Dark Age Liguria

Dark Age Liguria
Author: Ross Balzaretti
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2013-03-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472517113

Dark Age Liguria surveys the history of the Liguria region from c. 400 to c. 1050 AD, to provide a detailed case study of what happened here as Roman imperial rule ended. The book pulls together all the surviving evidence, written, archaeological, artistic and ecological, to propose that, in contrast with later periods, Ligurians looked north as much as they gazed out to sea. Genoese history under Byzantines, Lombards, Carolingians and Ottonians is compared with that of other coastal settlements, including Albenga, Noli, Perti and Savona and the less-studied but fascinating inland valleys, the Aveto, Polcevera, Stura and Vara. The book draws also on more than fifteen years of fieldwork in and around the small town of Varese Ligure (La Spezia province) to suggest some new methods for investigating the Dark Age past.

Dark Age Liguria

Dark Age Liguria
Author: Ross Balzaretti
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2013-03-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472517105

Dark Age Liguria surveys the history of the Liguria region from c. 400 to c. 1050 AD, to provide a detailed case study of what happened here as Roman imperial rule ended. The book pulls together all the surviving evidence, written, archaeological, artistic and ecological, to propose that, in contrast with later periods, Ligurians looked north as much as they gazed out to sea. Genoese history under Byzantines, Lombards, Carolingians and Ottonians is compared with that of other coastal settlements, including Albenga, Noli, Perti and Savona and the less-studied but fascinating inland valleys, the Aveto, Polcevera, Stura and Vara. The book draws also on more than fifteen years of fieldwork in and around the small town of Varese Ligure (La Spezia province) to suggest some new methods for investigating the Dark Age past.

Travel Writing in an Age of Global Quarantine

Travel Writing in an Age of Global Quarantine
Author: Gary Fisher
Publisher: Anthem Press
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1785278061

Travel Writing in an Age of Global Quarantine is an anthology of travel accounts by a diverse range of writers and academics. Challenging conventional academic ‘authority’, each contributor writes, from memory during the Covid-19 lockdown, about a place they have previously visited, ‘accompanied’ by an historical traveller who published an account of the same place. As immobility is forced upon us, at least for the immediate future, we have the chance to reflect. Travel Writing in an Age of Global Quarantine presents opportunities to approach a text as a scholar differently. We break with the traditional academic ‘rules’ by inserting ourselves into the narrative and foregrounding the personal, subjective elements of literary scholarship. Each contributor critiques an historical description of a place about which, simultaneously, they write a personal account.

Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean

Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean
Author: Thomas J. MacMaster
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351609033

Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean addresses the understudied topic of the Italian peninsula’s relationship to the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East, across the early and central Middle Ages. The East Roman world, commonly known by the ahistorical term "Byzantium", is generally imagined as an Eastern Mediterranean empire, with Italy part of the medieval "West". Across 18 individually authored chapters, an introduction and conclusion, this volume makes a different case: for an East Roman world of which Italy forms a crucial part, and an Italian peninsula which is inextricably connected to—and, indeed, includes—regions ruled from Constantinople. Celebrating a scholar whose work has led this field over several decades, Thomas S. Brown, the chapters focus on the general themes of empire, cities and elites, and explore these from the angles of sources and historiography, archaeology, social, political and economic history, and more besides. With contributions from established and early career scholars, elucidating particular issues of scholarship as well as general historical developments, the volume provides both immediate contributions and opens space for a new generation of readers and scholars to a growing field.

Italy and Early Medieval Europe

Italy and Early Medieval Europe
Author: Ross Balzaretti
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 592
Release: 2018-07-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191083267

A comprehensive survey of recent work in Medieval Italian history and archaeology by an international cast of contributors, arranged within a broader context of studies on other regions and major historical transitions in Europe, c.400 to c.1400CE. Each of the contributors reflect on the contribution made to the field by Chris Wickham, whose own work spans studies based on close archival work, to broad and ambitious statements on economic and social change in the transition from Roman to medieval Europe, and the value of comparing this across time and space.

A Companion to Medieval Genoa

A Companion to Medieval Genoa
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 588
Release: 2018-03-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004360611

A Companion to Medieval Genoa introduces non-specialists to recent scholarship on the vibrant and source-rich medieval history of Genoa. Focusing mostly on the eleventh to fifteenth centuries, the volume positions the city of Genoa and the Genoese within the broader history of the Italian peninsula and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. Thematic contributions highlight the interdependence of local, regional, and international concerns, and serve as a helpful corrective to the traditional overemphasis of Florence and Venice in the English-language historiography of medieval Italy. The volume thus offers a fresh perspective on the history of medieval Italy—as well as a handy introduction to the riches of the Genoese archives—to undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars in related fields. Contributors are Ross Balzaretti, Carrie E. Beneš, Denise Bezzina, Roberta Braccia, Luca Filangieri, George L. Gorse, Paola Guglielmotti, Thomas Kirk, Sandra Macchiavello, Merav Mack, Jeffrey Miner, Rebecca Müller, Antonio Musarra, Sandra Origone, Giovanna Petti Balbi, Valeria Polonio, Gervase Rosser, Antonella Rovere, Stefan Stantchev, and Carlo Taviani.

Change and Resilience

Change and Resilience
Author: Miguel Ángel Cau Ontiveros
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2019-06-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1789251834

Change and Resilience offers a view of the main Mediterranean islands from West to East in Late Antiquity because Mediterranean islands can contribute in fundamental ways to our understanding not only of earlier colonizations but also later periods. The volume explores specifically the time frame from the fall of the Roman empire to the Medieval period. A first group of papers covers islands and island groups in the Central and Western Mediterranean, including the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and the Adriatic islands. Together, these five papers highlight several common themes across the region: local or indigenous sites were often reoccupied in Late Antiquity, the rural countryside typically played a significant role in the contributions of islands to wider Mediterranean economic networks, and islands – big and small – often played significant roles in shifting political and religious power. The second group focuses on the Eastern Mediterranean. Three papers cover a range of islands, including Crete, the Cyclades, and Cyprus. Together they emphasize the impacts external shifts in political power and economic ties in the Eastern Mediterranean had on island landscapes, as well as the connected relationship between sacred space and territorial occupation across many of these islands. The final group of papers pivots on changing perceptions of island landscapes in Late Antiquity—or “island mindscapes.” Three papers focus on how communities adapted as they underwent Christianization in island contexts, emphasizing the diverse and varied ways that island landscapes became “Christianized,” as well as how other political and economic factors shaped the dynamics of change.

Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations

Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations
Author: James B. Minahan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 590
Release: 2016-08-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1610699548

This book addresses the numerous national movements of ethnic groups around the world seeking independence, more self-rule, or autonomy—movements that have proliferated exponentially in the 21st century. In the last 15 years, globalization, religious radicalization, economic changes, endangered cultures and languages, cultural suppression, racial tensions, and many other factors have stimulated the emergence of autonomy and independence movements in every corner of the world—even in areas formerly considered immune to self-government demands such as South America. Researching the numerous ethnic groups seeking autonomy or independence worldwide previously required referencing many specialized publications. This book makes this difficult-to-find information available in a single volume, presented in a simple format accessible to everyone, from high school readers to scholars in advanced studies programs. The book provides an extensive update to Greenwood's Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups around the World that was published more than a decade earlier. Each ethnic group receives an alphabetically organized entry containing information such as alternate names, population figures, flag or flags, geography, history, culture, and languages. All the information readers need to understand the motivating factors behind each movement and the current situation of each ethnic group is presented in a compact summary. Fact boxes at the beginning of each entry enable students to quickly access key information, and consistent entry structure makes for easy cross-cultural comparisons.

Trees, Woods and Forests

Trees, Woods and Forests
Author: Charles Watkins
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2014-10-15
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1780234155

Forests—and the trees within them—have always been a central resource for the development of technology, culture, and the expansion of humans as a species. Examining and challenging our historical and modern attitudes toward wooded environments, this engaging book explores how our understanding of forests has transformed in recent years and how it fits in our continuing anxiety about our impact on the natural world. Drawing on the most recent work of historians, ecologist geographers, botanists, and forestry professionals, Charles Watkins reveals how established ideas about trees—such as the spread of continuous dense forests across the whole of Europe after the Ice Age—have been questioned and even overturned by archaeological and historical research. He shows how concern over woodland loss in Europe is not well founded—especially while tropical forests elsewhere continue to be cleared—and he unpicks the variety of values and meanings different societies have ascribed to the arboreal. Altogether, he provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of humankind’s interaction with this abused but valuable resource.

The Dark Ages

The Dark Ages
Author: Charles Oman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 552
Release: 1914
Genre: Civilization, Medieval
ISBN: