Time: Non-eschatological Perceptions of Earthquakes in Late Antique and Medieval Historiography
  10. The Emperor at the Council. Imperial Interventions in Late Antique Church Councils in Literary Sources and Documentary Records
  11. Frühbyzantinische Kreuzdiskurse des 6. und 7. Jahrhunderts und ihre Rezeption in Konstantinopel, Kappadokien und im Westen
  12. A Hidden Agenda of Imperial Appropriation and Power Play? Iconological Considerations Concerning Apse Images and Their Role in the Iconoclast Controversy
  13. Diskretion bis Verschleierung. Der Weg zur byzantinischen Anerkennung des Kaisertums von Karl dem Großen, vor allem im Spiegel diplomatischer Aktivitäten 802–812
  14. The Abbey of Werden on the Frankish-Saxon Frontier. The Depictions of Landscapes and Emotions in the vita Gregorii and the vitae Liudgeri
  15. A New Edition of the De cerimoniis: No Longer a ‘geteiltes Dossier’?
  16. Das ‚Schisma von 1054‘ als mikro- und makrohistorisches Ereignis. Überlegungen zu einem theologisch-kirchenpolitischen Erklärungsmodell
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