Harbours and landing places on the Balkan coasts of the Byzantine Empire (4th to 12th centuries)
The aim of the project is to document all ports and landing places at the Balkan coasts of the Byzantine Empire from Dalmatia via the Aegean Sea and the western Black Sea to the mouth of the Danube, with regard to their importance, their material structures and their functionality for both the maritime transport network and the communication with the hinterland. For this purpose, a wide range of sources and scientific literature will be critically analysed; also the broader context of economic and social developments will be taken into account.
The time frame is determined by the emergence of the Byzantine state as successor of the Roman Empire in the 4th Century and by the turn of the 12th to the 13 Century, when the Fourth Crusade in 1204 led to the dismantling of the Empire, after already previously manifested particularistic tendencies since around 1185. After the fall of Constantinople in 1204, the Italian naval powers massively enlarged their commercial presence in the "Romania" and thus modified the framework of ports. The selected endpoint also corresponds with the one of the entire SPP 1630. The Balkan coasts covered in the project were hitherto mainly or even permanently under control of the Byzantine Empire, which sets them apart from other European coastlines which were only temporarily under imperial rule.
In the first phase of the project there will be created a database of coastal towns, bays and estuaries which enabled a landing for small, medium or large vessels as well as of their edificial structure, including all available data, based on
- manuals of sea lanes and coastal traffic lines (Periploi, Portulans) from late antiquity and medieval times,
- other written sources (such as travel reports or hagiography),
- the so far collected archaeological evidence,
- geographical-geological research on the dynamics of the coastlines,
- and research literature on the subject.
Of special significance with regard to the last point is the long-term project "Tabula Imperii Byzantini" of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (cf. https://tib.oeaw.ac.at) which unites history, economy and trade, transportation and demographics, settlements and other documented or rediscovered monuments and infrastructure for an overall picture of a region - so far in 11 bulky volumes on central regions of the Byzantine Empire (since 1976). This material will be used to establish a documentation of ports, updated, but also reaching far beyond of the objectives of the TIB-project.
In a cooperation project also a new laser scanning method (airborne laser bathymetry) will be tested, which allows underwater surveys up to 10 meters depth; thus, a coastal zone only fragmentarily documented in written sources (especially in De administrando imperio of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 10th century) in northern Dalmatia (islands of Cres and Lošinj with the city of Osor) with further port facilities will be surveyed. An accurate knowledge of the sea surface topography allows us to determine their influence on the shape and size of port structures in greater detail.
Benefiting from the framework of the SPP, the exchange and discussion of results with other projects will be intensified in the second project phase; the SPP-network facilitates this process of mutual giving and taking. At the same time, field surveys in the regions of the project will be undertaken in order to examine ports and coasts and to check and modify the previously obtained results. Also the written source base will be expanded by enriching the comprehensive database of port terminology created in phase I with the help of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG), an online database of the most important Greek texts also from the Byzantine period. The types of amphora found in the various ports will be analysed with regard to their dissemination also beyond the study area in order to identify the routes of goods and traffic in greater detail; for this purpose, also ship graveyards identified at dangerous points of maritime routes will be included into the data set.
The final "analysis in context" intends to put together the information obtained on the individual elements of ports to a mosaic. Basically the aim is to depict an accurate and realistic image of ports of different dimensions on the background of environmental conditions, edificial structures and the documentation of the trading volume. The weighting of these categories of local and over-regional significance and the distribution of the representatives of different types of ports will allow us to develop further the concept of separate, but overlapping "shipping-zones" and to better understand the interaction of ports with the hinterland. Also the mental attitude towards the selection and use of ports and landing places has to be evaluated. Did the Byzantines merely follow a conservative tradition of the continuation of existing ports (Hohlfelder 1997) or did they pay greater attention to secure locations in the face of often hostile neighbours, for instance? The position on peninsulas, which we observe in Mesembria (Nesebar) and Sozopolis in Bulgaria as well as in Monembasia (Peloponnese) or in Cefalù (Sicily), all of them important hubs, cannot a priori be dismissed as coincidental parallels.
The surface of a harbour area with wharves and jetties, its storage capacities and its relation to the overall size of the settlement is not solely dependent on morphological conditions, but also reflects the degree of the respective connection to the hinterland. The respective productivity and terrestrial traffic arteries of the hinterland (see the example of cereal cultivation in Thrace and the supply and marketing of grain in Rhaidestos on the Propontis) have to be taken into consideration as more or less stimulating factors for the overall functionality of a port.
In constant exchange with the other projects in the SPP thus a new analysis of the complex interplays between seaports and hinterland, between sea lanes and land routes, and between natural conditions, physical and institutional infrastructure and human mobility in the pre-modern period will be possible.
Sponsorship:
International Conference:
Seasides in Byzantium. Harbours and anchorages of a Mediterranean Empire
Publications
- F. Daim (Hrsg.), Die byzantinischen Häfen Konstantinopels, BOO 4 (Mainz 2016). https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.330.453
- D. Heher, Der Boukoleonhafen und die angrenzenden Palaststrukturen, in: Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 64 (2014), 119-137.
- D. Heher / G. Simeonov, Ceremonies by the Sea. Ships and Ports in Byzantine Imperial Display (4th-12th Centuries), in: C. von Carnap-Bornheim et al. (Hrsg.), Harbours as Objects of Interdisciplinary Research - Archaeology + History + Geosciences. International Conference "Harbours as Objects of Interdisciplinary Research - Archaeology + History + Geosciences" at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, 30.09.-3.10.2015, within the Framework of the Special Research Programme (DFG-SPP 1630) "Harbours from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages" (RGZM-Tagungen 34 = Interdisziplinäre Forschungen zu den Häfen von der Römischen Kaiserzeit bis zum Mittelalter in Europa 5) (Mainz 2018) 221-248.
- D. Heher, Dyrrhachion / Durrës - an Adriatic Sea Gateway between East and West, in: F. Daim, C. Gastgeber, D. Heher, C. Rapp (Hrsg.), Menschen, Bilder, Sprache, Dinge. Wege der Kommunikation zwischen Byzanz und dem Westen 2: Menschen und Worde, BOO 9,2 (Mainz 2018) 171-192. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.517
- D. Heher - J. Preiser-Kapeller - G. Simeonov, Staatliche und maritime Strukturen an den byzantinischen Balkanküsten. In: T. Schmidts - M. Vucetic (Hrsg.), Häfen im 1. Millenium AD. Bauliche Konzepte, herrschaftliche und religiöse Einflüsse (Mainz 2015) 93-118.
- D. Heher – E. Kislinger – A. Külzer – J. Preiser-Kapeller – G. Simeonov, Von und nach Konstantinopel. Häfen an den Balkanküsten des Byzantinischen Reiches. Antike Welt. Zeitschrift für Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte (2/2014) 31-36.
- A. Ginalis - D. Heher - A. Külzer - J. Preiser-Kapeller, G. Simeonov, Harbours and landing places on the Balkan coasts of the Byzantine Empire (4th to 12th centuries). In: L. Werther / H. Müller / M. Foucher (ed.), European Harbour Data Repository, vol. 04 (Jena 2019) DOI: doi.org/10.22032/dbt.38384 (pdf), doi.org/10.22032/dbt.38386 (csv), doi.org/10.22032/dbt.38385 (excel).
- A. Külzer, Häfen und Landeplätze an den Balkanküsten des byzantinischen Reiches: Aktuelle Forschungen und Forschungsvorhaben - die Jahre 2014 und 2015, in: S. Kalmring - L. Werther (eds.), Häfen im 1. Millennium AD: Standortbedingungen, Entwicklungsmodelle und ökonomische Vernetzung. Plenartreffen im Rahmen des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms 1630 "Häfen von der Römischen Kaiserzeit bis zum Mittelalter" an der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, 19.-21. Januar 2015 (Mainz 2017) 235-240.
- A. Külzer, Jenseits von Ephesos: Hafenanlagen an der kleinasiatischen Westküste in Spätantike und byzantinischer Zeit, in: M. Seifert - L. Ziemer (Hgg.), Gateways. North Meets East 3: Aktuelle Forschungen zu antiken Häfen (Aachen 2016) [erschienen 2018], 49-73.
- A. Külzer, Harbours, landing places and communication routes in Nortḫwestern Anatolia: The Gulf of Adramyttium (Edremit körfezi) in late Antiquity and Byzantine times. In: J. Preiser-Kapeller / F. Daim / T. G. Kolias (Hrsg.), Seasides of Byzantium. Habours and Anchorages of a Mediterranean Empire. BOO 21 (Mainz 2022) 143-152. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.910
- J. Preiser-Kapeller - L. Werther, Connecting Harbours. A comparison of traffic networks across ancient and medieval Europe, in: C. von Carnap-Bornheim u a. (Hrsg.), Harbours as objects of interdisciplinary research - Archaeology + History + Geoscience (Mainz 2018) 7-31 [peer reviewed].
- J. Preiser-Kapeller, Mapping maritime networks of Byzantium. Aims and prospects of the project “Ports and landing places at the Balkan coasts of the Byzantine Empire”, in: F. Karagianni (Hrsg.), Proceedings of the conference “Olkas. From Aegean to the Black Sea. Medieval Ports at the Maritime Routes of the East”. (Thessalonike 2013) 467-492.
- J. Preiser-Kapeller, Sturmangriff am Bosporus. Die arabischen Belagerungen von Konstantinopel 674-678 und 717-718. Karfunkel – Zeitschrift für erlebbare Geschichte. Combat-Sonderheft 9 (2013), 41-44.
- J. Preiser-Kapeller, Thematic introduction, in: Preiser-Kapeller/Daim (2015) 1–24.
- J. Preiser-Kapeller, The Maritime Mobility of Individuals and Objects: Networks and Entanglements, in: Preiser-Kapeller/Daim (2015) 119–140.
- J. Preiser-Kapeller, Liquid Frontiers. A relational analysis of maritime Asia Minor as religious contact zone in the 13th-15th century, in: A. Peacock et. al. (Hrsg.), Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia. Farnham et al. (2015), 117–146.
- J. Preiser-Kapeller - F. Daim (eds.), Harbours and Maritime Networks as Complex Adaptive Systems. International Workshop "Harbours and maritime Networks as Complex Adaptive Systems" at the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz, 17.-18.10.2013, within the framework of the Special Research Programme (DFG-SPP 1630) "Harbours from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages" (RGZM Tagungen 23 = Interdisziplinäre Forschungen zu den Häfen von der Römischen Kaiserzeit bis zum Mittelalter in Europa 2) (Mainz 2015).
- J. Preiser-Kapeller, Networks and the Resilience and Fall of Empires: a Macro-Comparison of the Imperium Romanum and Imperial China. Siedlungsforschung: Archäologie - Geschichte - Geographie 36 (2019): DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.32994.99524 [peer reviewed, zur Publikation angenommen]
- J. Preiser-Kapeller (mit E. Xoplaki u. a.), Society and environment in the East Mediterranean ca 300-1800 CE. Resilience, adaptation, transformation. Human Ecology 46 (2018) 363-379, online: link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10745-018-9995-9 [peer reviewed].
- G. Simeonov, Harbours on the Western Black Sea Coast and the Byzantine Campaigns against the Avars and Bulgarians from the 6th until the 8th century, in: F. Karagianni (Hrsg.), Proceedings of the conference “Olkas. From Aegean to the Black Sea. Medieval Ports at the Maritime Routes of the East” (Thessalonike 2013) 49-56.
- G. Simeonov, Crossing the Straits in Search for a Cure – Travelling to Constantinople in the Miracles of its Healer Saints, in: O. Heilo et al. (Hrsg.), The Straits – Inquiries into a Crossroad. Seminar held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, November 1-7, 2014 (Transactions of the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul 22), im Druck.
- G. Simeonov, Topografija i diplomacija. Izborăt na mjasto za srešta pri bălgaro-vizantijskite pregovori na visoko ravnište prez VIII-X vek (dt. Topographie und Diplomatie. Die Ortsauswahl der Gipfeltreffen zwischen Bulgaren und Byzantinern im 8.-10. Jahrhundert), in: A. Nikolov (Hrsg.), Bălgarsko carstvo. Sbornik v čest na 60-godišninata na doc. d-r Georgi N. Nikolov (Sofia 2018) 339-368.
- G. Simeonov, Zur Topographie des Einzuges des Nikephoros Phokas in Konstantinopel 963, in: J. Drauschke et al. (Hrsg.), Lebenswelten zwischen Archäologie und Geschichte. Festschrift für Falko Daim zu seinem 65. Geburtstag (Monographien des RGZM 150) (Mainz 2018) 855-866.
- G. Simeonov, The Region of the Danube Delta in the 7th to 10th Century and the Case of the so-called Lykostomion Maritime Province. In: J. Preiser-Kapeller / F. Daim / T. G. Kolias (Hrsg.), Seasides of Byzantium. Habours and Anchorages of a Mediterranean Empire. BOO 21 (Mainz 2022) 233-254. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.910
Partners
- Universität Wien/AT, Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik: Univ. Prof. Dr. Ewald Kislinger
- Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften/AT, Institut für Mittelalterforung, Abteilung Byzanzforschung: apl. Univ. Prof. Dr. Andreas Külzer
weiterführende Links
Projektseite des DFG-Forschungsschwerpunktes
Universität Wien, Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik