Spatial Organization and Topographical Perception in the Lembos Cartulary

This paper examines a key document preserved in the cartulary of the monastery of the Mother of God on Mount Lembos near Smyrna, the detailed boundary survey issued by the stratopedarches Michael Phokas in March 1235. After endowing the Lembos monastery with numerous land grants, Emperor John III Batatzes assigned this high-ranking official in the Thrakesion theme to conduct a survey and produce an accurate description of all the estates the monastery had acquired since its restoration began in 1224. In this survey, the Byzantine official mapped out the geographic features, landscapes, and characteristics of metochia, gardens, vineyards, olive groves, villages, fields, and other monastic properties, along with their appurtenances and tenant farmers, situated in various parts of the Gulf of Smyrna region. Alongside an imperial chrysobull issued a few months later, the survey became the cornerstone of the cartulary, which was arranged according to the ordering principles laid out in this text. This paper aims to reconstruct how thirteenth-century Byzantine officials perceived and described geographic space and landscape features, as well as the criteria and topographical details that shaped their approach to the legal and administrative organization of settlements and cultivated land. Particular focus will be given to how agricultural units, inhabited spaces, and sacred areas—such as churches, chapels, and rural monasteries—were presented in the region in question. Phokas’s boundary survey is one of the rare documents from Byzantine Asia Minor that provides valuable insights into the landscape features of coastal areas, river valleys, and mountainous regions, as well as the spatial relationships between urban centers and villages, and the appearance of agricultural zones alongside interspersed sites of worship.