Ephesos from Late Antiquity Until the Late Middle Ages

Ephesos from Late Antiquity Until the Late Middle Ages
Author: Sabine Ladstätter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2019
Genre: Ephesus (Extinct city)
ISBN: 9783903207424

Although the symposium "Ephesos from Late Antiquity until the Late Middle Ages", the contributions of which are presented here, took place in 2012, the contributors were able to take the latest results into account and incorporate them into this volume. An Archaeological Introduction by excavation director Sabine Ladstatter for the latest results, which are published here for the first time. The same applies to all other contributions, whether they deal with the restoration project of the Turkish monuments in Ayasoluk, the research in the Cemetery of the Seven Sleepers, the health status of the inhabitants of early Byzantine Ephesus or investigate roads and routes as communication channels in the Ephesian hinterland. A late testimony to the spiritual significance of the place is the biography of St. Lazarus. The bathing in Ephesos from early Byzantine to Islamic times is discussed and chronologically evaluated on the basis of the individual monuments and the topic of port research is taken into account with the contribution to the number and condition of ephesian ports after the Roman period. Byzantine crosses are associated with the pilgrimage, the medieval Ephesus is viewed as a production and consumption center based on findings and findings. A medieval coin hoard from the Artemision, which is now in the British Museum, also integrates numismatic research. The volume is rounded off by a cultural-historical analysis of the Isa Bey Mosque. The contributions are characterized by rich and high-quality images that include historical map material, 3-D reconstructions and modern drone photography.

The Byzantine City from Heraclius to the Fourth Crusade, 610–1204

The Byzantine City from Heraclius to the Fourth Crusade, 610–1204
Author: Luca Zavagno
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2021-10-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 3030843076

This book explores the Byzantine city and the changes it went through from 610 to 1204. Throughout this period, cities were always the centers of political and social life for both secular and religious authorities, and, furthermore, the focus of the economic interests of local landowning elites. This book therefore examines the regional and subregional trajectories in the urban function, landscape, structure and fabric of Byzantium’s cities, synthesizing the most cutting-edge archaeological excavations, the results of analyses of material culture (including ceramics, coins, and seals) and a reassessment of the documentary and hagiographical sources. The transformation the Byzantine urban landscape underwent from the seventh to thirteenth centuries can afford us a better grasp of changes to the Byzantine central and provincial administrative apparatus; their fiscal machinery, military institutions, socio-economic structures and religious organization. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of the history, archaeology and architecture of Byzantium.

Burial and Memorial in Late Antiquity

Burial and Memorial in Late Antiquity
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 554
Release: 2024-11-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 900468798X

Burial and Memorial explores funerary and commemorative archaeology, A.D. 284–650, across the late antique world. This first volume includes an overview of research, and papers exploring bioarchaeology, mortuary rituals, mausolea, and funerary landscapes. It considers the sacralisation of tombs, the movements of relics, and the political significance of cemeteries. The nature and fate of statue monuments is explored, as memorials to individuals. Authors also compare the destruction or preservation of tombs in relation to other buildings. Finally, the city itself is considered as a place of collective memory, where meanings were long maintained, via a study of spoliation.

Cyprus in the Long Late Antiquity

Cyprus in the Long Late Antiquity
Author: Panayiotis Panayides
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 589
Release: 2023-01-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789258758

Cyprus was a thriving and densely populated late antique province. Contrary to what used to be thought, the Arab raids of the mid-seventh century did not abruptly bring the island’s prosperity to an end. Recent research instead highlights long-lasting continuity in both urban and rural contexts. This volume brings together historians and archaeologists working on diverse aspects of Cyprus between the sixth and eighth centuries. They discuss topics as varied as rural prosperity, urban endurance, artisanal production, civic and private religion and maritime connectivity. The role of the imperial administration and of the Church is touched upon in several contributions. Other articles place Cyprus back into its wider Mediterranean context. Together, they produce a comprehensive impression of the quality of life on the island in the long late antiquity.

More than a Church: Late Antique Ecclesiastical Complexes in Cyprus

More than a Church: Late Antique Ecclesiastical Complexes in Cyprus
Author: Catherine T. Keane
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2024-06-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004697888

The church annexes of late antique Cyprus were bustling places of industry, producing olive oil, flour, bread, ceramics, and metal products. From its earliest centuries, the church was an economic player, participating in agricultural and artisanal production. More than a Church brings together architecture, ceramics, numismatics, landscape archaeology, and unpublished excavation material, alongside consideration of Cyprus’s dynamic and prosperous 4th–10th-century history. Keane offers a rich picture of the association between sacred buildings and agricultural and industrial facilities—comprehensively presenting, for the first time, the church’s economic role and impact in late antique Cyprus.

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

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.

The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia

The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia
Author: Philipp Niewohner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2017-03-17
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 019066262X

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.

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

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.

Cities and the Meanings of Late Antiquity

Cities and the Meanings of Late Antiquity
Author: Mark Humphries
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2019-11-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004422617

The last half century has seen an explosion in the study of late antiquity, which has characterised the period between the third and seventh centuries not as one of catastrophic collapse and ‘decline and fall’, but rather as one of dynamic and positive transformation. Yet research on cities in this period has provoked challenges to this positive picture of late antiquity. This study surveys the nature of this debate, examining problems associated with the sources historians use to examine late antique urbanism, and the discourses and methodological approaches they have constructed from them. It aims to set out the difficulties and opportunities presented by the study of cities in late antiquity in terms of transformations of politics, the economy, and religion, and to show that this period witnessed very real upheaval and dislocation alongside continuity and innovation in cities around the Mediterranean.

A Companion to Cities in the Greco-Roman World

A Companion to Cities in the Greco-Roman World
Author: Miko Flohr
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 628
Release: 2024-09-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1119399831

Provides a thorough examination of Greek and Roman urbanism in a single volume A Companion to Cities in the Greco-Roman World offers in-depth coverage of the most important topics in the study of Greek and Roman urbanism. Bringing together contributions by an international panel of experts, this comprehensive resource addresses traditional topics in the study of ancient cities, including civic society, politics, and the ancient urban landscape, as well as less-frequently explored themes such as ecology, war, and representations of cities in literature, art, and political philosophy. Detailed chapters present critical discussions of research on Greco-Roman urban societies, city economies, key political events, significant cultural developments, and more. Throughout the Companion, the authors provide insights into major developments, debates, and approaches in the field. An unrivalled reference work on the subject, A Companion to Cities in the Greco-Roman World: Offers wide-ranging thematic and multidisciplinary coverage of Greco-Roman urbanism Focusses on both the archaeological (spatial, architectural) as well as the historical (institutions, social structures) aspects of ancient cities Makes Greco-Roman urbanism accessible to scholars and students of urbanism in other historical periods, up to the present day Integrates a uniquely broad range of topics, themes, and sources, all enriched with coverage of the very latest work in the field Discusses topics such as urbanization, urban development, warfare, socio-economic structures and literary and philosophical representations of cities Part of the authoritative Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World series, A Companion to Cities in the Greco-Roman World is an excellent resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and lecturers in Classics, Ancient History, and Classical/Mediterranean Archaeology, as well as historians and archaeologists looking to update their knowledge of Greek or Roman urbanism.