Publications/Apr 04, 2022

Byzantium and the Pechenegs: The Historiography of the Problem

Byzantium and the Pechenegs: The Historiography of the Problem lead image

Mykola Melnyk. Byzantium and the Pechenegs: The Historiography of the Problem. East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450, volume 79. Brill, 2022.

From Brill

This book traces 150 years’ worth of scholarly interpretations of relations between Byzantium and various North Pontic nomads, with particular attention to how colonialist or national aspirations often triggered, hampered, biased, or otherwise influenced these interpretations. Original in its interdisciplinary approach, Mykola Melnyk’s book highlights an overlooked topic: the history of non-historic peoples. Going beyond the well-studied written sources for nomadic history, the author incorporates insights provided by archaeology, linguistics, and the natural sciences, bringing forth promising avenues of research into the subject of nomadic cultures in the medieval world.