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NEWSLETTER 43: DECEMBER 2001
CONTENTS
1.
Forthcoming Conferences, Seminars and Events
2.
Web Sites of Interest
3.
International News
4.
Australian News
5.
Reviews and Resources
6.
Next Newsletter
7.
Appendix 1: Full list of the AABS Executive for 2001-2005
1. FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES, SEMINARS AND EVENTS
2002
March 1-2. Fifth annual St. Michael's College Symposium, University of Toronto, Canada Topic: Image Makers and Image Breakers. The 20th century was an age ofcultural icons. Photography, Film, Television, and the Advertising Agency brought us an unending stream of people and products to "idolize," "worship" and "adore." The language of these images and of the response to them was unambiguously religious, and was drawn from the centuries of experience with religious images that went before. Surprisingly, the 20th century was also an age of iconoclasm and the purging of images. From Afghanistan to Europe and North America, not since the famous iconoclastic outbursts of the 8th and the 16th centuries have so many statues and images been removed from the churches and holy places. In earlier periods, the removal of images sparked lively debate and controversy, but the latest efforts in that direction have passed almost without comment. What makes for the power of images? What makes for their suppression and destruction? What can we learn from studying the birth, life and death of particular images, and of images in general? These are a few of the questions that we hope to address in this Symposium. Contact: Joseph Goering <goering@chass.utoronto.ca>
25-28 April. The Annual Meeting of the Association of Ancient Historians, Savannah, GA, USA. Topic: Urbanism, Colony & Empire. The conference will focus on aspects of ancient urbanism, from studies of specific locations to broader questions of urban model and theory, including such topics as administration, city foundations, civic eurgetism, municipal institutions, city planning, urban archaeology, and all other aspects of ancient urban life. The keynote speaker is Prof. Mary T. Boatwright of Duke University. The meeting will honour Prof. Susan Treggiari on the occasion of her recent retirement from Stanford University. Contact: Timothy M. Teeter, tmteeter@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu, or visit http://www.trentu.ca/aah/welcome.shtml
26-28 April. Dumbarton Oaks Symposium: Realities in the Arts of the Medieval Mediterranean, 800-1500.
Spring. International Conference, Late Antique Landscapes - Intellectual, Figural and Physical. UC Santa Barbara. Conference organiser: Hal Drake.
2-5 May. 37th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan USA 49008-3801, USA. Mostly centres on Medieval Europe, but note: Liturgy and Jewish-Christian Relations; Medieval Monastic Women, Continuity and Change in Medieval and Renaissance Art in Italy; Biography of the Object in Medieval and Renaissance Italy; and Islam and the Crusades: Nur al-Din as a Paradigmatic Figure. See: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/ congress/37cfp/
6-9 June. A Conference on The Early Christian Book, to be held at The Catholic University of America, presented by the Center for the Study of Early Christianity. The conference will include a number of plenary papers and 20-30 minute time-slots for a limited number of other speakers addressing different aspects of the conference theme. Plenary speakers include: Professor Gillian Clark, Professor of Ancient History, University of Bristol; Professor Samuel Lieu, Professor of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Australia; and Professor Mark Vessey, Department of English, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. For details see: arts-sciences.cua.edu/ecs/Conference.html, or contact: Lani Mullaney, Conference 2002, Center for the Study of Early Christianity, Catholic University of America, P.O. Box 337, Washington, DC 20064, USA, e-mail: mullaneb@cua.edu. Further details below.
July. Third International Triennial Conference, Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church. Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia. Theme: Life and Liturgy (details to be announced).
September. Five Thousand Years of Slavery. Third conference of ICHOS, University of Nottingham, UK.
14-26 October. Promised Lands: The Bible, Christian Missions, and Colonial Histories in Latin Christendom, 400-1700 AD. Committee for Medieval Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The aim of this exploratory conference is to bring together scholars working on chronologically and geographically separated theatres of christianization. In this context, Latin Christendom is understood to include (Western) European missions to all parts of the globe, and mission to embrace all forms of religio-political expanisionism. Papers are invited on such topics as (1) narratives and theories of territory, conquest and settlement derived from or referred to the Bible, (2) emergent histories of Christian empire and of the medieval and early modern nation, and (3) ideas and stories of land-title, nationhood and empire among colonized/christianized peoples before, during and after the experience of Christian missions.
Comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives will be especially welcome. The deadline for abstracts/proposals (max. 500 words) is 01 March 2002. Please also include a short biography.
E-mail enquiries: mvessey@interchange.ubc.ca. Submission deadline: 1 March 2002.
www.byzantium.ac.uk
This is the new web site
for the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies (SPBS), UK (a transformation
of the old one). Benevolently watched over by St Eudokia, it contains
useful information about seminar series in the UK, forthcoming conferences
and events, publications (current and forthcoming) by members of the SPBS,
and Byzantine courses in the UK, among other things.
www.quandaryland.com/1998/byzantine.htm
(from a review by Rosemary Young)
In this educational game
by the Discovery Channel, the player becomes a journalist and heads for
Istanbul to meet an old friend, Emre Bahis, who has promised you your heart's
desire - a Pulitzer Prize winning story. Enclosed with his communication
is a newspaper cutting about a priceless artefact from the time of Constantine
that suddenly materialised as part of a deceased estate in the USA, then
just as mysteriously disappeared (that's because he's been brutally murdered
in the depths of - but we shouldn't say). There's a story in it somewhere
as it is forbidden to take artefacts out of Turkey, and on arrival you
land in the midst of it. Emre has disappeared and he is wanted by
the police for smuggling. You are implicated by association, so it
is in your interest to get to the bottom of it all. Like Emre, if
you are not quick enough, you too can die (in the game, that is).
Your investigation takes you to a number of fascinating present-day locations
in Istanbul, including Aya Sofya, the Basilica Cistern and the Archaeological
Museum, as well as to some more ancient locations courtesy of virtual reality
simulations.
www.kykkos-museum.cy.net/index2.html
Web page of the Museum
of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos in Cyprus, with sections on the collections
of icons, holy objects, woodcarvings, vestments, embroideries, manuscripts
and books. The Holy Monastery of the Virgin of Kykkos was founded
around the end of the 11th century by the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos
(1081-1118).
www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg1/gg1-main1.html
A web exhibition of Byzantine
Art and Painting in Italy during the 1200s and 1300s housed at the National
Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA. Italian altar pieces inspired by
Byzantine icons of the Christian East.
www.godecookery.com/byznrec/byznrec.htm
An attempt at reconstructing
Byzantine cuisine by taking modern Greek recipes, removing or replacing
non-period ingredients and attempting to reconstruct cooking methods.
They are the types of dishes that would have been served by the common
people or middle classes rather than to the Imperial household.
www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/RusByz.html
An English translation
of the Russian edition of the Byzantine-Russian Treaty of AD 911.
romlx6.rom.on.ca/galleries/byzantine/byzgallery.html
Web page of the recently
opened Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Byzantine Art at the Royal Ontario
Museum, Canada. The gallery explores various aspects of life and
some enduring themes which distinguish Byzantium's long history through
the display and interpretation of three hundred objects of Byzantine art
and material culture. Well organized with good images on a variety of interest
areas.
http://byzantium1200.org/greatpalace.html
Interesting pictures
of the scale model of the Great Palace exhibited in the Habitat Congress
in Istanbul. One of an extensive number of high quality images produced
by the Byzantium 1200 project, which aims at creating computer reconstructions
of the Byzantine Monuments of Constantinople in year 1200 AD.
E-mail newsletter
To obtain information on the latest accessions of the special library of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Vienna (monthly electronic newsletter) send an e-mail to michael.gruenbart@univie.ac.at
A recent announcement and query from the Late Antique mail list.
This [Northern hemisphere] spring a small gold treasure (5 gold bracteates, 6 looped solidi of Valentinian III, 2 gold pendants and 8 gold beads) from the late 5th or early 6th cent. AD was found on the island of Bornholm in Denmark. The gold objects had been carefully packed in a silver disc, which had been rolled to make a cornet. Now my problem is: What was this 'cornet' originally? It is hardly of Scandinavian origin, like most of the jewellery, but more likely Roman or Byzantine.
The silver disc had been circular, c. 14-15 cm in diameter, the weight is 106 g. Where the rim is preserved it can be seen to be smooth and rounded; obviously the disc is not the bottom of a vessel, cut out for the purpose. It is flat, so it has not been a plate or a bowl. On the side which is now turning out, there is a small pit in the centre, surrounded by 2 concentric groves, 1.65 and 2.22 cm in diameter. On the inner side, not easily seen, there is a similar central pit, surrounded by 4 concentric circles, then a band of 10 small circles, and finally one or more fainter circles, concentric with the inner ones. This rosette is gilt.
Now, what may this have been? Hardly a plate or a bowl, but could it be a hand mirror? Can Roman silver mirrors have small concentric circles at the centre - the gilt rosette would obviously have to be at the back side of the mirror. No trace from a handle is visible, but part of the rim is corroded and some other parts are still hidden, as the disc is too brittle to be unfolded. Or could it be a flat lid for some vessel?
A series of photos taken when the 'cornet' was emptied at the National Museum can be seen at the Museums home page at www.natmus.dk under the entry 'Arets fund?', with text only in Danish. The hoard as a whole is seen at www.natmus.dk/guldfund/guld1.html, the outside of the 'cornet' at www.natmus.dk/guldfund/guld2.html and an endoscope view of its inner side at www.natmus.dk/guldfund/guld11.html. There are also pictures (perhaps of better quality) at www.bornholmsmuseum.dk/bhmuseum/solvtar.htm
Morten Axboe
Bredevej 87
DK-2830 Virum
Danmark
E-mail: m_axboe@image.dk
And from Kathimerini, English edition www.ekathimerini.com/news/News.asp
Archaeologists will have to publish fast
Archaeologists excavating in Greece must publish their finds within specific time limits or lose the right to direct excavations, under a new draft law presented yesterday that aims to protect the country's abundant antiquities. The bill, unveiled by Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos, also extends the definition of antiquities that must be declared by individuals to the authorities on pain of imprisonment to objects up to 171 years old - and even less than a century old in some cases. It is intended to replace legislation the bulk of which dates to 1932. "The [archaeological] community will acquire a code of behavior with very strict deadlines and legal consequences if the limits are exceeded," Venizelos told a press conference. "People should not think that a monument or its excavation is their personal property." Under the current state of affairs, excavators, who hold exclusive rights of publication on their digs, are effectively able to sit on their finds for as long as they like while preventing access to the excavation material by other specialists. According to the bill - the fourth presented by successive socialist culture ministers in the past five years, and the second by Venizelos - which Venizelos said should be tabled in Parliament next month, excavation directors must publish a preliminary report within two years after the dig has started, and a detailed presentation within five years. The deadline for detailed publication of rescue digs (the majority of work carried out in the country) is two years. Archaeologists engaged in underwater excavations are allowed twice as long for publication.
From the Byzantine Studies list <byzans-l@lists.missouri.edu> (make from this what you will!)
"Body of St. Luke" Gains Credibility, by Nicholas Wade
New DNA analysis gives tentative support to the belief that the remains in an ancient lead coffin are those of St. Luke, traditionally considered the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.
Dr. Guido Barbujani, a population geneticist at the University of Ferrara, Italy, has extracted DNA from a tooth in the coffin. He concluded that the DNA was characteristic of people living near the region of Antioch, on the eastern Mediterranean, where Luke is said to have been born. Radiocarbon dating of the tooth indicates that it belonged to someone who died between A.D. 72 and A.D. 416
A report by Dr. Barbujani and colleagues recently appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.
The Evangelist, according to ancient sources, was a physician who was born in Antioch and died at 84 in about A.D. 150 in the Greek city of Thebes. The coffin with his remains was taken to Constantinople, the capitol of the Byzantine empire, in A.D. 338 and later moved to Padua, Italy.
Dr. Barbujani and his colleagues speculate that the coffin may have been sent out of Constantinople for safekeeping, either during the reign of the Emperor Julian, who tried to restore paganism, or during the iconoclast period of the eighth century, when many religious images and objects were destroyed.
The coffin is known to have been in Padua at least since 1177 A.D. It was placed in a marble sarcophagus and kept in the Basilica of Santa Giustina. It was last opened in 1562 A.D. and seems to have been somewhat ignored until October 1992. At that time the bishop of Padua, Antonio Mattiazzo, received a letter from Hieronymos, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Thebes, asking that part of the relics to be donated to the site of Luke's tomb in Thebes.
Bishop Mattiazzo, according to an article in November 2000 in Traces, a Catholic journal, decided to investigate the relics under the leadership of Dr. Vito Terribile Viel Marin, a pathologist at the University of Padua. In 1998 the 400-year-old seals were removed from the lead coffin, and the study began.
The dimensions of the coffin exactly fit the tomb in Thebes considered to be Luke's. In the coffin was a skeleton, but not the skull.
Dr. Barbujani and his colleagues say the body appears to have decomposed in the coffin because of matching insect marks on the lead and the pelvis, which has fused to the lead.
The spread in the radiocarbon dating indicates at least two possibilities. One is that the body is that of Luke or a man who died at the same time, the other is that for some reason, a new body was put in the coffin in Constantinople around A.D. 300.
To help distinguish between the two, Dr. Barbujani, an expert on the genetics of European populations, analyzed fragments of DNA from the tooth, a canine, found on the floor of the coffin, and sought to compare them with likely living representatives of the ancient populations of Antioch and of Constantinople. An Antioch match would suggest the body could be Luke's.
Since the present population of Antioch includes many Kurds, Dr. Barbujani sampled the DNA of Syrians from nearby Aleppo. In place of the inhabitants of ancient Constantinople, now Istanbul, he tested Greeks from Attica and Crete.
The DNA from the Padua tooth, a type inherited only through the mother's line, turned out to resemble Syrian DNA more than Greek DNA.
"Our data tell us the body is absolutely compatible with a Syrian origin," he said. "But I am aware of the limitations of the DNA data, and though a broad spectrum of ages is possible, the most likely is 300 A.D." Hence both possibilities should remain open, he said.
The body, if indeed it is Luke's, has experienced a simpler voyage through history than the head, which was removed by the Emperor Charles IV in 1354 and taken from Padua to Prague, where it rests in the Cathedral of St. Vitus, in the Prague Castle.
"There were officially two heads of St. Luke, one at Prague and one in Rome," Dr. Barbujani said. At Bishop Mattiazzo's request, the Prague skull was brought to Padua and found to fit perfectly to the topmost neck bone. The tooth, found on the floor of the coffin, also fit into the right socket in the jawbone.
Though many relics turn out to be forgeries, executed in modern or medieval times as demand arose, the Padua body seems more likely than most to be what it is claimed to be, although exact proof is lacking.
"I think we should accept that there is no way to tell if it was the Evangelist Luke, but the genetic evidence does not contradict the idea," Dr. Barbujani said.
Last October, according to the Traces article, at least part of the body completed the circle to its original resting place. Bishop Mattiazzo sent a rib from the skeleton for Metropolitan Hieronymus to place in the empty Theban tomb.
Excavation report on Byzantine ceramics from Jerash in Jordan by Ina Kehrberg
A 'Cache' of New Byzantine Table Ware
In 2000, a group of pottery was found at the Upper Temple of Zeus Complex of Jerash in the final year of excavations*. The exact find-spot was the adyton where earthquake tumble had been cleared to study the grounds for restoration. In fact, it was the place where the adyton once stood, in the north-west corner of the cella; the whole adyton had been dismantled, before the 6th century stone masons arrived to quarry the temple for spolia. The pottery was located on the ground under a layer of dirt, which was covered by a thick layer of 'yellow sand'. This sand had been used by the Byzantine masons as an abrasive when they sawed the ancient blocks and other stones (including sculpture). The stone cutters' 'workshops' and the stratified layers below were dated by their contextual archaeological evidence which made clear that the cache of pottery belonged to an earlier Byzantine phase than those of the stone cutters.
The pottery vessels are particular for several reasons. The folded conical footed and carinated cups, six of which are shown in the attached jpeg image, are made of an unusual light yellow and reddish-brown tempered clay, thin walled, self-slipped and fired to orangey-red: in spite of their simplicity one may describe their quality as fine ware rather than common ware. Some have single or multiple shallow grooves below the rim.
The form is new to the known early (and later) Byzantine repertoire in Jerash and so far, no Byzantine parallels have been found elsewhere. The nearest in type are the 5th century glass cups and goblets which are common in the 6th century but begin earlier. Small cups without feet, a few with a small ring foot, make their first appearance by the end of Early Byzantine at the hippodrome kiln sites and share the 'simple' appearance but none are as fine as our cups - nor with that pale yellow clay.
With the cups were larger jars, made of the same pale yellow tempered clay but with an orange slip. These jars were intended as tableware. In addition, there were some shallow bowls or small dishes with everted rims, and a jug in the same ware but this time with fine white painted linear decoration. In all an unusual ensemble very clearly made by the same workshop, one might say, an attractive set of dishes for the dinner table.
The context itself and trace elements on the ground suggest that the robbed-out adyton may have been prepared and reused for some domestic purpose. The fine quality of the ceramics and the 'set' by itself suggest that the cache was once part of a well-to-do household or other secular establishment founded in the cella sometime during the Early Byzantine period. Activities in the Late Byzantine period when much of the upper temple was recycled for the building of the churches, and subsequent destructions did not leave any standing structural evidence to identify the owners of the now fragmented fine assemblage of ceramics.
*The Upper Temple of Zeus complex has been excavated for architectural studies by architects and archaeologists from IFAPO-Amman, directed by J-P Braun from December 1996 to December 2000. The writer is responsible for the studies of ceramics and archaeological contexts.
Ina Kehrberg
CBRL Fellow
c/-Burmington Manor,
Shipston-on-Stour
Warwickshire CV36 5AG,
UK
E-mail: inakehrberg@hotmail.com
Update
on the International Conference The Early Christian Book
Catholic
University of America, Center for the Study of Early Christianity
6-9 June 2002
Earlier last year, having advertised our conference, we called for 'expressions of interest', and in particular, titles of papers that participants might like to present.
We have invited eight scholars to give substantial papers, and all have accepted:
- Professor Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, Departments of Near Eastern Studies and of Rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley.
- Professor Gillian Clark, Professor of Ancient History, University of Bristol.
- Dr. Kim Haines-Eitzen, Assistant Professor of Early Christianity, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University.
- Dr. Caroline Humfress, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Law, Department of Rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley.
- Professor Samuel Lieu, Professor of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Australia.
- Dr John Lowden, Courtauld Institute of Art, Reader in the History of Art in the University of London.
- Dr. Claudia Rapp, Associate Professor of History, University of California, LosAngeles.
- Professor Mark Vessey, Holder of a Canada Research Chair in Christianity and Culture in the Department of English, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Report on the XXe Congrès International des Etudes Byzantines 19-25 August 2001, Collège de France, Paris, France
A. General report on the congress
The always-impressive and widely attended International Congress of Byzantine Studies was held over a week in a very muggy Paris from 19 to 25 August 2001. Roger Scott, John Melville-Jones and Alan Walmsley attended from Australia. Alan Walmsley was responsible for organising a Round Table (see further below).
The Plenary sessions focussed on:
- Esprit et forme dans la littérature byzantine, with speakers Michael Bibikov (Russie), Fabrizio Conca (Italie), Antonio Garzya, Anna Maria Ieraci Bio (Italie), Riccardo Maisano, Giuseppina Matino (Italie), Laurent Pernot (France), Ihor SevCenko (Etats-Unis), Maria Dora Spadaro (Italie);
- Les Occidentaux dans les villes de province de l'Empire byzantin, with speakers Laura Balletto (Italie), Krijnie N. Ciggaar (Pays-Bas), Manuela Dobre (Roumanie), Serguej Karpov (Russie), Chryssa Maltezou (Grèce), David Jacoby (Israël), Serban Papacostea (Roumanie), Peter Schreiner (Allemagne);
- Byzance entre Occident chrétien et monde musulman, les relations artistiques, with speakers Antony Cutler (Etats-Unis), Véronique François (France), Maria Georgopoulou (Etats-Unis), Robert Nelson (Etats-Unis), Jean-Michel Spieser;
- Athos, la Sainte Montagne. Tradition et renouveau dans l'art, with speakers George Galavaris, Katia Loverdou-Tsigarida (Grèce), Olga Popova (Russie), Ploutarchos Theocharides (Grèce), Branislav TodiÇ (Yougoslavie), Euthymios Tsigaridas (Grèce);
- Bilan des recherches sur le droit byzantin, with speakers Joëlle Beaucamp (France), Ludwig Burgmann (Allemagne), Fausto Goria (Italie), Ruth Macrides (Grande-Bretagne), Eleftheria Papagianni (Grèce), Bernard H. Stolte (Pays-Bas);
- Byzantina-Metabyzantina. La périphérie dans le temps et dans l'espace, with participants Cyril Mango (Grande-Bretagne), Ihor SevCenko (Etats-Unis) orateurs: Leslie Brubaker (Grande-Bretagne), Guglielmo Cavallo (Italie), Mario Gallina (Italie), Ljubomir MaksimoviÇ (Yougoslavie), Marlia Mundell-Mango (Grande-Bretagne), Paolo Odorico, Gojko SubotiÇ (Yougoslavie), Despina Tsourka-Papasthati (Grèce);
- L'évolution du village dans l'empire byzantin, Ve-XIVe siècles, with speakers Benoît Cursente (France), Archibald Dunn (Grande Bretagne), Pierre-Louis Gatier (France), Angeliki Laiou, Peter Ørsted (Danemark), Christopher Wickham (Grande-Bretagne);
- Instrumenta studiorum : nouvelles techniques, instruments de la recherche et grandes entreprises éditoriales, with speakers Ludwig Burgmann (Allemagne), Chiara Faraggiana di Sarzana (Italie), Denis Feissel (France), Christian Gastgeber (Autriche), Hansgerd Hellenkemper (Allemagne), Reinhard Hiss (Allemagne), Wolfram Hörandner (Autriche), Michael Jeffreys (Grande Bretagne), Ioli Kalavrezou (Etats-Unis), Johannes Koder, Taxiarchos Kolias (Grèce), Ralph-Johannes Lilie (Allemagne), Igor P. Medvedev (Russie), Brigitte Mondrain (France), Peter Schreiner, Franz Tinnefeld (Allemagne), Erich Trapp (Allemagne).
- Échanges et conflits entre l'Occident chrétien et le monde musulman, coordinated by Walter E. Kaegi (Etats-Unis);
- Les villages: études régionales, nord et ouest de l'Empire, coordinated by Anna Avraméa (Grèce);
- Les villages: études régionales, sud et est de l'Empire, coordinated by Alan G. Walmsley (Australie)
- Aspects culturels de la vie villageoise, coordinated by Sharon Gerstel (Etats-Unis);
- Les élites et l'Etat au temps de l'expansion, 863-1055, coordinated by Mark Whittow (Grande-Bretagne)
- Chrétientés orientales non grecques avant l'Islam, coordinated by Nina Garsoïan (Etats-Unis) & Bernadette Martin-Hisard (France);
- Théologie byzantine : méthodes et genres littéraires, coordinated by Carmelo Giuseppe Conticello et Vassa Conticello (France);
- Papyrus ou parchemin, coordinated by Erich Lamberz & Paul Speck (Allemagne);
- La pétition à Byzance, coordinated by Denis Feissel & Jean Gascou (France)
- L'épistolographie et la poésie épigrammatique : projets actuels et questions de méthodologie, coordinated by Wolfram H?randner (Autriche)
- Philosophie et sciences dans l'Empire de Nicée et sous les Paléologues, coordinated by Michel Cacouros & Marie-Hélène Congourdeau (France);
- Magie, rituels et cérémonial, coordinated by Sarolta Takács (Etats-Unis);
- Au-dessus des frontières : l'icône à Byzance à l'époque tardive, coordinated by Annemarie Weyl Carr (Etats-Unis);
- Nouvelles recherches sur le terrain dans la Constantinople byzantine, coordinated by Robert Ousterhout (Etats-Unis);
- Numismatique, coordinated by Cécile Morrisson (France);
- L'Italie byzantine, coordinated by Jean-Marie Martin (France);
- L'Afrique byzantine, coordinated by Noël Duval (France).
B.
Report on the Table Ronde: Les villages dans l'empire byzantin, ve-xive
s: Table ronde II: les villages: études régionales (sud et
est de l'empire)
Responsible:
Alan Walmsley
Participants:
1.
Das byzantinische Dorf in Zentralanatolien (Klaus BELKE, Wien)
2.
Les villages de Syrie du Nord du VIIe au XIIIe siècle (Anne-Marie
EDDÉ et Jean-Pierre SODINI, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
3.
Expansion of the Rural Settlement in 4th-5th Century Palestine (Yitzhar
HIRSCHFELD, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
4.
The Village Ascendant in Byzantine and Early Islamic Jordan: socio-economic
forces and cultural responses (Alan WALMSLEY, University of Western Australia)
5.
Village and City: geographies of power in Byzantine Egypt (Roger S. BAGNALL,
Columbia University, New York)
6.
Egyptian Villages in the Thirteenth Century according to an-Nabulsi's Tarikh
al-Fayyum (James G. KEENAN, Loyola University Chicago)
7.
North
African Villages in the Byzantine Period (Simon ELLIS)
Abstracts
Das
byzantinische Dorf in Zentralanatolien
Klaus
Belke / Wien
Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden Beobachtungen des Autors und anderer Mitarbeiter des Projektes Tabula Imperii Byzantini (TIB) sowie Ergebnisse einiger jüngerer Surveys zusammengestellt, die unsere Vorstellung vom Aussehen byzantinischer Dörfer in Zentralanatolien ergänzen können. In Teilen des untersuchten Gebietes stellen aufgrund günstiger geologischer Voraussetzungen Höhlensiedlungen eine gebauten Siedlungen gleichwertige Form ländlichen Wohnens dar. Aussagekräftige Ruinen frühbyzantinischer gebauter Dörfer finden sich vor allem im südlichen Zentralanatolien, wo Häuser aus Bruchstein oder groben Quadern ohne Kalkmörtel vorherrschend sind. Hausformen und Ortsanlage von Dagören und Gölören im lykaonischen Kara Dag werden mit der in justinianischer Zeit errichteten Stadt Mokissos (Viransehir) in Kappadokien verglichen. Am Beispiel der Straßenstationen Ad Fines (Dedeli Yayla) und Tetrapyrgia (Kemer Yayla) werden Baueinflüsse aus Kilikien (Verwendung von Großquadern), an einigen befestigten Siedlungen im südlichen Pisidien solche aus Pamphylien (Bruchsteinmauerwerk mit Kalkmörtel) aufgezeigt. Reste mittelbyzantinischer gebauter Dörfer (außer Kirchen) sind nur aus Grabungen (z. B. Bogazköy) bekannt. Eine Neuerung gegenüber der frühbyzantinischen Zeit stellt das Aufkommen von Hauskapellen in wohlhabenderen Häusern dar.
Höhlenwohnungen und -siedlungen wurden vor allem in den mit Tuffdecken überzogenen Gebieten Kappadokiens, des südlichen Lykaonien und des sog. phrygischen Hochlandes angelegt. Ein Charakteristikum sind die zahlreichen Kirchen und Kapellen (z. T. Hauskapellen), die, manchmal unberechtigt, zur Deutung als Klöster führten, andererseits aber die Datierung vieler Anlagen in mittel- bis spätbyzantinische Zeit erlauben. Allerdings kommen Höhlenklöster oft in unmittelbarer Nähe von Höhlensiedlungen vor. Ähnlich wie die Häuser der mittelbyzantinischen Siedlung von Bogazköy (aber im Gegensatz zu den untersuchten frühbyzantinischen Siedlungen) weisen viele mittelbyzantinische Höhlenwohnungen Höfe auf. Durch erhöhte, nur mit Leitern erreichbare Eingänge, versteckte innere Aufgänge oder durch Bauen in die Tiefe und Sicherung durch sog. Rollsteinverschlüsse ("unterirdische Städte") konnten Höhlensiedlungen ohne aufwendige Befestigung dem in Zeiten der Gefahr (z. B. Araber- und später Türkeneinfälle) erhöhten Sicherheitsbedürfnis Rechnung tragen. Die neben größeren Dörfern erhaltenen einzelnen Höhlenwohnungen und kleineren "Weiler" erlauben vielleicht Rückschlüsse auch auf gebaute ländliche Siedlungen, wo kleinere Einheiten in Zentralanatolien meist keine Spuren hinterlassen haben.
Les
villages de Syrie du Nord du VIIe au XIIIe siècle
Anne-Marie
Eddé et Jean-Pierre Sodini, Université Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Si l'opposition entre cité et village est tranchée dans l'Antiquité Tardive, elle ne l'est pas du tout à l'époque islamique où les critères permettant de les distinguer font défaut. Les auteurs arabes du Moyen Age ont du mal à s'y reconnaître et une même localité est appelée village par les uns, petite ville par les autres.
Alors que pour l'époque protobyzantine, textes et inscriptions existent, la documentation traitant des villages de Syrie du Nord durant les premiers siècles de l'hégire est discontinue et très lacunaire. Il faut attendre les XIIe et XIIIe siècles pour trouver des histoires régionales, des ouvrages de topographie et des dictionnaires géographiques qui contiennent des informations sur le Massif Calcaire. Rares sont les inscriptions arabes avant le milieu du XIe s. Aussi l'étude du devenir des villages byzantins après la conquête arabe ne peut se faire que dans la longue durée, entre le VIIe et le XIIIe s.
La comparaison de la liste des couvents et des villages relevés à l'époque byzantine avec celles des villages et et forteresses connus des sources arabes ou ayant conservé des vestiges médiévaux permet de reconnaître les villages dont l'occupation s'est poursuivie, ceux qui ont été abandonnés et ceux qui ont été créés. Trois grandes périodes semblent se dégager. Du début du VIIe s. au début du Xe s., continuité avec la fin de la période byzantine, avec un déclin progressif de l'activité rurale; du début du Xe s. au milieu du XIIe s., une période de conflits armés où la fonction rurale laisse place à la guerre; du milieu du XIIe au milieu du XIIIe s., renouveau rural, après la victoire musulmane sur les Francs. Déhès illustre de manière exemplaire la première période, Qal'at Sem'an les deux premières, même s'il ne s'agit pas d'un village.
Au XIIIe s., avec la fin des conflits, les ouvrages fortifiés ne sont plus entretenus. La région perd don rôle de zone frontière et une partie des terres est remise en culture. Les productions attestées pour cett période sont nombreuses et variées et rappellent, pour certaines d'entre elles, celles qui étaient cultivées dans l'Antiquité. Au Moyen Age comme auparavant, le problème majeur des paysans reste celui de l'eau. Les auteurs arabes précisent que la plupart de ces cultures se faisaient sans irrigation avec la seule eau de pluie. Le régime de la propriété semble avoir été très diversifié à l'époque protobyzantine ( petits propriétaires indépendants exploitant eux-mêmes leurs terres, grands propriétaires, résidant en ville, faisant cultiver leurs domaines par des fermiers). A l'époque islamique, les données sont insuffisantes pour nous permettre de donner une image précise du régime de propriété. Les terres pouvaient être détenues en pleine propriété par les habitants ou appartenir au domaine du sultan. Des villages appartenaient aux habitants de villes comme Alep.
Le peuplement de ces villages à l'époque islamique est mal connu. Les communautés chrétiennes déclinent et le nombre des couvents se réduit fortement. Queques villages étaient peuplés d'Arméniens ou abritaient des minorités musulmanes jugées indésirables par les autorités (Druzes, Ismaeliens). Les tribus arabes implantées dans le Massif Calcaire devaient être essentiellement celles des Tanukh et Bahra.
L'occupation des villages du Massif Calcaire à l'époque ayyoubide n'a plus rien à voir avec celle des la période proto-byzantine.
Expansion
of the Rural Settlement in 4th-5th Century Palestine
Yitzhar
Hirschfeld, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
There is growing evidence
for an expansion of the settled areas of Palestine in the 4th and 5th centuries
CE, including rocky terrains and regions that were previously uninhabited.
The remains of villages and farmhouses of the early Byzantine period are
the most striking examples of this phenomenon. What caused the economy
to flourish in the 4th and 5th centuries? Several scholars emphasize
the role of the church as the main factor in this economic prosperity,
however this explanation is not adequate. Three additional factors
should be considered:
1.
The security imposed on the borders by the troops of the Roman army;
2.
The climatic change that took place in late antiquity, as demonstrated
recently by several studies. The increase of rainfall would have
been sufficient to move the boundaries of cultivated land a considerable
distance and to enable exploitation of areas that previously were suitable
only for grazing;
3.
The land legislation of the emperors of the 4th and early 5th centuries.
The laws of agri deserti granted legal ownership of uncultivated crown
land throughout the empire to any person who would turn it into fertile
land. These laws brought to a peak the transfer of crown lands to
private ownership, a process that had begun earlier and had encouraged
extensive private enterprise.
The
Village Ascendant in Byzantine and Early Islamic Jordan: socio-economic
forces and cultural responses
Alan
Walmsley, University of Western Australia
In the Byzantine-Early Islamic continuum of Late Antique Palaestina and Arabia, village-based communities densely inhabited the expanse of the Jordanian countryside. Some of these villages attained a considerable physical and, seemingly, demographic size during the 5th to 8th centuries, and thus have frequently been described-perhaps misleadingly-as "towns" or "townships" especially within an Arabian cultural context.
Most dramatically, many large settlements flourished in the Jordanian steppe lands (the badiyah), a dry but pastorally favourable region in the rain shadow immediately east of the agricultural highlands. Today the imposing architectural remains to be seen at sites such as Umm al-Jimal and Umm al-Rasas stand as a stark testament to the expansion of rural settlement in Late Antiquity. While the absolute sizes of these sites impress, and conceivably accommodated populations into the thousands, the social, political and economic rationale behind this village-colonisation of marginal lands (and, concomitantly, an apparent demographic increase in Late Antiquity) is often presented in the narrowly focused (spot) light of "Byzantine prosperity". The current writer, among others, has not been immune from this myopic view.
The explanation appears to be more complicated but, at the same time, less startling in its outcome. The growth of Late Antique "super villages" was more a local response to a broad range of cultural, political and religious developments in the Byzantine Period, initiating lifestyle changes for the inhabitants of the Badiyah but, perhaps, only a modest increase in population - if at all. These villages, therefore, were a local product that originated in regionally specific changes in the cultural and economic fabric of society. Equally positive conditions in the Early Islamic period, especially under the Umayyads, ensured the continued vibrancy of many Badiyah villages into the Eighth century, and encouraged the adoption of this Late Antique settlement model into conventionally "urban" areas.
Village
and City: geographies of power in Byzantine Egypt
Roger
S. Bagnall, Columbia University, New York
The Byzantine and early Arab Fayyum offers an obvious point of comparison with the description of the same region in an-Nabulsi's Description, treated in the companion paper by James Keenan. A considerable number of papyrus documents from Fayyum for the period 400-750 survive, many of them supposedly from the villages of the region. On closer examination, however, it turns out that virtually all are actually from the regional capital, Medinet el-Fayyum, and they are not very informative about the villages. This paper tries several approaches to see what can be found out about political structures of the villages (very little, except for the presence of officials serving the central administration), and the presence of specialized services and facilities (also very little, other than food processing, routine construction trades, and pottery-making). There is, however, a reasonable amount of unsystematic evidence for significant stratification of villages in terms of size and revenues yielded; whether that corresponds to differentiation in the services and facilities of the larger villages remains unclear.
Egyptian
Villages in the Thirteenth Century according to an-Nabulsi's Tarikh al-Fayyum
James
G. Keenan, Loyola University Chicago
An appointee of the sultan, 'Uthman ibn Ibrahim an-Nabulsi toured the Fayyum province in the mid-thirteenth century and, on the basis of his inspection, wrote a detailed description, most of which is taken up with a village-by-village survey (in alphabetical order) centered on the capital city, Medinet el-Fayyum. Some 146 villages figure in an-Nabulsi's list of villages. These range in size from tiny hamlets with only a few houses to "mega-villages," themselves centers of power for their own satellite villages and adorned with such signs of power as mosques and sugar cane presses. The big villages were, in effect, smaller copies of Medinet el-Fayyum, but with circles of influence that were within districts of the province rather than province-wide.
It is clear from an-Nabulsi's presentation that there was a hierarchy of rural settlements in the medieval Fayyum. This paper attempts to describe some of the elements that served to define that hierarchy and to give an impression of the variety of village types existing then (and presumably at other times) in Fayyum province. At the same time, since an-Nabulsi visited the Fayyum toward the end of a period of demographic and economic decline, he may provide a "long view" on the problem of the Fayyum's supposed decline in late antiquity (third to fifth centuries). For just as in late antiquity, so in the days before an-Nabulsi, village sites at the end of the canal system had been abandoned. But some of these had simply been relocated, and other Fayyum villages in an-Nabulsi's day had experienced growth rather than decline. Such details may suggest that the late antique decline of the Fayyum was not the disaster it is traditionally assumed to have been.
North
African Villages in the Byzantine Period
Simon
Ellis
The Byzantine rule of North Africa lasted for less than 200 years. A lightning campaign by Belisarius was followed by disturbances for most of the sixth century. During the seventh century there are some signs of peace and increasing prosperity, before the lives of the local people were again torn apart by the Arab invasions.
The rural landscape of North Africa is known from a limited number of archaeological surveys. The short duration of Byzantine rule makes it very difficult to determine if it had any impact. Dating evidence is relatively abundant for the sixth century AD but rare for the seventh century. The most noticeable monuments of the Byzantine period are churches and fortifications. Most churches come from an urban context. Forts were more closely related to the central administration than rural society. There was a symbiotic relationship between nomads and settlers, with migration into the heart of the provinces rather than closed frontiers. Rural people away from the urban centres were probably from the same communities as the nomads, with some nomads becoming sedentary, and vice versa.
Evidence suggests a strong element of continuity in settlement patterns. There may have been a concentration of settlement in areas that were more politically stable, or agriculturally rich. The dominance of the single farm or estate, and the relative paucity of villages is striking when compared to other provinces. This may be attributed to the highly urbanised nature of society and agricultural production. Cereal and oil production was organised through huge estates, whose owners ran their businesses from the towns. Independent villages did exist, but probably had difficulty working outside a highly organised exploitation organised by the urban elite.
The castellation of individual monuments within the cities during the Byzantine period may be associated with depopulation, and migration of more remote populations to a few major centres. Such migration would be similar to the 'flight from the countryside' which has been proposed in other provinces during the later sixth and seventh centuries.
The President of the Association, John Melville-Jones, has been awarded a Category A1 Research Grant by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation for travel to Greece in January 2002. He will spend most of that month in Thessaloniki. A report on his activities will be presented in the next Newsletter.
Alan Walmsley, editor of the newsletter for 2001, has been appointed Visiting Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology at the Carsten Niebuhr Institute of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, for 2002-2003. Copenhagen has one of the finest and extensive collections of Islamic art in the world, the David Collection. He will be teaching half time on Islamic art, architecture and material culture, and spending the rest of his time undertaking research (including a field school in the Middle East). Contact: walmsley@hum.ku.dk.
BYZANTINA AUSTRALIENSIA
Byzantina Australiensia, the series published by the Australian Association, now has a new e-mail contact address for processing orders and queries: byzaus@mcauley.acu.edu.au
Recent Releases
Volume
12:
John
Kaminiates: The Capture of Thessaloniki
Translation, introduction
and notes by D. Frendo and A. Photiou, with Gertrud
Böhlig's edition of the Greek text (de Gruyter 1973).
Volume
13:
Byzantine
Macedonia: Identity, Image and History
Edited by Roger Scott
and John Burke, the nineteen papers collected here represent a selection
of those presented by a range of distinguished scholars at an international
conference on Byzantine Macedonia organised by the Australian Institute
for Macedonian Studies (Melbourne, 10-17 July 1995).
Oriental Research Partners, Book sellers
A supplier of books on Russia and East Europe, contact Oriental Research Partners, P.O. Box 158, Newtonville, MA 02460-0001, USA. Tel: (508) 875-8650, Fax (508) 875-7087, e-mail: phcorp@world.std.com.
Please send all contributions for the next newsletter to Dr Andrew Gillett, Humanities - Ancient History, Macquarie University, NSW 2109; e-mail: andrew.gillett@mq.edu.au.
APPENDIX 1: Full List of AABS Executive, 2001-2005
President:
Assoc Prof John Melville-Jones
Dept of Classics &
Ancient History
University of Western
Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Crawley WA 6009
email: jrmelvil@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
Secretary:
Dr Wendy Mayer
Centre for Early Christian
Studies
Australian Catholic University
McAuley Campus
P O Box 247
Everton Park QLD
4053
email: wendy.mayer@adelaide.edu.au
Treasurer:
Dr Lynda Garland
School of Classics &
History
University of New England
Armidale NSW 2351
email: ldillon@metz.une.edu.au
Additional
members:
Assoc. Prof. Pauline
Allen
Centre for Early Christian
Studies
Australian Catholic University
PO Box 247
Everton Park QLD 4053
email: P.Allen@mcauley.acu.edu.au
(ByzAus distribution,
Past President)
Assoc Prof Roger Scott
Dept. of Classics &
Archaeology
University of Melbourne
Parkville VIC 3052
email: r.scott@arts.unimelb.edu.au
Dr Andrew Gillett
Humanities - Ancient
History
Macquarie University
NSW 2109
email: andrew.gillett@mq.edu.au
(Newsletter Editor)
Dr Ann Moffatt
Dept of Classics &
Modern European Languages
ANU
Canberra ACT 0200
email: ann.moffatt@anu.edu.au
Dr Paul Tuffin
Classics
Centre for European Languages
University of Adelaide
SA 5005
email: paul.tuffin@ adelaide.edu.au