Kyle Harper

American historian at the University of Oklahoma — author of The Fate of Rome (on climate change and disease in the fall of the Western Roman Empire) — who pioneered the integration of paleoclimatology and ancient DNA evidence into Roman history.

Creates the climate-and-disease account of Rome's fall — Harper's Fate of Rome argues (using ice core, tree ring, and ancient DNA evidence) that the Antonine Plague, Plague of Cyprian, and Justinianic Plague combined with Roman Climate Optimum's end explain Rome's decline better than political or economic accounts alone.