The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia

The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia
Author: Philipp Niewöhner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2017
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0190610468

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This book accounts for the tumultuous period of the fifth to eleventh centuries from the Fall of Rome and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire through the breakup of the Eastern Roman Empire and loss of pan-Mediterranean rule, until the Turks arrived and seized Anatolia. The volume is divided into a dozen syntheses that each addresses an issue of intrigue for the archaeology of Anatolia, and two dozen case studies on single sites that exemplify its richness. Anatolia was the only major part of the Roman Empire that did not fall in late antiquity; it remained steadfast under Roman rule through the eleventh century. Its personal history stands to elucidate both the emphatic impact of Roman administration in the wake of pan-Mediterranean collapse. Thanks to Byzantine archaeology, we now know that urban decline did not set in before the fifth century, after Anatolia had already be thoroughly Christianized in the course of the fourth century; we know now that urban decline, as it occurred from the fifth century onwards, was paired with rural prosperity, and an increase in the number, size, and quality of rural settlements and in rural population; that this ruralization was halted during the seventh to ninth centuries, when Anatolia was invaded first by the Persians, and then by the Arabs---and the population appears to have sought shelter behind new urban fortifications and in large cathedrals. Further, it elucidates that once the Arab threat had ended in the ninth century, this ruralization set in once more, and most cities seem to have been abandoned or reduced to villages during the ensuing time of seeming tranquility, whilst the countryside experienced renewed prosperity; that this trend was reversed yet again, when the Seljuk Turks appeared on the scene in the eleventh century, devastated the countryside and led to a revival and refortification of the former cities. This dynamic historical thread, traced across its extremes through the lens of Byzantine archaeology, speaks not only to the torrid narrative of Byzantine Anatolia, but to the enigmatic medievalization.

Space and Communities in Byzantine Anatolia

Space and Communities in Byzantine Anatolia
Author: Nikolaos Kontogannis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 550
Release: 2021-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9786057685759

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Essays explore the rich and complex regional settlements of Anatolia. The volume collects twenty-six papers on Byzantine-period Anatolia that were presented at the Fifth International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium held in June 2019. The sections of the book focus on subjects including landscape dynamics, settlements and communication, regional networks, cityscapes, private and sacred space, and cultural interactions and identities. The essays cover a wide period, ranging from the third to the fifteenth century.

Space, Place and Identity in Northern Anatolia

Space, Place and Identity in Northern Anatolia
Author: Tonnes Bekker-Nielsen
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden gmbh
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2014-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9783515107488

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Until now, most studies of Roman Anatolia have been focused on the strongly Hellenised and urbanised regions of western and southern Asia Minor. In this volume, the first on its subject, thirteen contributors from nine different countries address the question of how local identities were created and maintained in northern Anatolia from the fall of Mithradates VI to the middle Byzantine period. In a region that did not possess a Hellenistic polis-tradition, the fledgling inland cities founded by Pompey the Great struggled to develop an urban identity of their own, while the old-established Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast had to come to terms with the reality of Roman domination without abandoning their Hellenic identity. Drawing on the evidence of archaeology, art, epigraphy and numismatics, the authors trace the diverse ways in which provincial cities - that is to say, provincial urban elites - attempted to construct local identities for themselves, and how mythology, religion, language and tradition were all employed to define and project a specific identity for each city and its territory - transforming geographical "space" into mentally and culturally defined "place".

Landscape Dynamics and Settlement Patterns in Northern Anatolia During the Roman and Byzantine Period

Landscape Dynamics and Settlement Patterns in Northern Anatolia During the Roman and Byzantine Period
Author: Kristina Winther-Jacobsen
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Land settlement
ISBN: 9783515112147

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After his victory over Mithradates VI the Roman general Pompey founded a number of cities in order to shape the newly founded Roman province in the inland of the conquered former Pontic kingdom, in the southern Black Sea region. This sparked the beginning of an intense process of urban and rural development peaking in the 2nd century AD and continuing until the Byzantine period, a level of intensity never accomplished in northern Anatolia until today. The reorganization of space through the development of new urban centers affected the whole region and transformed the territory. This volume reviews current knowledge regarding these new founded Roman cities in relation to their territories, necropoleis and sanctuaries. It consists of 18 articles, which explore dynamics in settlement patterns, architecture, urban and mortuary spaces, monetary circulation and epigraphic habit. Some articles present the results of recent field research, others review little known material ripe for new interpretations, while new archaeological data is provided by the reports of rescue excavations carried out by local museums.

The Routledge Handbook of the Byzantine City

The Routledge Handbook of the Byzantine City
Author: Nikolas Bakirtzis
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 719
Release: 2024-01-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429515758

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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.

Architecture and Landscape in Medieval Anatolia, 1100-1500

Architecture and Landscape in Medieval Anatolia, 1100-1500
Author: Patricia Blessing
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2017-03-08
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1474411304

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Anatolia was home to a large number of polities in the medieval period. Given its location at the geographical and chronological juncture between Byzantines and the Ottomans, its story tends to be read through the Seljuk experience. This obscures the multiple experiences and spaces of Anatolia under the Byzantine empire, Turko-Muslim dynasties contemporary to the Seljuks, the Mongol Ilkhanids, and the various beyliks of eastern and western Anatolia. This book looks beyond political structures and towards a reconsideration of the interactions between the rural and the urban; an analysis of the relationships between architecture, culture and power; and an examination of the region's multiple geographies. In order to expand historiographical perspectives it draws on a wide variety of sources (architectural, artistic, documentary and literary), including texts composed in several languages (Arabic, Armenian, Byzantine Greek, Persian and Turkish). Original in its coverage of this period from the perspective of multiple polities, religions and languages, this volume is also the first to truly embrace the cultural complexity that was inherent in the reality of daily life in medieval Anatolia and surrounding regions.

The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia

The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia
Author: Philipp Niewöhner
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2017
Genre: HISTORY
ISBN: 9780190610487

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Anatolia was the only major part of the Roman Empire that did not fall in late antiquity, but remained continuously under Roman rule through the eleventh century. Anatolia can, therefore, show the difference Roman administration continued to make, once pan-Mediterranean rule had collapsed. Urban decline did not set in before the fifth century, after Anatolia had already been thoroughly Christianized in the course of the fourth century. The urban decline, when it occurred from the fifth century onwards, was paired with rural prosperity, an increase in the number, size, and quality of rural settlements and in rural population. This work examines this topic

Archaeology and Urban Settlement in Late Roman and Byzantine Anatolia

Archaeology and Urban Settlement in Late Roman and Byzantine Anatolia
Author: John Haldon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2018-11-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1316998002

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The site of medieval Euchaïta, on the northern edge of the central Anatolian plateau, was the centre of the cult of St Theodore Tiro ('the Recruit'). Unlike most excavated or surveyed urban centres of the Byzantine period, Euchaïta was never a major metropolis, cultural centre or extensive urban site, although it had a military function from the seventh to ninth centuries. Its significance lies precisely in the fact that as a small provincial town, something of a backwater, it was probably more typical of the 'average' provincial Anatolian urban settlement, yet almost nothing is known about such sites. This volume represents the results of a collaborative project that integrates archaeological survey work with other disciplines in a unified approach to the region both to enhance understanding of the history of Byzantine provincial society and to illustrate the application of innovative approaches to field survey.