The village of Meiron experienced steady demographic growth from the Late Hellenistic period, accelerating after the Roman wars, and reached its most productive phase during the third and fourth centuries CE. Its economic orientation was primarily northward, toward the port of Tyre, and prosperity appears to have continued into the mid-fourth century. According to Eric M. Meyers in Stern et al. (1993), political instability beginning with the revolt of Gallus Caesar (351–352 CE), combined with broader regional stresses culminating in the earthquake of 363 CE, created conditions that ultimately resulted in systematic abandonment.

Excavations by Meyers, Meyers, and Strange (1974), Meyers, Strange, and Meyers (1978), and Meyers and Meyers (1978) interpreted Meiron as abandoned rather than violently destroyed in the mid-fourth century CE. However, Russell (1980) noted that the archaeological record may also be consistent with seismic destruction associated with the northern Cyril earthquake of 363 CE. A thick destruction layer was identified in multiple rooms of the lower city (Site M I) and in the northern suburb (Site M II). In the so-called “Patrician House,” crushed storage jars were found in a sealed room, some still containing carbonized food remains, a context that was potentially ritualized but that also remains relevant to an archaeoseismic interpretation ( Eric M. Meyers in Stern et al. 1993).

Numismatic and ceramic evidence was originally used to argue that occupation ended around 360 CE. In particular, Meyers, Strange, and Groh (1978) reported that no stratified coins later than 360 CE were found in Stratum III. This chronology was later revised by Magness (2012), with the full ceramic and numismatic analysis presented in Magness and Schindler (2015). They argued that several post-363 CE coins and ceramics previously dismissed as intrusive are in fact stratigraphically valid, implying that construction and occupation extended into the later fourth and early fifth centuries CE. Under this revised chronology, Meiron may have survived the 363 CE earthquake, with abandonment occurring substantially later, leaving unresolved the balance between seismic destruction, recovery, and eventual decline.