Beginning of today's during-Zoom-meetings sketch: 7th century nobleman's fortress built on the remains of the forum of an abandoned Roman city

(Continued) Progress in today's during-Zoom-meetings sketch. Some historical perspective: This doesn't depict any real place, but it follows the historical record of what happened with many cities by the late 7th century 1/x

During the 5th-8th century, many formerly great cities saw their populations drop drastically—think of Carthage going from ~500k to a meager ~30k; more than a few were abandoned. In many cases, cities were reduced to their citadels and centers, where the old Roman forum was 2/x

The sketch depicts what could have happened to a mid-size provincial city: surrounded by ruins (not shown), the former political center—forum, governor's palace, basilica, etc.—were taken over by a local strongman, who built a palisade, effectively creating a fortress 3/3