Work group Transformation, integration and cultural differences

This interdisciplinary work group takes on a broad temporal frame encompassing cultural transformation processes in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 4th to 15th centuries. Mechanisms and forms of development, assertiveness and integration of cultural groups both inside the Byzantine Empire and in the regions formerly associated with Byzantium, are therefore analysed through six case studies - with a focus on religious identity. Thus, we look at the integration of the previously immigrated Slavic populations to the Peloponnese into the Byzantine Empire, as well as the development of Orthodox ecclesiastical painting on Crete under Venetian rule, or the conversion of a Byzantine seat of a bishop into a Latin diocese in the Capitanata. We pay special attention to Cyprus, an island which has always represented a peculiar nodal point of contact between Western Latin Christianity and Greek Orthodoxy.