This session explores the intersection of stability and instability in the frontier zones of the Byzantine world by fostering dialogue between archaeologists and historians. The archaeologists who participate will discuss examples of stable communities that leave evidence in the material record such as rural settlements and monasteries. Meanwhile, historians will present textual evidence for more unstable and mobile groups, such as travellers, soldiers, and refugees, the movement of whom is often difficult to trace archaeologically. Together, the papers will examine how settled populations at the margins of the empire interacted with groups that came and went from other regions, whether voluntarily as in the case of travellers like pilgrims, or as part of the forced displacement of prisoners, refugees, and slaves. Through this session, we will consider how identities and interactions were forged on the edges of the Byzantine world and beyond.
In the Exhortation to the Monks, Hyperechios states, “Just as a harbor keeps boats safe from storms, so too does a monastery for a monk” (Saying 69). The safety offered by the monastery provided monks with financial, spiritual, and physical protection from the uncertain dangers of the world. In this paper, I examine the expansion…
The diocese of Tyre in Late Antiquity occupied a pivotal position between the Phoenician coast and the Galilean hinterland, a zone where urban traditions, rural communities, and Christian institutions intersected. Recent epigraphic and archaeological discoveries shed light on how local society shaped, and was shaped by, the religious and economic landscape of the region. Inscriptions…
This paper proposes an integrated historical and archaeological investigation of the southern frontiers of Byzantine North Africa (ca. 534-700 CE), examining the dynamic relationship between the different social groups settled across the liminal zones separating the Mediterranean world from the Sahara. Focusing particularly on Tripolitana and Byzacena, the study explores how these frontiers functioned simultaneously…
The concept of “anchoring innovation” encourages us to understand the successful integration of new phenomena (“innovations”) through the ways they build on familiar or analogous pre-existing structures, or “anchors.” Originating in classical studies, this framework has proved valuable for exploring processes of cultural and religious change, revealing how innovation often relies on continuity rather than…