Amorium: A Provincial Capital in the Setting of the Byzantine Empire, Greek Archaeologists Union, Athens, November 25–26, 2016
The city of Amorium, located in Phrygia in the Asia Minor highlands, has been under excavation and systematic research for almost three decades. A large number of scientific publications, articles in peer-reviewed journals, and a special series dedicated to Amorium, the Amorium Reports that number already five volumes, have seen the light as the main research products of this archaeological activity along with considerable amount of popularizing guide books. The impact of Amorium excavation has affected considerably the contemporary archaeological approach to Byzantine Early Medieval and Middle Byzantine cities.
Amorium has also been the stage of international cooperation for many years, and in this way it continues to bring together scholars from Turkey with colleagues from across the world. Many of our historical questions though are in an early stage, seeking for answers that the continuation of the excavation and new research will provide. At the same time innovative archaeological methods (e.g. geophysical survey, satellite imagery, LIDAR modelling) and modern approaches are being applied at Amorium, making the project one of the pioneers in the field of Byzantine archaeology.
The aim of this workshop is to bring together the members of Amorium Excavations team to confer on the most recent field work and state of research. Additionally we hope to further establish a dialogue on Amorium with other scholars of Byzantium that face similar historical and archaeological questions. In the center of such a discourse stand the challenges of Byzantine historical archaeology and our understanding of the period between the 7th and 11th c. AD, and the evolution of Byzantine urbanism with the formation of “new” or renewed urban centers as provincial capitals, this largely being the essence of the new thematic system. This process is evident in the field, but also is elucidated in the historical sources. In result our two-day thematic workshop will address all kind of questions on material culture, architecture, landscape archaeology, textual history and many more concerning the Middle Byzantine cities.
Organized by Nikos Tsivikis, Amorium Urban Archaeology Project, IMS/FORTH
With the support of STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION