Why is it important to pay attention to material culture and economic history?
Ward-Perkins: However elevated our thoughts, we all live in a sophisticated material world, supported by a complex economy, and we all enjoy the convenience and comfort of high-quality goods (whether clothes, washing machines, or the latest laptop and Internet connection). So it seems very obvious to me that material change (and there was dramatic material change at the end of the Roman Empire) is well worthy of our attention. Even the saints were affected by material changes in this period: the new churches constructed in the later 6th- and 7th-century West, in places like Rome and Visigothic Spain, are tiny in comparison to those of the 4th century or of the later Middle Ages. I also believeand this seems obvious from modern experiencethat sophistication in intellectual life generally requires solid economic underpinning. In my book I attempt to show this by focusing on the evidence of graffiti (which were very common in Roman times, but virtually disappeared thereafter) in order to
