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1 results

  • Introduction - Late Antique Studies and the New Polyphony for Slave Studies

  • Edited by Chris L. de Wet, Maijastina Kahlos, University of Helsinki, Ville Vuolanto, University of Tampere, Finland
  • Book:
    Slavery in the Late Antique World, 150 – 700 CE
    Published online:
    27 January 2022
    Print publication:
    17 February 2022, pp 1-12

  • Summary

    For the past few decades, studies on slavery in late antiquity have been primarily concerned with the question of whether slavery was, in fact, present during the period, or whether late antique slavery slowly declined and transformed into so-called medieval serfdom. For many years the latter proposition enjoyed favour among historians. Now, the picture is quite different. The majority of recent studies on late antique slavery confirm that slavery was alive and well during the period. Foundational studies such as Chris Wickham’s monumental analysis of the medieval period, followed more recently by Alice Rio’s focused study of early medieval slavery, Youval Rotman’s reconstruction of Byzantine slavery, and finally Kyle Harper’s extensive survey of late ancient slavery come to similar conclusions: the model or paradigm of ‘transition’, with its roots in nineteenth-century Marxist economic theory (especially from Marx and Engels), has outlived its usefulness for understanding labour and modes of production in the late antique world.