*** english version below ***

Unter dem Titel “The First Pandemic - Transformative Disaster or Footnote in History?” organisierte Marcel Keller zusammen mit Christof Paulus (LMU München) und Elena Xoplaki (Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Bologna) im September 2021 eine durch die VolkswagenStiftung gefördertes interdisziplinäres Symposium mit über 50 Teilnehmer*innen. Die erste historisch überlieferte Pestpandemie von 541 bis ca. 750 n. Chr. rückte in den letzten Jahren durch neue naturwissenschaftliche Studien in den Fokus der Geschichtswissenschaften, wobei die Konsequenzen der Pest zunehmend kontrovers diskutiert wurden – vom “Ende der Antike” bis zur “irrelevanten Pandemie”. Über vier Tage diskutierten Historikerinnen, Archäologen, Klimawissenschaftlerinnen und Paläogenetiker im Schloss Herrenhausen in Hannover über Ursachen, Verlauf und Folgen der Pestwellen des Frühmittelalters in den verschiedenen betroffenen Regionen, von Zentralasien bis Spanien. Als Ergebnis erschienen jetzt drei Publikationen zusammen mit einer Einleitung der Organisator*innen als Schwerpunktthema in dem Journal Human Ecology, welche gleichzeitig auch den Auftakt zu einer neuen Collection im gleichen Journal bilden. 

Keller, M., Paulus, C. & Xoplaki, E. The First Pandemic: Transformative Disaster or Footnote in History? – An Introduction. Hum Ecol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-025-00653-2  

Preiser-Kapeller, J., McGrath, W.A., Pfister, R. et al. The Circulation of Yersinia pestis in Central Eurasia before and during the First Plague Pandemic (Second to Eighth Century CE): Palaeogenetic and Historical Evidence and Sociopolitical, Ecological, and Climatic Factors. Hum Ecol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-025-00617-6  

Gruber, H., Kurt, A., Roberts, N. et al. The Justinianic Pandemic in the Iberian Peninsula. Hum Ecol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-025-00615-8  

Stathakopoulos, D., Newfield, T.P., Xoplaki, E. et al. The First Plague Pandemic in the Byzantine Empire – Toward a New Dynamic Consensus. Hum Ecol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-025-00612-x  

Collection:https://link.springer.com/collections/jdefgfhfbe

*** english version ***

New publication series by Marcel Keller 

The First Pandemic – Transformative Disaster or Footnote in History? 

In September 2021, Marcel Keller, Christof Paulus (LMU Munich) and Elena Xoplaki (Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Bologna) organized an interdisciplinary symposium with the title “The First Pandemic - Transformative Disaster or Footnote in History?” with support of the VolkswagenStiftung, bringing together over 50 participants. In recent years, the first historically recorded plague pandemic between 541 and c. 750 AD attracted the attention of historians due to new scientific discoveries, although the consequences of the plague were discussed more and more fiercely, spanning from “the end of Antiquity” to the “inconsequential pandemic”. Over four days, historians, archaeologists, climatologists and palaeogeneticists gathered at the Herrenhausen palace in Hannover to discuss the causes, progression and ramifications of the Early Medieval plague waves in different affected regions, from Central Asia to Spain. As a result, three papers and an introduction by the organizers were published now as a topical cluster in the journal Human Ecology, simultaneously starting off a new Collection in the same journal.  

Keller, M., Paulus, C. & Xoplaki, E. The First Pandemic: Transformative Disaster or Footnote in History? – An Introduction. Hum Ecol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-025-00653-2 

Preiser-Kapeller, J., McGrath, W.A., Pfister, R. et al. The Circulation of Yersinia pestis in Central Eurasia before and during the First Plague Pandemic (Second to Eighth Century CE): Palaeogenetic and Historical Evidence and Sociopolitical, Ecological, and Climatic Factors. Hum Ecol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-025-00617-6   

Gruber, H., Kurt, A., Roberts, N. et al. The Justinianic Pandemic in the Iberian Peninsula. Hum Ecol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-025-00615-8  

Stathakopoulos, D., Newfield, T.P., Xoplaki, E. et al. The First Plague Pandemic in the Byzantine Empire – Toward a New Dynamic Consensus. Hum Ecol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-025-00612-x  

Collection:https://link.springer.com/collections/jdefgfhfbe