BYZANTINE SPACES

Continuity and change in the perception of natural space, the land use and settlement in Byzantine Eastern Mediterranean (6th-13th centuries).

A reappraisal of the cases of Southern Balkans and Asia Minor from an interdisciplinary approach.

Methods

Data sources for this investigation are:

1. historical evidence on the perception of natural space, land use and settlement in Byzantine Southern Balkans and Anatolia (6th-13th c.) retrieved from medieval texts,
2. contextual geological evidence and
3. contextual archaeological evidence related to architecture, pottery and metalwork from modern Greece, Cyprus, S. Albania and Turkey.

The geographical, geological, historical and archaeological data are being examined in order to produce a contextualized set of arguments on the perceptions of natural space, the land use and the settlement in Byzantium with main focus on the selected geographical areas. Relevant discussion will focus on matters of continuities, discontinuities and transformations emerging from an interaction of natural phenomena and human agency and culture.