Byzantine Greece: Microcosm of Empire?

Byzantine Greece: Microcosm of Empire? PDF Author: Archibald Dunn
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000929477
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
This volume offers a structured presentation of the progress of research into the internal history of a part of the Byzantine world – Greece – in the centuries before the multiple changes induced or accelerated by the Fourth Crusade. Greece is a large area (several Early andMiddle Byzantine provinces), with records, archival, literary, archaeological, architectural, and art-historical, most of which are unequalled in terms of their density and range. This creates opportunities for useful synthesis, and for dialogue with those now engaged in the rewriting, or writing, of the inner history of Byzantium, from Italy to the Caucasus, who have been stimulated by, or involved in, the editing of archives and inscriptions (including sigillographic), and in the publication of monuments, excavations, and surveys (for all of which the ‘Greek space’, the elladikê khôra, is a particular, and fertile, focus of activity, as the conference showed). Much of the material presented here can usually only be found in specialised publication, and indeed much in Greek alone. But, properly contextualised, this material about the ‘Greek space’ deserves to be brought into the dialogues or debates at the heart of Byzantine Studies, for instance about the Late Antique ‘boom’, urban life, the ‘Dark Age’, economic change, the nature of the ‘Byzantine revival’, and of social, socio-economic, and ethnic groups. The studies here synthesise such research, enabling the ‘Greek space’ as a case study in the evolution of a significant region to the west of Constantinople, to take its place more fully as a point of reference in such dialogues or debates. Equally, it provides frameworks for archaeologists dealing with Greece from Late Antiquity onwards – and there are now many – with which to engage, and it makes available a rich source of comparative material for those studying the other regions of the Byzantine world, whether historically or archaeologically, in Southeastern Europe, Italy, or Turkey.

Byzantine Greece: Microcosm of Empire?

Byzantine Greece: Microcosm of Empire? PDF Author: Archibald Dunn
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000929477
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume offers a structured presentation of the progress of research into the internal history of a part of the Byzantine world – Greece – in the centuries before the multiple changes induced or accelerated by the Fourth Crusade. Greece is a large area (several Early andMiddle Byzantine provinces), with records, archival, literary, archaeological, architectural, and art-historical, most of which are unequalled in terms of their density and range. This creates opportunities for useful synthesis, and for dialogue with those now engaged in the rewriting, or writing, of the inner history of Byzantium, from Italy to the Caucasus, who have been stimulated by, or involved in, the editing of archives and inscriptions (including sigillographic), and in the publication of monuments, excavations, and surveys (for all of which the ‘Greek space’, the elladikê khôra, is a particular, and fertile, focus of activity, as the conference showed). Much of the material presented here can usually only be found in specialised publication, and indeed much in Greek alone. But, properly contextualised, this material about the ‘Greek space’ deserves to be brought into the dialogues or debates at the heart of Byzantine Studies, for instance about the Late Antique ‘boom’, urban life, the ‘Dark Age’, economic change, the nature of the ‘Byzantine revival’, and of social, socio-economic, and ethnic groups. The studies here synthesise such research, enabling the ‘Greek space’ as a case study in the evolution of a significant region to the west of Constantinople, to take its place more fully as a point of reference in such dialogues or debates. Equally, it provides frameworks for archaeologists dealing with Greece from Late Antiquity onwards – and there are now many – with which to engage, and it makes available a rich source of comparative material for those studying the other regions of the Byzantine world, whether historically or archaeologically, in Southeastern Europe, Italy, or Turkey.

Heaven & Earth: Cities and countryside in Byzantine Greece

Heaven & Earth: Cities and countryside in Byzantine Greece PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789604761326
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description


The Routledge Handbook of the Byzantine City

The Routledge Handbook of the Byzantine City PDF Author: Nikolas Bakirtzis
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 0429515758
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 719

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Book Description
The Byzantine world contained many important cities throughout its empire. Although it was not ‘urban’ in the sense of the word today, its cities played a far more fundamental role than those of its European neighbors. This book, through a collection of twenty-four chapters, discusses aspects of, and different approaches to, Byzantine urbanism from the early to late Byzantine periods. It provides both a chronological and thematic perspective to the study of Byzantine cities, bringing together literary, documentary, and archival sources with archaeological results, material culture, art, and architecture, resulting in a rich synthesis of the variety of regional and sub-regional transformations of Byzantine urban landscapes. Organized into four sections, this book covers: Theory and Historiography, Geography and Economy, Architecture and the Built Environment, and Daily Life and Material Culture. It includes more specialized accounts that address the centripetal role of Constantinople and its broader influence across the empire. Such new perspectives help to challenge the historiographical balance between ‘margins and metropolis,’ and also to include geographical areas often regarded as peripheral, like the coastal urban centers of the Byzantine Mediterranean as well as cities on islands, such as Crete, Cyprus, and Sicily which have more recently yielded well-excavated and stratigraphically sound urban sites. The Routledge Handbook of the Byzantine City provides both an overview and detailed study of the Byzantine city to specialist scholars, students, and enthusiasts alike and, therefore, will appeal to all those interested in Byzantine urbanism and society, as well as those studying medieval society in general.

Social Change in Town and Country in Eleventh-Century Byzantium

Social Change in Town and Country in Eleventh-Century Byzantium PDF Author: James Howard-Johnston
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192578677
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
The history of Byzantium pivots around the eleventh century, during which it reached its apogee in terms of power, prestige, and territorial extension, only then to plunge into steep political decline following serious military defeats and extensive territorial losses. The political, economic, and intellectual history of the period is reasonably well understood, but not so what was happening in that crucial intermediary sphere, the social order, which both shaped and was shaped by contemporary ideas and brute economic developments. This volume aims to deepen understanding of Byzantine society by examining material evidence for settlements and production in different regions and by sifting through the far from plentiful literary and documentary sources in order to track what was happening in town and country. There is evidence of significant change: the pattern of landownership continued to shift in favour of those with power and wealth, but there was sustained and effective resistance from peasant villages. Provincial towns prospered in what was an era of sustained economic growth, and, through newly emboldened local elites, took a more active part in public affairs. In the capital the middling classes, comprising much of officialdom and leading traders, gained in importance, while the twin military and civilian elites were merging to form a single governing class. However, despite this social upheaval, careful analysis of these various factors by a range of leading Byzantine historians and archaeologists leads to the overarching conclusion that it was not so much internal structural changes which contributed to the vertiginous decline suffered by Byzantium in the late eleventh century, as the unprecedented combination of dangerous adversaries on different fronts, in the east, north, and west.

Eastern Medieval Architecture

Eastern Medieval Architecture PDF Author: Robert G. Ousterhout
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190272740
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 810

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Book Description
Aside from Hagia Sophia, the monuments of the Byzantine East are poorly understood today. This is in sharp contrast to the well-known architectural marvels of Western Europeâs Middle Ages. In this landmark survey, distinguished art historian Robert Ousterhout introduces readers to the rich and diverse architectural traditions of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean. The focus of the book is the Byzantine (or East Roman) Empire (324-1453 CE), with its capital in Constantinople, although the framework expands chronologically to include the foundations of Christian architecture in Late Antiquity and the legacy of Byzantine culture after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Geographically broad as well, this study includes architectural developments in areas of Italy, the Caucasus, the Near East, the Balkans, and Russia, as well as related developments in early Islamic architecture. Alternating chapters that address chronological or regionally-based developments with thematic studies that focus on the larger cultural concerns, the book presents the architectural developments in a way that makes them accessible, interesting, and intellectually stimulating. In doing so, it also explains why medieval architecture in the East followed such a different trajectory from that of the West. Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of color photographs, maps, and line drawings, Eastern Medieval Architecture will establish Byzantine traditions to be as significant and admirable as those more familiar examples in Western Europe, and serve as an invaluable resource for anyone interested in architectural history, Byzantium, and the Middle Ages.

Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300) (2 vols)

Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300) (2 vols) PDF Author: Florin Curta
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004395199
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1426

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Book Description
Winner of the 2020 Verbruggen prize This book provides a comprehensive synthesis of scholarship on Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages. The goal is to offer an overview of the current state of research and a basic route map for navigating an abundant historiography available in more than 10 different languages. The literature published in English on the medieval history of Eastern Europe—books, chapters, and articles—represents a little more than 11 percent of the historiography. The companion is therefore meant to provide an orientation into the existing literature that may not be available because of linguistic barriers and, in addition, an introductory bibliography in English. Winner of the 2020 Verbruggen prize, awarded annually by the De Re Militari society for the best book on medieval military history. The awarding committee commented that the book ‘has an enormous range, and yet is exceptionally scholarly with a fine grasp of detail. Its title points to a general history of eastern Europe, but it is dominated by military episodes which make it of the highest value to anybody writing about war and warmaking in this very neglected area of Europe.’ See inside the book.

Rural Lives and Landscapes in Late Byzantium

Rural Lives and Landscapes in Late Byzantium PDF Author: Sharon E. J. Gerstel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521851599
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This is the first book to examine the late Byzantine village through written, archaeological and painted sources.

The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology

The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology PDF Author: David K. Pettegrew
Publisher: Oxford Handbooks
ISBN: 0199369046
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 724

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Book Description
"This handbook brings together work by leading scholars of the archaeology of early Christianity in the Mediterranean and surrounding regions. The 34 essays to this volume ground the history, culture, and society of the first seven centuries of Christianity in the latest currents of archaeological method, theory, and research."--

Hell in the Byzantine World

Hell in the Byzantine World PDF Author: Angeliki Lymberopoulou
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108850863
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1120

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Book Description
The imagery of Hell, the Christian account of the permanent destinations of the human soul after death, has fascinated people over the centuries since the emergence of the Christian faith. These landmark volumes provide the first large-scale investigation of this imagery found across the Byzantine and post-Byzantine world. Particular emphasis is placed on images from churches across Venetian Crete, which are comprehensively collected and published for the first time. Crete was at the centre of artistic production in the late Byzantine world and beyond and its imagery was highly influential on traditions in other regions. The Cretan examples accompany rich comparative material from the wider Mediterranean – Cappadocia, Macedonia, the Peloponnese and Cyprus. The large amount of data presented in this publication highlight Hell's emergence in monumental painting not as a concrete array of images, but as a diversified mirroring of social perceptions of sin.

Central Places and Un-Central Landscapes

Central Places and Un-Central Landscapes PDF Author: Giorgos Papantoniou
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3038976784
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
This volume examines the applicability of central place theory in contemporary archaeological practice and thought in light of ongoing developments in landscape archaeology, by bringing together ‘central places’ and ‘un-central landscapes’ and by grasping diachronically the complex relation between town and country, as shaped by political economies and the availability of natural resources. Moving away from model-bounded approaches, central place theory is used more flexibly to include all the places that may have functioned as loci of economic or ideological centrality (even in a local context) in the past. Fourteen chapters examine centrality and un-central landscapes from Prehistory to the late Middle Ages in different geographical contexts, from Cyprus and the Levant, through Greece and the Balkans to Italy, France, and Germany.